The pregnancy and postpartum periods are full of major life transitions. So often, the focus of the literature is about the unborn baby and physical changes a woman experiences throughout this timeframe. Many sources often overlook women’s personal experiences in the perinatal period. Despite an increase in perinatal mood and...
Tabletop role-playing games (TRPG) such as Dungeons & Dragons™ are widely known and enjoyed by diverse individuals across the world. However, TRPGs and their players historically have experienced significant stigmatization due to the misconception by some that fantasy role play leads to psychological dysfunction. While a large body of research...
The dehumanization of Black, Indigenous, people of color (BIPOC) and marginalized communities does not end once an individual is released from an institution. The dehumanization process is kept alive with ineffective community supervision and the stigma associated with an individual’s incarnation history. Evidence of this continual dehumanization process is reflected...
The counseling profession has historically adopted a one-size-fits-all approach toward addressing bereavement. However, there is an emerging paradigm-shift in grief therapy that has been enabled by recent research that differentiates, for example, between types of grief and styles of grieving. This research project contributes to this nuanced approach to grief...
Play therapy is a unique skill set within psychotherapy that combines the language of play with other forms of communication to promote healing and growth in children and adolescents. This therapeutic approach involves utilizing toys, pretend play, structured and unstructured activities, and various interactions to foster a therapeutic relationship. By...
Domestic violence (DV) is pervasive worldwide and has negative psychological effects that last a lifetime. Although DV is a problem that affects all societies, it is addressed through varied legal responses and with gaps in comprehension when examined through a cultural lens. The findings of these studies have the potential...
Counseling as a profession has been on a journey of self-examination as CACREP approaches the release of its revised standards and the world recovers from the tumultuous few years under the shadow of the pandemic. Cultural shifts in perspective have prompted new conversations around concepts related to sexuality, racial identity,...
Corpus linguistics studies involving lyrics continue to grow. While previous research has pointed to a positive relationship between certain personality traits and music types, the relationship between lyrics and suicide is understudied. As such, mental health researchers and practitioners have little sense of how the language of someone who has...
The process of coming out by an individual of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ+) community involves recognition and disclosure, and it is a personal and important part of identity development. The process of coming out is also a symbol of the LGBTQ+ community’s self-disclosure of their sexual...
The counseling field is infused with multiculturalism and social justice competencies from the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs accreditation standards of the academic institutions to the American Counseling Association Code of Ethics. Counselors are tasked with understanding multiculturalism from self-awareness to clients’ worldviews to larger implications...