<p> There is a limited amount of research in psychology regarding the impact of money on the therapeutic relationship. Although some research regarding clients&rsquo; transference vis-&agrave;- vis money exists, clinicians&rsquo; countertransference concerning money has been largely ignored. As money and discussion of fees often generate negative countertransference for clinicians, it is likely that this material will not be addressed in the clinicians&rsquo; personal work, and therefore it risks being harmful to the therapy process. The author&rsquo;s goal is to demystify the subject of money in the clinical setting and make it easier for clinicians to discuss money, fees, and the financial aspects of therapy with their clients, while minimizing the harmful impacts of therapists&rsquo; countertransference on the therapeutic frame. Using heuristic and hermeneutic methodologies, the author uses his own experiences as a nascent therapist to illustrate some ways for clinicians to address and minimize the negative impact of their money issues on their work. </p>

<p> The present study investigated the impact of intensity of Facebook use, attachment anxiety, and attachment avoidance on relationship satisfaction, sexual satisfaction, and self-esteem as perceived by individuals within heterosexual couples. One hundred and thirty-nine members of the social networking site, Facebook, who were currently involved in an exclusive, heterosexual relationship with a partner who was also a member of Facebook, completed an online survey in order to be included in the study. Results indicated that intensity of Facebook use was a significant predicator of sexual satisfaction, but did not significantly predict relationship satisfaction or self-esteem. In addition and consistent with previous literature, the current study found that attachment avoidance was a significant predictor of relationship satisfaction and attachment anxiety significantly predicted self-esteem. Given the lack of research in the area of Facebook use, the results from this study offer a platform for future researchers to investigate the complexities of the social networking site on face-to-face relationships.</p>

<p> The relationship to food, whether on an individual or societal basis, carries with it potential for nourishment on multiple levels. A mindful, healthy connection to the sourcing, preparation, serving, and enjoyment of food can become a catalyst for inner transformation, psychologically and physiologically. Utilizing hermeneutic methodology, this thesis explores food in relation to the soul by examining historical and cultural practices and beliefs about food. Various works of literature and the writings of culinary aficionados are discussed, giving examples of savoring food and receiving deep nourishment. In addition, a heuristic approach is undertaken to demonstrate the influence food has had on this researcher by recording personal reflections on her life and on literature that include memorable stories about the healing power of food. Depth psychological practices and theory may be positively impacted by the results of this research, due to the far-reaching implications for both mind and body.</p>

<p> The transcendent experience is a phenomenon that has long been studied and explored. First providing analysis of its researched content, triggers, and potential meaning, this thesis presents an alternative approach that examines the extent to which the transcendent experience is actually the invocation of an individual&rsquo;s unconscious. The author presents <i> aerobic green exercise,</i> or aerobic exercise within nature and the natural world, as a potential trigger for the transcendent experience, and investigates the concept of the runner&rsquo;s high as an expression of the transcendent experience. Through the author&rsquo;s personal examination, the methods of focusing and active imagination are presented as possible psychotherapeutic tools for clinical application. Using alchemical hermeneutics and heuristic methodologies, this thesis explores how aerobic green exercise might initiate a transcendent experience and also be utilized as a psychotherapeutic intervention. </p>

<p> Trauma is a social justice issue by which many of its sufferers historically have remained mystified in a web of misdiagnosis, the most notorious being <i> hysteria.</i> Today, individuals suffering from attachment disorders, anxiety, and depression and the victims of violence, addiction, emotional abuse, and physical abuse often have overlapping symptoms roughly mirroring trauma response symptomatology. These individuals comprise the bulk of those seeking relief from the healing professions, yet the <i>DSM-V </i> has but one diagnosis for trauma: posttraumatic stress syndrome. Recent advances in neuroscience have converged with observations from the field of psychology to confirm the need for a more complex trauma diagnosis. It is time to bring trauma out of the lab and into the streets. Using artistic-creative methodologies, this production thesis channels the expanding body of trauma research into comic strips designed to stimulate social dialogue about the existence of trauma response symptoms in our communities.</p>

<p> This depth psychological study explores the possibility that the drawing and subsequent recognition of chaotic looking irregular and misshapen shapes, lines, and marks applied in a lopsided and unbalanced manner within and protruding outside a mandala circle represent the beginning of a psychological development in the patient's psyche. Such a shift in the psyche may set the stage for using mandala psychology to facilitate the psychotherapeutic work of gathering and containing additional destructive and shadowy psychological material. </p><p> A retrospective single case study design is combined with a heuristic approach to discover the effects of producing an asymmetrical mandala, as described above, while following the chaotic mandala images through a change in the plot line of the research/participant's psychological story. Information is collected and outlined for the depth psychotherapy community that describes the process of mandala psychology from this vantage point of unbalanced and chaotic mandalas, illustrating the mandala's usefulness as a container for psychological and emotional chaos. The change in the plot line of the subject's mandala story is compared to and amplified with the structure of the plot line of the prototypical fairytale narrative at the moment when the darkly woven female character of the witch enters the narrative. This mythological component is introduced to enrich the telling of this case study. The archetypal analysis hypothesizes that at the moment the research/subject engaged her chaotic mandalas, the shift she experienced represented the collective and empowering primal energy of the dark energies of the feminine, personified for this study as the witch. Key words include: asymmetrical, mandala, chaos, case study, witch, art therapy, creative, container, chaotic images, destructive psychological material, dark feminine, fairy tale.</p>

<p> Eating disorders have become an ever-increasing phenomenon in the cultural landscape. The irony of a culture of abundance that produces either abnormally abstemious or indulgent food practices is staggering. This study is a qualitative analysis of recovery from three major eating disorders: anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating disorder. It is a phenomenological and existential analysis of the lifeworld of those who have had relief from the symptoms for three years or longer. The Maintenance phase recovery in the Stages of a Change model is used as criteria for participation in this study. Terror Management Theory was used as one lens to elucidate that experience to better understand the psychological and emotional changes the subjects encountered throughout their recovery process, Additionally, Van Manen's (1997) four lifeworld existentials defined the phenomenological glance that the study sought to understand the experience of recovery. Five main themes emerged from the data. These themes characterized the experience of the recovered person. These main themes were 1) a change in self-esteem based on honesty towards self and others, 2) a new relationship with the body, 3) a positive change in family relationships, 4) a new autonomy and competence/spirituality, and 5) optimism in the face of adversity/spirituality. A discussion of implications for and uses in counseling and of further research possibilities conclude this dissertation.</p>

<p> Previous research has supported the notion that significantly more women than men seek help for chronic pain. This study aims to understand gender differences in how, when, and from whom individuals seek help for chronic pain. In particular, many aspects of masculinity have been demonstrated to inhibit help seeking. Participants were a sample of patients seeking treatment at a pain treatment facility. It was hypothesized that there would be a greater discrepancy between pain self-reported on paper versus in person by men than would be by women. It was also hypothesized that higher conformity to masculine norms would be positively related to greater self-report discrepancy. Additionally, the author expected to find gender differences in the amount of time between the onset of pain and disclosure of pain as well as medical help seeking. Again, it was anticipated that greater delays in disclosure and medical help seeking would be related to higher conformity to masculine norms. Moreover, conformity to masculine norms was expected to mediate gender differences in help seeking. The author also hypothesized that the type of people to whom pain is first disclosed would differ based on differences in gender and conformity to masculine norms.</p>

<p> The purpose of this phenomenological study is to increase understanding of what therapists encounter and learn about their own psyche as a result of their work with borderline patients. The overarching goal of this research explores the impact of these relationships on the therapist's psyche in order to generate information that can be utilized in the training process of therapists who work with BPD patients as well as to elicit information that could possibly be useful to families, parents, and partners of people diagnosed with BPD. The self-knowledge accumulated by therapists in regard to their own process can inform others engaged in a relationship with borderline patients. The researcher investigated the lived experience of six seasoned therapists through in person, individual interviews. The interviews were analyzed using phenomenological data analysis methods to gain an understanding of the lived experience of each participant as well as for identifying themes shared across participants. All of the participants in this study had an increased awareness and recognition of material emerging from the unconscious as a result of their work with BPD. Core themes that emerged in relation to the participants' experience included realizations of their own inner complexes such as <i>the destroyer, the dark shadow of the self.</i> Participants' experience included inner realizations such as <i>getting in touch with loss and grief</i> and <i>having to be fully authentic.</i> Metabolizing these emerging inner realizations allowed participants to report experiences of i<i> ntegration and shifts in relation to the self, shifts in relationship with death, recognition of personal limitations,</i> becoming <i>humbled </i> and <i>centered, increased curiosity and courage,</i> and a newly acquired <i>sense of playfulness and freedom.</i> All of the six participants were able to recognize unconscious aspects of the self that were activated as a result of the work with borderline patients. Three participants enjoyed working with BPD and felt that their patients experienced improvement that contributed to the therapists' sense of satisfaction and reward from the work.</p>

<p> Psychotherapy interns often report feeling traumatized by the process that attempts to match them with an internship site. Once placed, feeling unsupported in one's supervisory relationship may lead to burnout, which contributes to high rates of attrition. A supportive relationship between supervisors and interns appears significant to the development of their early professional resilience. This integrative literature review asks, "How do therapists at all stages of their career achieve and maintain professional resilience?" and "What is inherent in the supervisory relationship that influences such growth and resilience in interns?"</p><p> Literature on psychotherapy supervision, professional trauma, compassion fatigue, and resilience was selected from the psychodynamic, psychoanalytic, and existential-humanistic traditions as well as from relational neuroscience. This literature was integrated in such a way as to define, compare and contrast these concepts.</p><p> Psychotherapists report a variety of historic traumas that contribute to their choice of psychotherapy as a profession. Therapists also identify as falling on a dynamic spectrum of resilience, reporting both personal and professional protective and risk factors. Psychodynamic, psychoanalytic, and existential-humanistic training and professional models continue to highlight the value of the supervisory and consultant relationship in support of recovery from professional overwhelm toward lasting personal and professional resilience. Therapists at all stages of their career report achieving and maintaining professional resilience by practicing individualized self-care, engaging in dynamic personal psychotherapy, and through supportive relationships in supervision and consultation. The primary element in the supervisory relationship that promotes growth and resilience in interns is the ability of the empathic supervisor to privilege the supervisee's experience in the supervisory relationship as well as with their mutual clients.</p><p> A supervisory model emerged that (a) elevates personal history and awareness of an intern's preexisting risk <i>and</i> protective factors, (b) promotes in-session self-awareness, and (c) draws on existential-humanistic theory, leading to the development of resilience. This model serves to support the humanity of the intern and supervisor as evolving professionals while respecting and perhaps enhancing the orientation of the training site.</p>