Center for the Sacred Feminine Research Publications
I loved her fiercely"
In addition to traditional quantitative research methods, it is important to include other methods of inquiry that have been ignored or suppressed that allow us to know more about the topics that long for understanding about both personal and transpersonal experiences. Other ways of knowing, not traditionally accepted, include intuition, divination, spiritual experiences, body wisdom, dreams, transformation, astrology, and alternative states of consciousness but may provide significant contribution to our understanding.
Several methodologies offer approaches to expand the understanding of a topic without limiting the ability to explore more deeply the personal, spiritual, and intimate nature of a subject:
Organic Inquiry Intuitive InquiryThe following is a list of some of the abstracts for dissertations and theses related to the Sacred Feminine at ITP (2010 Scholarship winners in bold):
Menopause : A Natural Rite of Passage : Women's Voices at Midlife
Marianne Ammitzboll
1991
Master's Thesis
Research on healthy self -reflective women's experience of menopause has been scarce. As a result, there is not a well-defined and integrated body of knowledge about this life passage as experienced from a conscious feminine perspective. In the context of transpersonal psychology this study explores menopause as a natural rite of passage. Joseph Campbell's concept of the monomyth is utilized as a template for the individuating experience of menopause. This thesis includes both a theoretical and an empirical study and draws from a large area of disciplines: medical history, the social history of women, the psychology of women's development, medical research on menopause, Jungian depth psychology (symbols, dreams), and anthropological sources and rituals.
The empirical study is based on letters from 35 women. A written interview form was developed to gather the information, bridging the gap between qualitative and quantitative research methods. The research distinguishes between two different processes of individuation or hero journeys. The cultural hero journey and the feminine hero journey. Both journeys can be taken by men and women. Women in this study can identify particular dreams of passage which have provided the dreamer with valuable support for her growth process. Likewise rituals are found to facilitate the transition into a new identity of the third age. Looking into a group of well functioning midlife women has provided valuable information about women's capacity for growth in midlife. The women of this study were able to identify a cyclic pattern as they move through menopause, this pattern consists of three identifiable steps: a separation phase, an initiation phase, and a phase of rebirth/ return. It was significant that most of the informants reported a greater need for more time spent alone. They also described personal growth and a significantly higher self-esteem, emotional lability, and a more deeply felt spirituality.
A Phenomenological Investigation of: the Decision-Process of a Woman Trusting Herself in Making a Spiritual Commitment that is Contrary to the Wishes of a Significant Person or Persons
Joan Andras
1993
Dissertation
This dissertation is an investigation of the decision-process of 9 women who made a spiritual commitment contrary to the wishes of a significant person or persons. The study demonstrates the dynamics of spiritual unfoldment within a context of the internal-external conflict of relatability and autonomy. Through the phenomenological analysis of each woman's decision process, the elements of relatability, autonomy, and spiritual development are more deeply explored. Through the phenomenological explication of the particular moment of decision, a window into that moment of movement from conflict to resolution is presented. The literature review presents an historical overview with an emphasis on the dynamics of change as represented by the shifting views of both theorists and researchers in the evolving field of the psychology of women as reflected through the work of Bem, Gilligan, and Miller.
This shift towards a more inclusive attitude of the unique attributes of personality development of women is reviewed through the theoretical model of ego development as presented by Young-Eisendrath and Weidemann. The works of Isaac, Benjamin, Berlin and Johnson, and Primakoff present the interweaving of relatability and autonomy. The literature review concludes with the presentation of the models of psychospiritual development of Wilber, Washburn, and Harris. The research methodology is structured within the context of the feminist research model with an emphasis on the explication processes of Von Eckartsberg and Van Kaam. The significance of the study is discussed within the framework of emotional autonomy, personal authority, and application to psychospiritual models. The researcher proposes that spiritual development does not lie dormant during the middle years of one's life, but rather, the structure of our society allows for the neglect of our inner life during these middle years.
Women's Journeys to Embodiment: An Organic Inquiry
Andrea Anstiss
2004
Master's Thesis
This exploratory study employed Organic Inquiry to research the process of embodiment in women as a passage of physical-psycho-spiritual growth. Four women with an intense interest in somatic psychology, who viewed embodiment as a growth process, wrote their personal story of the journey into their body's knowing and toward healing the body/spirit split. Each story explored the woman's historical and current relationship with her body through the lenses of her relationships with her family and culture, her sexuality, her spiritual and physical practices, and the initiations of child birth, mothering, and death. Each woman wrote her lived experience using embodied writing, which is writing centered in the body rather than the intellect.
The data was engaged with through a four part analysis: the major embodiment themes, either catalysts or inhibitors of embodiment, were distilled from the stories, discussed, and illustrated in the words of the co-researchers' lived and felt experiences; the creative expression pieces were intuitively analyzed; findings from a transformational validity group were discussed; finally the researcher's evolving understanding of embodiment was recorded.
Transpersonal Treatment Workbook: A Psychological Alternative for Abused Women
Paridokht Anvar
1985
Dissertation
This dissertation introduces an application of transpersonal perspectives to the treatment of abused women. It concentrates on the non-physical aspects of abuse and offers a psychological alternative for healing of wounds caused by victimization. The dissertation is divided into two parts: (1) introduction, literature, theory, and evaluation relating to the workbook, and (2) the workbook itself. Section I presents a theoretical discussion basic to the development of the workbook. It demonstrates the relevance of patriarchal myths that support oppression in women, and matriarchal myths that restore women to their original heritage. The archetypal image of Medea is presented to serve as a mythical symbol for abused women. It is contended that this image can be used as a representation of the potential for self-destruction as well as the potential for transformative growth.
Section II is a transpersonal treatment workbook cast as a heroine's journey for abused women. This part has been developed for abused women, both in and out of abusive relationships, to use as a self-help instrument. The purpose of the book is to help the women tap their own healing resources and to involve them in a personal return to their feminine heritage--goddesses in their positive attributes. The design of the workbook derives from the author's work with abused women in private counseling and at a feminist organization that provides shelter and support. The chapters of the workbook invite readers, through experiential exercises, to identify with the archetypal image of Medea, reflecting on their own emotional state (depression, anger, etc.), reducing stress and anxiety, and invoking goddesses from Greek mythology as feminine ideals. Finally, abused women are guided to consider ways to move out of their isolation, seek therapy, and get in touch with support available through the community.
Ways of Coming Home: Filipino Immigrant Women's Journeys to Wholeness
Sophie Arao-Nguyen
1996
Dissertation
This study explored the processes involved in the Filipino immigrant women's journeys to wholeness. Ways of coming home highlight four options that an acculturating individual or group chooses when they establish their new home in another country. These four acculturation attitudes (Berry, 1990) are assimilation, separation, integration and marginalization. The women in this study are first generation Filipinas who were raised in the Philippines and who now reside in the U.S. Journeys to wholeness are the immigration journeys that the women undertook when they left their homeland and established their new home in a country whose culture is different from their culture of origin. Navigating the differences and integrating them into their lives constitute their spiritual journey.
Feminist research and case study methodologies were used to explore the journey of each participant. Participants included ten women aged 21 to 40 at the time of immigration and who have lived in the U.S. for at least five years. A novel identity shield instrument was used as a nonverbal tool to access their values and beliefs. Data were gathered through individual interviews and two group meetings. Data were processed and analyzed on two levels, the individual and the group. Stories of the participants' journeys are included along with a description of their identity shields. Categories and emergent themes were woven together resulting in a model which include Break Up, Break Down and Breakthrough stages. All the participants went through these stages. Although at the beginning of their stay in the new country, they tried to assimilate at the workplace and maintain their Filipino practices, beliefs and attitudes at home, they ended up integrating both cultures eventually. This study puts the immigrants' experiences in perspective and provides hope to those who are still in the throes of the break down stage.
Multicultural Medicine Women: Finding a Way Through Chaos
Amber Balk
2010
M.A. Thesis
The following is an overview of my proposed study for a thesis in partial fulfillment for a Master’s degree in Women’s Spirituality at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, entitled “Multicultural Medicine Women: Finding a Way Through Chaos.” Two primary research questions guide this study: (a) How do contemporary multiracial medicine women find guidance, inspiration, and teaching, and (b) have these women experienced difficulties along their paths of spiritual development stemming from the cultural devastation of their tribes?
The current proposed study will focus on North American women’s journeys to establish themselves as healers—as multicultural medicine women. Given that cultural devastation has run rampant in North America in the past 500 years, how do women with mixed ancestral heritage respond to the call to become healers? If the indigenous healing communities are no longer intact, how do these women find training? What are the pitfalls and difficulties these women may experience? What strengths would multicultural heritage provide to a healing practice? What role does the Divine Feminine play in the process of becoming multicultural medicine women? Does gender have an influence on one’s path to becoming a healer?
Overview of the Study
The necessary material for the proposed project’s literature review will center primarily on the impact of cultural devastation on spirituality within Native American communities. The literature review begins by delving into the complexities of inquiring and hypothesizing the state of pre-Colombian North America, focusing on the southeastern region of the continent. Often, I will concentrate on the history of the Choctaw tribe in particular, in honor of my ancestors, and also in order to distill a more cohesive historical perspective. To attempt to include all Native North American tribal history would be impossible given the scope of this proposed thesis. Conversely, given the limited about of information on the Choctaw, at times my lens will broaden to include other southeastern tribes and/or other Native North American tribes. In addition to presenting pre-Colombian information, I will discuss issues of identity within Native North American tribes, especially pertaining to Native American women. This will then connect to contemporary Native spiritual and healing practices.
Methods Used
The proposed research approach is organic inquiry. Organic inquiry is a holistic approach to qualitative research which combines feminist and heuristic methodologies, incorporates concepts from Jungian and transpersonal psychological theories, maintains a perspective of reverence for the research process, and holds the potential of transformative impact on researcher, coresearcher(s), and reader (Clements, 2004; Clements, Ettling, Jenett, & Shields, 1998). Developed by four students at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology during the 1990s—Jennifer Clements, Dorothy Ettling, Dianne Jenett, and Lisa Shields, this approach was strongly influenced by transpersonal psychology, which honors transformation and spirituality (Clements, 2004). An organic inquiry study begins with the researcher’s story and passions, expands to the stories of others, and simultaneously roots itself in academic literature.
Throughout the entire process of organic inquiry, the researcher cycles in and out of liminal space, either intentionally or unintentionally. During liminal phases, the researcher sets aside egoic desires and concerns in order to glean information from as many sources as possible; “What is real includes not only that which is physical and that which exists as inner experience, but also, that which may not originate in non-egoic states of consciousness” (Clements, p. 32). This may include information in the form of dreams, synchronicities, and intuitions. It is additionally necessary to step outside of these liminal experiences into a more egoic, cognitive space in order to integrate the data.
For the proposed study, I would like to interview three medicine women of multiracial backgrounds. I will ask them to tell me the story of how they came to be healers. If they do not mention issues pertaining to multicultural backgrounds, I will inquire as to whether it was ever present in their process in learning the healing arts. If they do not mention any gender related issues, I will ask if gender was ever a complicating factor for them. In addition, pieces of my personal journey in poetic and narrative form will illustrate my placement within the study. The purpose of incorporating my personal poetic quest for healing is to further exemplify one way in which women of multiracial backgrounds could bridge the gap from contemporary times to ancient ancestral wisdom and guidance. Often, my nightly dreams serve as inspiration which is then crafted into a creative manifestation in the outer world (poetry) with the intention of personal healing.
Contribution to the Field
The proposed study will contribute to the field of Women’s Spirituality by providing data on multicultural women’s experiences in spiritual and healing systems within indigenous North American communities. Issues of colonization, imperialism, and patriarchy will be addressed and critically analyzed from a feminist perspective. These issues are central to studies within the field of Women’s Spirituality. The Divine Feminine will be honored by acknowledging the importance of multicultural medicine women and their paths to become healers; each woman is an embodiment of the Divine Feminine. This study aims to empower women of minority communities by providing a safe forum for the telling of personal histories and by passing these stories down to future generations of multicultural medicine women.
A Psycho-Spiritual Process of a Sacred Feminine Tradition: A Community-Based Approach for Women
Cara Lynn Carlson
This study seeks to provide meaning and give voice to the experience of a small circle of European American women who have participated in a process of learning and healing called “On the Rim of the Cauldron, Woman Looking at the World as Herself.” Cauldron Studies, as the experience is called by members, is a spiritual process grounded in the sacred feminine. Now in its 7th year, this community-based path offers women opportunities for guidance in their psychological and spiritual development through participation in a community developing practices of inquiry, mindfulness, embodiment, creativity, ritual, and service. Participants in the study circle for this research paper are women who have completed 3 or more years in Cauldron Studies and who have been initiated as “women on the path of the sacred feminine.” In addition to highlighting conscious components of their experience of Cauldron Studies and the sacred feminine, this research will invite and give voice to less known or unconscious aspects of their experience. This qualitative research study will use feminist research approaches and alchemical hermeneutic methods. Alchemical hermeneutics as a method uses the imaginal approach to research. This will include engaging in a process of deep inquiry, setting sacred space, and initiating a guided journey to call forth unanswered questions of Cauldron Studies, the ancestors of the sacred feminine, and the soul of the work itself. To this approach I will also add an embodied writing component and will honor knowledge through relationship within the group synergy that is created. Through the research process, I hope to illuminate the transformational potential of a sacred feminine tradition for women who choose to walk that path.
The Experience of Transformation in Circles of Women: Development of Voice in a Sacred Setting
Gloria Jean Beaird
2006
Dissertation
This study explored the possibility that participation in a women's circle that holds a sacred center can serve as a useful process in creating transformational change. Twelve coresearchers, 2 African American, 2 multiracial, and 8 Caucasian women, aged 45 to 61, who had been part of a women's circle for 3 Ω years or more, participated in individual, 1 to 1 Ω hour, in-person, and in-depth interviews during which they answered questions designed to promote a full description of their stories of participation in a women's circle. A qualitative research method was utilized combining the organic inquiry approach and feminist research methods. A narrative was written for each of the coresearchers to illustrate her experiences of growth and transformation.
Numerous themes emerged from analysis of the data including increased feelings of connection; reports of taking circle practices into relationship, work, and community settings; increased appreciation for diversity; increased emotional awareness and healing; feelings of empowerment; increased ability to handle conflict; increased confidence and authenticity; increased communication and listening skills; increased spirituality and association with the Feminine Sacred; and increased vitality and creativity. In response to 3 additional questions, the coresearchers affirmed and validated their experiences of transformation that occurred as a result of participation in this research. The responses of 4 early readers served as a measure of validation of the findings. The findings of this study supported the premises put forth by the relational-cultural theory that the development of self occurs best in relationships that support increasing capacity for mutually supportive interdependence and competence in relationships, with other properties of self, such as assertiveness and creativity, developing within the underlying context of interrelatedness. This study illustrates the growth and development that are possible through participation in women's circles that hold a sacred center.
Herstorytelling:
Awakening & Educating the Female Imagination
Magdalen Bowyer
February 20, 2005
This is an examination of The Red Tent, which is a novel written by Anita Diamant. She imaginatively retells Chapter 34 of the
Book of Genesis which is the Biblical story of Dinah (pronounced Dee-nah). In the Bible, Dinah
has no voice. In The Red Tent, she is narrator. The retold story is freshly spoken from the
perspective of its women and through their lives and rituals, the wisdom of ancient womanhood
is revealed.
Magdalen is a professional autoethnographer and coach working from a studio in Vancouver, BC, Canada. Through her work, she holds a story space - a place of deep telling and deep listening.
The full text and her full bio are available as PDF files (Adobe Acrobat required)
Nonmedical Support of Women During Childbirth: The Spiritual Meaning of Birth for Doulas
Patricia Lee Brandt
2007
Dissertation
Women experienced in childbirth who provide continuous physical, emotional, and informational support to mothers before, during, and just after childbirth are known as doulas. This widely used definition does not mention the spiritual aspects of childbirth that are important to many doulas. Previous research associated the presence of doulas with fewer medical interventions and greater maternal satisfaction but did not address the contribution of doulas toward the spiritual transformation of birthing mothers. In order to more deeply understand the spiritual aspects of childbirth the author engaged Intuitive Inquiry (Anderson, 1998, 2000, 2004). Intuitive Inquiry is a rigorous qualitative research method leading the researcher toward a deeper understanding of the subject and herself. New data was gathered through interviews with 14 doulas.
Results were presented through a portrait of each doula and a Thematic Content Analysis of transcribed texts of the interviews. Asked about the spiritual meaning of birth, doulas spoke with awe of the body's wisdom as expressed during childbirth. They spoke as witnesses to the ability of women to give birth with the reverence a religious person might convey when describing a miracle, an event contrary to the laws of nature and attributed to the power of God. Doulas situated birth firmly within the laws of nature and honored both nature and women as holy. Doulas were discouraged by medical interventions that masked the sacred energy around birth and made it less likely that women would be spiritually transformed. They were concerned that women have lost faith in their ability to give birth normally. Doulas found spiritual meaning in removing the barriers to normal birth for women who do not need medical intervention and in providing wholehearted care for women who need medical assistance. The author concluded by stressing the importance of integrating doulas into the maternal care team.
"Being True to Myself": A Grounded Theory Exploration of the Process and Meaning of the Early Articulation of Intentional Childlessness
Christine Brooks
2007
Dissertation
This qualitative research sought to loosen the yoked gender identities of woman and mother to contribute data on an alternative expression of the gendered experience of women, specifically the choice of intentional childlessness. Conducted as a grounded theory exploration, semi-structured interviews with 30 women aged 27-61 inquired into how and why women who choose childlessness early in life, known as Early Articulators, are called to this path. Inspired by a model of callings developed by Peter Taubman in which responding to the call is a process of identity formation, and based on principles inherent to postmodern and feminist theories, the subjective voices of the participants were analyzed as normative expressions of female experience. Cycles of content and thematic analysis resulted in the development of two theoretical models: one process-oriented and one ontological.
The Performative Process of Early Articulation model represents the stages that early-articulating women enact regarding both Making the Choice and Maintaining the Choice Over Time. Engagement in these acts leads to an Integration of Choice, which includes a decrease in defensiveness and a holistic sense of intentional childlessness within a cohesive expression of self. The dominant Meaning of Early Articulation is a Sense of Freedom, including 3 subcategories: the Importance of Autonomy, Control of One's Environment, and Economic Security. Subordinate to Freedom, but also critical, were two additional thematic clusters: focus on Service and Contributions, encompassing Re-vision of the Mothering Metaphor, or focus on Global Interconnectivity and Alternative Existential Perspectives. Negative Experiences associated with being intentionally childless included Otherness in Community and Difficulty or Loss in Friendships with Parenting Women. The majority of the women in this study noted that they feel No Regret or have No Second Thoughts about their decision while a third of the participants spontaneously noted that their Lives Are Superlative.
Positive Menstruation: Exploring the Attitudes and Experiences of Women Who Have a Positive Relationship Their Menstruation
Jennifer Rebecca Brown
2007
Dissertation
The purpose of this study is to explore the attitudes and experiences of women who have a positive relationship with their menstruation. A qualitative design employing a semi-structured interview format was used to interview 12 women who have a positive relationship with their menstruation. Thematic content analysis was utilized in order to codify and analyze the recurring themes and patterns that arose from these interviews.
Intentional Procreation and Wisdom: A Bi-Cultural Investigation
Raksha Chandrashekar
Procreation is a basic biological function of human sexual maturity that, until relatively recently, was not necessarily a process of choice and reflection. Medical advancement and social change have now made parenthood a discretionary option shifting procreation from being a biological imperative to a stance of choice. In this process of intention and choice, how do couples integrate spiritual experiences including dreams, and visions of to-be-born children? Further, how do couples perceive their sexuality as they engage in the physical, emotional, and spiritual act of procreation? The intentionality of procreation co-exists with the lack of mindfulness in the medical community. Despite the beneficial aspects of advancing medical technologies, concern about the over mechanization of childbirth has been expressed. The control of birth is increasingly being handed over to the medical doctors, a process that was earlier in the hands of the midwives and older women of the community. Amidst the drive towards a dispassionate, sanitized approach to pregnancy and childbirth, how do couples deal with the medical community while attempting to recognize the consciousness of the fetus?
The 19th century perspective of the fetus being limited to cellular development rather than a sentient being continues to filter through the medical community. Moreover, the issue of fetal consciousness and assignment of the status of “personhood” remains a controversial area owing to the long-standing moral, religious, and philosophical debate between the movement for choice and those who stand by the right to life. Emerging fields of preconceptional clinics, pre- and peri-natal psychology, and consciousness studies strive to investigate the psychological dimensions surrounding conception, pregnancy, and childbirth while also attempting to integrate findings from multiple disciplines. The resulting findings call for radical changes in the medical world of conception, pregnancy, and childbirth.
The more recent medical models and cutting-edge research in the West are beginning to make a case for fetal consciousness while certain traditional cultures have long regarded the fetus as conscious and thus evolved practices for couples that would engage with the awareness of the fetus as a larger spiritual practice. Yet, as the West increasingly influences these traditional cultures, the tendency to continue practicing the ancient wisdom declines. It is this evolving trend that the study aims to discover given the nature of shifting procreational practices, with one group representing the nexus of modern couples from a traditional culture and the other, representing progressive couples within a secular social setting.
Wisdom traditions around the world prescribe spiritual beliefs about fetal consciousness that may be culturally situated. The Mae Tong in Korea (Pritham & Sammons, 1993), the Blessingway Rite of the Navajo American Indians (Dempsey & Gesse, 1995), or the Green Tara ceremony of Tibetans (Maiden & Farwell, 1997) document the extensive reflection on procreation rites and rituals by ancient wisdom traditions. For instance, in the Tibetan tradition, couples observe spiritual practices as well as participate in physical and emotional cleansing while preparing to invite the child into the womb and the family (Maiden & Farwell, 1997). This initiates couples into the threshold of conception, pregnancy, and childbirth, providing a container for the unique experience. However, these and many other traditional practices remain mostly unknown in the setting dominated by Western medicine (Maiden & Farwell, 1997). Are couples today still using these traditional practices in their own cultures? How does their experience differ from couples in North America with few rituals in the Christian church (Enzner-Probst, 2004)? Currently, literature provides no answers to these questions.
Reflecting on the lack of non-medical, specifically spiritual, literature on intentional procreation and the diverse literature bodies that support the need for the same, the proposed research study will address the question: What are the practices and experiences of couples who consider intentional procreation a sacred/spiritual act and, how do they compare between couples of Euro-American descent in the Bay area (California) and of Asian descent in Bangalore (India)?
Understanding the experience and practices of two diverse target populations will help draw commonalities and differences among couples practicing intentional procreation. The data gathered would provide an opportunity to learn across cultures and provide an insight into the socio-cultural influences on the experience of such couples including influences of spirituality in decision-making. Finally, this study would help create a knowledge bank of experiences and practices to enrich the fields of sexuality, transpersonal and prenatal psychology. Consciousness studies would also benefit from anecdotal evidence around the experiences, or the lack, of fetal consciousness as experienced by couples. Also, the study would help explore the relevance of ancient wisdom traditions in the life of present day couples. Importantly, the study would also help shed light on one of the unitive experiences of the sexes and reflect on the spiritual emphasis to a role subscribed to across cultures.
Spirit-Led Leadership: Leadership in a Leaderless Organization
Constance Anne Chapman
2007
Master's Thesis
This is research about a new type of leadership: leadership that is not vested in one person but rather in a group of women. Furthermore, what gives this form of leadership its strength and power is the collective intentions to hold Spirit or the Sacred Feminine at the center of all these women do. I interviewed seven women who have been involved with the Pacific Women's Circle Association (PWCA), an organization that puts on a yearly women's Spiritual camp in British Columbia. I chose Organic Inquiry as the methodology to use for this research. I used Dee Poth's Goddess Speak's deck of card to choose the women I would interview. Using this process, I interviewed women who are part of the organizing circle of PWCA and have been involved with PWCA for two years to over thirteen years.
I wrote my own story prior to interviewing any other women, and then wrote it again at the end to document how I had transformed during the course of the research. I realized that my view of leadership had been limited. Spirit led leadership is much deeper and more profound than anything in the leadership books or anything I wrote about in my story. From the interviews I identified four aspects of Spirit-led leadership: circle; intention; spiritual authority and natural authority, and conclude that PWCA is a modern matriarchy that incorporated many of the features of historical and current matriarchies. These features have been adapted to make them work in the modern, urban context.
Women, Weight, and Embodiment: An Intuitive Inquiry into Women's Psycho-Spiritual Process of Healing Obesity
Becky Coleman
2000
Dissertation
This exploratory study employed intuitive inquiry to address obesity, not as the physical or emotional health "problem" it is culturally defined to be, but rather as an invitation and avenue for psycho-spiritual growth for an exemplar group of 6 middle-class Euro-American women. The study aimed to add (a) a deeper understanding of the process of psycho-spiritual growth as it relates to obesity and (b) women's lived experience and knowledge of the heating process to the obesity literature, which is currently dominated by pathologizing perspectives from physical and mental health disciplines. Five obese women who viewed their issues with food and weight as part of their psycho-spiritual growth process completed a survey and joined the researcher for an 8-day retreat and day-long 1-year follow-up. The personal stories of the 5 co-researchers and the researcher, group discussion, and focused group analysis of the stories comprised the retreat and follow-up formats. The group developed 25 content statements, 12 proposed group processes, and 6 interactive teaching sessions on women's experiences of healing relationship with body.
This in-depth collaborative approach with co-researchers was essential to accomplishing the study's goals. Intuitive inquiry delineates a structured hermeneutic, including at least 3 cycles of interpretation, for qualitative data analysis. Six researcher-defined interpretive lenses were developed to engage with the data: (a) Motivation to Change, (b) Wisdom of Space, (c) Learning and Knowing, (d) Power as Love, (e) Call to Differentiate, and (f) Meaning Making. A fourth interpretive cycle was added to assess for validity of the findings by employing sympathetic resonance--a research tool used to assess the visceral recognition of familiarity in one's own experience with that of another--in an additional panel of 5 women. Theoretical and potentially ground-breaking, practical implications are discussed, including suggestions for health care professionals and recommendations for social change.
A Phenomeological Study of the Creative Arts as a Pathway to Embodiment in the Personal Transformation Process of Nine Women.
Dorothy Ettliing
1994
Dissertation
This is a study of the meaning of the process of personal transformation in the lives of nine women. Attention is paid to the place of creative expression and embodiment held in that process. The literature review examines three interfacing aspects of the study: personal transformation of women, creative arts, and embodiment. The research method was designed as a feminist analysis in the context of a phenomenological methodology. These two avenues provided a comprehensive way of working with women in understanding the meaning of their experience. The design included intuitive and systematic inductive approaches in analyzing the data. This fostered integration of rational and intuitive modes of knowing and heightened the relevance of the study to the field of transpersonal psychology. Emphasis was placed on the participants as co-researchers in the study and on the self-reflection of the researcher during the analysis of the data. Within a two hour interview, each woman was invited to share the story of her inner journey of transformation. The researcher extracted the meaning of the experience for each participant from her own words. This is reported as a metaphor for her process and a description of the meaning of her experience.
The study illuminates the inner journey of each woman. It highlights the significant themes of her process of transformation. It also presents a picture of the common experiences shared by these participants. The research draws attention to the place of creativity in the inner process of the women. It also elaborates a connection between the process of transformation and a sense of one's body. The research points to the necessity of continuing to explore with women the particulars of their experience and the importance of providing opportunities for women's stories to be articulated and shared.
Dance as a Spiritual Practice: A Phenomenological and Feminist Investigation of the Experience of Being-Movement
Jan Fisher
1996
Dissertation
Using feminist and phenomenological methods, this study investigates the experience of being-movement, defined as any type of dance/movement practice that allows the mover to move in an undetermined, non-structured, free style manner, with the attention focused inward and on the experience of the movement. Six Caucasion participants (five female and one male) were interviewed about their experiences in being-movement. The feminist investigation uses intuitive forms of analysis, including creative responses to movement sessions, and intuitive descriptions of the experience of being-movement based on readings of the transcript protocols after movement sessions. The phenomenological analysis reveals 28 higher order themes that represent the components of the experience of being-movement, as follows: a) Affected by Internal and External, b) Body Sensing, c) Choice/Surrender, d) Development Over time, e) Different Experience of Reality, f) Emotions, g) Empty Mind, h) Energy, i) Heightened Awareness, j) Higher Emotions, k) Imagery/Hallucinations, l) Inner Focus/Attention, m) Interconnectedness, n) Intuition, o) Just being, p) Meaning, q) Paradox, r) Personal Unconscious, s) Physical Aspects, t) Pleasure, u) Rightness, v) Self, w) Space, x) Spirit, y) Surrender, z) Timelessness, aa) Transformation, and bb) Variety.
The phenomenological analysis also reveals 71 first order themes for the group as a whole. Using these higher and first order themes, the researcher provides a phenomenological description of the experience of being-movement for each participant and the group as a whole. The pre-reflective essence of the experience of being-movement is acknowledged and honored by embedding being-movement itself in the methodology, with the researcher and participants engaging in being-movement sessions throughout the research process, from the screening interview to final review of the results. The researcher concludes that being-movement is a transpersonal experience that belongs in the context of the field of transpersonal psychology and involves the participation of the whole person.
Adult Daughters of Incest Survivors: Exploring the Transgenerational Legacy of Trauma
Janet K Fisher
Dissertation
This feminist, organic inquiry employed qualitative case studies to explore the transgenerational impacts of incest on the adult nonabused daughters of its survivors. Twelve highly educated daughters of incest survivors of mostly European ancestry joined the study as coresearchers. They completed a comprehensive pre-interview questionnaire examining their perceptions of influence from their mother's abuse experience on psychological, relational, sexual, intellectual, professional, creative, and spiritual facets of the daughters' lives. Each coresearcher then elaborated in a face-to-face interview to which she brought mementos or personal forms of creative expression further depicting the family legacy. More than half the coresearchers perceived impact from their mother's experience of sexual abuse on their own self-esteem, anxiety, and education or profession. Six described impact on their sexuality, coping and resilience, and on caretaking they do for others. Five perceived impact on their relationships, their concern for what others think of their words and actions, and their guilt and shame. For both daughters and their mothers the influence of secreted trauma fluctuated with the power of healing resources (therapy; disclosure to supportive spouses, sisters, and friends; and exercising of internal locus of control) creating both negative implications and positive empowerment in the daughters' lives.
This research held application for therapists working with incest survivors and their descendents, expanded the literature on the transgenerational impacts of trauma, and employed the transpersonal aspects of organic inquiry. Growing in understanding of their mothers, both coresearchers and early readers (also descendents of survivors) experienced transformative shifts, feeling empowered in learning they were not alone in their experience. That empowerment may spread through the website that arose from this study, DaughtersOfIncestSurvivors.info where future readers may find hope that in spite of a family's secreted trauma, descendents can proactively choose paths to resilience and healing.
Sacred Stories: God-Images and Healing From Childhood Sexual Abuse
Karen Ander Francis
1994
Master's Thesis
This thesis presents findings from an exploratory study into the subjective experience of adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse. The occurrence and significance of images, especially God-images, in recovery was studied. The study surveyed 34 self-selected respondents (33 women and 1 man) from all parts of the United States, 13 of whom are spiritual direction clients of the researcher. It was found that a majority of the respondents reported soul loss as a result of childhood sexual abuse. Also indicated was the importance of a relationship with Deity for recovery of the soul, the authentic self. Soul loss (adaptation of the false self) and recovery of soul (becoming the true self) are presented as a developmental, transformative process of spiritual emergence and sacred union. Findings indicate that the image of God changes over the course of recovery, and that there are certain images that significantly affect recovery. These include: Christ, Goddess, House/Room, and Inner Child and are discussed in depth. Spiritual practice, which includes meditation and visualization, is found to be an important adjunct to the healing process.
The Woman's Choice: Birth and the Divine Feminine
Chanda Gray
2010
Dissertation
This study seeks to explore retrospectively women’s decision making regarding birth method. The cesarean section rate in the United States is currently 30% and roughly, half of those cesareans are elective, women requesting cesarean sections in the absence of medical necessity. This study will attempt to understand women’s motivation, values, and possible fears influencing their birth choices. To date, several studies have explored factors contributing to cesarean section births; these have included medical, legal, financial and cultural reasons, as well as fear of childbirth, importance placed on expedience, and convenience. Few studies have focused on psychological issues, and none to date has examined transpersonal or spiritual issues connected to women’s choices regarding mode of delivery.
In addition to contributing to the knowledge of women’s personal motivations for choosing cesarean section over vaginal delivery, this study will explore women’s connection to the Divine Feminine in order to determine if her spirituality has an impact on her birth preference. Furthermore, the study will attempt to identify differences between women who choose cesarean section birth, without any medical indication of its necessity and women who choose natural birth. These two populations will be studied: approximately six women who chose elective cesarean section, performed by an obstetrician, and six women who chose natural vaginal delivery, assisted by a midwife at home or in an alternative birthing center (ABC), or assisted by a midwife or obstetrician in a hospital where natural births were allowed.
The study will utilize qualitative research methods including semi-structured interviews and thematic content analysis. In evaluating the differences between women who elect cesarean section birth and women who choose natural childbirth the study will investigate the question as to whether women who have a strong connection to the Divine Feminine are more likely or less inclined to choose elective cesarean birth.
The History of the Goddess and the Transpersonal Significance of Her Decline and Re-emergence in the West
Vocata Sue George
1986
Dissertation
This dissertation is theoretical and speculative. It is based on the transpersonal premise that God is in an evolutionary process expressed through time and space as human history. This process is cooperative requiring the efforts of God's creation, humankind. Building on the theories of the transpersonal psychologist Carl Jung, the idea is presented that the energy behind the evolutionary process comes from the separation of the opposites of God as they appear in time and space. In this work the opposites are represented as Masculine and Feminine. This paper specifically addresses the evolution of 'the feminine aspect of the Godhead in the history of the West and the transpersonal teleology of Her prominence in early history; Her decline during the ascendancy of Judaism and Christianity, and the signs of the need for Her return to contemporary society for the purposes of a Holy Marriage to heal the sickness of our civilization. This paper is an exercise in metaphorical and imaginal psychology and it makes use of the symbolic language of myths and religious practices to amplify the meaning of the death and rebirth of the Goddess in the West.
How Goddess Spirituality Mediates Healing in Rape Survivors:
The Reclamation of the Erotic Self
Karen Grijalva
2009
Dissertation
Rape is a worldwide social problem at epidemic levels. It was early second wave feminists who brought the issue of rape as a social problem to public awareness in the United States. It is reported that every two minutes someone in the United States is sexually assaulted, with 96% of rapes perpetrated by men against women; and approximately 2/3 of sexual assaults are committed by someone known to the survivor; and factoring in underreported rapes, a mere 6% of perpetrators spend any time in jail. Women of color have largely been subjected to the interlocking systems of sexism, racism, and poverty and when raped, trauma is heightened due to the presence of this intergenerational trauma. This is specific to Native American and African- American women, but is true for other women of color. Native American women are the population most susceptible to sexual assault; they are 2 ½ times more likely to experience sexual assault than any other women, with assaults characterized by greater physical violence and perpetrated by non-Native men.
The United States is a rape culture; defined as a culture in which incidents of rape are high, while punishment is low and in which gender scripts of masculinity and femininity are rigid and dichotomous; with masculinity defined in terms of what is not seen as feminine. Thus women are seen as “other” and devalued, the male normative reified. Misogynistic ideology maintained and perpetuated by religious thought maintains rape culture and rape myths serve to further the notion that the survivor of rape is to blame for her victimization. Rape is an overwhelming trauma and horrific life event that causes a chaotic disruption in all areas of the victim’s life and permanently alters the life of the survivor. Rape is acknowledged as one of the severest of traumas with potential far reaching negative physical and psychological consequences, with self-blame contributing to and maintaining the most severe trauma sequelae. Though the field of psychology acknowledges that survivors of rape often have lingering problems with sexual functioning and with the development or reclaiming of a positive sexual self-concept post assault, the current treatment protocols do not routinely address these issues. Survivors are also known to be experiencing an existential crisis yet spirituality is also not routinely addressed in treatment of rape survivors. However, while the traditional fields of medicine and psychology are finally acknowledging the need to recognize the important role of spirituality in healing and in the lives of human beings, it is important to understand that women have been wounded by traditional spirituality and religion, and therefore, it may be inappropriate or ineffective for work with women from the paradigm that created the conditions for the occurrence of the violation—especially victims of rape. This study explicated the need for a more holistic treatment protocol for rape survivors, and illustrated how Goddess spirituality is uniquely able to facilitate this healing.
This qualitative study utilized an Organic Inquiry methodology through a feminist lens. In concert with feminist praxis is the grounding of theory from women’s experience and personal voice. Interviews were the primary instrument of data collection in this qualitative work, which were then rewritten in the form of a story and this constituted the body of the research. A thematic content analysis was applied and themes were identified, and a group story was written as a synthesis of the stories. A final personal story was written as dialectic to the initial preface story, in order to illustrate the transformative change of the researcher.
Through the cycles of thematic content analysis a common trajectory of healing emerged from the stories. What coresearchers have confirmed is that healing is an ongoing process, and how their relationship to the Goddess has essentially served to transcend and heal them from their own cultural conditioning and internal oppression of self-blame, misogyny, and inferiority through community and ritual, through love of self, (enabled through the image of the Goddess as a model for self care, respect and love as well as through the validation of themselves as worthy), Goddess, and other; through validation, and the alternative assertion of a cosmology of immanence that does not split body from spirit but recognizes and includes all parts of body and self as sacred. Survivors are thus able to shamelessly reconnect to their erotic core of intuition, power, and vitality and to their sexuality as sacred. Service in the form of helping other survivors, and other social justice work was seen as an expression of healing. The research illuminates post-traumatic growth from rape in a context relatively unexplored and highlights the dangerous role of internal oppression in the form of self-blame that contributes to negative healing outcomes. The study illustrates how a relationship to the Goddess mediates this process by asserting an alternative value and view of women and women’s sexuality as sacred.
Harvesting the Wisdom of the Elders: A Study of the Lives of Seven Exemplary Aged Women
Diane Gross
1994
Dissertation
The study, based on lifespan development and transpersonal psychology perspectives, explored psychological and spiritual dimensions of old age, in selected elderly women. Seven Caucasian women, aged seventy to ninety-four, each nominated by one other woman as an example of aging well, were studied. In a face-to-face session, the elder shared her life story and was subsequently questioned via a semi-structured interview about meaningfulness, concerns and considerations of aging, and psychological/spiritual perspectives. This dual approach elicited rich description of experiences and facilitated computer-assisted qualitative analysis based on two sets of themes, those shaped by the interview questions and those which emerged from the descriptive data as a whole. The exploration disclosed common patterns amidst great diversity of the individual lives. The women were able to maintain meaningfulness and continuity of self despite significant hardships and change. Social bonds, especially with friends, were very important. All were lifelong learners and conveyors of knowledge. Processing feelings, clarifying and modifying values, and for some, maintaining a spiritual practice prepared them to deal with life events and to make choices.
Each woman embodied an atraditional philosophical/spiritual view, not conventional church related, that continues to unfold. Though they voiced concerns about health and finances, several acknowledged inner fulfillment and peace as greatest at this time. Psycho/spiritual development in old age appears associated with accessibility and utilization of inner resources for coping with changes and losses. Whether experiences of aging women differ from those of men requires future inquiry. Potential for wisdom and well-being accompanying the oldest stage, exemplified by these elder women, is not represented by existent theories and stereotypes of decremental aging. As the population approaching elderhood increases proportionately, re-evaluation of old age from a growth perspective is of utmost significance.
Connection to Nature and Implications For Body Image in Women: An Organic Inquiry
Karl Ann Hennigan
2005
Dissertation
This qualitative study examines women's connection to nature and the implications this holds for body image. Body image is defined as the inner perception of outer appearances and has been linked to various psychological disturbances, such as body dysmorphic disorder, anorexia nervosa, and bulimia nervosa. The field of ecopsychology is currently exploring connection to nature and wilderness experiences as healing modalities for issues such as depression, low self-esteem, and well-being. Using feminist and organic research methods, this study inquired into the lived experiences of 12 working-class and middle-class women ages 24-55, to examine the impact of connection to nature on body image.
The researcher conducted in-depth interviews using a semistructured format in order to allow experiences to be shared in a natural progression. Researcher and coresearchers honored the interview process as a sacred sharing. Both the researcher and coresearchers reviewed the information from the interviews to ensure that accurate portrayals of experiences were recorded. Results of this organic inquiry are the stories of the 12 coresearchers. The researcher concluded with a discussion of the interviews and the implications the data may have for developing alternative methods of addressing negative body image in women.
Joy Revisited: An Exploratory Study of the Experience of Joy Through the Memories of the Women of One Native American Community
Aurora Georganne Mero Hill
2005
Dissertation
The experience of "JOY" is explored through the memories of 12 Native American Indian women of the Turtle Island Chautauqua and the Eastern Lenape Nation of Pennsylvania (TIC). The women gathered for a circle of storytelling to remember, reconnect, and listen to each other's memories of JOY. The JOY event also included a questionnaire designed by the researcher and a floor "gallery" of word associations that supported the storytelling. Using a hermeneutical method known as "intuitive inquiry," JOY is found to be an energetic presence that is (a) mysterious, transitory, and elusive; (b) a reflection of spiritual beliefs; (c) associated with light and its many nuances; (d) present in different states of consciousness; (e) identified unconditionally through the recognition of memories in the body associated with specific events in the women's lives; and (f) conveyed to others in a somatic language that suggests a positive association with these events, an awareness of loss when the event is recalled, and an awareness that JOY memories are interconnected with the self, others, nature, the Creator, and the community.
The JOY event is found to (a) foster a somatic awareness of JOY and its language; (b) affirm the roles of women and their relationships, especially mothers and daughters, women and nature, and women and community; (c) promote a respect, appreciation, and enthusiasm for dialogue and interactions; (d) create a positive experience that mirrors the qualities and expressions of JOY; and (e) stimulate life-affirming and life-engaging self-reflections connected with a sense of gratitude, an internal process of imagination and memory association, and a call to action for gathering to remember JOY experiences. Grandmother Doris Riverbird, Clan Mother of the community, supported the research. A bound Turtle Island Chautauqua JOY Memory Book was distributed to the participants and made available to the community.
Responding to Deep Sadness with Spirit: The Lived Experience of Women who Manage Recurrent Depression
Juko Holiday
2010
Dissertation
Introduction
The effort to have the clinical needs of women living with deep emotional pain taken seriously has resulted in increased awareness about depression and what we label in the United States as mental illness. At the same time, those efforts have privileged a medicalized approach to intervention and have ignored other perspectives, including transpersonal, feminine honoring and transcultural ones. By collecting the stories of marginalized women who find ways to thrive spiritually in the presence of great sadness, I hope to position depression in a more sacred and complete cultural context. While the ways it manifests itself can be debilitating, deep emotional suffering need not exclusively be labeled as disordered, but held as an opportunity for transformation. In this framework, depression is a signal from Spirit to turn inward and engage in a process that is valuable, healing work.
This research is grounded in womanist and mujerista (from the Spanish word for woman) theory, a framework that takes seriously the values, lived experience, and wisdom of those who “usually matter least in society, as symbolized by poverty-stricken black women” (Kirk-Duggan, 2006, p. 177). This framework is particularly suited for contemplating emotional skills born from resisting depression, as womanists teach each other “the alchemist’s secret, or how to turn dirt into gold; their spiritual transformation enables them to alchemize their oppression into liberation” (Comas-Díaz, 2007, p. 17). Inherently spiritualized and inclusive of the Divine by Alice Walker’s (1983) original definition, this epistemology is greatly informed by liberation psychology and theology, community psychology, and feminist theory (Phillips, 2006).
Overview of the Study
My participants will be 10 women who have lived with recurrent episodes of profound sadness who are over age thirty-five and have lived with such episodes for a minimum of ten years. I seek women who identify faith, spiritual practice, or creative expression as a means of conceptualizing, surviving, and thriving in the presence of these deep feelings. Womanist scholarship begins with the lived experiences of black women (Walker, 1983), but is flexible enough to include all women of color. In this study, my focus is on women from cultures in or closely connected to the African Diaspora in the Americas, including Latin America and Latina experiences. Participation in this study would not be appropriate for women currently experiencing or recovering from a recent episode of profound sadness, nor those with current or recent suicidal ideations; these are criteria for exclusion.
My participants will participate in two interviews. The first is a semi-structured interview based on the following research questions: How do women living with recurrent depression talk about spiritual practice and faith? What potential emotional abilities are nurtured by honoring and engaging with deep sadness? How do women living with social, cultural, economic or other constraint engage in the process of emotional healing? A second interview will be conducted in a group. During this group meeting, each participant will have the opportunity to reflect upon initial findings from thematic content analysis of a transcript of her individual interview. This is a means of establishing validity and accuracy, as suggested by Moustakas (1990) in the practice of heuristics, an important ancestor of my chosen method, organic inquiry.
Research Method
In addition to being grounded in emergent womanist theory, this study honors the feminine by using organic inquiry, which approaches research as if it were sacred (Clements, 2003). It frames this feminine-based methodology as an essential balance to a body of research in psychology that often takes a masculine worldview for granted. The “fundamental technique” of organic methodology is listening to and telling stories (Clements, Ettling, Jenett, & Shields, 1998, p.125). This is highly resonant with the value womanists place on both the content of African American oral traditions and the healing power of words. Organic inquiry approaches the process of conducting research as an opportunity to invite deep transformation for all involved, including those who read the study. The method begins and ends with the researcher’s own story; the topics and the dissertations are highly personal. This is true of my study as I have lived with episodes of deep sadness for three decades and am a woman of color.
Implications for Transpersonal Psychology
This study intersects beautifully with articulated visions for the advancement of transpersonal research expressed by Rosemarie Anderson and William Braud (2007), including using story-telling approaches, inclusive/multicultural ways of knowing, and the “re-conceptualization of ... neglected or pathologized experiences in transpersonal terms” (p.1). It does so by using a feminine centered method that honors narrative and liminal experience. It also accomplishes this by putting a marginalized perspective firmly at the center of this work. By focusing on the lives of women who thrive despite living with recurrent profound sadness, it is my hope this work can develop a transpersonal, feminist lens for what is an almost entirely pathologized experience.
Asante (1984) pointed out the need to include African derived spirituality and attention to people in the African Diaspora in transpersonal psychology. As this research grows from a theoretical framework advanced and initially developed from African American scholars, it fills a critical gap in the field. Filling this gap means not only bringing my culture’s gifts to transpersonal psychology, but further introducing and making transpersonal perspectives relevant to a more diverse audience of women.
Adolescent Daughters and the Impact and Meaning of the Loss of their Mothers to Breast Cancer
Darcy Ann Horton
1998
Dissertation
This study explored the impact and meaning of the loss of one's mother to breast cancer as experienced by 8 ethnically diverse women, aged 28 to 53, who were 12- to 19- years-old when their mothers died. Multiple case study and feminist methodologies were used to investigate the impact on various areas of the participants' lives as well as any meaning they found in the experience. Findings indicated that maternal death is a profound event for adolescent daughters. Various patterns emerged in each of the areas studied. Regarding body, breasts, and sexuality, there was anxiety about developing breast cancer with either conscious awareness or latent presence. Regarding psychological development and functioning, there was premature autonomy and responsibility with either assumption of responsibility or acting out and struggle, and an underlying vulnerability or strength. Regarding spiritual and religious beliefs and practices, there was change in spiritual and religious orientation with disillusionment with God and organized religion and the development of personal spirituality.
Regarding work, school, and career plans, choices in these areas were affected by mother's absence with choices as a way of identifying or pleasing mother and unfulfilled potential due to mother's absence. Regarding relationships with others, there was a lack of support for grieving within the immediate family with emotional and/or physical unavailability of the father, father's lack of communication with daughter about mother, deterioration of family as a unit, and grief support received from other females as well as heightened fear of loss of additional loved ones with fear of abandonment or intimacy and/or behavior that was overly controlling, protective or detached. Data on meaning revealed the unpredictable and transitory nature of life with awareness of the uncertainty and finiteness of life and the preciousness of each moment, plus a realignment of life's priorities with a focus on relationships and health.
Women's Acculturation Experiences of Self and Spiritual Self: Are They Connected or Separate?
Araxi Hovhannessian
The purpose of this study is to explore women’s acculturation experience in defining self
and spiritual self as connected or separate in United States. Feminists explain that women form
their connectedness through their relationships with others. From a cultural perspective, most
Eastern and African cultures identify themselves as connected and Western and European
cultures define themselves as separate, independent, and individual. A woman may face
challenges when she immigrates from a culture that identifies as connected to an independent
culture/country or from an independent culture to a similar culture, or a variation of both
cultures. The impact of migration to another country and the process of change for an individual
are tramatic. In the course of settling down, the individual attempts to adjust and adapt to new
ways of life. Most importantly, the acculturation process for the individual may involve a shift in
cultural identity, such as personality changes of an individual’s experiences in defining self and
spiritual self.
Research Questions
This study will explore and address women’s acculturation experiences in defining self
and spiritual self as connected or separate. Primary research question: Are women’s
acculturation experiences associated with defining the self and the spiritual self as connected or
separate? Secondary research questions: Does migration influence how individuals define self
and spiritual self? Does acculturation influence an individual’s experience of self but not
spiritual self? Does acculturation influence an individual’s experience of spiritual self but not
self?
Research Method and Design
In this study, a mixed methods approach will be used to address several variables. Research participants will be solicited through e-mail notices from various departments at
Arizona State University. Prior to testing participants for the study, a pilot test will be conducted
with 25 women participants. Similar steps will be utilized for the actual solicitation for 150
research participants for the formal study. Participants will complete four assessment
instruments: The Vancouver Index of Acculturation (VIA; Ryder, et al., 2000), for measuring if a
person’s experiences and values are maintained with their heritage culture and/or have shifted to
the American culture; The Self-Construal Scale (SCS; Singelis, 1994), for measuring the
independent and interdependent self-construals; Spirituality Assessment Scale (SAS; Howden,
1992), to assess the meaning and purpose in life, innerness, unify interconnectedness, and
transcendence experiences; Self-Expansiveness Level Form (SELF; Friedman, 1983), to discern
personal, middle, and transpersonal levels of awareness. Concurrent with this data collection,
qualitative interviews of phenomenological inquiry will be conducted to explore the
acculturation experience of self and spiritual self in relation to connectedness or separateness for
women in the United States. In the qualitative methods, a minimum of 12 participants will be
interviewed and tape-recorded. The interviews will be transcribed and the data will be analyzed
using Thematic Content Analysis (Anderson, 2007) where major themes will be highlighted and
labeled and the findings will be reported.
The reason for collecting both quantitative and qualitative data is to bring together the strengths of both forms of research to corroborate results. The author has intentionally left out feminist research methods because this study is attempting to address the female-centered biases in findings, methods, and scientific philosophy. Particularly, this study will focus on separateness instead of relational and Western cultural influences – individuality of human experiences.
Planned Data Treatment
The data will be analyzed using binary logistic regression to measure acculturation,
independent, and interdependent against the subscales to identify connected or separate self-
schemas. I will also use Pearson correlations to determine how each scale and subscale relates to
all other scales and subscales. The results will be interpreted and discussed in the final report.
Contribution to the field
This study will bring in new information and perspective in the field of transpersonal
psychology. It will integrate and expand current concepts of women’s experiences of self and
spiritual self from a feminist, cultural, social, and transpersonal view. Additionally, from the
Institute of Transpersonal Psychology’s global vision document (Anderson & Braud, 2006), the
research will address spiritual experiences and qualities that will serve the global community and
transform the evidentiary procedures of science through complementary and multicultural
research methods.
Goddess Art Process: Phenomenological Inquiry into Clinical Mechanisms
Irina Kardos
2008
Dissertation
The study described psychological mechanisms of Goddess Art Process, developed by the author and offered as an intervention for transpersonal psychotherapy and as a personal growth process. Exploration of the interiority of the self occurred through the participant's self-goddess portraits, unique digital collages that incorporated the participant's real photos, images of the Sacred Feminine, and other meaningful images. Six women of different ages and ethnicity volunteered. Every woman assisted by the facilitator created 3 self-goddess portraits, and recorded 3 progressive interviews. Data were transcribed and analyzed employing Giorgi's phenomenological psychological method. Results revealed 2 fundamental depth processes unfolding within the participant's psyche; the creative process and the self-construct.
In the creative process, initiation belonged to the ego, and the Self led. A constellated complex within the psyche that caused tension and distress for the ego was addressed, and latent psychic resources necessary for the complex's healing were deployed from the unconscious. During the self-construct phase the ego consciously integrated activated psychic content and expanded the horizons of self-perception through: (a) including into conscious awareness previously hidden in shadow material such as positive pole of the complex, (b) reconciling the opposites, and (c) synthesizing both personal and transpersonal parts of the self into a whole. A new more productive relationship with the complex was built and aspirations and motivations for future life were created. New guiding principals included: (a) prioritizing of the Self within the psyche; (b) establishing the self as one's own authority guided from within; (c) the self was recognized and acknowledged as a part of the System, accepted as sacred, and as deserving to be loved unconditionally; and (d) the self was granted permission to live her own truth expressing fully all parts of the personality and the transpersonal Self.
A Transpersonal Inquiry: The Impact of Women’s
Female Spiritual Role Models on Self-Self-esteem
Deborah D. Kettle
This research is about women’s female spiritual role models and how they impact
women’s self self-esteem. Women were given a questionnaire with a self-self-esteem
measurement scale embedded within the questionnaire. They self reported their self-
esteem during their youth and presently. They also answered a series of questions
identifying their female spiritual role models during both periods to assess whether they
believe their role models aided or hindered their self self-esteem. The research includes
both feminist and transpersonal models which empower and expand a woman’s
understanding of self in relationship to the divine. It includes both qualitative and
quantitative methods giving a snapshot and an overall perspective of the women
questioned.
Mothering Fundamentalism:
The Transformation of Modern Women into Fundamentalist Mothers
Sophia Korb
2010
Ph.D. Dissertation
The modern-day religious revivalist movement in the United States comprises hundreds of thousands of Christian and Jewish women who have moved from modern communities, with modern conceptions of the self, gender identity, and family, to fundamentalist communities within their own faith tradition, embracing enclavist ideologies that claim a return to roots and tradition. Despite upbringings heavily influenced by modern feminism, many women today choose to identify with new communities who claim to represent and embrace the patriarchal values against which their mothers and grandmothers fought.
Motherhood is often one of the most important identities for women in these religious communities, as well as in modern, secular ones. Mothers socialize children, instilling behaviors, attitudes and ideas. Because women’s mothering is so determinative to the family, it is also central to transforming larger social structures and society. How women internally hold what it means to them to be “a mother” or “to mother” may be vastly different in different communities.
This study employs a mixed-methods design, incorporating thematic analysis of interviews and survey data to explore how women’s attitudes about being a mother and mothering change when they change religious communities from more liberal, reformist paradigms to fundamentalist, enclavist belief systems.
The Impact of Mind/Body Healing on Women in Mid-life Transition
Sharry Odell Lachman
1999
Master's Thesis
This is a study of the impact of mind/body healing, also called energy psychology, on the lives of five women in mid-life transition. At the outset, all five co-researchers were having difficulty, feeling stuck in several aspects of their lives. A conceptual framework is used of mid-life as a "psychospiritual moratorium," in which regression and feeling stuck are viewed as indispensable to the process. This same framework is used to explore similarities and differences in the women's responses to the energetic healing work, and to understand those responses. This quasi-experimental design incorporates both quantitative and qualitative data and approaches to analyzing the data. A Mid-life Questionnaire, an attitude inventory and an intake form were used before and after the six treatment sessions. Results show an average 67% improvement on the issue causing most pain. They also show significant changes in physical and emotional well-being, and in relationships with self, others and the Divine.
Building the Dragon's Nest: A Community's Metaformic Evolution
Annie Caridad Lapham
2007
Master's Thesis
While many cultures have rituals to celebrate women's life transitions, North American women disconnected from their matrilineal heritage must create new ways in which to honor themselves (O'Grady & Wansbrough). Many women feel the need to create rites of passages for young girls, though most have never undergone such an initiation themselves. This research evolved from a group of women's determination to weave their own bodies back into the lineage of women's rituals in order to discover if such an act could positively influence individual women's and their community's well-being. IN the throat of the Dragon who forms the land mass of East Jefferson County, Washington State the women of Kala Yaga Naga community, or Dragon's Nest, decided to build an earthen lodge. The intention of this lodge is to establish a sacred space in which to provide menarch, or first menstruation, rituals for young girls as well as for other community ritual and healing work. This women-built structure is embedded in the distinct human and non-human communities (Abrams) from which daily sustenance is received and in propitiation of Dragon spirit, the subject of local dragon lore and mythology.
On July 28, 2007 thirteen women gathered to begin the construction. Through a community process it was determined that the lodge will be made available for use in ritual with the men of the community as well, after the completion of the building. utilizing metaformic t heory, this community's story can be defined and illuminated as a metaformic evolution. metaformic theory, originated by Dr. Judy Grahn, is a woman-centered cultural origin story which places the roots of human culture in the menstrual seclusion space. (Grahn, Blood, Bread) This thesis project is comprised of scholarly research into local dragon mythology, an account of the building of the structure, including video documentation, individual interviews with the community about the process utilizing the Organic Inquiry methodology and metaformic analysis of the process and the interviews. This cross-disciplinary study might add to the fields of Metaformic Philosophy, Women's Spirituality, Transpersonal Psychology, Thealogy, Eco-indigenous mythology and menstrual rituals (Wright and Grahn), women's relationship with menstruation (Shillington), embodiment and the sacred (Jenett and Abram) and community consciousness, eco-philosophy, and processes of community transformation.
The study is significant because through conducting an actual enactment of the focus of so much recent scholarship on women's rites of passages, it seeks to explore embodied processes for creating ritual and structures which can contain women's and communities needs for empowerment, healing and an embodied relationship with the divine.
The Experiences of Eight Married Women Who Conceived Children by Anonymous Donor Insemination
Jennifer S. Lesher
2001
Master's Thesis
This was a study on the impact of being a married woman in a male-female relationship who conceived at least one child using semen from an anonymous donor. It was qualitative and employed the organic method to explore the impact of donor insemination (DI) upon women's sense of community, spirituality, and emotional wellness. Data was obtained from semi-structured, in-depth interviews lasting approximately 1-Ω hours. Transpersonal aspects received special emphasis. The women's stories were written into a narrative form, followed by tables summarizing some important findings. Results indicated that resources have been inadequate to meet the emotional, spiritual, and social needs of DI families, who are not identifiable to each other due to the continued secrecy of DI among married couples. Secrecy proved to be a poor strategy for these women, who feared accidental disclosure. They also felt that secrecy suggested that there was something shameful about donor conception.
Artists as Midwives in the Cultural Rebirth of Contemporary Goddess Iconography: An Ecofeminist and Heuristic Inquiry
Meghan Elizabeth Lewis
2000
Dissertation
This ecofeminist and heuristic study was designed to learn about the self-perceived personal and transpersonal effects of creating and contemplating contemporary Goddess iconography as a spiritual practice. Transformational and apparent magical occurrences as well as social, political, cultural, and environmental implications were explored. One-hundred-and-thirteen visual artists (90% women and 10% men; aged 18 through 71; 21% indicated ancestral diversity; 60% heterosexual, 13% lesbian, and 24% bisexual) who had been creating Goddess art from one to 45 years participated. Artists completed a 73-item, predominantly essay-style questionnaire that covered the self-perceived visual attributes, themes, and meaningfulness of two to three of their Goddess images. A total of 419 images was collected and categorized by common visible attributes. The questionnaire also asked for the self-perceived effects of participants' art practices on their moods, health, dreams, and relationships with Nature and others.
Data was analyzed through the development of composite and individual depictions, exemplary portraits, and a creative synthesis. Findings indicated that 96% of the participants reported frequently or always experiencing emotional benefits; 98% reported frequently or always experiencing spiritual benefits; 84% indicated frequently or always experiencing benefits regarding their relationships with Nature; 70% reported frequently or always having transformational experiences. Artists also reported experiences of emotional empowerment, meaningful synchronicities, perceptions of interconnectedness with the "web of life", being in an intuitive state of awareness, and being a channel for the creative consciousness of the Goddess. Broader, more far-reaching findings included participants' perceptions of their art contributing to the healing of culture by promoting positive images of women and to the restoration of the environment by inspiring ecological awareness. Applications of Goddess iconography in art therapy situations involving women's health and spirituality, as well as the usefulness of integrating art, ecology, and transpersonal psychology were discussed.
Returning to Ourselves: Women Thriving With Chronic Illness
Shirley Lyn Loffer
1999
Dissertation
This qualitative study describes the experiences of women who are thriving in the midst of the adversities of rheumatoid arthritis (RA)--a systemic, unpredictable, intractable, and progressively degenerative disease that creates a wide range of limitations and challenges with far-reaching physical and psychological consequences. Drawing upon the researcher's life with RA and the work of heuristic, cooperative, feminist, and organic researchers, a derivative form of qualitative research, termed insider research , was developed. Participants were selected through self-identification as thriving with chronic illness; they answered yes to the question, Is your life better now than before you become ill? Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 9 participants, including the researcher. The participants were in their 30s and 40s and have lived with RA from 9 to 22 years. All have significant damage and limitations created by RA; 3 are on medical disability; 3 have more than one rheumatic disease; and 1 has survived cancer.
Vignettes sketch each woman's life and medical history. Meta-themes organize the meaning of and journey to a better life: (a) returning to ourselves : the journey of self-discovery in which we examined old beliefs and behaviors, unearthed abandoned aspects of the self, explored novel expressions of ourselves, and created new meaning and fulfillment; (b) taking control of what we can : the endeavor to educate ourselves and to make choices in our own best interest; (c) making connections and building support : the pursuit of personal, professional, and spiritual connections to counterbalance the isolation created by RA; (d) gaining perspective on the journey : the struggle to come to an acceptance of our lives with chronic illness yet still cultivate hope and optimism through our perseverance, humor, gratitude, and aspirations for even better lives; and (e) sharing what we have learned : the advice we offer to others with chronic illness. This study provides a rich and detailed portrait of the potential for empowerment and transformation in the midst of adversity. It bridges research in psychology, sociology, and medicine, and contributes to the field of positive psychology by describing those who have found hope, strength, and optimism despite the adversities of chronic illness.
Female Artists and Nature: An Intuitive Inquiry into Transpersonal Aspects of Creativity in the Natural Environment
Catherine Manos
2007
Dissertation
This was a single case study of the researcher's personal and transpersonal development through meditative and creative experiences in nature. The question addressed in the research was: If I imagine the Earth is alive and there are elemental earth energies, what is my experience of sacred sites? The study was designed to determine if transpersonal experiences in nature resulted in transpersonal awareness and spiritual growth. The research documented visits to specific sites in nature and the influence on the researcher's transpersonal awareness. The methodology was qualitative using components of an intuitive inquiry design. Personal experiences at ten sites in nature were researched. Meditation was used to attune to and receive intuitive information and insights from the natural environment.
Twelve themes were documented within the research experiences: (1) Feeling a sense of oneness and connection with elements of the environment; (2) Increased creativity as a result of being in the natural environment; (3) Connection with elemental earth energies promoting an understanding that the Earth is alive. (Simulacra photographed in creative meditation); (4) Increased feelings of being in the presence of the sacred accompanied by feelings of awe, reverence, wonder and gratitude; (5) Feelings of love, joy, peace and harmony; (6) Increased awareness of healing aspects of nature; (7) Increased sense of responsibility for the Earth; (8) Recognizing the value of listening with both inner and outer hearing to nature; (9) An inner knowing of being taken care of by nature and trusting that knowledge; (10) Awareness of the feminine energy of the Earth and its relationship with the masculine; (11) Connecting with ancestors of the land; (12) Nature providing a mirror that reflects inner beliefs. The researcher found an increased transpersonal connection to the natural world as well as the enhancement of spiritual growth as a result of the research.
Menstrual Consciousness Development: An Organic Inquiry into the Development of a Psycho-Spiritual Rewarding Menstrual Relationship
Ginger Collins Martire
2006
Dissertation
Western women spend a significant proportion of their lives menstruating, yet they have an inherently negative relationship with menstruation characterized by feelings of shame resulting from cultural taboos and resentment for its inconvenience on their demanding lives. This study provided 11 women's intimate stories of challenging this concept and coming into alignment with the psychospiritual significance of their own menstrual experience. The stories were presented within the context of the researcher's own evolving understanding of this value and were analyzed by way of heightened intuition during her own menstrual and premenstrual time. Common themes were grouped developmentally into stages of menstrual consciousness and were presented within an intuitively derived metaphor of the moon's phases.
Menstrual consciousness, a concept that emerged during this study, is characterized by a woman's return to an inner-directed source, connected to her cyclicity, and forged by a relationship with Spirit based on her powerful physical and spiritual role as a woman who bleeds. The New Moon phase was marked by menarche and early menstrual experiences; the Waxing Moon phase, by the emergence of menstrual consciousness; the Full Moon phase, by the observance of a menstrual practice that facilitates a deepening connection with the cycle; and the Dark Moon phase, by the integration of a lived experience of menstrual consciousness. These stages of menstrual consciousness development offer an alternative to current models of psychospiritual development. This research opens the door to expand existing developmental models within transpersonal psychology, as well as other branches, to be gender specific and include body-related issues. The transformative changes of the researcher, participants, and early readers from interacting with this study are also analyzed.
Spirit into Form: The Experience of Clay as a Spiritual Practice
Katherine S. McIver
2001
Dissertation
This study explored the experience of using clay as a spiritual practice and looked in depth at the expressive and reflective aspects of the process for 9 women (8 Caucasian, 1 Hispanic, between the ages of 50 and 71), using heuristic, organic and art based research. The unique, individual experience of each woman's spiritual practice was garnered through 1-1/2 hour interviews, and answers to written questions without interpretation. The edited, transcribed tapes, integrated with answers to the questions, and photographs of the artists' images were presented without interpretation. Common threads in the experience were garnered through my involvement in the field of information gathered, including: my personal experience with clay; the interview process; transcribing, reading, listening, and focusing on to the women's stories; creating clay images of the coalescing field as I was experiencing it; embodying and meditating on the created images; and reflecting back through words, in a hermeneutic circle. Touch, left-brain/right-brain entrainment, and surprise were the common themes, which surrounded the expressive aspect of using clay.
Common themes surrounding the reflective aspect fell into two major organizing patterns, the 7 chakras, and the Triple Goddess. The clay ignited and evoked (from the base chakra upwards): a life force energy; an ongoing birth of the self; increased self-esteem and self-empowerment; facilitation of emotional release and integration; increased voice; an avenue for prayer and meditation; integration of personality, a holding of paradox. The clay allowed full expression of womanhood, reflected in the three forms of the Triple Goddess: maiden, mother, and crone. The conclusion was that using clay as a spiritual practice was a healthy, rich, fully embodied, experience which deepened the psycho-spiritual lives of these women and offers the same potential for others.
Perils, Pitfalls, and Promise: Mentored Earthbased Rites of Passage for Adolescent Girls Facing Life Challenges in a Mulicultural Setting
Valentine McKay-Riddell
2006
Dissertation
The experience of co-creating a rite of passage with adolescent girls was examined over a seven-week period with brief follow-up interviews of mentors. The researcher (a middle-class Native American/Anglo woman), six middle-class Anglo women, and one middle-class Latina woman served as mentors for nine adolescent girls--eight Latinas and one Anglo--throughout the process of preliminary education, design, and enactment of the rite of passage. The rite of passage addressed the issues of trust, commitment, and self-empowerment in a multicultural population. Utilizing a blended research method (organic inquiry, feminist research, participative inquiry, and heuristic inquiry), the study evolved from the researcher's exploration of her own experiences while raising daughters and working with adolescents from multicultural backgrounds in group homes, detention centers, and on the street. The literature review placed the study in the context of multicultural education and counseling, adolescent female development, feminism, and earth-based (indigenous) and ecofeminist spiritualities. An intuitive analysis of the data revealed the themes of the experience, including (a) intergenerational and intercultural trust, (b) personal power versus external power, (c) passionate commitment to the pursuit of one's goals, and (d) transformative change.
The study concluded that while girls and women derive mutual benefit from the mentoring relationship, and that ritual can provide a safe and flexible container for transformative intergenerational work, the issues of trust, self-empowerment, and passionate commitment arising in adolescence--which often extend into young adulthood and even into middle age and beyond--are more critical for multicultural populations. Results contribute to further understanding the integration of multicultural relationships, Earth-based spirituality in transpersonal psychology, and the psychospiritual development of girls in patriarchal society. This process might be useful to spiritual guides, teachers, therapists and mental health professionals, and youth group leaders.
Empowering Dominican Women: The Sacred Feminine in Taino Spirituality
Marianela Medrano-Marra
2007
Dissertation
This is an inquiry into the elements of Taino spirituality that can sustain women's self-perception and enhance their self-esteem. I worked with 11 Dominican women who came from a variety of backgrounds--writers, psychologists, anthropologists, musicians, educators, and so on. The age spectrum ranged from 26 through 68. The results were presented in discussion and through creative writing. The main interpretative conclusion we reached was that when women explored and assumed the knowledge of a Sacred Feminine within their culture they felt empowered. Participants in this study were asked to develop alternative ways of knowing, through a wide range of rituals and Embodied Writing exercises. They sustained intuitive monologues and dialogues examining the impact of such practices on their self-perception, spiritual growth, and personal empowerment. Secondary interpretations centered upon the influence of other women in their early lives, as well as the influence of female spiritual symbols in their lives.
Another 2 important areas for inference were that of the role of archetypes in the formation of coresearchers' self-perceptions and that of how coresearchers influenced each other. Intuitive Inquiry, the methodology used in this research, is a hermeneutic approach created by Professor Rosemarie Anderson of the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology. This methodology permitted me to ride the waves of my own subjectivity while researching the subjective world of the participants. Throughout the study I used content analysis in a way that was both scientifically and intuitively grounded. I used the Assessment of Change and Transformation Inventory (Omega Life Changes Inventory (OLCI)), a 50-item assessment originally developed to assess the impact of a near-death experience (NDE) and adapted by me, with the authors' permission, to suit my inquiry. I also used a pre- and post-questionnaire to assess participants' understanding of spirituality in the context of their lives.
Sacred or Profane:
A Thematic Analysis of Psycho-spiritual Change in Women at Menopause
Kathleen Michaud
2007
Introduction
Menopause has often been studied as a single event in a woman’s life rather than a
developmental milestone that is accomplished over many years. As such, it is inseparable from
that which came before, and so is intimately connected to menstruation, the first great sexual
milestone after the experience of childbirth. Traditionally, women’s lives have been viewed in
reductionist terms as distinct phases relating to physiology and sexuality. Alternately, women’s
development may be viewed from a larger perspective, one that focuses not only on sexual
reproduction and child rearing, but as an evolving process of psychospiritual growth that
increases through these pivotal seasons, and accelerates with menopause at midlife, which is
often seen as the time of individuation.
Inquiry regarding a reductionist view of women’s bodies has led to a desire to identify its source, which appears to have its roots in the overthrow of matristic cultures, the predominant view of divinity as male, and the denial of the feminine face of the divine. While a complete exploration of these phenomena is far too broad for this study, reclaiming the sacred in the experience of menopause may be an important step in this process.
Overview This is a qualitative study that seeks to identify manifestations of psychospiritual change that may occur in women during the process of menopause. A predominance of Western biomedical literature treats menopause as a medical condition, rather than as a naturally occurring developmental stage. This pejorative view influences cultural attitudes toward aging women who are left with little information that might support a self-image of health and wellbeing. Currently, a large body of research has emerged to counter the deficiency model and refute many of its claims. However, little attention has been given to spiritual or transpersonal aspects that may be present during menopause.
Due to the dearth of research in this area, this paper will explore the popular literature, wherein a number of writers have suggested a connection between spirituality and menopause. Evidence of a transformational view may be found in literature from other cultures. Thus, a brief exploration will be made of multicultural views.
Method A qualitative research design will be employed to explore whether women in the process of menopause experience psychospiritual changes, and if so, how these changes manifest. Thematic analysis will be used to look at identifiable patterns of experience that arise from in- depth interviews conducted with approximately 24 women. Following these interviews, a focus group of approximately five to ten of the participants will meet to verify, clarify, edit or expand on themes identified by this researcher.
Participants The participants for this study will be a minimum of 24 women who have ceased menstruating for at least a year and who self-identify as either being in menopause or having passed through menopause. Twenty eight to 30 women will be recruited to account for attrition. Women whose menopause was medically induced will not be included, to screen for possible trauma that might bias their responses. Because the age of 50 is the norm for cessation of menses, a woman must be at least 45 to be eligible. This study will explore the experiences of women in the industrialized West who are fluent in English. Every effort will be made to include at least 5 women from each of Asian, Latina and African American ethnicities. While there will be no qualifiers for sexual preference, marital or socio-economic status, or religious or spiritual affiliation, demographic information given during recruitment may provide meaningful data.
Flyers will be posted in places frequented by middle-aged women living in XXX and the surrounding area. These include women’s clinics, hair salons, YMCAs, churches, temples, and women’s clubs and the like. Snowball sampling will also be encouraged.
Prospective participants will be asked to contact this researcher by email or telephone. If the potential participant wishes to volunteer she will be informed of the focus group, its purpose, and invited to participate.
Implications The importance of this study lies in the premise that the body serves as a manifestation of spirit. If so, the profound physical changes experienced by women at menopause are worthy of transpersonal consideration.
Furthermore, because medical care and the quality of life is improving for a significant proportion of the population, the numbers of aging people are increasing, and with that the numbers of people suffering ill effects as a result of the biomedical perspective. In addition, the silence surrounding menopause is a disconnect between women, robbing them of the opportunity for support and increased self-awareness. Thus, this study may be of value beyond the therapeutic arena as it impacts issues of social and cultural diversity.
Women and Nature: Connection to Animals and Spirit
Experienced by Celtic-Irish Women
Carolyn Finn Mitchell
2000
Dissertation
This study explored human-animal connection through storytelling in which interspecies relationships promoted courageous life-affirming ways of being, influenced a capacity to listen and learn in new ways, and offered universal messages of hope. I asked 17 Celtic-Irish women (15 living in Ireland), ages ranging from 10 to 87 years: Do you have a story about a connection with an animal that left a lasting impression? What did you learn? Was there a spiritual component? Did the animal have a message? The primary animals were cats, referred to by 11 women; dogs by 10; and the following by 1 each: bird, chimpanzee, dolphin, goat, mouse, snake, and swan. This study was informed by feminist methodology and organic inquiry. I conducted a protracted content-analysis of the interviews and the post-assessment data, concluding that "trust comes first before everything else, even before love."
The findings show a consistency between animal-human connections and highly desirable human qualities--compassion as shown in classical stories of holy beings doing God's work. Two profiles--the character of the population as a whole and characteristics of human-animal connection environments--identify these values. The data are categorized by 4 themes-Life Force, Dignity, Death and Spirit, and Voice. Of the 45 teachings/messages resulting from the participants' experiences with the animals, "Be respectful," "Unconditional love exists," "Give and receive," and "Trust" are 4 of the highest occurring. This research may potentially contribute to a further study of spiritual ways of being human as influenced by "the other" in the fields of psychology, ecofeminism, anthropology, animal ethology, theology, and animal sciences. While humans ponder planet earth sustainability and survivability issues and explore ways to influence individuals' capacities for expressing compassion and love as a remedy to this threat, this study shows that animals are one pathway toward that end.
No Other Gods: Prolegomena Toward a Junian Hermeneutic of the Biblical Story for a Transpersonal Age
Phyllis Boswell Moore
1989
Dissertation
The science of biblical hermeneutics has concerned itself previously with the biblical myth alone. Biblical theologians have not seen the biblical story as a phase of a more encompassing story of the evolution of human consciousness, including the story of a Great Goddess as well as of a Great God. This dissertation attempts to put the biblical story within that fuller context. Using the principles of Jungian psychology, augmented by the concepts of transpersonal psychology, the dissertation associates the biblical god, Yahweh, with the development of mental ego consciousness within the human milieu. It maintains that the biblical genesis establishes the continuum of historical time/space as the context for the development of this particular kind of rational consciousness.
The biblical genesis thus constitutes a second cosmogony of "personal consciousness," dominated by the archetypal masculine (the Great God), superimposed upon a prior cosmogony of "pre-personal consciousness" that had functioned within the confines of natural time/space under the dominion of the archetypal feminine (the Great Goddess or, as she is mythically recalled, the Great Mother). The constant, though futile, attempt of the Yahwistic cosmogony was/is to repress the prior cosmogony, to enforce the ringing decree, which permeates the biblical story, of "no other gods." Jungian and transpersonal psychology envision a third "transpersonal" cosmogony incorporating the two prior dimensions. It is instituted by a new archetypal event, identified by Jung as the alchemical mysterium coniunctionis, the reunion, after a primal split, of the primal pair---the feminine and masculine principles.
Transpersonal consciousness re-centers the ego-centered personal psyche in a higher dimension of consciousness which Jung called the self. The self, in contrast to the monotheistic ego, is a monistic polarity, composed of the feminine and masculine principles, differentiated in the process of evolution. Transpersonal consciousness precipitates a new form of humanity, a new form of personal being referred to as androgynous, or microcosmic being. The dissertation attempts to establish the prolegomena for the development of a Jungian hermeneutic by reviewing the main issues of biblical criticism and by placing these issues within the context of Jungian psychology. It refutes efforts to associate the biblical god with Jung's construct of self rather than ego.
Quest for Wholeness: The Individualtion Process of Seven African American Women: A Case Study
Barbara J. Morrill
1994
Dissertation
This study explores the individuation process of African America women. Individuation for the purposes of the study is defined as a 'quest for wholeness.' Feminist case-study methodology is used to explore individuation within the context of each participant's life-story in relationship to her journey toward wholeness. The literature review specifically, and the study generally, focuses upon the social, political, and historical factors in the lives of African American women and explores how these societal factors impact individuation. A hybrid state model of individuation was developed by the researcher based upon a review of individuation theory and the history of African American women. The stage model was used as a framework for the study. At the core of the stages is the death-rebirth paradigm of individuation.
Seven African American women, between the ages of 32 and 76, who considered themselves to be on a 'quest for wholeness', were interviewed. The women in the study participated in a three hour interview where they told their life stories in relationship to their quest, and answered questions regarding the stages of individuation presented. In addition, they answered questions about the impact of societal forces, specifically racism, upon their life journey. The research revealed that the participants did go through stages of individuation, with the death-rebirth paradigm as a core element of their experiences. It was the nature of the process that was different, which is described in the study. In sum, it was confirmed that the participants were affected by racism, yet the emerging themes in this study speak to the degree of the impact of interlocking systems of oppression, i.e., racism, sexism, classism, and homophobia upon these women. Themes of spirituality, education, and the telling of one's story emerged as vehicles for both survival and transformation.
Exploring the Interstices: The Space Between in the Body/mind Disciplines of Aikido and Fencing
Susan J. Newton
1996
Dissertation
This project was designed to gather reports of specific experiences from senior practitioners in the body/mind disciplines of Aikido and fencing. Five women from Aikido, third to fifth degree black belt, and five women from fencing, nationally classified A or B, were my co-researchers, considered as experts in their fields. I asked them to please describe, as completely and as concretely as possible, their experience of a time when their usual way of perceiving, and moving, in the space between themselves and another shifted, and changed, in the intensely focused context of a major tournament (fencing) or demonstration (Aikido). Other questions were asked for context. Several methodological innovations are evident. My chosen research approach combined aspects of heuristic, phenomenological and feminist research practice, with a transpersonal perspective. What emerged is quite different in form than the typical dissertation. I intuitively, and deliberately, allowed the material to structure the form of reporting. This honored both the gathering of information and what grew from the interactions as the process of research unfolded. The literature review is woven into the document where it was most relevant to the flow of reporting.
My co-researchers each read and responded to the reports of the others. Their observations, and my own, structure the analysis of the data. My chosen stance of transparency in reporting and writing style is clear throughout. Minimal editing was done on the material drawn from the interview transcripts, and has been approved for accuracy by each person. No one exercised the option of using a pseudonym, which is congruent with the level of integrity and directness of reporting their experiences of exploring the interstices. The fruits of this research illustrate that attention to one's experiences in the space between is fertile ground, as aspects of mastery and how one uses attention in a practice context may translate meaningfully to one's life.
A Symbological Study of Women's Quest for Soul and Spirit
Lisa Nolan
1988
Master's Thesis
This study portrays the potential transformative power of symbolic objects and images used by women engaged in personal quests for spiritual growth and inner wisdom. Symbolic processes facilitate transpersonal insights and self-discoveries that are difficult to access by other methods. The process of "Women's Quest", which originated in the San Francisco Bay Area, serves as the focal point of this work since symbols are the catalytic components of its ritual and group experiences. The definitive properties of soul and spirit are explored as themes which the symbols illustrate.
Methodological approaches incorporate the researcher's personal process work along with participant-observation and a phenomenological analysis of questionnaire data surveying responses to Women's Quest Weekend. The data is further compared and contrasted to a variety of theoretical writings about symbol, soul and spirit that encompass the multifaceted disciplines of creation-centered spirituality including psychology, mythology, art, mysticism, and feminism.
Soul Wounding and Memetic Development:
Blending Qualitative Methods to Explore Personal and Cultural Emergence
Wendy M. K. Peters
2010
Ph.D. Dissertation
The commonplace norms of poverty and disempowerment now impacting a majority of First Nation Peoples (FNP) represent a complex set of conditions long recognized by indigenous elders as a soul wound. Current literature and research support the existence of soul wounding, while a plethora of circumstances such as devaluation, marginalization, disenfranchisement, and massive group trauma have all been implicated as antecedents to the phenomenon. To date, however, it is primarily the outward manifestations, or the symptoms and outcome of soul wounding that have been identified and researched, whereas the root causes of soul wounding have yet to be well established. This study explores soul wounding by filtering it through the lenses of cultural identity, gender, and the lived experience of those who are consciously or unconsciously informed by the soul wound of FNP, specifically the Hawaiians, Native Americans, and Maori.
By blending methods of qualitative inquiry, this study offers to increase our understanding of the essence and meaning of indigenous soul wounding to expand awareness of the phenomenon beyond our current knowledge of outward manifestations. Searching inward for the root cause/s provides an opportunity to decode the constructs of individual and societal worldviews and can offer insights into the complexities that shape human nature, create global diversities, and drive evolutionary change. This dissertation also makes a case for transpersonal psychology by demonstrating how the bounds of individuality, gender, race, culture, and even the mortal lifespan are related and may be transcended, and it addresses soul wounding in an attempt to transform interpretation to intelligence, woundedness to healing, and, in time, fragmentation to wholeness.
Feminist Identity: A Grounded Theory of How Feminist Identification Impacts Heterosexual Romantic Relationships
Miranda Pinckert
2010
Ph.D. Dissertation
Past research has indicated that both women and men perceive feminism and romance to be in conflict. Some researchers have even suggested that feminist women might be more likely than non-feminist women to have troubled intimate heterosexual relationships due to conflicting morals, sexual aggression, and radicality. A growing body of research indicates a surprising change. It suggests that identifying with feminism can be beneficial for women overall and beneficial for their romantic relationships. In fact, research suggests feminists are more likely to be in egalitarian relationships which research has shown to be more satisfying than traditional relationships.
Using grounded theory as a method, this qualitative research project will investigate what it is about feminist identification that may contribute to beneficial outcomes for women in heterosexual relationships. The study also will examine how spirituality is part of feminist identity and if this contributes to relational well-being. Open-ended interviews with 15 feminist women, who are currently in successful romantic relationships with men, will be conducted to identify what it is about feminist identification that impacts their relationships. Some possible aspects of feminist identification that could impact these relationships include changing gender roles, greater equality both in and out of the home, self-efficacy, greater identification with spiritual feminism, and increased sexual satisfaction.
This research can contribute to the discourse on women, feminism, and romantic relationships, in ways that value and empower women. Connecting spirituality with feminist identity could encourage feminist psychology to commit to more research about the beneficial aspects of spirituality for women. Changing how clinicians might work with couples or women is another desired outcome of these findings.
A Spiritual Practice for Women: Nurturing a Felt Connection to the Sacred Feminine Through Immersion in Female Imagery
Melinda Marie Pitarre
2001
Master's Thesis
This study explored and evaluated a healing practice designed to nurture a felt connection to the Sacred Feminine among the members of a small spiritual community of women. Integral inquiry was the research method, including intuitive, phenomenological and qualitative approaches from a feminist perspective. At the heart of this practice was a daily spiritual exercise where the exercitants made use of the felt sense (Gendlin, 1969, 1981) and feminine images of God as aids to psychospiritual growth. During the 25 days of the practice, the 5 participants also met for weekly group sessions with the facilitator. These sessions consisted of instruction, spiritual exercises, prayer, ritual, sharing, and storytelling that supported the daily practices. The data was gathered from various sources including participant journals, drawings, audiotapes of sessions, written narratives, and questionnaires. The findings of the intuitive analysis were expressed as specific images of God that were formative of each participant's experience.
The phenomenological analysis showed that this practice was a passageway for the participants to gain access to difficult and painful issues, holding the possibility of bringing them to a felt sense of resolution in a supportive and sacred environment. All the participants expressed that the practice nourished a connection to the Divine. Several participants stated explicitly that they felt more connected to the Sacred Feminine and their feminine selves at the conclusion of the practice. Findings to the qualitative analysis were expressed as a written summary of recommendations for using the practice in the future. In the discussion, it was noted that the altered states of consciousness that this practice produced might have benefits to women in chronic pain. Images of God, specific to each participant and emergent out of their experiences of this practice, offered a strong resource for the healing and empowerment of these women.
Discovering Feminine Presencing: A Women's Transformational Model for Self and Community
Cameron Plagens
2009
Ph.D. Dissertation
This research uses a feminist heuristic inquiry design to propose a women's transformational model of self and community employing a Goddess cosmological orientation, bioenergetic grounding exercises, and symbol/archetype representational work as the foundations for women's cognitive, physical, and creative (re) connection with Self, Earth, and Other.
The study further explores the related communal patterns of interaction, meaning-making, and social structure that may be said to be feminine in essence. Remembrance of and reconnection with ancient Goddess cosmology, which inherently privileged the female body and women's relationship with the Earth, are conceived in part as an avenue for recapturing the integrative wholeness of the image of the Sacred Feminine. The women's transformational model proposed here bears a transpersonal significance in empowering women to discover and embody their divine feminine presencing.
The Experience of Seven Women Moving from Long-Term Emotional Abuse by an Intimate Partner to a Path of Self-Reclamation
Francesca Barbara Raphael
1998
Ph.D. Dissertation
This study explored the experience of 7 women in mid-to-late midlife, who had moved through the experience of emotional abuse in an intimate, heterosexual relationship of over 10 years, to an experience of self-reclamation and healing. The research design blended feminist and heuristic methodologies, in which ongoing collaboration between researcher and participant was valued. Data were gathered initially through in-depth, semi-structured interviews with each participant. The interviews were transcribed, shaped into individual portraits, then distilled into an analysis of dominant themes which emerged from the researcher's immersion in the collected narratives. Participants provided corrections and clarification at all stages of the process, so as to facilitate communication of the narrative truth of their experiences.
Emotional abuse in adult intimate relationships is a pervasive, yet generally unrecognized phenomenon in public awareness; this invisibility compounds the distress experienced by emotionally abused women, who are often blamed for their victimization. It was found that in the abuse experience, post-traumatic stress symptoms such as depression and dissociative forms of coping figured prominently as themes. In the self-reclamation and healing experiences, themes such as survivors' attempts to extract meaning from their experience, spirituality, dreams, creative expression, and mystical or religious experiences, figured importantly in participants' journeys back to a self which had felt lost, or to a transformed sense of self. Participants possessed qualities associated with resilient individuals.
One important conclusion is that couple therapy is inappropriate when emotional abuse is occurring in the relationship. Findings from this study suggest the need for: (a) development of intervention with abuse survivors which integrate feminist and transpersonal psychotherapies; (b) corrective socialization of children regarding gender roles; (c) research on emotional abuse in women of different ages, lesbians, and women of color and various ethnicities; and (d) changes in public policy regarding emotional abuse survivors.
Illuminating Feminine Cultural Shadow with Women Espionage Agents and the Dark Goddess
Diane E. Rickards
2006
Ph.D. Dissertation
This research is an exploration into western feminine cultural shadow through the interviews of eight women from Belgium, France, Holland, Ireland, Poland, Turkey, and United States, who volunteered for espionage work such as couriers, weapons specialists, and saboteurs in the Second World War. Employing the intuitive inquiry method (Anderson, 2004) to examine the data collected (eight stories, one composite story and the researcher's overview) revealed the dark feminine lying silently in cultural shadow. As per intuitive inquiry, and based on a literature review of the great goddess, dark feminine, and shadow archetypes and women spies, the researcher's initial assumptions and presumptions were articulated.
In the final analyses, 29 lenses were crafted into three sections: feminine cultural shadow, women espionage agents, and intuitive inquiry method. Important findings include: (a) feminine principle fullness is imprisoned in cultural shadow due to patriarchal cultural projection, and to feminine nature of quiet strength, nonegoic stance, and relational tendency; (b) the dark feminine is not about wildness, as popular western literature would have us believe, but rather freedom; (c) through excavation of feminine cultural shadow, energy is released inviting the transmutation of the masculine principle and the unity of principles toward further transpersonal consciousness; (d) espionage women are ordinary women who are extraordinary in their capacity to pull on the feminine in cultural shadow. They were/are women who were/are liberated, possessing characteristics such as being insightful, strategic, silent, morally and physically strong, independent, adventuresome, antinomian, discerning, and compassionate; (e) culture acts on individuals, not unlike the ego, to express and repress aspects relevant to its container's drives; (f) intuitive inquiry, which deconstructs researcher bias, is a discerning method to use with historical accounts; and (g) intuitive inquiry acts as an elixir for furthering psycho-spiritual development within a depth psychology study.
New directions to further transpersonal research are suggested, including a closer examination of the role of the dark feminine in the propensity of patriarchal culture to project its shadow resulting in the instigation of violence, destruction and the massive world wars.
Religious Change and the Search for Meaning: A Spiritual Journey to Buddhist Conversion
Janice Trovato Russillo
1995
Master's Thesis
This is a study of the process of spiritual transformation that led to religious change in the lives of six Americans who became Buddhists. This study was undertaken to explore the process of coming to consciousness that is known as the individuation process or the spiritual journey. Attention is paid to the diachronic process which led to a re-examination of religious beliefs and ultimately to religious conversion. The literature review examines three interfacing aspects of this study: religious research in America, the psychology of religious conversion, and Buddhism in America.
The design is based on a hybrid methodology which includes an intuitive method of analysis. The model combines a phenomenological inquiry with a feminist research model expanded to include male subjects. The intuitive method employed facilitates phenomenology's attention to the meaning of the participant's experience inherent in the material. This is consistent with the affirmative stance of feminist research which honors the uniqueness of the individual. An Interview Protocol was used for control in tape recorded interviews with six subjects. An emphasis on diversity resulted in a mixed gender sample varying in age from 33 to 43.
Results are reported in narratives based on the interviews. These clarify the process of spiritual growth and transformation which led the subjects to change their religious beliefs. The study compares the conclusions of previous researchers in the field of religious conversion with data from this sample, and suggests that conversion can be viewed positively, as a result of a search for meaning.
Stories of Sacred Pleasure: An Organic Inquiry into the Experience of Four Women who use Movement as a Spiritual Practice
Pamela Saari
2003
Master's Thesis
This study is about spiritual embodiment--about how women experience sacred pleasure and the connection with a woman inhabiting her body. While sex and sexuality were addressed within the topic, they were not the primary focus. The primary focus was to give voice to women's overall life experiences of spiritual growth, aliveness, passion, connection, and healing. This study utilized an organic inquiry research method--a qualitative approach that integrates feminist, heuristics, and transpersonal influences.
Data for this study were collected through preliminary interviews with 15 women and face-to-face in-depth interviews with four women. Review of the data from the preliminary and in-depth interviews revealed six themes--two overall themes and four sub-themes. The two overall themes were Be-ing Present in Relating and Integrating the Feminine. The four sub-themes were Connecting to Creativity, Connecting to Nature and other Women, Lacking Support in Family and Culture, and Coming Home into the Body.
Sufi Stories as Vehicles for Self-Development: Exploration, Using In-Depth Interviews, of the Self-Perceived Effects of the Study of Sufi Stories
Annick Safken
1998
Ph.D. Dissertation
This study investigated how stories drawn from the Sufi spiritual tradition, facilitated self-knowledge and self-development. A qualitative evaluation of the self-perceived effects of these stories, blending feminist, organic, and connoisseurship perspectives was conducted. Eight participants, who had acknowledged that these stories had a strong impact on their lives, were interviewed.
The results were presented in the form of vignettes which evaluate and reveal the major insights of the participants, the consequences these insights had on their lives, and the integration of these teachings. Participants gave examples of how they used the teachings of the stories to reflect on their lives. The results suggested that all the participants had discovered some essential truths in the teaching of the stories which changed their world-views and self-concepts. Sufi stories described and enhanced the passage to a stage of self-observation and criticism called the "regretful self" in Sufi psychology and motivated the participants to corrective action. Participants' experiences with stories brought some empirical evidence to the stages of "inspired self," where intuitive faculties are developed and the stage of the "contented self," characterized by a state of deep acceptance and equanimity. The experiences described by the participants brought also some empirical evidence of the stages 5 and 6 in Wilber's full-spectrum model.
This study showed that Sufi stories are a valuable complement to the training of professionals in psychology. Stories helped them to unravel their predicaments and develop their intuitive capacities. The contribution of Sufi psychology to a "Psychology of the Heart," of which Hillman and Romanyshyn are major proponents, was discussed.
One Body : One Spirit
Reclaiming our Wisdom and Divinity Within through Dance
Mela Saunders
"The most basic, fundamental tool of magic is the body...The body is the vessel that houses all the
energies and forces to do anything we might imagine." (Noble, 1991 p. 40)
This study is about reclaiming ourselves as vehicles for the Divine. Because dance was forbidden by Christianity as religious expression (Drinker, 1948), we, as a culture, became disembodied and disempowered in relation to Spirit. Each time I dance is an opportunity to unite more deeply with the Divine, just as each breath we take is an invitation to deepen into ourselves. Combining my extensive Reiki and dance training, I plan to create a movement technique for healing and re- connection. This technique will be heavily based in Chakra Integration within Congolese, Afro- Cuban, Middle Eastern and Hip Hop Dance styles. I will teach this technique to a small group of co-researchers and examine it's effectiveness through our physical, spiritual, mental and emotional experiences.
Reiki is a Japanese form of healing which channels "universal life energy" through the body, particularly to the Chakras, or energy centers within the body (Horan, 1997). The seven Chakras each have corresponding emotional, physical and psychological qualities. Additionally, the "Chakras are associated with seven basic levels of consciousness. As we experience the opening of a Chakra, we also experience a deeper understanding of the state of consciousness associated with that level." (Judith, 1993 p. 22). What I would like to examine in this study is the effectiveness of opening the Chakras through this movement technique, and what type of transpersonal, mental and emotional changes result from this opening. We will consciously engage our Chakras, attuning ourselves to our corresponding mental and emotional energies, as we explore how this movement allows us a deeper awareness of our embodied connection with the Divine.
Dance is the oldest expression of the Divine throughout the world, and women's moon dance is the oldest religion (Gottner-Abendroth,1991). I will develop the technique as a tool for Divine connection for both men and women, yet Middle Eastern dance will be incorporated specifically for women, because of it's deep origins in Sacred Dance Rites, particularly as a Birth Dance (Al- Rawi, 2003). The movement of the hips, pelvis and belly which house the first three Chakras, are the foundation for Belly Dance as an imitative birthing dance (Buonaventura, 1983), connecting women to a deep well of sacred kinesthetic information. Through the incorporation of Belly Dance in it's true historical context, hip movements will melt away puritanical rigidity or over- sexualization - dispelling monotheistic, patriarchal training - and returning women to their Divine power. Male Divinity will be explored through specific movements for Afro-Cuban Male Deities, celebrating the following archetypes: the trickster, the hunter, the warrior and the king.
I met the Goddess of Love, the Warrior Goddess and the Mother Goddess within my own body as I studied Afro-Cuban dances. Embodying all archetypes of the Sacred Feminine and Masculine, Afro-Cuban dance allowed me to understand the deep connection with my body and the Divine, in addition to the relationship between worship and movement in African and Diaspora cultures. Ancient cultures have always used dance to connect with Spirit (Daniel, 2005). I am intentionally combining the deep roots of Congolese Dance, which moves through all of the Chakras, with Afro-Cuban dance, which is heart centered; and then bringing it into an urban context with Hip Hop. Hip Hop has been a bridge for new generations to reconnect with their roots, and to explore self-expression and empowerment (Chang, 2005), which is why the third chakra (the power center) is pivotal in Hip Hop movement.
I will use heuristic methodology to develop the technique, with an intricate warm-up focused on each Chakra, and codified movement phrases and combinations based on integrating the Chakras and the movement styles. Throughout the creation process, I will utilize my skills, intuition and experience and prayer, along with the wisdom of nature. I will spend some of the preparation time in sacred nature sights, to intentionally keep the technique connected to natural cycles. I will teach the classes once weekly for six weeks to 5 co-researchers who are interested in the project and agree to share their experiences honestly at the end of the six week session, at which point, Organic Inquiry will be used to complete the study.
The technique, if successful, will serve a cross-cultural and diverse audience, and will benefit the following fields of study: Women's Studies, Transpersonal Psychology, Women's Spirituality, Education, Dance and Healing. Further, this project will only be the seed for lasting evolution and reclamation of the body as a vehicle for Spirit.
Dance is a perfect and Divine reflection of the self. Dance communicates from our innermost soul, and allows for expression and connection of mind, body and spirit (Stewart, 2000). It places us in a Divine state of vulnerability. When we release our mental confines, and allow our bodies freedom, deep and lasting growth and opening occurs! We connect to our true selves, unearthing our beauty and Divinity as we dance sacredly.
Transpersonal Experiences and Practices of Women who are Healing Childhood Sexual Abuse
Jean Agnes Schellenberg
1997
Ph.D. Dissertation
Qualitative and quantitative methods were used to investigate the question: "Are transpersonal perspectives beneficial in healing sexual abuse?" A total of 102 women, mostly professionals with histories of significant sexual abuse, responded by mail to a survey (83% response) and completed sentence stems based on a version of the Rotter Incomplete Sentences Blank projective test, reporting most and least beneficial experiences. Content analysis revealed healing themes and patterns in a sequential, five-region recovery model.
The model depicts a Healed Woman Archetype and illustrates psycho-spiritual themes, expanding self-esteem, connectedness, and relationships with transcendent beings. Results indicated that transpersonal experiences profoundly impact healing and assist women in perceiving themselves as healthy. Healing through transpersonal perspectives offered control over symptoms through emergence of the individuated Self. Healing was not seen only in terms of eradicating symptoms (curing), but could occur in spite of persisting symptoms. Healing progressed from states of unconscious suffering (symptoms), or ego states, to higher states of consciousness where symptoms took on new meaning. Participants (69%) reported that images and symbols, particularly of spiritual guides, nature, and the Earth, contributed to recovery; 60% reported adult sexuality improved, changing poor body image and sexual addictions; and 42% reported invalidating, unskilled, or sexually harassing professionals.
The author's Checklist of Transpersonal Experiences and Practices (CTEP) examined the number, profundity, and frequency of transpersonal practices and experiences. Creative and Spiritual experiences were rated as most important, with Journal Writing and Connection with a Higher Power as most frequent. On the Trauma Symptom Checklist-40 (Briere & Runtz, 1989), the depression, sleep disturbance, and sexual problems subscales yielded the highest symptom scores.
The hypothesized quantitative relationship between high CTEP scores and low TSC-40 scores was not confirmed. Data included suggestions for integrating transpersonal perspectives into psychotherapy, new definitions for healing trauma, verbatim responses, and the author's own account of transformation.
Women's embodiment of the feminine: an exploration through movement
Valerie Sher
2007
Ph.D. Dissertation
This study explored the effects of dance/movement on deepening embodied connection to Feminine psychological consciousness through the lens of eight Feminine archetypes.
The study was based on an 8-session, two-group model of 15 women, ages 32-63. Quantitative and qualitative data were analyzed using an integral inquiry method. Analysis of Phenomenology of Consciousness Inventory (PCI) data using a paired sample t test between preassessment baseline scores and weekly scores showed statistical significance (p < .05) for several subdimensions by archetype such as Affect, Sexual Excitement, Meaning, Altered State, Absorption, Joy, Love, Positive Affect, and Volitional Control. A paired samples t test for the Profile of Mood States pre- and postassessment data was not statistically significant. A paired samples test performed on the Body Intelligence Scale (BIS) pre- and posttest scores was statistically significant (p = .019) indicating that participants did experience increased body intelligence. The Change and Transformation Assessment (CATA) demonstrated that change/ transformation occurred in the areas of the body (2.07), awareness to all aspects of the self (2.33), and openness to other aspects of the self (2.27) in the moderate to greatly increased range. Quantitative results of self-reported transpersonal experiences showed that 80% of participants experienced Mystical experiences, 86% Psychic experiences, 40% Encounter and Death-Related experiences, and 73% Exceptional-Normal experiences.
Qualitative thematic analysis indicated that all participants (100%) came to embody the Feminine as a sense of self. This occurred through thoughts, feelings, movement, and body sensations that gave rise to a sense of self. All of the women participants (100%) reported experiencing a relationship with one or more archetypes during the 8 weeks.
This study provides evidence of dance/movement techniques on embodiment, and specifically to the embodiment of the Feminine, and a phenomenological perspective into the nature of the experience of the Feminine psychological principle.
An Existential-Phenomenological Study of Woman's Experience of Feeling Able to Move Toward and Accomplish a Meaningful and Challenging Goal in a Latin American Cultural Context
Tania Shertock
1994
Ph.D. Dissertation
This dissertation examines a woman's experience of feeling able to move towards and accomplish a meaningful and challenging goal in a Latin American cultural context from an existential-phenomenological perspective. The purposes of this study are: (a) to elucidate the experience being investigated, (b) to add to the literature exploring women's consciousness, and (c) to study the psychology of women who feel able to accomplish their meaningful and challenging goals as well as the psychology of women in a Latin American cultural context.
A review of the literature investigates women's consciousness from a historical and clinical perspective. It also explores the area of a woman's ability or competence from the psychoanalytic perspective, sociological studies of gender, and various research studies concerned with sex-differences, attribution, and cross-cultural comparisons of women's roles.
Thirteen co-researchers participated by recording their private reflections and responding in a follow-up interview. The transcripts were translated and analyzed consistent with an existential-phenomenological research approach. Eighteen descriptive categories emerged and were further reduced to become four fundamental structural themes. These findings suggest that accomplished women experience a self-reinforcing cycle of confidence wherein they feel an innate awareness that they are able to accomplish their goal which is strengthened by each successful accomplishment. They ascribe significance to their socio-political origins and events outside their control.
The results indicated that community purpose and a desire to engender participatory activity towards that purpose was a motivating factor in the movement towards the goal. Other constituents included: a positive regard towards challenge, an ability to move past obstacles without feeling distracted by them, and an ability to draw on spiritual strength.
The Experience of Beauty, Body Image and the Feminine in Three Generations of Mothers and Daughters
Lisa Shields
1995
Ph.D. Dissertation
This qualitative study explores beauty, body image, and the feminine through three different constructs--the personal and familial, the collective or cultural, and the archetypal. The methodology of the study followed feminist, heuristic, and organic theories and design. Organic research is made up of the following six characteristics: the sacred, inclusiveness, subjectivity, contextuality, the transformative and the transpersonal.
The three participants in the study were the researcher herself, her mother, and her grandmother. The participants were white, upper-middle class women. Choosing the researcher's family as participants deepened the findings within the study. The conclusions that arose from this study are based upon the experience of the participants and their stories may be helpful to women with eating disorders. The co-researchers' close and intimate relationships added to and profoundly enhanced the content of the interviews. The interviews were collaborative in nature; each participant interviewed the others. The themes that emerged from the study are: the mother-daughter bond, the legacy of female depression that ran through each woman's life, the facade of perfection, the need by the women in the study to fit in and belong, the importance of physical attractiveness for women in our culture, and the need to be beautiful as a means of survival for women. The transpersonal feminine archetype of the receptive connectivity of Eros was woven throughout the research.
Transformation took place within each of the co-researchers as a result of participating in the study. The feminine healing aspect of Eros was present during the telling of and the listening to the participants' stories. The archetype of the feminine was explored through Jungian analysis of myths and fairy tales. The research grew organically out of the researcher's experience and history. The writing of the research was influenced by the inner guidance of dream material.
The Transpersonal and Healing Dimensions of Painting: Life Reviews of Ten Artists Who Have Experienced Trauma
Linda Bushell Spencer
1995
Ph.D. Dissertation
This feminist research, using an organic approach, contextually explores tile sacred, transformative and relational aspects of traumatized artists. Participants include 8 female and 2 male artists ranging in age from 29 to 76. Nine are Caucasian. One woman is Latina. Data were obtained by interview, questionnaire, photographs, and story exchange.
Life reviews revealed a relationship between trauma and art: 6 women artists suffered trauma at age 5; both men experienced trauma at age 10. Two distinct types of artists were found: those who value the creative experience and those who value die creation. The former use art as healing; the latter use art as a coping mechanism. This study supports Maslow's theory that artists fall into two categories: those who use special talent creativeness, and those who exhibit self-actualizing creativeness. This study also supports Jung's observation of two artistic types: sensory and imaginative. Through their art these artists experience increased self worth, healing, and a sense of connectivity. Artists who had abusive childhoods found art expression dissolved pain although memories remained unresolved. Two physically-handicapped artists found they could relate as equals to others through art. Healing and transformation were more notable in artists who value artistic process over product. Conducting life review research can be healing.
When persons reflect on developmental stages of their life, they may become conscious of meaning. Participants synthesized their experiences. Emotional awareness occurred. Psychological outcomes were increased self-esteem, personal growth, method of communication, and access to an altered state of consciousness facilitating a transpersonal connection to the divine.
Women's Experience of the Descent into the Underworld: The Path of Inanna: A Feminist and Heuristic Inquiry
Nora Taylor
1996
Ph.D. Dissertation
This qualitative study examined at five women's experiences of the descent into the underworld--a Jungian concept. The study explored what happened in the course of their descents and how their lives changed as a result of their initiation into the feminine. The Literature Review concentrated on three areas: the Archetypal Feminine (including Lilith), a detailed look at The Myth of Inanna, and an overview of both feminist and heuristic designs. The methodology combined feminist, heuristic and organic approaches to research. Emphasis was placed on hearing each woman's stories in the context of their lives. These combined methodologies invite the qualities of feeling and relatedness into the arena of research on the part of both the researcher and participant.
The goal is to give voice to women's experience, to acknowledge their subjective realities, to be present, to listen, to witness their journeys and to risk being changed by the depth of the sharing. The vehicle of storytelling allows space for the feeling and the meaning to emerge. The organic method of research, as well as the heuristic, leaves room for the research to grow and evolve in its own way trusting in the unconscious process. The woman's stories were presented together with the main themes in each woman's story. A brief section indicated how both the researcher and participant were affected by sharing these stories.
The uniqueness of each woman's journey is contained in her story. This study attests to the inner strength found by women in the course of descent. Each woman emerged with more consciousness, depth and understanding and a capacity to be with the full range of emotions. Experiences common to all women, mirrored in the mythic structure, are discussed. What helps a woman, what hinders is also included.
"Shame on You" : Exploring the Deep Structure of Posttrauma Survival
Katherine Unthank
2007
Ph.D. Dissertation
This research explores and refines a new theory. The theory makes a primary claim: that irrational self-blame specific to a traumatic event is an act of violence against an innocent self. As a consequence, because irrational self-blame is a belief rooted in shame, that act of self-inflicted violence sets up a shame-based ego-defense mechanism. Shame fuses with guilt and compromises the function of guilt to act as a moral guide. Compromised guilt is maladaptive guilt. Subsequently, a survivor's need for security becomes dependent upon maladaptive guilt, being chronically at fault. Maladaptive guilt is generated by controlling beliefs and behaviors in relationships with self and others, including God.
Utilizing a research method known as intuitive inquiry, interviews with 12 survivors and the researcher's documented experience of transformation during the course of the study revealed a trauma bond between the emotions of shame and guilt. This emotional trauma bond is an ego-defense mechanism enabling survival, and it is the core of a deep construct generating maladaptive guilt. Intuitive inquiry is a cyclic method that generates lenses into a topic. Asking how shame and guilt were experienced posttrauma produced 132 initial lenses that culminated in 2 final lenses into the deep structure of survival: (a) Embodied shame is a background upon which, (b) there is movement between the polarities of vulnerability experienced as intolerable fear and maladaptive guilt experienced as intolerable weight.
Results of the research show shame fused with guilt to be a learned functional neurosis that manifests in a classic approach-avoidance conflict with vulnerability. Results also indicate that irrational self-blame specific to the traumatic event emerges through maladaptive guilt as inability to forgive self. Implications are that when this functional neurosis is projected into relationships with God, self, and others, it drives subtle and overt acts of individual and collective violence.
The Archetype & Myth of Sophia: An Exploration of Feminine Wisdom-Consciousness
Dawn-Sophia Waite
1986
Ph.D. Dissertation
This is an exploratory and interpretive study of the figure of Sophia, who represents the Sacred Feminine and Wisdom. The absence of a full and complete symbology of the feminine has recently begun to be most poignantly felt in the area of women's spirituality. On an individual and cultural level, the feminine-maternal wisdom has, for the most part, remained hidden, residing mainly in the unconscious and asserting itself via dreams and symbols.
As women have begun to seek models of psychospiritual wholeness, it has become clear that masculine developmental models have been the only available measures; their unsuitability is becoming increasingly apparent. C. G. Jung, in his archetypal psychology, has identified as a task of major import to psychological health in the West the challenge of reclaiming the feminine in order to balance our overvaluation of technology and our culture's loss of psychospiritual meaning. As one way to address the missing feminine element, this paper is designed as a mandala centered around Sophia. In laying out some of the possible symbolic images attributable to the archetype of Sophia and in ascribing meaning to the visual and mythic imagery, a hermeneutical approach is employed. A historical/contextual analysis of the Sophia-mythos is offered. The Gnostic Christian myth of Pistis Sophia is explored and interpreted as one opening into an articulation of feminine priorities and stages of unfoldment. An iconography descriptive and evocative of aspects of Sophia is presented. Additionally, the psychodynamics of feminine knowing and feminine wisdom are examined.
In conclusion, the study proposes a psychology of Sophia relating psychological and spiritual meaning to current issues and tasks that women face today. In filling in the beginnings of an iconography of Sophia, this paper serves to suggest a sense of the majesty, dignity, and profound richness awaiting our continuing exploration of the symbology of feminine wisdom.
Exploration of Psychological and Spiritual Well-Being of Women with Breast Cancer Participating in the Art of Living Program
Arielle Samantha Warner
2006
Ph.D. Dissertation
The purpose of this study was to explore the psychological and spiritual well-being of women diagnosed with breast cancer who participated in a yoga-based stress-reduction program known as the Art of Living program. The mixed-method design involved the participation of 26 women, diagnosed with breast cancer within the past 5 years, in an 8-day yoga-based stress reduction course that includes yogic breathing techniques known as Sudarshan Kriya Yoga (SKY), as well as other processes that draw on yoga principles.
Demographic and medical history variables were assessed at the time of recruitment, and standardized measures of quality of life, spiritual well-being, perceived stress, and positive states of mind were assessed two weeks prior to the beginning of the program, on the first day of the 8-day course, on the last day of the course, and following the 5-week maintenance period. In-depth semistructured interviews were conducted with a subsample of 12 women following the 5-week maintenance period. The results demonstrate a significant ( p < 0.0001) improvement in scores of all measurements after the 8-day Art of Living course and after the 5 weeks maintenance period. Effect sizes of all measurements were considered large.
Results indicate that these effects were not due to maturation. Qualitative results demonstrated that the breast cancer experience was associated with distress and challenges, as well as growth and transformation. Qualitative themes indicated that the participation in the Art of Living program was associated with enhanced sense of spirituality, experiences of self-exploration, self-transcendence, and psychospiritual transformation. These pilot data represent a preliminary investigation of the relationship between mind-body-spirit, yoga-based practices, and psychospiritual well-being of women with breast cancer, highlighting the need for further controlled studies in this area.
An Exploration of the Transpersonal Dimensions of Pregnancy
Teri Ellen Westra
1996
Ph.D. Dissertation
The processes of pregnancy, childbirth, and the transition to parenthood constitute a time of tremendous change in a woman's life. During pregnancy a woman's body, psychology, relationships, and social status are irrevocably altered. In the process of birth she will be required to exert energies and call upon internal strengths she may have never before plumbed, followed by embarkation on the journey of parenting--an adventure that will challenge and fulfill her in ways peculiar to this special undertaking.
To date many authors have explored the psychological, physical, social, and even economic dimensions of pregnancy, but little has been written in the academic literature about the spiritual or transpersonal aspects. The purpose of this study was to explore the transpersonal dimensions of pregnancy from the perspective of the pregnant woman. Included in this exploration were "extra-ordinary" experiences such as extrasensory perception, unitive consciousness, peak experiences, out-of-body experiences, and "communication" with the unborn child, as well as how the experience of pregnancy, with or without these features, inform a woman's spiritual development. Utilizing a Qualitative, Transpersonal, Feminist approach, eleven women--all identifying their ethnicity as Caucasian--were engaged in in-depth, semi-structured interviews. Participants were self-selecting, responding to fliers posted in the offices of various health practitioners. Data were analyzed for significant themes.
Participants reported a variety of transpersonal experiences, such as visions, prophetic dreams, and "knowledge" of information about specific physical and personality characteristics of the not-yet-born child. Participants also articulated the development of an approach to their spirituality which the author terms "engaged transcendence"--a worldview marked by the belief that all of life's experiences are sacred and may be viewed as fodder for personal and spiritual growth. Implications for social policy and clinical practice are discussed.
Women's Ways of Working: Feminine Styles of Doing and Being
Natasha Wist
1995
Ph.D. Dissertation
This study investigates the relationships between personality type as determined by the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, an author developed Masculine/Feminine Thinking Style Inventory, and an author developed Sentence Completion Inventory Attitudes Toward Work and Achievement. The subjects consisted of 75 college educated, professional women (7l Caucasians, 3 Latinos and l Afro-American), 66% of whom work in education.
The study employs a feminist methodology which combines an objective, analytical approach with a personal and speculative one. Significant chi- square results were found between MBTI personality type and attitude: sensate thinkers (STs) were found to have less positive attitudes toward work and achievement than intuitive feelers (NFs), intuitive thinkers (NTs), and sensate feelers (SFs). Introverts on the MBTI also had less positive attitudes toward work and achievement than extraverts. Significant chi-square results were found between the subjects\' age and attitudes toward work and achievement.
Of the five age groups from 20 years to 60 years, the 20 to 29 year olds had the most positive attitudes toward work and achievement, while the over 60 age group had the least positive attitudes towards work and achievement. Thematic analysis of the sentence completions yielded data on conflicts between the subjects' professional and personal lives. Forty percent of the subjects put successful family and home relationships as number one over self development and career and educational achievements. Half the women mentioned outer factors such as time, money, the system, as stumbling blocks in their careers, while the other half cited personality traits such as introversion, fear and low self esteem. Despite the conflicts between homemaking, childrearing and career, the majority of the subjects saw themselves as achieving their basic goals in life. Forty-nine percent of the subjects were very satisfied with their achievements and 47% were in process and feeling okay about their progress. Their guiding philosophies of life were divided between religious/ethical principles (79%) and practical guidelines (25%) for living. In conclusion, the women in this study strive for, value, and reflect the integration of perception with intuition, thinking with feeling and doing with being in their work and personal lives.
