Psy. D., Antioch University, 2023, Antioch New England: Clinical Psychology

Psychotherapists experience encounters in psychotherapy that present the opportunity for metaphor and imagery to be utilized as methods of intervention that enhance attunement in the therapeutic dyad. Working within imagery, tropes, and metaphor may facilitate experiential processing and integration of information. Metaphor has been used across cultures for many years to describe abstract concepts and to apply deeper meaning to the confines of logical thought. This paper discusses the literature on metaphor as an object of shared language, enhancing the space which minds share in the therapeutic dyad, and posits that metaphor has the ability to enhance intrapsychic levels of processing toward creating neurobiological and cognitive change. I will conduct a comparative analysis of the literature proposed here, resulting in a synthesis of various theories (including cognitive, interpersonal neurobiology, and psychoanalytic) on the use of metaphor and its connection to the intersubjective space. There is a focus on psychoanalytic, psychodynamic, and neurocognitive theories as they apply to metaphor, imagery, and intersubjectivity.

Committee: Theodore Ellenhorn PhD, ABPP (Committee Chair); Barbara Belcher-Timme PsyD (Committee Member); Lisa Akel PsyD (Committee Member) Subjects: Clinical Psychology; Cognitive Psychology; Counseling Psychology; Language; Psychobiology; Psychology; Psychotherapy

Ph.D., Antioch University, 2022, Leadership and Change

Interpersonal Neurobiology (IPNB) is an interdisciplinary, science-based field that seeks to understand human reality including the nature of mind, brain, and relationships. IPNB has been used extensively by mental health practitioners as well as child development and parenting experts. While practitioners and scholars have described ways that IPNB can be used in leadership and organizations, there has been no systematic inquiry into the practical and phenomenological experience of this application. IPNB offers an alternative to dominant models of care and leading in healthcare settings and fields, which are characterized by disconnection, objectification, and separation. It offers a relationally centered approach that honors people's subjective experience and seeks to advance whole-person and whole-system wellness through the promotion of integration. As a living and dynamic systems approach, IPNB has the potential to influence the quality of leaders' presence, perception, and practice while upholding the interconnectedness within and between the functional elements of organizational structures and processes. This narrative inquiry sought to explore how leader and leader consultants approach their work from an IPNB perspective. It centers around two research questions: How, if at all, have healthcare leaders integrated IPNB in their leadership practices, and what impact has this integration had on their development and identity? Secondly, what, if any, implications might their experiences hold for leadership in health and mental health organizations? Using the Listening Guide (LG; Gilligan, Spencer, et al., 2006) methodology this inquiry explores the experiences of twelve leaders and leadership consultants in order to understand the implications IPNB has had for their practices, development, and identity. It takes a broad and deeply phenomenological dive into each person's IPNB leadership experience across time, space, and place to understand the implications this (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Jon Wergin Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Elizabeth Holloway Ph.D. (Committee Member); Debra Pearce-McCall Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Health Care Management; Management; Medicine; Mental Health; Neurobiology; Neurosciences; Occupational Health; Organization Theory; Organizational Behavior; Psychobiology

Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, 2022, Management

The early twenty-first century zeitgeist has been characterized by a cultural and corporate fascination with leveraging mind-body practices such as meditation and yoga as tools for professional performance. At the same time, executive coaches trained in body-mind approaches to coaching make strong but as-yet unsubstantiated claims about the transformative power of body-based behavioral learning. Practitioner literature suggests that developing embodied self-awareness (ESA) enhances well-being, resilience, and relationships while building the emotional and social intelligence (ESI) that sets outstanding leaders apart from ordinary ones. These claims are consistent with theoretical relationships between brain, body, and behavior, but they have yet to be put to the empirical test. This mixed methods research project seeks to challenge, clarify, and validate these claims by examining the antecedents and outcomes of embodied self-awareness through both a theoretical and an empirical lens. Starting with a qualitative study based on critical incident interviews and thematic analysis, the research proceeds to gather survey-based data from over 550 professional coaches about their experience of embodied self-awareness, its potential outcomes, and the activities likely to produce it. Using factor analysis and structural equation modeling, results show that ESA has strong and significant effects on all dependent variables tested and that ESA can be cultivated through multiple avenues, including body-oriented coach training, yoga, meditation, and hands-on bodywork. Ultimately, by triangulating across methods and studies three convergent conclusions emerge: (1) Body-oriented coach training appears to have stronger effects on ESA than more commonly practiced pursuits such as yoga, mindfulness, and bodywork; (2) Developing ESA strengthens one's capacity for resilience, adaptability, and flourishing; and (3) ESA builds interpersonal competencies including empathy, connectedne (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Richard Boyatzis (Committee Chair); Anthony Jack (Committee Member); Ellen Van Oosten (Committee Member); Avi Turetsky (Committee Member) Subjects: Behavioral Sciences; Cognitive Psychology; Management; Neurobiology; Organizational Behavior; Social Psychology

Psy. D., Antioch University, 2014, Antioch Seattle: Clinical Psychology

In recent years, there have been several ways in which researchers have attempted to integrate psychotherapy and neuroscience research. Neuroscience has been proposed as a method of addressing lingering questions about how best to integrate psychotherapy theories and explain their efficacy. For example, some psychotherapy outcome studies have included neuroimaging of participants in order to propose neurobiological bases of effective psychological interventions (e.g., Paquette et al., 2003). Other theorists have used cognitive neuroscience research to suggest neurobiological correlates of various psychotherapy theories and concepts (e.g., Schore, 2012). These efforts seem to embody broader historical trends, including the hope that neuroscience can resolve philosophical questions about the relationship between mind and body, as well as the popular appeal of contemporary brain research. In this hermeneutic dissertation I examined a popular neuropsychotherapy text in order to explore the historical fit between neuroscience and psychotherapy. The study identifies the possible understandings of the self (i.e., what it means to be human) that could arise from Western therapy discourses that are based on neuroscientific interpretations of psychotherapy theories. The methodology of this dissertation consisted of a critical textual analysis of Louis Cozolino's (2010) The Neuroscience of Psychotherapy: Healing the Social Brain. The primary content, rhetorical strategies, and recurring themes in Cozolino's book were outlined and interpreted from a hermeneutic perspective. This included a historical critique of Cozolino's claims about the origins, purpose, and efficacy of psychotherapy, his assertions about the relationship between self and brain, and examples of his psychotherapy case vignettes. Rhetorical strategies in his writing included analogy, ambiguity, speculative language, and figures of speech such as metaphor and personification. A discussion of these findings addr (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Philip Cushman PhD (Committee Chair); Alejandra Suarez PhD (Committee Member); Gary Walls PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Clinical Psychology; Mental Health; Modern History; Neurosciences; Philosophy; Philosophy of Science; Psychology; Psychotherapy; Science History; Therapy