Anxiety is an emotion that consists of worrisome thoughts, physical tension, and physiological arousal regarding the perceived potential of danger. College students have increasingly endorsed anxiety as a primary difficulty during the collegiate years. Due to this increase in anxiety and an increase in utilization of therapy services, the overall…

The issue of college student retention remains a critical concern in higher education. Institutions have begun to address this issue through the development of academic enhancement programs. These programs are designed to increase student success and prior research largely supports their efficacy. However, a paucity of research exists to…

As evidence-based programs (EBPs) are transported to more representative clinical settings from highly controlled efficacy trials, their advantage over usual care (UC) is largely diminished. However, it is difficult to explain this phenomenon without a better understanding of the status quo in mental health care. Knowledge of the nature of UC is…

Reiki healing is one of several complementary and integrative therapies becoming increasingly prevalent in mental health counseling. It has been identified in the medical field for its usefulness in treating anxiety, depression, distress, and pain but has rarely been studied for its counseling impact on client wellness. I conducted single-case…

This dissertation presents an ethnography of equine-assisted psychotherapy (EAP) based on nine months of fieldwork at "Equine Healers," a non-profit organization in central Colorado that specialized in various therapeutic modalities associated with EAP. In bridging scholarly work around animals, a literature suffused with the notion of…

As Non-Suicidal Self Injury (NSSI) is increasing in prevalence among adolescents and young adults, College Counseling Centers (CCC's) are tasked with treating this population of students. CCC's are designed to provide counseling services to all students seeking assistance and therapy is typically relegated to short term psychotherapy with…

A sample of university counseling center students was investigated to determine whether student clients who attended short term individual counseling at a university counseling center show progress as evidenced by perceived client and counselor outcomes, and to explore how client motivation to change and working alliance affected counseling…

To enhance the effectiveness of therapy for Spanish-speaking individuals and families requires an understanding of the subtleties of language use and interpretive processing. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to describe the interpretive process in bilingual psychotherapists as they reflected upon their lived experiences of providing…