Counseling Faculty Publishes Research Articles

October 12, 2021
Dr. Machado announcement image

Assistant Professor of Counseling, Silvio Machado, has recently published two articles.   

The first one was published in the Journal of Humanistic Psychology, titled "Integrative Jungian Psychotherapy for Anxiety and OCD". Cognitive-behavioral interventions for anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder have received a great deal of attention for their growing evidence base. These therapies focus on symptom elimination by way of cognitive and behavioral change and, though undoubtedly helpful, miss important symbolic aspects of the client’s experience of these disorders that have the potential for meaning and the resolution of traumatic history. Jungian psychotherapy, like other depth-oriented and humanistically oriented approaches, is concerned both with meaning in the client’s life and the process by which the client becomes more themselves by integrating fragmented, wounded, and hidden aspects of the psyche—a process known as individuation. This article integrates Jungian concepts with trauma theory to generate an integrative framework for psychotherapy with individuals with anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder. The case of “Stefan,” which provides a description of trauma-informed psychotherapy incorporating eye movement desensitization and reprocessing within a Jungian framework, is then presented to illustrate key elements of this theoretical integration.

The second article, titled "Interpretive Poetry and the Family Coming Out Crisis", was published in the journal Qualitative Inquiry. The article is a poetic transcription presented as a 12-part poem. Dr. Machedo constructed the poem from an email interview conducted with “Donovan,” a 61-year-old, white, gay man. The interview was part of a larger study on the experience of LGBTQ+ identity as spiritual identity, which focused on individuals who believe their LGBTQ+ identity is imbued or imbues their life with spiritual qualities. Donovan is a monk in a tradition that blends Hinduism, Buddhism, Native American Spirituality, and Paganism and that honors the “Hayamoni,” a Pali word for Two-Spirit people. The narrative poem reflects his perspective on the experience and meaning of LGBTQ+ spiritual identity in his life. The poem is presented without a literature review in an effort to privilege Donovan’s lived experience and perspective.

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