<p> Loneliness is a human experience that often influences the individual&rsquo;s mood, perception, self-concept, relationship, and physical heath. The existing body of research on loneliness often associates loneliness with a mental illness (e.g., anxiety or depression) and/or a cognitive deficit. Moreover, although, researchers have identified different types of loneliness, there is limited research on the experience of profound loneliness while in the company of another person with whom one is in a close relationship. Therefore, this study was framed to contribute information in the field by exploring the meaning of this particular type of loneliness as a lived experience. The question this research sought to answer through narrative inquiry was: &ldquo;What is the meaning of participants&rsquo; experience of loneliness while in the company of another person with whom they were in a close relationship?&rdquo; </p><p> The current study examined oral narratives of adult participants. Five participants were recruited and interviewed. The transcribed data was analyzed following Gee&rsquo;s (1991) structural analysis of oral narrative. Through analysis of the narrative data this study aimed to gain an understanding of subjective, psychological meanings of this particular loneliness experience. </p><p> The results of the analysis showed that participants, in relationship with another, characterized as close but not experienced as intimate, was retrospectively experienced as loneliness and was lived with a sense of profound hopelessness in a multidimensional manner, which implied the participant&rsquo;s desired ideals for intimate relationship. </p><p> Many factors appear to influence the loneliness experience while in the company of a close other for adults, including the individual&rsquo;s desire to avoid experiencing pain and loss. The findings indicate that increasing the individual&rsquo;s awareness of their multidimensional experience through non-pathologizing reflection in a clinical context could allow him or her to reach a deeper understanding of the experience.</p><p>

<p> Self-forgiveness is an emotion focused coping mechanism that increases positive emotions and behaviors. Self-forgiveness has been found to be moderated by guilt and shame in support of Hall and Finchman&rsquo;s theory on the emotional components of self-forgiveness. Men and women recovering from alcohol addiction have been found to struggle with shame and guilt, however, little is understood about this association. This quantitative correlational non-experimental research study investigated the relationship between self-forgiveness and risk of relapse in adults who were recovering from alcohol abuse, how shame and guilt moderated this relationship and how this relationship differed by gender. Anonymous surveys were conducted in two treatment centres and two Alcoholic Anonymous recovery meetings in the city of Calgary. Participants completed a demographic questionnaire, The Heartland Forgiveness Scale, Alcohol Risk of Relapse Scale, and the Guilt and Shame Proneness Scale. Multiple regression and moderation analyses were conducted to test the study hypotheses. Self-forgiveness was found to have a non-significant relationship with risk of relapse (&beta; = .040, <i>p</i> &lt; .720) and the scores did not differ by gender [Male (&beta; = &ndash;.061, <i>p</i> &lt; .641), and Female (&beta; = &ndash;.0.17, <i>p</i> &lt; .937)]. Shame (<i>F</i> (3, 79) = .614, <i>p</i> = .608), and guilt (<i>F</i> (3, 79) = 7.244, <i>p</i> = .000) did not have a moderating effect on the relationship between self-forgiveness and the risk of relapse. When shame and guilt interacted with self-forgiveness in predicting risk of relapse, the results did not differ by gender [Male (<i>F</i> (4, 55) = 5.770, <i> p</i> = .001), and female (<i>F</i> (4, 18) = .580, <i> p</i> = .681)]. However, a result not hypothesized in the study was found among male participants that guilt was predictive of risk of relapse (<i> F</i> (3, 56) = 7.595, <i>p</i> = .000). This study highlights the impact of maladaptive guilt that maintains the cycle of addiction. Clinicians can utilize this knowledge to employ strategies of eliminating maladaptive guilt in psychotherapy. Further research is needed to determine if these results could be replicated with other demographic groups to identify other plausible mechanisms between self-forgiveness at risk of relapse.</p><p>

<p> Throughout history, people suffering from a mental illness or emotional crisis have been treated quite differently. The accepted treatments of the day could be cruel, and sometimes deadly. Within these times, there have also been people who questioned treatment-as-usual, particularly when they viewed that treatment as either unhelpful or dangerous. Alternative treatment programs have been developed with varying success. CooperRiis is a therapeutic healing community in North Carolina that opened in 2003. It is providing an alternative to treatment-as-usual to inpatient psychiatric hospitalization. This case study aimed to investigate whether there was a flexibility within the organization that allowed it to adapt to the changing needs within its own community, as well as to continue operating within the larger mental health community, to remain operational. The findings resulted in different revelations. It was discovered that the process of how decisions are made impact the community differently. Also, whether a leader is connected or disconnected from the community has a significant impact on it. These aspects, in particular, can influence feelings of empowerment or disempowerment within the community. Recommendations are provided both for where CooperRiis could benefit from more focus, as well as aspects of the programming it is doing well. In many of the alternative programs that are developed, a common thread is the focus on connection, as well as finding the humanity within both the providers and recipients of help. CooperRiis is yet another example of how this community, connection, and humanity is the therapy that heals.</p><p>

<p> This study brings attention to the growing body of literature examining the role of culture and context in the study of generation-status differences in cross-cultural coping and physical well-being among immigrants to the United State. Prior literature on the unique challenges, stressors, coping strategies, and health outcomes for immigrants provides a basis for hypothesized generation status differences on cross-cultural coping (collectivistic, avoidance, and engagement) and physical well-being (health, safety, and environmental). A sample of 118 male and female first, 1.5, and second-generation immigrants of non-European backgrounds, between the ages of 18 and 35, were recruited from the local community to complete an online questionnaire. Results from the cross-sectional study did not yield support for the hypothesized generational status differences. However, exploratory analyses yielded several significant correlations including a positive relationship between collective coping and the safety dimension of physical well-being. Within-generation exploratory analyses yielded several significant correlations and differences on measures of coping strategies and physical well-being for demographic/contextual factors such as religiosity, age, SES, English fluency, connection to the U.S. culture, education, and ethnicity amongst 1.5 and second-generation immigrants. The empirical investigation of cross-cultural dimensions of coping and physical well-being among immigrants represents a new direction for research. This study also has potential implications for more nuanced understandings of the immigrant paradox, the socioecological perspective of acculturation, collective coping, and inclusion of both objective and subjective experiences of the environment. Implications for theory and practice, methodological limitations, and suggestions for future research are also discussed.</p><p>

<p> This study explored the parallels between psychological healing practice in the Cave of San Francisco and contemporary psychotherapy. Interviews were conducted in the Dominican Republic with seven individuals who had experienced healing effects as a result of participation in this healing system. A psychological phenomenological methodology was utilized to analyze the interviews resulting in a general structural account of the experience. Seven primary psychological themes operative in a tri-part sequence define the healing experience within this system. These themes include presenting problem, belief system, healing relationships, ritual actions, pivotal moment, setting, and outcome. The first part of the healing sequence appears to set up the healing response. The second part involves the pivotal moment and acts as a demarcation point between the experience of illness and first steps toward health. The third part of the healing sequence acts to cement already obtained healing gains. </p><p> The results of this research reveal (a) a psychological healing system which represents a form of psychotherapy, (b) a cultural healing system which stands as a portrait of healing for a certain segment of the Dominican population, (c) a healing practice related to a cave shrine which illuminates the potential healing effects of cave shrines worldwide. A significant finding relates healing response to setting, suggesting that the specific space of the cave is implicated in stimulating the innate, total healing response in the person. The holistic, cohesive nature of this system, highlighting the interaction between universal psychological healing ingredients, strongly suggests that psychological healing is a broader and more comprehensive operation than it is characterized by many current psychotherapies. Finally, through exploring the roots of psychological healing in the naturalistic setting of a cave, this research reminds psychotherapy of the archetypal healing power that is at its basis.</p><p>

<p> Obesity is a risk factor for chronic diseases among the ethnic minorities for adult immigrants in the United States. There have been many research studies conducted to examine the relationship between the predictors and obesity in minority groups in the United States, that relationship was unknown in Meskhetian Turk (Ahiska) immigrant populations. Guided by social ecological model and acculturation theory, this study examined the predictors of obesity in the Meskhetian Turk (Ahiska) immigrant population in the western United States. Data were collected from 109 participants using CDC&rsquo;s Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, Stephenson Multigroup Acculturation Scale, and Perceived Stress Scale. Participants were recruited through flyers in a public setting and data were analyzed through SPSS using logistic regression and Spearman&rsquo;s correlation. The result of the study showed no statistical association between obesity and the predictors of age, gender, socio-economic status, physical activity, acculturation, and perceived stress. This study, however, showed a significant association between daily vegetable, fruit, and hamburger, cheeseburger or meat loaf consumption and obesity, and weekly vegetable consumption, monthly hamburger, cheeseburger or meat loaf consumption and moderate/morbid obesity. The study findings suggest that, through targeted community-based intervention and education programs, there is positive social change in the value of healthy lifestyle and the impact of the predictors of obesity, especially diet of Meskhetian Turk (Ahiska) immigrant population in the United States. Further investigation should focus into other causes of obesity using a larger sample size.</p><p>

<p> Military leaders play central roles in responding to sexual assault in the military social ecology, yet their impacts on victims&rsquo; post-assault and reporting experiences remain understudied. Using standpoint epistemology and a military-specific social ecological approach, this two-stage project investigated how military leaders impacted survivors&rsquo; post-assault and reporting experiences, as well as their experiences with military peers, community resources, and justice and separation processes. Data were gathered through an initial focus group with eight subject matter experts in advocacy, legal work, and policy reform, followed by subsequent in-depth individual interviews with eight female survivors of military sexual assault, seven of whom filed unrestricted reports between 2006 and 2014 and all of whom were separated from service between 2007 and 2015. Analysis was performed with grounded theory. </p><p> Findings provide in-depth understanding of the extensive impact of military leaders on survivors&rsquo; experiences across the military social ecology. Data indicate that when leaders themselves perpetrated, were affiliated with perpetrators, or became otherwise compromised, they damaged victims&rsquo; reporting experiences, recoveries, and support systems. These negative-destructive leaders capitalized on the close-knit, transitory, and male-dominated military environment to recruit other leaders and supports into an escalating process of defamation of and retaliation against survivors&mdash;a process described as forming ranks. As this destructive process escalated, it potentiated the harms caused by the initial assault(s) and compromised the support and protection available to victims from peers, positive-constructive leadership, and military community resources. In three cases, it contributed to survivors&rsquo; attempting to take their own lives. This destructive process also interacted with structural power dynamics to compound barriers to leader-perpetrator accountability in the command-directed justice system. By forming ranks against survivors, negative-destructive leaders ultimately deprived them of the ability to recover while they remained in service and contributed to their separations from the military&mdash;the very purpose of this retaliatory process. All participants provided actionable recommendations to increase leadership accountability and improve the military system, in order to better protect future survivors from the victimization and retraumatization that they or those they knew had endured.</p><p>

<p> Depression and anxiety during pregnancy can have a host of negative effects on mothers and their infants, such as premature delivery and increased risk for postpartum depression. Few studies have examined whether levels of the sex hormones progesterone and estradiol, which rise dramatically over the course of pregnancy, are associated with depression and anxiety. This study examined whether higher salivary progesterone and estradiol levels were associated with self-reported depression and anxiety scores among a sample of 128 low-income pregnant women, and whether these relationships were moderated by social support. The results showed that only social support levels had significant negative associations with both depression and anxiety levels. Sex hormones were not significantly associated with depression and anxiety, and social support was not a significant moderator in these relationships. Future studies should continue to address the dearth of research on assessing the roles of sex hormones in relation to mental health during pregnancy.</p><p>

<p> Overgeneral memory (OGM) is a phenomenon of reduced autobiographical memory specificity observed in major depressive disorder (MDD) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Individuals demonstrating OGM tend to describe past events generally rather than specifically recalling single memory occurrences. Research shows that OGM is perpetuated by three mechanisms: capture in the memory hierarchy due to trait rumination (CaR), functional avoidance of specific memory retrieval (FA), and impaired executive control (X), which together make up the CaR-FA-X model of OGM. Research on the CaR-FA-X model has historically looked at each mechanism in isolation. The current research aimed to compare the contributions of all three mechanisms to a measure of OGM, as well as to investigate possible interactions between the mechanisms, and compare the contributions of the CaR-FA-X model to those of an encoding predictor. Psychometric data on the three CaR-FA-X mechanisms, autobiographical memory specificity, cognitive attributional style, and mental health were collected from 107 undergraduate psychology students via online surveys, then analyzed in a hierarchical linear regression model. Executive control explained significant unique variance in OGM, with rumination making an indirect contribution. No other anticipated contributions from the CaR-FA-X model or memory encoding were observed. Methodological issues in non-clinical and computerized OGM research are highlighted.</p><p>

<p> This study is an investigation of nondual experiences with the intention to describe their essences and their meaning for six co-researchers, using Clark Moustakas&rsquo;s heuristic research methodology. Additionally, it examined the impact of these nondual experiences on their emotional well-being, sense of self, and their relationships, in an effort to determine the psychological benefits and possible applications to clinical psychology. It also sought to compare the experiences of the co-researchers to Ken Wilber&rsquo;s Integral Developmental model. The study confirmed that nondual experiences had positive effects on emotional states such as depression, meaninglessness, alienation, anxiety, insecurity, fear, anger, and unforgiveness. Some positive qualities reported included confidence, joy, peace, trust, gratitude, hope, acceptance, clarity, compassion, and love. The co-researchers reported their relationships as being radically intimate, spontaneous, nonjudgmental, and a relationship with the divine self. The study supports a number of essential aspects of Wilber&rsquo;s Integral model, including the stages of development, and the stabilization of states into traits of everyday experience. Additionally, the study confirmed many of the attributes of the postautonomous developmental stages. The benefits of nondual therapy lies in its ability to radically deconstruct all constructions, disidentifying from the fragile egoic self, and simultaneously identifying with a greater self, the nondual ground of being. The therapist and client rest within a nondual field of awakeness where both have an opportunity for spontaneous nondual healing. </p><p>