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Integrating Mindfulness into Your Professional Practice: Centering in an Uncentered World
No full textBefore entering higher education Dr. Joy Kutaka-Kennedy spent over twenty years teaching students from pre-school through high school in regular education, gifted education, at-risk education, and special education. Her university responsibilities include course development and oversight, field work supervision, and mentoring adjunct faculty. Dr. Joy Kutaka-Kennedy has the lifelong interest in personal growth, spiritual practices, and becoming a better human being.This presentation explores the practice of mindfulness for teachers. The rationale for this practice is explored for teachers to become more productive, more effective, and happier. Happier teachers create classrooms where students learn better. By practicing mindfulness, teachers can create and sustain positive environments in which students can thrive. A Mind Body meditation is included as the author leads viewers through a centering exercise
Gold Medal Strategies for Athlete Mental Health: A Sport-Informed Lens to Therapeutic Treatment for High Performance Athletes
No full textAs high profile athletes increasingly share their mental health challenges, awareness of the need for mental help support in sports is growing. This capstone explores both the prevalence of mental health symptoms and disorders among high performance athletes and identifies sport specific risk factors for mental health within high performance sport systems. Understanding how mental health can impact both mental and athletic performance can lower mental health stigma in sports, increase help-seeking behaviours, and creates a distinct opportunity for Registered Clinical Counsellors (RCCs) in elite sport systems. It is time RCCs enter into the arena equipped with a sport-informed lens to therapeutic treatment that allows athletes to go for gold without sacrificing their mental health. This approach recognizes the complexities of being an elite athlete, the pressures of high performance environments, and importance of the coach-athlete relationship. By integrating therapeutic care into the athlete’s sport contexts and acknowledging both their mental well-being and performance goals, we can ensure they reach peak performance, competing at their best both on and off the field
Embrace to Enhance a Deeper Connection: Integrating Emotionally Focused Therapy and Sex Therapy to Improve Adult Couples Intimacy Through Cuddling
No full textIn recent years, declining intimacy among adult couples has become a significant concern due to work stress, technology use, and societal pressures. This capstone explores combining emotionally focused therapy (EFT) and sex therapy, with a focus on cuddling, to address these issues. The aim is to create and evaluate a therapeutic intervention that enhances emotional engagement, communication, and secure attachment through cuddling. The literature review covers EFT's role in addressing attachment needs and restructuring negative patterns, and sex therapy's emphasis on communication and cognitive-behavioural strategies. Integrating these therapies is proposed to improve both emotional and sexual intimacy. The capstone also highlights cuddling's benefits as a non-verbal communication tool that strengthens emotional bonds and fosters security. Practical strategies for therapists include comprehensive assessments, safe therapeutic environments, attachment dynamics exploration, sex therapy techniques, mindfulness, sensate focus exercises, and communication skills training. Therapists are encouraged to assign cuddling and other intimate behaviours as homework. This capstone offers innovative insights and practical guidance for therapists, potentially contributing to a deeper understanding of intimacy enhancement in adult couples
An Investigation of How Traumatic Brain Injuries Lead to Emotional Dysregulation
No full textThe purpose of this capstone research project is to explore research surrounding traumatic brain injury (TBI) and its negative impact on emotional regulation. This capstone will focus on research pertaining to major, minor and multiple TBIs, as well as a focus on diffuse axonal injuries. To start, a background of TBI and persistent post-concussion syndrome (PPCS) will be presented along with a purpose statement, the relevance of contribution to the field, and a reflectivity/positionality statement from the writer. Chapter two will provide a deeper analysis into what a TBI is, what emotional regulation is, and the lasting effects of a TBI. There will be discussion surrounding degeneration of core neural tracks, Alexithymia, and impacts on psychological and cognitive functioning. Chapter 3 will discuss potential interventions for TBI recovery and support from a mental health perspective, including utilization of narrative therapy and cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT)
The Intersection of Polyvagal Theory, Trauma, and Kundalini Yoga
No full textKundalini Yoga is a prospective approach to treat post-traumatic stress. Traumatic events are highly prevalent globally, necessitating a range of therapeutic interventions. Yoga is a mind-body intervention used in therapeutic settings and as an adjunctive healing method. Polyvagal theory offers a bio-psycho-social framework to understand the impacts of post-traumatic stress through evolutionary adaptations, unconscious perception of environmental cues, and mechanisms for social bonding. Kundalini Yoga is a branch of yoga that uses breathwork, meditation, movement, sound, and pressure points to restore mind-body balance. Some practices in Kundalini Yoga include ethical and moral behavioural teachings that should be considered when applied to clinical practice. This paper aims to assess the potential for using Kundalini Yoga as a therapeutic intervention for post-traumatic stress by connecting the neurophysiological correlates of Kundalini Yoga and polyvagal theory and addressing the ethical and cultural considerations unique to Kundalini Yoga. Kundalini Yoga was found to align with the tenets of polyvagal theory, with both frameworks supporting bodily homeostasis. Kundalini Yoga and its associated practices have proved to be beneficial in treating post-traumatic stress and its symptoms, albeit there were notable gaps in the methodological processes of evaluating Kundalini Yoga. To integrate Kundalini Yoga ethically into therapeutic settings, additional training, personal practice, self-reflection, and consultation are required to navigate ethical and cultural complexities
The Impact of Non-Consensual Distribution of Intimate Images on Adolescent Psychosocial Well-Being
No full textAs the non-consensual distribution of intimate images (NCDII) becomes increasingly prevalent among adolescents, it is essential to examine the psychosocial risks associated with this issue to develop effective interventions. Adolescents impacted by NCDII face devastating consequences, including pervasive social stigmatization, loss of trust, isolation, psychological distress, disruptions in self-perception, and heightened risks of suicidality and self-harm. The successful navigation of developmental stages is crucial for their long-term psychosocial well-being, making it imperative to address these concerns effectively in adolescence. This capstone reviews the literature on the psychosocial impacts of NCDII, with a focus on how it impacts adolescent development. Based on these findings, recommendations for counselling psychology are presented, emphasizing a client-centred, strengths-based approach, education for youth and youth advocates, and leveraging the privileged role of counsellors to drive social change
‘We Move Together’: Bringing Disability Justice to Counselling Practice for the Benefit of All Clients
No full textThere is little attention paid to the topic of disability in counselling and psychology, whether it is in relation to the experience of disabled people themselves in counselling sessions, or to developing disability competencies as practitioners. As a result of this, ableism, sanism, and neurotypical bias remain largely unaddressed in the counselling field. The aim of this capstone is to investigate the ways that Disability Justice can be brought to counselling - as both a framework and a way of working - in order to support disabled, Mad, and neurodivergent clients, as well as all clients. Themes identified in the literature include: clients' experiences in counselling (highlighting the reality of concurrent harm and benefit in the counselling room); therapy effectiveness (revealing an emphasis on CBT therapies and evidence of its efficacy - with adaptations - as well as evidence for the use of other therapies, and the need for further study); and the creative possibilities of integrating Disability Justice into practice. I propose that Disability Justice can assist us in examining ourselves and our frameworks more clearly; understanding our disabled, Mad, neurodivergent clients in context; attending to the therapeutic relationship; and building a repertoire of culturally-responsive, accessible clinical interventions of benefit to all clients
Navigating Chronic Pain in the Therapy Room: A Critique of the Current Medical Landscape in Canada that Fails Those Living with Chronic Pain
No full textChronic pain affects one in five Canadians personally. With the government of Canada recognizing the need to shift chronic pain management toward an integrated approach, this capstone suggests that therapists should take a forefront role in chronic pain management to help those millions of people affected. This capstone is designed as a literature review to explore what chronic pain exactly is, how it looks, and who it affects specifically in Canada. It is then designed to review the current state of healthcare in Canada from perspectives of the public, and of physicians and professionals working within it. The research focuses on chronic pain management in Canada from a biopsychosocial lens and seeks to give power to each of these perspectives. The major finding of this capstone is that Canada’s physicians and other medical professionals are not only under equipped to provide adequate chronic pain treatment by virtue of their professional expectations, but that their professional roles and education may actually be rooted in colonial views that may perpetuate harm to chronic pain experiencers. I conclude that the education and competence of counselling therapists make them well suited additional supports for chronic pain experiencers, and that this may benefit individuals and lower the burden on our healthcare system equally. In light of this conclusion, this capstone proposes guidelines to help counselling therapists navigate conversations about chronic pain with their clients and with other helpful professionals, so that they may best serve clients in a wholistic way. It also makes suggestions for future research and advocacy for publicly funded psychotherapy
Combining NMT with Culturally Appropriate Interventions: Trauma-Informed Practice for Canadian Indigenous Youth to Cultivate Intergenerational Healing
Get PDFThe following mixed-method literature review examines the ongoing mental health crisis among Canadian Indigenous youth populations, the current trauma-informed care (TIC) model guidelines in Alberta, and how the neurosequential model of therapeutics (NMT) can be combined with Indigenous healing practices in treatment interventions. Given what we know about Indigenous youth's overrepresentation in the criminal justice system, substance use disorders, externalizing disorders, and placement in government care, it is critical to understand better what treatment interventions exist today and in what ways they are lacking. Current research and treatment plans fail to adequately consider the loss of culture and traditions due to colonization and intergenerational trauma (IGT) and how this shows up behaviorally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually in Indigenous youths. The purpose of this capstone is to address the gap in Indigenous-specific trauma research regarding the importance of viewing dysfunction from a holistic, developmental, and cultural lens and ask: How can neurodevelopmental, trauma-informed, and culturally appropriate integrative treatments be utilized in psychological intervention methods for Indigenous youth? It is hypothesized that by viewing Indigenous youth mental health challenges from a holistic lens that seeks to understand the child’s entire lived experience and adjust interventions accordingly, long-term and intergenerational healing can be achieved
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Chronic Pain and Depression in Women
No full textChronic pain and depression are closely linked, with the experience of persistent physical discomfort leading to emotional distress, and in turn, depression worsening the perception of pain. Women are more likely to experience both chronic pain and depression in comparison to men, and their experience can be significantly more complex based on a combination of biological, social, and societal factors. The cycle between pain and mood often creates a situation where each reinforces the other, making treatment options particularly challenging to navigate. Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) has emerged as a promising treatment modality for women suffering from chronic pain-related depression. This approach encourages women to change their relationship to their pain, rather than attempting to avoid or control it, and to commit to actions that align with their values, even in the presence of discomfort. By increasing psychological flexibility, ACT can help women break free from the cycle of pain and emotional distress, ultimately reducing the severity of depression. This capstone project will explore the efficacy of ACT in managing chronic pain-related depression in women, highlighting its unique interventions and therapeutic outcomes