Doctor of Psychology (PsyD), Wright State University, 2013, School of Professional Psychology

In response to an identified need in the psychological literature for research on minority religion, especially earth-centered religion, this dissertation was developed to 1) present an overview of the three main branches of contemporary earth religion, 2) illuminate the realities of minority religious identity in the United States of America, 3) collect data regarding the demographic and identity variables of devotees of earth centered religion, and 4) solicit feedback from the earth religious community regarding its understanding of psychological distress, preferred ways of coping with distress, and perceptions and experiences of professional mental health services. A total of 64 self-identified devotees of earth-centered faith completed an online questionnaire about their identity variables, experiences of psychological distress, ways of understanding distress, and experiences, perceptions, and fears pertaining to mental health services. The questionnaire was developed by the researcher based upon a literature review and consultation of the National Council of Schools and Programs of Professional Psychology's developmental achievement levels in diversity. Descriptive and statistical findings pertaining to this religious population are detailed. Additionally, clinical and research implications of the results, as well as limitations and strengths of the current study are identified and discussed.

EdD, University of Cincinnati, 2004, Education : Counselor Education

This study examined the extent that counselors receiving supervision are encouraged to discuss spiritual or religious issues. Information was gathered using quantitative and qualitative methods to determine the extent to which counselors and supervisors discuss spiritual or religious beliefs during supervision sessions. The study questioned whether counselors may not be discussing religious and spiritual concerns due to counselor competency, possible ethical concerns, and counselors' relationship with supervisors.Counselors receiving supervision and supervisors providing clinical supervision received a quantitative questionnaire to identify topics discussed during supervision. Following the completion of the questionnaire, six counselors and six supervisors were involved in structured interviews. In the process of these interviews, emphasis was placed on the potential barriers preventing counselors or supervisors from discussing issues of values, religion, and spirituality. There were significant differences in counselors' and supervisors' perceptions of the extent that values were discussed in supervision: 68% of supervisors and 30% of counselors reported discussing values. Furthermore, in the interview process, all the supervisors reported discussing values and only some counselors reported likewise. There were also statistical significant differences in the perceptions of counselors and supervisors regarding the presence of religious discussions: 33% of supervisors and 5% of counselors indicating religion was addressed. Similarly, in the interviewing process, all supervisors stated religion was addressed, and only two counselors indicated the same. There were no statistical significant differences relating to supervisors' and counselors' perceptions of potential discussions of spirituality: 37% of supervisors and 25% of counselors reporting spirituality was addressed. Nonetheless, in the qualitative analyses, all supervisors reported the discussion of spiritualit (open full item for complete abstract)

MA, Kent State University, 2024, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of History

My thesis discusses the history of gender and sexuality politics in postcolonial Zimbabwe. It utilizes the convening of Christianity and politics to explore how these areas of public life combined to influence different perceptions towards gender and sexuality identities. The background appraises the impact of African Traditional Religion (ATR) during the colonial period and the changes ushered in by Western Christianity. During this time of colonial conquest, ATR was the cornerstone of all the sectors of life including politics. This included the worshiping of God through nature and ancestral spirits. Reincarnation was a very prominent practice of the colonial Zimbabwe ATR, also known as the Mwari cult. The concept of reincarnation was considered an effective way of communicating with the dead through the Masvikiro (spirit mediums) who transmitted information, requests for rains, or prayers for healing and harvest to Mwari or Unkulunkulu (God). Masvikiro gained popularity as the quest for nationalism continuously shaped every aspect of colonial Zimbabwe especially in the anti-colonial protest of 1896-97 Chimurenga (war of independence). Although there was transition in religion since the precolonial, colonial, and postcolonial period where ATR's prominence began to diminish due to the absorption of western doctrines, all the three historic phases elaborate how religion was shaped by the prevailing situations until it became a chief cornerstone of every aspect of the postcolonial economy. As a result of colonialism, a significant number of people converted to Christianity. My thesis, therefore, serves to confirm the existence of a continued influence of religion in politics. It reexamines the various ways in which a combination of religion and politics affected the perceptions of gender and sexuality identities. This pinpoints dimensions in which gender identities were understood and perceived in independent Zimbabwe and most significantly how these changed through (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2024, Social Work

Spirituality has been popularized as a support for those in addiction recovery. Millions of individuals have transitioned from active addiction to addiction recovery through interventions informed by spiritual and religious principles. However, the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) reports that relapse rates within the United States remain high. This data may indicate a potential discrepancy between the present utility of spirituality and its practical implementation. Many researchers have attempted to find solutions and pathways that utilize spiritual components that would benefit those in addiction recovery. Theories and definitions abound for spirituality in addiction recovery, yet the operational and developmental nature of spirituality remains clouded. These limitations frustrate plans to reduce relapse rates by effectively implementing spiritually or religiously aligned program elements. Therefore, this project proposes three papers aimed at addressing this substantial gap: Chapter 2 is an inductive scoping review of empirically-focused peer-reviewed articles exploring how spirituality is defined and measured within addiction recovery literature. This chapter aims to assess how spirituality is presently defined within the context of addiction recovery literature and will consider definitions, components, indicators of health, and measurement as elements of how spirituality is structured. Chapter 3 is a deductive qualitative content analysis that explores how a synthesis of Canda's operational model of spirituality and Worden's Tasks of Grief align with the operational principles of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). AA has helped millions transition from active addiction to addiction recovery through a practical spiritual process. The content analysis study will explore the operational literature of AA, explicitly examining the content for components of spirituality and spiritual change. Doing so rigorously will bring additional insight to future work and (open full item for complete abstract)

MA, University of Cincinnati, 2024, Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services: Counseling, Mental Health

Within counseling and other mental health disciplines, the queer community as a whole has been widely under recognized and othered within our western spaces. Within many of the structures that western culture has curated to benefit that of the general population, there has been and still continues to be active internal erasure as well as purposeful othering within many religious and spiritual spaces. The current study is based on the work of Wood & Conley 2014 who made note of the disparities between those who uphold a queer identity and either hide their queerness and/or renounce themselves from a religious/spiritual affiliation. Using the Interpretative Phenomenological Approach, and previous research, I have been able to dive into the lives of queer perspectives and understand whether it is possible to integrate, instead of harm, queer identities among being religious and/or spiritual. Findings indicated that there is a process of deconversion that includes education alongside increasing self-esteem and mental health, as well as feelings of internalized queerphobia and difficulties navigating both R/S and queer spaces. Counseling implications and areas for future research are discussed.

Master of Arts, Case Western Reserve University, 2024, Psychology

While research examining common struggles of religious deidentification is growing, there is little research examining process variables of psychological adjustment. Individuals who deidentify from high-cost religions often experience anger or other negative emotions toward God, themselves, other individuals in the religion of origin, or the entire religion of origin. What role might forgiveness play in relation to these deidentification experiences? Event-specific forgiveness toward the self, God, specific others, and the entire community of origin was explored among 293 individuals who pulled away from ultra-Orthodox Judaism. Several factors accounted for unique variance in different types of forgiveness, which in turn had implications for mental health. In a few cases, levels of spiritual harm and abuse moderated the relationship between specific forgiveness and wellbeing outcomes. Overall, situation-specific forgiveness toward multiple transgressors may be an important factor when considering the psychological adjustment of those who pull away from high-cost religions.

Bachelor of Arts, Wittenberg University, 2023, Sociology

Alternative spiritualities, or spiritual practices that fall outside of traditional organized religions, have long been viewed as deviant. But with growing religious discontent in the world, more people have begun turning to these alternatives. This thesis explores the lived experience, identity, and community of Americans who practice alternative spiritualities. Interviews were conducted with seven Spiritualist church attendees and three Witchcraft practitioners to further understand the impacts of spirituality on their daily lives and display the present need for these alternatives within society. Participants' lived experiences revealed that religious upbringings and discontent with organized religions directly influenced their motivations for seeking out spiritual alternatives. Moreover, their current spiritual practices actively shape continued motivations to maintain their spiritual beliefs. Spirituality is a critical piece of identity; however, it remains a factor in which people are conscious over due to the negative associations that are inherently attached onto the notion of alternative spirituality. Community remains a central component of alternative spiritualities, as it is a key factor in sustaining one's spirituality. Each of these elements convey that people are seeking out alternative spiritualities due to a present need for religious alternatives separate from traditional organized religions, which provide community and allow individuality, personal spiritual constructions, beliefs, and practices.

Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, 2023, Educational Leadership

This study centers on the experiences of Black mothers in graduate school by taking an anti-deficit approach to examining Black mothers' use of faith. Specifically, this study seeks to understand how faith operates in the lives of Black mothers as they encounter intersecting systems of oppression while pursuing graduate education. Faith is essential to many Black women's lives (Mattis, 2017; Pew Research Center, 2020). However, research remains limited regarding Black graduate students and faith (Travers & Gatson, 2021), but even more so for Black student mothers. The study addresses this research gap at the intersection of Black womanhood, parental status, and religious-spiritual identity. The study utilized a qualitative approach and was guided by Parks' Theory of Faith Development and womanism. Eight participants were selected using snowball sampling from multiple universities across the United States. The participants self-identified as Black or African American, doctoral students, mothers, and Christians. Methodology and methods included using narrative inquiry to center Black student mothers' experiences in higher education by engaging in reflective journaling, a focus group, and individual interviews. The findings indicate that Black student mothers encounter multiple institutional barriers such as a lack of childcare, unsupportive faculty, and microaggressions in regard to race, class, age, and parental status. The findings also indicate the ways Black mothers define, conceptualize, and embody faith to navigate the complexities of graduate school. The discussion outlines the foundation of a new theoretical framework- the Black Women's Conceptualization of Faith framework (BWCFF) and various culturally relevant approaches to create inclusive environments and foster student success for Black student mothers. Implications for practice include practical advice for institutional responsibility, including providing safe spaces, centering m (open full item for complete abstract)

Master of Fine Arts (MFA), Bowling Green State University, 2023, Creative Writing/Poetry

Things That Stay is a collection of poetry that inhabits the permanence of Appalachian landscape, ritual, feminist variations of tradition, and versions of selves in relation to the metaphysical. Not only do these poems focus on the ways connection, religious beliefs, and natural elements persist in physical life—the passing of regional tradition woman to woman, sharing customs with partners, and the unyielding presence of plant life—but they also reach into the liminal, insisting on the transcendence of essence. Flowers, birds, hair, and supernatural experiences are reimagined and given new presence in transitional spaces; everything is given a soul, and the soul is what travels through spiritual places and stays after a physical life has been completed. Everything and nothing—emptiness and the knowledge from an entire existence—are brought together in spaces between lives and deaths, often grounded in the familiar reality of landscape and interpersonal relationships.

Psy. D., Antioch University, 2022, Antioch New England: Clinical Psychology

The aim of this study is to explore the ways in which LGBTQ+ people are affected by adverse or traumatic experiences related to religion or spirituality. Many LGBTQ+ adults were reared in environments where negative, disaffirming beliefs or teachings about sexual orientation or gender identity were pervasive. This study utilized a mixed-methods approach to data collection and analysis. Participants responded to a brief online survey, the data from which was used for quantitative statistical analysis. Twelve participants were selected at random from a pool of survey volunteers and took part in in-depth interviews regarding adverse religious experiences (AREs). Results of this study suggest that AREs are prevalent for LGBTQ+ individuals who grew up in religious or spiritual environments and that they have had significant psychosocial impacts on survivors. Clinical implications of these findings are discussed, as are directions for future research.

Bachelor of Arts, Walsh University, 2022, Honors

Over the past few years, the nationwide protests over the long-standing plague of racism in our country, most recently manifested in the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, and Breonna Taylor, have placed our nation before a “fork in the road.” We stand on the precipice of monumental change or devastating regression in the area of race relations within our nation. This has been most vivid in the relationship between law enforcement and the African American community. What comes next between these two parties will depend on how law enforcement responds to the cries of the people in these affected communities. Historically, particularly in African American communities, there has been an intimate connection between social movements and sensitives to injustice and faith. At the same time, there appears to be a decreasing appreciation of faith among law enforcement officers. If the disparity between the attitude towards faith by law enforcement and the significance of faith in communities of color continues to increase, it will undoubtedly lead to more tension between these two communities. I hypothesize that reconciliation between law enforcement and African American communities can be achieved through the inclusion of religious literacy in the training and formation of law enforcement officers. As a disclaimer, it is important to understand that the building of trust and the reparation of relationships is an effort that requires the cooperation of both sides. This means that there has to be a willingness and an understanding from both law enforcement and communities of color for any real difference to be made. It is also important to recognize that this is not a “black versus white” issue, this is an issue that affects society as a whole. This understanding will be made present throughout this research, but the primary focus will be on the inclusion of religious literacy in the formation of law enforcement officers.

Bachelor of Arts, Wittenberg University, 2022, Business

Spirituality in the workplace focuses on creating space for meaning, purpose, and interconnectedness within community. Evidence and research suggest spiritual values (i.e., mindfulness, compassion, transcendence, and meaningful work), through an enhancement of the motivation of the workforce, contribute to increases in productivity. Spirituality can be implemented through including spiritual values in policies, procedures, and business decisions. When evaluating an organizational success with executing spirituality efforts in a business, three themes can be seen throughout the organization: inclusivity, leadership, and implementation practices. This study will analyze the aspects of spirituality in Ouimet-Tomasso Corporation, a Canadian frozen food manufacturing company. It will define and research spirituality as a whole within an organization, the importance of inclusivity in spirituality efforts, leadership's impact on spirituality, and implementation practices. The case analysis will include a background of the company's spirituality philosophies and evaluate its spirituality effectiveness within inclusion of all the employees' backgrounds, leadership of the organization, and practices implemented to represent the values expressed.

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2022, Psychology

This study assessed linkages between emerging adults' self-reports of spiritual intimacy with their dating partners and their romantic relationship commitment, satisfaction, and emotional intimacy. Spiritual intimacy refers to partners vulnerably disclosing their religious/spiritual (R/S) experiences to one another and empathically listening to one another's disclosures. The sample consisted of 218 Midwestern college students (83% female, 84% Caucasian/white, 78% heterosexual) who self-identified as being in a non-marital (i.e. dating) romantic relationship and completed a cross-sectional survey. As expected, greater spiritual intimacy in a dating relationship predicted greater relationship satisfaction (β = .43, Δ R2 = .18, p < .01), commitment (β = .34, Δ R2 = .13, p < .01), and emotional intimacy (β =.37, Δ R2 = .14, p < .01) after controlling for relevant demographic information. Moreover, spiritual intimacy continued to significantly predict relationship satisfaction (β = .20, Δ R2 = .03, p < .01) and commitment (β = .15, Δ R2 = .02, p < .01) after controlling for the effects of emotional intimacy. These findings suggest that spiritual intimacy captures elements of romantic relationship functioning that may otherwise go unnoticed by typical measures of communication skills or emotional closeness. This study is one of the first to look at R/S communication processes in dating relationships and appears to be the first to compare spiritually intimate communication with emotionally intimate communication. Discussion of this study highlights how researchers, educators, and counselors interested in close relationships could further explore the reciprocal roles of spiritual and emotional intimacy in fostering couples' commitment and satisfaction.

Psy. D., Antioch University, 2022, Antioch Seattle: Clinical Psychology

Religion and spirituality, when viewed through a holistic lens, can reflect important aspects of a person's identity. It can be a source of well-being and also struggle. The fields of religion, spirituality and psychology have had a history of being polarized, with some efforts to integrate the two fields. Tensions exist at multiple ecological levels around the topic of religion and spirituality, which can make it easier to avoid discussing it in classrooms and therapy rooms. It is important to address and create room for discussion of experiences around religion and spirituality in classrooms that are training psychologists so they can be better prepared to address it with their clients. The addressing of religion and spirituality in considering multiple levels is supported by the new ecological framework shared in the American Psychological Association (APA) multicultural guidelines. Many psychologists, students, and the APA itself, support the idea of training in religion and spirituality as a diversity factor, yet this topic is being taught inconsistently across accredited health service psychology doctoral programs. The incongruence between the support for training and lack of consistent implementation in doctoral programs revealed an opportunity to explore the topic of teaching religion and spirituality with instructors. Understanding their experiences helped to make sense of what might contribute to these inconsistencies. This study explored and analyzed the topic of religion and spirituality by understanding the experiences of instructors in secular APA accredited clinical doctoral psychology programs across the U.S. It sought to explore instructors' relationship with religion and spirituality and how their personal and professional experiences influence their teaching practices. Data was collected from eight instructors across the U.S., using semi-structured interviews and analyzed through Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). The results of t (open full item for complete abstract)

Master of Arts, Case Western Reserve University, 0, Psychology

How do people decide whether or not to follow their conscience? Their decisions may depend partly on the beliefs people have about how important and reliable their conscience is. These beliefs, in turn, might be affected by religious and spiritual beliefs. I examined these ideas among adults active on Amazon Mechanical Turk (N = 305). This research required the creation of several new items, including sanctification of the conscience, beliefs about God and the devil's ability to influence the conscience, beliefs about the importance of the conscience, beliefs about the reliability of the conscience, and beliefs about how often people follow their conscience. All new variables showed good preliminary reliability and validity, and were expected to associate in meaningful ways. Results showed that most people view their conscience as very important and reliable, and most participants reported following their conscience often when making decisions. Several path analyses revealed that higher religiosity predicts tendencies to sanctify the conscience and believe that God and the devil can influence the conscience; more sanctification of the conscience predicts beliefs about higher importance and reliability of the conscience; and believing that the conscience is very important and very reliable predicts following the conscience more often. In sum, people's readiness to follow their conscience appears to depend, in part, on religiosity and the beliefs people have about their conscience. These findings, coupled with other research on the conscience and moral judgment, help to explain why some people report following their conscience often while others do not.

Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, 2021, Psychology

Body image research has historically focused on body dissatisfaction and its connection to disordered eating, though there has been a more recent shift to explore positive body image. While there is a growing literature investigating the causes, consequences, and correlates of positive body image in adults, relatively little is known about these relationships during adolescence. Adolescence is a time of significant development in various domains, including the physical, as well as a time when beliefs about the self and world are explored. As such, adolescence is a natural time to examine links between body image, identity, and personal values. The current study explored the relationship between positive body image and religious and spiritual (r/s) values in particular through a two-part approach that took place in high schools. In part one of the study, adolescents (N = 85; 75.3% self-identified girls) completed various questionnaire measures pertaining to personal values and body image. Higher levels of sanctification of the body and self-worth contingent upon perceptions of God's love predicted more body appreciation. For adolescent girls in particular, the relationship between sanctification of the body and body appreciation was partially mediated by internalization of the thin ideal. In part two of the study, adolescents (N = 83) engaged in one of three conditions (traditional, values/identity, control) that entailed small group discussion and personal letter-writing activities pertaining to body image. None of the conditions contributed to statistically significant improvements in body image, though participants' qualitative responses revealed that adolescents found the activities to be meaningful and beneficial. Research findings help explain relationships between identity, personal values, and positive body image during adolescence and reveal prevention program elements that may help foster positive body image.

Ph.D., Antioch University, 2020, Antioch New England: Marriage and Family Therapy

As the dynamics of the United States' social landscape shifts in relation to the diversity of culture, ethnicity, values, and traditions, and as religion and spirituality have become highly diverse and fluid, diversity in spirituality has received limited attention in the field of marriage and family therapy. Utilizing an interpretative phenomenological analysis, this qualitative investigation explores common meanings and experiences of emotional intimacy of couples in heterosexual relationships where there are differences in spirituality. Overall, the results of this investigation demonstrate that in situations where heterosexual couples who display differences in spirituality attentively attuned to their individual and relational needs, their emotional intimacy satisfaction was enhanced; in situations where couples' attentiveness to their spirituality and religious differences was undermined, their individual needs suffered, and their emotional intimacy was impeded. Furthermore, this study shows that it is not so much the differences in the contents of spiritual beliefs between spouses in married relationships that determine the direction of their emotional intimacy satisfaction but their shared or divergent values on spirituality. Clinical implications for therapists are provided alongside study limitations and recommendations for future research.

Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, 2020, Psychology

This study explores spiritual crisis from the perspective of experiential personal construct psychology (EPCP). Spirituality and religion are understudied phenomena in clinical psychology, despite being relevant to many people's understandings of themselves and their experiences of distress. Spiritual crisis, as a time of grief and loss related to one's spiritual life that leads to a change in worldview, is an intersection of spiritual and psychological concerns given its focus on distress and grief (Agrimson & Taft, 2009). In this study, I interviewed four people who self-identified as having gone through periods of spiritual crisis. The purpose of this research was to deeply explore the lived experiences of these four persons and how they made sense of their experiences, in order to inform theoretical frameworks around spirituality (rather than to find generalizable themes of how all people respond to spiritual crisis). In the interviews, participants described personalized understandings of religion and spirituality, entwined with other aspects of cultural identity. Participants described times of spiritual crisis as marked by profound grief, distress, and confusion, and described the resulting changes in their lives as an ongoing, transformative process rather than temporary or resolved ruptures. Spiritual crisis often involved negotiating relationships with larger group or institutional structures such as churches or formal doctrines. I discuss these themes and how EPCP theory might develop an understanding of spiritual crisis related to group expectancies (Kelly, 1991).

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2020, Psychology/Clinical

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, questioning/queer (LGBQ) individuals and those who are same-sex attracted (SSA) who are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), often face unique challenges related to faith, family, and mental health. Of specific concern is the potential for LDS LGBTQ individuals to be at risk for suicide, due to the conflict between their religious/spirituality and their sexual identity. In the current study I sought to examine the ways in which religious/spiritual (r/s) struggles and one-upmanship might predict internalized homophobia and suicide risk in an online sample of 404 current/former LDS LGBTQ adults. Results indicated that in separate models, both r/s struggles and one-upmanship predicted suicide risk, but only r/s struggles predicted internalized homophobia. Additionally, mediation analysis demonstrated that internalized homophobia did not mediate the relationship between r/s struggles and suicide risk. Exploratory analysis revealed that r/s struggles fully mediated the relationship between one-upmanship and suicide risk. Clinicians working with current or former LDS LGBTQ individuals should consider the role that r/s struggles and one-upmanship might play in their clients' risk for suicide.

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2020, Psychology/Clinical

This study assessed emerging adults' beliefs that their sexual behavior with a committed partner was sacred/reflective of divine qualities (sanctification) and as a violation of something sacred (desecration) in a sample of 205 undergraduate students at a public university (66% female; 76% Caucasian) who were in a non-marital committed romantic relationship and sexually active within the past month. Results indicated that sanctification of sexuality (Sacred Qualities) was prevalent for college students in the context of non-marital committed relationships. Stronger beliefs that sexuality has sacred qualities were linked with greater relationship satisfaction, sexual satisfaction, and more frequent sexual behavior with one's partner. These results were significant both for emerging adults' personal beliefs and their perceptions of their r/s communities' beliefs about sanctification of sexuality. These findings confirm the results of initial studies of non-marital sanctification and extend the findings of marital sanctification studies, underscoring the relevance of studying sanctification beliefs about sexuality in non-marital relationships. Regarding negative r/s beliefs about sexuality, prevalence rates of desecration were somewhat low, yet desecration showed significant links to adjustment variables. Stronger personal desecration beliefs were linked to less relationship and sexual satisfaction as well as greater r/s struggles. Stronger perceptions of one's r/s community's desecration beliefs were linked with less frequent sexual behavior, greater sex guilt, and greater r/s struggles. These results situate desecration beliefs with similar constructs like moral incongruence about sexual behavior, supporting further research in this area. Together, sanctification and desecration findings show the intersection of helpful and harmful r/s beliefs and relational adjustment.