Thesis (D.Min.)--Haggard School of Theology, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 188-189).

<p> Research has shown that providing therapy clients with a treatment consistent with their preferences can increase the effectiveness of the therapy, possibly by reducing the dropout rate or by increasing the level of therapeutic alliance. Client preference and spirituality/religion were identified as two of four areas that can be responsibly adapted to the client while still maintaining evidence based practice. The purpose of this study is to examine if an individual who reports as highly spiritual will prefer a mindfulness based therapy (Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy) over a traditional evidence based treatment (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy).</p>

<p> Selective mutism is an anxiety disorder in which a student speaks in one setting but does not speak in another where speaking is expected, most often school. Most cases are noticed when the child starts school for the first time, however they often are not referred for treatment until 1-3 years later and often are referred to private agencies or therapists. The longer selective mutism continues, the more difficult it is to treat. School psychologists are in an ideal position to support school staff in the identification and intervention of selective mutism(SM), however, there have been no studies that specifically focus on the role of school psychologists in identifying and intervening on selective mutism. </p><p> This study surveyed working school psychologists to determine how many were aware of the condition of SM, how many had worked with students with SM, what types of assessments they used, the interventions implemented and the treatment outcomes. An online survey collected data from 165 participants regarding their experience, knowledge and perceptions as related to selective mutism. All of those surveyed were aware of selective mutism, 97% had had some contact with a student with SM, and 81% had worked directly with a student with SM. The majority of assessment methods included observations, interviews, and the BASC2 internalizing scales. Most of the respondents did not use specific scales that measured speaking. The services most provided were interviews with parents and teachers, followed up with suggestions, referrals to private therapists, and comprehensive special education assessment. The interventions used most frequently included one-to-one sessions, play therapy, and smallgroup. Systematic desensitization, behavior modification and cognitive behavior therapy, interventions most supported by the literature, were used only 20% of the time. The results of interventions varied with 42% of respondents indicating no progress with one or more students, more than 60% making "a little" progress, and 30% indicating they were very successful helping one or more students to became completely verbal. The results indicated a need and desire from school psychologists for training on selective mutism.</p>

<p>Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Disorder of Extreme Stress Not Otherwise Specified (DESNOS) are physiological and psychological symptoms known to arise in the aftermath of trauma. Although lifetime prevalence of trauma capable of resulting in PTSD is 50-90%, lifetime prevalence of PTSD is eight percent, indicating that there may be factors that protect against the development of such symptoms. Spirituality has been implicated as a possible moderator; spirituality may play a protective or restorative role in lessening the relationship between trauma exposure and trauma symptoms. The purpose of this quantitative research was to examine the moderating role of different aspects of spirituality, including cognitive orientation to spirituality, the experiential/phenomenological dimensions of spirituality, and religiousness, on the relationship between trauma exposure and trauma symptoms when such symptoms are defined to include both PTSD and DESNOS. Data collected from members of the general adult population using a cross-sectional online survey design indicated that the cognitive orientation to spirituality and the experiential/phenomenological dimension of spirituality both significantly moderated the relationship between trauma exposure and DESNOS symptoms; both of these aspects of spirituality buffer the strength of the relationship between trauma exposure and DESNOS symptoms. Religiousness was not found to moderate the relationship between trauma exposure and DESNOS, and none of the aspects of spirituality moderated the relationship between trauma exposure and PTSD. These findings add to what is currently known about the protective role of spirituality, provide additional data on the differences between PTSD and DESNOS symptoms, and set the stage for further research. </p>

<p> <i>Billboard</i> magazine&rsquo;s Top 40 songs from one&rsquo;s youth can impact one&rsquo;s psyche during midlife and instill the individuation process with depth and meaning, leading toward an enlarged sense of self that can take one on a path toward wholeness. The therapeutic healing nature of music is reviewed, focusing on its influence on adolescence from a Jungian perspective and its innate relationship to shamanism. Utilizing a heuristic research methodology and the ideas of archetypal psychology, this thesis incorporates the author&rsquo;s personal life experience with popular music and dreams in a brief memoir highlighting each 12-year Jupiter Return cycle, midlife, and the midlife crisis. Combining the language and concepts of depth psychology, a passion for Top 40 music, a series of dreams with pertinent synchronicities, and storytelling pave the way and inform the author&rsquo;s hero&rsquo;s journey, a spiritual quest unveiling an initiation of death and resurrection marking the birth of a shaman.</p>

<p> Human development involves numerous interactions between the individual and social typecasts, family values, cultural traditions, media stereotypes, and a variety of external sources placing normative values and expectations on human development. These interactions can provide strong gender role typecasting, especially in developing adolescents, and sets boundaries for social interaction, support, and peer group associations (Hall-Lande, Eisenberg, Christenson, &amp; Sztainer, 2007). One critical phase of development occurs between pre-pubescence and adolescence (Greenfield, Keller, Fuligni, &amp; Maynard, 2003). The focus of this study is on female adolescent development and the effects of social/parental stressors utilized to force conformity and describe appropriate gender expectations to achieve essentials for success. The presence of gender role stressors during development will be utilized to establish the existence and effects of gender role conflict. The manifestation of Gender Role Conflict (GRC) occurs when external perceptions, gained through parental or social influences, formalize within developing females and creates incongruence between individual goals and social forces pressures acting on the developmental process (Hoffman, 2006a). Female adolescence provides a challenge to individual awareness or submission to social compliance when forming developmental pathways to adulthood. All women do not necessarily experience gender role stress during adolescence development. However, for those who do, gender role related stress creates varied levels of dissonance between personal determination and social context (Fine, 2011). GRC is the resultant stresses which often mark the difference between successful developmental achievements or confounding socially prescribed developmental attitudes with unresolved conflict and elevated stress (Small &amp; Memmo, 2004). This study will examine gender role conflict as it develops from intra-familial stress, social structure, and regional cultural influences and the resultant negative effect in achieving individuation, positive sense of self, and attainment of life goals (Hertzman, 2002). Stress has the potential to develop positive or negative connotations during development. However, this study focuses on the negative aspects of stress related gender role conflict and the long term effects on development (Dickerson, 2004). The researcher will utilize qualitative comparative case study design to examine the development of, or effects from parental, social, and cultural influences on adolescent female development and goal achievement (Martin &amp; Fabes, 2009). The experiences of adult women who currently occupy gender variant career fields will be examined in order to identify the personal or social influences that affected career decisions. This research is not a study of career fields. Rather, it is a study of women who by career choice have broken career related social stereotypes and were more likely to have experienced gender role stress during development (Worell &amp; Goodheart, 2006). Social and familial developmental expectations are primarily predicated on gender role assignment as specified by birth sex (Fine, 2011). The resultant developmental gender role conflict emerges when external developmental influences are not congruent with individual values or goals (Allison &amp; Schultz, 2004). Gender role preconceptions, as determined by birth sex alone, have been framed without regard to individual differences or consideration of the developing female's self-expression or experience as she matures (Barnett, Biener, &amp; Baruch, 1997). As such, the adolescent female is unwittingly placed in narrowly defined categories formed by societal and familial influences without regard to her individual characteristics or her voice (Anthony, Holmes, &amp; Wood, 2007). The experiences of adult women as related to adolescent development, parental or social influences apparent, and/or existence of GRC prior to entering gender variant career fields will be obtained and discussed within this dissertation.</p>

<p> The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between the supervisory alliance and trainee disclosure of clinically relevant events in supervision (events related to the supervisory functions of enhancing trainee competence and ensuring client welfare). Three hundred and six predoctoral psychology interns (N = 306; 79.1% female, 19.0% male; 79.7% white, 6.2% Asian/Pacific Islander, 3.9% African American/Black, 3.9% Hispanic/Latino, and 3.6% biracial/multiracial) completed a web-based self-report questionnaire assessing comfort with and likelihood of disclosure of clinically relevant events in supervision, supervisory alliance bond, and demographic items. A novel self-report questionnaire was created for the purposes of this investigation in order to assess the disclosure of clinical events related to functions of supervision. Analyses revealed statistically significant positive correlations between (a) the supervisory alliance and comfort with disclosure and (b) the supervisory alliance and likelihood of disclosure of clinically relevant events. These results build on past findings regarding the salience of the supervisory alliance and more explicitly connect disclosure in supervision to the dimension of bond. These results have implications for trainee competence and client care. Implications for clinical supervision practice and directions for future research are explored. </p>

<p> From a positive psychology perspective, humor can be viewed as an adaptive strength, an important aspect of holistic health, and a potentially beneficial coping mechanism in the face of stressful or traumatic events. Existing research generally supports the idea that individuals can manage threatening situations by turning them into something that can be laughed at, although the effectiveness of such humor use is dependent on contextual factors and the specific forms of humor that are used (e.g., aggressive versus benign humor). However, there is minimal research on how trauma survivors actually express humor in therapy, particularly in the context of difficult or traumatic subject matter.</p><p> Accordingly, the purpose of the current study was to qualitatively explore expressions of humor in therapy with trauma survivors. A sample of 5 client-participants from community counseling centers was selected, and videotaped therapy sessions involving trauma discussions for each client-participant were analyzed. A qualitative and deductive content analysis was employed, using a coding system that was created based on existing literature on humor and psychology, to examine verbal expressions of humor and laughter in psychotherapy sessions with trauma survivors. The results indicated that client-participants deliberately used and responded to humor both verbally and in the form of laughter in psychotherapy sessions, and most frequently in the context of serious, difficult, or traumatic topics. Client verbal expressions of humor (VEH) frequently consisted of different combinations of <i>Dark, Aggressive,</i> and/or <i>Self-Deprecatory Humor.</i> Client-participants were also found to laugh almost twice as often as they produced a VEH, and their therapists laughed along with them about half the time. Last, therapists often laughed inappropriately and outside the context of any identifiable humor (VEH or laughter) in their work with trauma survivors.</p><p> It is hoped that this study will raise awareness around the issue of client humor use in therapy, humor use in coping with stressful or traumatic events, and cultural variations in humor use. The findings have implications for clinical training and shed light on the use of potentially maladaptive forms of humor in therapy, an area of study that has been almost entirely neglected.</p>

<p> Current research supports the use of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD; Mendes, Mello, Ventura, Medeiros Passarela, &amp; Jesus Mari, 2008; Bradley, Green, Russ, Dutra, &amp; Westen, 2005). Art therapy (AT) has been used effectively with sexually abused children and adolescents (Deblinger &amp; Heflin, 1996; Cohen &amp; Cox, 1995; Pifalo, 2002), and integrated treatments show potential for enhanced PTSD symptom reduction (Bryant, Moulds, Guthrie, &amp; Nixon, 2005; Pifalo, 2007). However, no research on the use of an integrated CBT and AT approach has been studied on adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse with ongoing PTSD. </p><p> This dissertation examined the feasibility of an integrated CBT and AT group treatment for adult survivors (N=5). A relationship between participation in treatment and reduction of symptoms of PTSD, depression, dissociation, and anxiety was indicated. The results of this study provide initial support for this manual-based treatment and demonstrates the potential of integrated treatments.</p>

<p> Clinical terminology and definitions regarding trauma, retraumatization, and their residual symptoms are numerous and sometimes conflictual. This thesis uses a heuristic and hermeneutic methodology to explore the author&rsquo;s experiences of what he has termed <i>traumatic reactivation</i>, due to the inconsistency and inaccuracy of the available clinical terminology. These traumatic reactivations are examined through various psychological lenses. The techniques of association and amplification are used regarding the experiences to identify archetypal dynamics that may have been present. The experience of traumatic reactivation is also explored with C. G. Jung&rsquo;s theory of psychological types, as well as with specific connections between psyche and soma. The thesis eventually posits that these experiences, although initially shocking and overwhelming, have a purposive function and are in the service of healing, rather than a destructive reexperiencing of traumatic material. </p>