The purpose of this study was to investigate the meaning of the psychodrama process as experienced by individuals who claim that it resulted in significant change. Using an existential-phenomenological approach, the study described the meaning of the experience for six adult co-researchers. The co-researchers were asked to describe their experiences before, during, and after their psychodramas. Two interviews were conducted and these were tape recorded and transcribed. The transcripts were analyzed and themes were formulated which were validated by the co-researchers and woven into an exhaustive description of the psychodrama experience. The exhaustive description was condensed into an essential structure. Both the exhaustive description and the essential structure were validated by all the co- researchers. The results support elements of both psychodrama and Gestalt theory, as well as current theories of group development. Implications for counselling and further research are discussed. / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate

This thesis is an exploration of the psychodynamic body and its mythos. I take a phenomenological approach to research that remains connected to lived experience. I begin with image making, painting from the subjective body in response to the ancient Mesopotamian myth of the flood and archaic cultural material on the flood theme. I discover a relationship between this imagery, this mythos, and earlier work on the Dionysian mythology and mysteries. I gather these images together and with work on my own family history I create a painting performance titled Wings from the Deep. The mythos, the poetic structure, of this performance and this thesis, is an exploration of how a people, a person, a body, can journey through traumatic states. The core phenomenon of this thesis is the psychodynamic movement from deadness to aliveness, a movement at the heart of the psychotherapeutic process. I apply knowledge of the psychotherapeutic conversation to the research process by writing to an important other, Etty Hillesum, a young Dutch Jewish woman who wrote a series of diaries during the Holocaust. I then link this conversation with my earlier imagery and the images of the Holocaust to the biblical myth of the flood. This linking of somatic states to mythic material through imagery and text is how I develop the poetic language integral to this thesis. I create a constant dialogue from body to image to word, a process, a language, that mirrors psychotherapy. The psychodynamic body structures the mythos of this thesis. The psychodynamic body structures a mythos of psychotherapy. CD SOUNDTRACK AND DVD PERFORMANCE AVAILABLE AT UWS LIBRARY. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Thesis (M.A.)--Miami University, Dept. of Psychology, 2003. / Title from first page of PDF document. Document formatted into pages; contains iii, 50 p. Includes bibliographical references (p. 36-38).

The purpose of this research was to inquire into the subjective experience of participants of psychodynamic group art therapy.This investigation was designed to record participants' responses and understanding of their art-making and their artwork in therapy. The qualitative methodology of phenomenography was chosen to record the art-making process. The sample included three women from a women's centre and six university students. A single interview was conducted with each of the nine participants and included their artwork from the group art therapy. Group art therapy committed to a participant's personal development was effective in contributing to a resolution of personal conflicts, whereas group art therapy committed to professional development was effective in stimulating group dynamics, but the participants were guarded when discussing the personal content of their artwork. / Master of Arts (Hons) (Art Therapy)

Title page, table of contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University of Adelaide Library. / The current work provided a new cognitive-behavioural conceptualisation of the construct, defining psychological mindedness as 'the ability to identify one’s thoughts, emotions, and behaviours, and see connections between them’. As such, this new definition was adopted for the purposes of developing and validating a new Cognitive-Standard measure of Psychological Mindedness (CB-PM). This dissertation examined the psychometric properties of the CB-PM by conducting three empirical investigations to assess the clinical utility of the measure. / http://proxy.library.adelaide.edu.au/login?url= http://library.adelaide.edu.au/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=1276608 / Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Psychology, 2007

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Duquesne University, 2005. / Title from document title page. Abstract included in electronic submission form. Includes bibliographical references (p. 227-247) and index.

This thesis presents an in-depth exploration of psychotherapists’ lived experience of working with borderline personality (BPD) disorder in psychodynamic psychotherapy, using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). The existing research literature suggests that working with borderline patients is very difficult, as they can evoke negative counter transference experiences in therapists and thus make the working alliance difficult to maintain. The stigmatising and negative attitude towards BPD, which is found amongst mental health professionals, can cause many therapists to avoid working with this patient population, leaving many patients without the necessary help for treatment. Some literature also suggests that psychodynamic therapy may not be helpful for the treatment of BPD in its traditional form, because of the neutrality of the model and borderline patients’ ‘reduced capacity to mentalise’. Instead, empathy and the therapeutic relationship have been reported to be significant factors. This qualitative study aimed to provide a rich and detailed examination of the experiences, which psychodynamic psychotherapists and counselling psychologists might have in their work with BPD patients. Five psychodynamic psychotherapists were interviewed twice in one unstructured and one semi-structured interview, and IPA was used to analyse the data. The five master-themes (Negative countertransference feelings; “Sitting in the dark together”; Hindrance in therapeutic work; Therapist omnipotence; Labelling as problematic) found in this study suggested that borderline patients could benefit from a modified version of psychodynamic 1 Note that the ‘psychodynamic’ and ‘psychoanalytic’ terms will be interchangeably used in this study. 2 The researcher, as a trainee-counselling psychologist, is in favour of using the word ‘client’. However, psychodynamic practitioners talk about their ‘patients’ rather than ‘clients’, and as this study focuses on psychodynamic therapists’ experiences, the researcher will use these two terms interchangeably. Thus, the word ‘patient’ here is applied in the psychodynamic and not in the medical sense. 9 psychotherapy with a focus on empathy and a bond between therapist and patient. Furthermore, the therapists’ awareness of negative countertransference feelings and emergent obstacles in the therapeutic work, as well as their understanding of BPD as a label and its effects on their borderline patients were crucial. Finally, the therapists’ experienced ‘omnipotent’ feelings, which may have emerged in response to their negative countertransference feelings. While these findings support many of the previous publications and accounts reported in the literature, they also shed new light on therapists’ experiences, which might have implications for the approach that psychotherapists and counselling psychologists take towards working with borderline individuals within the psychodynamic modality.

Although it is generally acknowledged and accepted that case formulations are useful in psychotherapy treatment, there is significantly little research illustrating how case formulations are useful in treatment. Research also suggests that case formulations are seldom used in practice after initial training (Eells, 1997; Sim, Gwee, & Bateman, 2005). This research was premised on a particular case study which appeared to highlight shifts in psychotherapy treatment in the sessions directly after the writing or revising of the case formulation, thus prompting the inquiry into the influence of the case formulation on therapeutic work. The research utilised a qualitative methodology and focused on a single case which was a 19 year old university student who expressed a problem with binge eating. The data was drawn from five original and revised case formulations. The participant was seen for 27 therapy sessions, over which time five case formulations were developed and revised. The findings in this study highlight the process of how a psychodynamic case formulation can influence therapeutic work, as reflected in three broad themes of adherence to the case formulation, the confidence of the therapist, and using the formulation as an intervention. The study contributes to arguments for the revival of the case formulation as a necessary therapeutic tool. / KMBT_363 / Adobe Acrobat 9.54 Paper Capture Plug-in

Inledning: Inom den psykodynamiska teoribildningen råder delade meningar om huruvida terapeuten ska berätta om sig själv för patienten. Terapeutens självavslöjande ”Self-Disclosure”, har studerats och debatterats i psykoanalytisk litteratur. Syftet med den här uppsatsen är att beskriva psykodynamiska psykoterapeuters upplevelser av att arbeta med Self-Disclosure. Frågeställning:  Hur beskriver psykodynamiska psykoterapeuter sina upplevelser av att arbeta med Self-Disclosure? Metod: I studien används den deskriptiva fenomenologiska humanvetenskapliga metoden. Kvalitativa djupintervjuer genomfördes med fem psykodynamiskt skolade psykoterapeuter på deras arbetsplatser. Intervjuerna spelades in och transkriberades ordagrant. Materialet delades in i meningsenheter vars psykologiska innebörd har tydliggjorts, deras inbördes förhållande studerats och en förståelse har uppnåtts. En pendling mellan helhet och delar har skett kontinuerligt tills fenomenets generella struktur nåtts. Resultat:  I analysen framkom sju generella strukturer ur materialet; miljö, personlighet, frågor och svar, om tankar och känslor i terapirummet, om livet utanför terapirummet, känslomässiga upplevelser av Self-Disclosure och Self-Disclosures påverkan på terapiprocessen. Miljö och personlighet ansågs som ofrånkomliga självavslöjanden. Verbala utsagor och uppvisande av känslouttryck kunde ske både avsiktligt och oavsiktligt. Self-Disclosure kunde både försvåra och befrämja terapiprocessen. Diskussion: Trygghet och kontakt betonas som centralt för den terapeutiska processen av samtliga terapeuter i studien. Self-Disclosure bör användas med hänsyn till vilken patient det gäller och vilken fas terapiprocessen befinner sig i. Både innehåll och kontext har betydelse för effekten av Self-Disclosure. Ett pragmatiskt förhållningssätt kan gynna terapiprocessen. Konsekvenserna kan inte förutses utan det centrala är terapeutens uppmärksamhet på hur den upplevs och vilken påverkan den har för terapiprocessen / Introduction: Within the psychodynamic theory, there are different opinions whether the therapist should tell the patient about himself. The therapists self-disclosure have been studied and discussed in psychoanalytic literature. The purpose of this article is to describe psychodynamic psychotherapists experiences of working with Self-Diclosure. Question: How do psychodynamic psychoterapists describe their experiences of working with Self-Disclosure? Method: The study uses the descriptive phenomenological human scientific method. Qualitative deep interviews was made with five psychodynamic psychotherapists at their office. The interviews were recorded and transcribed word for word. The material was divided into meaning units whose psychological content was elucidated, their mutual relations was studied and an understanding has been achieved. An continuous oscillation between the whole and the parts was made until the structure of the phenomenon was discovered. Result: In the analysis seven general structures were discovered. Milieu, personality, questions and answers, thoughts and feelings in the therapy room, life outside therapy, emotional experiences of Self-Disclosure and Self-Disclosure and its influence on the therapy process. Milieu and personality were regarded as inevitable Self-Disclosure. Verbal statements and emotional expressions could be both intentional and unintentional. Self-Disclosure can both hinder and facilitate the therapy process. Discussion: Safety and contact are emphasised as central in the therapy process by all therapists in the study. Self-Disclosure ought to be used with regard to both the patient and the phase in the therapy process. Both the content and the context are of importance for the consequence of Self-Disclosure. A pragmatic stance can favour the therapy process. The consequences cannot be foreseen but the most important is the therapist`s attention to how it is experienced and how it influence the therapy process.

Thesis (MA)--University of Stellenbosch, 2001. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study reviews the literature regarding psychodynamic therapy with low-income women. Low-income women are at psychological risk for developing emotional distress as a result of their deprived living circumstances. They have, however, received little attention from psychological research and practice. This literature review explores what psychological interventions are available for low-income women. It is found that psychodynamic therapy is largely unavailable to low-income women for a variety of reasons, which range from classism, sexism and ignorance to the cogent feminist and cross cultural critiques. It is argued that psychodynamic therapy should be more available to low-income women as it provides a sophisticated understanding of how oppressive social ideologies are internalized in the unconscious, thus facilitating, through therapy, a process of deconstruction and political subversion. Suggestions are also offered as to how to make psychodynamic therapy more accessible to low-income women. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie bied 'n oorsig van die beskikbare literatuur aangaande psigodinamiese terapie vir laer inkomste vrouens. Die groep is tot 'n meerdere mate blootgestel aan die ontwikkeling van emosionele stress trauma weens hul ontneemde lewensomstandighede. Laer inkomste vrouens het tot hede min aandag geniet met betrekking tot psigologiese navorsing en praktyk. Hierdie literatuur oorsig fokus op gepaste psigologiese ingryping wat beskikbaar is vir die spesifieke groep. Die ontoeganklikheid van psigodinamiese terapie beskikbaar, vir laer inkomste vrouens, kan toegeskryf word aan 'n verskeidenheid faktore: die strek van klassisme, seksisme en onkunde tot oortuigende feministiese en kruis kulturele beoordeling en debat. Hierdie verhandeling stel voor dat psigodinamiese terapie meer beskikbar moet wees tot laer inkomste vrouens, want dit stel 'n gesofisikeerde begrip, ten doel van hoe onderdrukkende sosiale ideologie geinternaliseer word in die onderbewussyn en die teenwerking daarvan. Die geskrif beredeneer hoe terapie kan fasiliteer in die proses van de-konstruksie en politieke subversie. Dit word ook voorgestel hoe om psigodinamiese terapie toeganklik to maak vir laer inkomste vrouens.