This study integrates racial identity development theory (Hardiman, 1982; Helms, 1984, 1986, 1993; Parham, 1989; Cross, 1971; Jackson, 1975a) with cross cultural counseling models (Sabnani, et al. in press; Ossana et al., 1992; Helms, 1989b; Ponterotto, 1989; Ivey, 1991; Atkinson, Morten & Sue, 1989; Pedersen, 1988) and gender identity (Gilligan, 1982, 1988; Manning, 1990; Schapiro, 1985) and communication research (Freeman, 1985, 1986) in the formation of a proposed stage or phase model of gender consciousness and identity development. The study formulates a model for the development of cultural gender identity for Men through reviewing and integrating stage models of racial consciousness and Women's identity development and then proposes and describes how Men may progress through various stages of gender identity development. Probable behaviors and attitudes for each of the proposed five stages were derived utilizing the expertise of trained and experienced Multicultural professionals. An instrument called the Gender Identity Development for Men (GIDM) questionnaire was administered to groups of Men with distinct affiliation patterns with other Men to gather data which supported in part the GIDM model proposed. The study concludes with specific research recommendations and proposed ways the GIDM model, questionnaire and survey may be utilized in therapeutic, educational and other settings regarding the development of Men's Gender Identity.

The purpose of this study is to explore relationships between narrative arts and healing, as experienced by various "narrative practitioners"--those who tell/write/act out/teach/witness/appreciate stories and story-telling in their roles as psychotherapists, teachers, writers, actors, story-tellers, and oral historians. In-depth interviews with six practitioners who are in a position to comment on their multiple narrative roles (those who are both writers and therapists, for instance) shed light on meanings of story-telling in different contexts. Answers to questions about the history of participants' multiple narrative roles, their present narrative practices, and their meaning-making have contributed to a different understanding of conventional distinctions drawn between psychotherapy and the narrative arts. Participants have had a chance to respond to the researcher's reflections on their experiences (based on initial interviews) in the form of a group discussion, and also to comment on the effects of the research on their thinking. Initial questions focused on relationships between narrative and therapeutic processes: Did participants equate the two or distinguish between them? What distinctions did they draw? Is the application of the theme of "narrative" (or story) particularly useful in healing? Is the application of the theme of "therapy" particularly useful in the narrative arts? Participants' responses to the research process shifted the focus of the study from one realm of "worldmaking" to another. The first realm is an understanding of "worldmaking" as the creation and re-creation of knowledge and "truth" through story-telling: the world consists of the stories that we tell about it; there is no such thing as a single "true" description, theory, belief, model, or cause; each of these can as easily be described as "the nearest amenable illuminating lie," or one of many truths. The second realm is an understanding of "worldmaking" as community-building and social action. This involves bringing stories out of the private realm into the public eye and ear, in the form of publishing, performance, ritual, or ceremony. Through it, practitioners find ways to see and work beyond the confines of the legal/medical model for healing, to do work that is at once an artform, a kind of healing, and social action. Their interventions take place not just at an individual or family level, but at a cultural level. They are comfortable with political--as well as psycho-analysis. They are able to take what might be called an ethical-poetic stance. They assume not only that we make the world by telling stories about it, but that people in community can re-make the world together.

<p> Clinical utility has been offered by numerous researchers as a criterion for understanding the value of diagnostic constructs, but it does not yet have a standard operational definition or recommended forms of measurement. The construct has significant overlap with diagnostic validity and it is possible that sub-domains of clinical utility may emerge that would contribute to development of a scale which could assess for improvements and degradations following nosological revisions, and also provide opportunity for cross-analysis with alternative systems of mental health diagnosis. Therefore, the present study collected survey data from psychologists about the clinical utility of the <i>DSM-5,</i> using online data collection and quantitative methods. Seven questions of clinical utility were rated using a 5 point likert scale for each of the <i>DSM-5</i>'s diagnostic categories and for the <i>DSM-5</i> as an overall nosology. Descriptive data, internal consistency and inter-item correlations were analyzed so that results could help address research questions posed about the clinical utility of the <i> DSM-5</i>'s diagnostic categories, the merits of <i>DSM-5</i> when compared to <i>DSM-IV,</i> and additional recommendations regarding optimal measurement of the clinical utility of diagnostic constructs.</p>

<p> Corrective experiences (CEs) in psychotherapy are important curative factors and clients who experience transformation post rapid gains and thrive as a result. Although transformations are important indicators of growth, less than half of clients experience them. This qualitative study explored the experience of transformation in graduates of a comprehensive, experiential training in Hakomi psychotherapy (HT): a mindful, body centered psychology. Ten graduates of a 2-year comprehensive training in the Hakomi Method of mindful, body-centered psychotherapy who experienced transformation were interviewed. Phenomenological Interpretive Analysis (IPA) was used to interpret participant accounts of the effects of transformation on the body/mind. Analyses yielded 7 categories of transformative experience: Transformation, Deepened Expanded Sense of Self, Mindfulness, Body Wisdom, Relationships, Community, and Integration. The essence of transformation in HT was considered and the interaction effect of mindfulness was explored. HT is a mindfulness based, body-centered psychology and mindfulness was found to have effects on the experience of transformation. Transformation in somatic psychology provides a comprehensive whole body mind experience that results in a sense of self expansion that positively affects relationships and communities. Transformation in HT graduates extended into multiple areas of experience and fits into Wilber&rsquo;s all quadrants all levels (AQAL) integral model of transformation. Implications, limitations and clinical applications of the embodied experience of transformation in Hakomi psychotherapy are considered.</p>

No description available.

<p> A fundamental aspect of successful social interactions is the ability to accurately infer others&rsquo; verbal communication, often including information related to the speaker&rsquo;s feelings. Autism spectrum disorder is characterized by language and social-affective impairments, and also aberrant functional neural responses to socially-relevant stimuli. The main objective of the current research was to examine the behavioral and neural effects of making affective inferences from language lacking overt prosody or explicit emotional words in individuals with and without autism. In neurotypical individuals, the current data are consistent with previous studies showing that verbal emotional stimuli enhances activation of brain regions generally responsive to discourse, and also &ldquo;social-affective&rdquo; brain regions, specifically medial/orbital frontal regions, bilateral middle temporal areas, temporal parietal junction/superior temporal gyri and pCC/PC. Moreover, these regions respond differentially to positive and negative valence, most clearly in the medial frontal area. Further, results suggest that mentalizing alone does not account for the differences between emotional and neutral stories, as all of our stories required similar inferencing of the feelings of the protagonist. In autism, there is general agreement that the neurodevelopmental disorder is marked by impairments in pragmatic language understandings, emotional processes, and the ability to &ldquo;mentalize,&rdquo; others&rsquo; thoughts, intentions and beliefs. However, findings are mixed regarding the precise nature of emotional language understandings. Results of the present study suggest that autistic individuals are able to make language-based emotional inferences, and that like neurotypical controls, social-affective brain regions show task-related facilitation effects for emotional compared to neutral valence. However, the neural activations in the autism group were generally greater than controls, especially in response to emotion. Additionally, results showed greater difficulty with incongruent judgments in participants with autism. Together, these findings represent a first step toward revealing social-affective abilities in the language context in autism, despite irregular brain response. Such understandings are critical to generating effective intervention strategies and therapeutic practices for autistic individuals and their families. For remediation to be most beneficial, one must understand and utilize areas of skill, and leverage those to positively impact deficits.</p>

<p> The purpose of this study was to explore the evolution of the self in the context of becoming a psychotherapist. The subjective experiences of neophyte psychotherapists in their development toward the establishment of an integrated therapist identity were examined. Furthermore, the participants&rsquo; unique experiences of transformative change during their initial clinical encounters were analyzed for the purpose of addressing how the trainee moves through the variously proposed models of therapist identity development. Interpretive phenomenological analysis provided the ability to analyze the detailed recall of 6 participants&rsquo; subjective experiences via an open-ended, semistructured interview. First encounters with new patients, learning to manage the emotional interplay with patients, gaining confidence and self-awareness, presenting authentically with patients, personal upbringing, and the experience of a shift in their identity as a psychotherapist remained the generalized areas of focus. The reported anxieties related to the need to be a savior paralleling familial roles with possible failure. The movement through this coincided with a shift in what it means to be a therapist along with an increased sense of self-awareness, giving way to the possibility of presenting authentically with patients. Personal virtues acting as insulators in the face of overwhelming anxiety were seen as contributors to moving toward an integration of personal and professional identities. Finally, the implications of the findings and the impact of the insights gained were examined in regard to optimizing training and supervision of neophyte psychotherapists in an effort to increase quality of services provided.</p>

<p> This thesis combines alchemical hermeneutic and participatory phenomenological methods to study the synchronicity of spontaneous trauma healing through reparative heart-centered attachment, group, and psyche work. It seeks to identify the archetypal, shamanic, noetic, mythopoetic, and psychodynamic power of groups to transform traumatic wounds&mdash;in light of Donald Winnicott&rsquo;s &ldquo;good enough&rdquo; and somatic gestalt concepts&mdash;into altruistic, compassionate, mindful acceptance, and resiliency. It explores ideas of healing through examining the history of trauma, the effects of trauma on attachment and relational behaviors, neuroscience, universal ideas of compassion, mindful awareness, yoga, and meditation. The author immersed herself in different groups and self-healing practices and then processed her experiences through Jungian, psychoanalytic, somatic, depth, spiritual, meditation, and traditional lenses as described by Carl G. Jung, Donald Kalsched, Bessel van der Kolk, Peter Levine, Joseph Campbell, Andrew Solomon, and Mary Main.</p>

<p> This study attempted to replicate and expand the Confluence Model of Sexual Aggression (Malamuth et al., 1991) in an online survey of national (<i></i>n = 512) and university (<i>n</i> = 100) men. Overall, 28.8% of men (national = 29.5%; university = 25%) reported perpetrating sexual aggression against a woman at least once. In the sexually aggressive group, 81.2% reported perpetrating sexual violence more than once, and 40.3% reported six or more acts. It was hypothesized the Confluence Model would be improved by adding everyday sadism, parental attachment, and the Personality Inventory for the <i>DSM-5</i> (PID-5). In a structural equation model, hostile masculinity (&beta; = .44), childhood sexual abuse (&beta; = .26), juvenile delinquency (&beta; = .28), and physical everyday sadism (&beta; = .20) had significant direct effects on sexual aggression. Physical everyday sadism (&beta; = .26), juvenile delinquency (&beta; = .14), PID-5 callousness (&beta; = .30), and anxious attachment (&beta; = .26) had significant indirect effects on sexual aggression, mediated by hostile masculinity. These predictors accounted for 79% of the variance in the sexual aggression latent variable, which represented considerable model improvement. Unrestricted sociosexuality, misperception of women&rsquo;s sexual intent, and heavy alcohol use were not significant predictors of sexual aggression in this model.</p>

<p> Globally, more than 1.9 billion people are overweight, and 600 million are obese (World Health Organization [WHO], 2016). The consequences are expensive: The associated costs to treat co- morbid illnesses in the United States amounted to $190.2 billion (Cawley &amp; Meyerhoefer, 2012). Elevated body mass index (BMI) is directly related to premature death, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, musculoskeletal disorders, and cancers (WHO, 2016). Weight regain after weight loss has emerged as one of the most significant obstacles for weight management therapeutics, undoubtedly perpetuating the epidemic of excess weight that affects over 60% of American adults (Maclean, Bergouignan, Cornier, &amp; Jackman, 2011). Weight management is a complex and covert interplay between biology, psychology, and environment (Brownell, 2010; Moffitt, Haynes, &amp; Mohr, 2015). The majority of weight management treatments have demonstrated high prevalence of relapse after weight loss and failed long-term efficacy after diverse healthcare treatments (Dombrowski et al., 2012; Moffitt et al., 2015; Munsch, Meyer, &amp; Biedert, 2012). This dissertation examined the most effective forms of evidence-based psychotherapeutic and technological interventions for weight management treatment, focusing specifically on populations between the normal and overweight BMI range from peer-reviewed journals dated from 1950-2017. The objectives of this doctoral project were four-fold: (a) to conduct a systematic literature review and gather information from experts in the field regarding weight management, (b) to explore the biopsychosocial implications related to weight re-gain after loss, (c) to identify the most effective psychotherapeutic interventions and mHealth implications that aid long-term weight management, and (d) to disseminate these findings using a professional presentation.</p>