The National University System Repository exists to increase public access to research and other materials created by students and faculty of the affiliate institutions of National University System. Most items in the repository are open access, freely available to everyone.
Recent Submissions
Item Understanding Negative Body Image and Its Consequences in Black Women from a Culturally Responsive Lens(2024-10)Negative body image in Black women is a critically understudied and misunderstood sociocultural issue that is often viewed from a Eurocentric lens, ignoring the cultural nuances that exist for Black women, which is reflective of the historical and systemic discrimination and erasure that Black women have long faced in North America. This capstone research project utilizes a thematic literature review of peer-reviewed studies published between 2019 and 2024 to investigate how culturally specific factors shape and influence body image and the lived experiences of Black women. This review is guided by the question: How can we better understand body image concerns in Black women to provide culturally responsive counseling and treatment? Key findings reveal that negative body image is developed and influenced in adolescence by parents, family and friends, and for Black women is compounded by factors such as colorism, conflicting Eurocentric and cultural beauty standards, the strong, black woman persona, and media representations that portray Black women in a marginalized, caricatured, and stereotyped way. These culturally nuanced stressors are linked to mental health concerns, including depression, anxiety, and eating disorders that are often undiagnosed and untreated due to systemic and cultural barriers, emphasizing the importance of culturally responsive therapeutic practices, community-based interventions, and culturally inclusive frameworks in both research and clinical practice to better understand and address the unique experiences of Black women with body image-related concerns.Item Towards a Holistic Healing Model: Applying Acceptance and Commitment Therapy to Hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome(2025-02-14)Hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (hEDS) is an inherited connective tissue disorder with a profound biopsychosocial impact, such as chronic pain, fatigue, anxiety, depression, and social isolation. Despite these significant challenges, research exploring psychotherapeutic interventions for individuals with hEDS is limited. This capstone examines the application of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), a mindfulness-based cognitive behavioural therapy, to address the psychological burden and enhance resilience for individuals with hEDS. Research findings are drawn from various disciplines, such as medicine, psychology, and counselling, using the biopsychosocial approach as a guiding framework to study the potential application of ACT for people with hEDS. Current literature indicates that people with hEDS experience significant physical, psychological, and social challenges., ACT has been found to be an effective approach for helping people in managing chronic illness. Although no direct studies of ACT and hEDS exist, evidence from related populations demonstrates ACT’s effectiveness in increasing psychological flexibility, reducing distress, and enhancing quality of life. The findings suggest that ACT’s core principles of acceptance, cognitive defusion, mindfulness, and values-based action, align well with the needs of those with hEDS. These insights are synthesized, and recommendations on how to apply ACT in a therapeutic setting for those with hEDS are provided. Further, ethical considerations are addressed, and areas for future research are identified. This study contributes to the understanding of hEDS by offering a holistic and evidence-based perspective that paves the way for future research into ACT’s efficacy for hEDS.Item Re-Authoring the Narrative: An Investigation into Narrative Therapy’s Impact on the Mental Health Healing of Women Who Have Experienced Domestic Violence(2024-11)This capstone project explores the literature on narrative therapy and its impact on the mental health healing of women who have experienced domestic violence. Violence against women continues to be a problem in society. As the patriarchal modern society continues to colonize and normalize abuse and neglect women’s rights, clinical research continues its attention on reporting data that shows women experiencing chronic intimate partner and family violence. Women who experience such types of domestic violence can have lasting mental health struggles. However, the current literature has mixed evidence on what may be best for treatment. Narrative therapy aims to externalize the problematic narratives in a client’s life and empower them to find their desired story. Therefore, there is a clinical curiosity about the state of the literature on using narrative therapy in this clinical population. A literature review yielded ten qualitative, two quantitative, and one case conceptualization study on the relevant topic. Three primary themes emerged, with narrative stories showing resistance to domestic violence, the cultural variation in women's experiences with narrative therapy, and the pathways of re-authoring stories away from abuse. The results summary and clinical applications are discussed, with potential future directions and concluding statements.Item Supporting Our Youngest Learners: The Need and Benefit of Elementary School Counsellors(2024-08)Mental illness is on the rise worldwide and British Columbia is no different. More children with mental illness go untreated than those who are lucky enough to receive support. Access to mental health support is a huge barrier for many families for various reasons, such as wait lists, cost, and even physical location and time constraints. When children are struggling with mental illness, it affects their ability to learn, to socialize, and to regulate. This often is more apparent in a school setting. There are also children who do not present as having a mental illness as they are exhibiting internalizing behaviours and are often overlooked for support because their behaviour is not extreme. The current system is set up as a downstream or reactionary one, only providing support once a child is in crisis. Early intervention, or an upstream approach, is key to preventing more serious mental illness or comorbidities as the child moves through adolescence and later into adulthood. The long-term benefits to society in general far outweigh the initial investment. Elementary school counsellors are able to provide this early intervention. Their role is to support school staff and administration in developing a comprehensive school counselling program unique to that school. They have a direct impact on school culture through collaboration with staff, supporting staff with social emotional learning, and to promote mental health by normalizing help seeking and reduce the stigma around mental illness. The sooner we can support our youngest learners in a setting they spend most of their time in, we are able to access many of those students who are at risk or marginalized, and who often need mental health support the most. The time to invest in our youngest learners is now.Item Reducing Student Prejudice in Diversity-Infused Core Psychology Classes(2010)The current quasi-experimental study compared two sections of a course, one that included diversity content and one that did not. The authors obtained pretest and posttest data on students’ attitudes toward a number of different minority groups and on their levels of course content knowledge. The authors also examined two questions: first, whether exposure to diversity would reduce prejudice, and second, whether inclusion of diversity content would reduce the amount of core course content learned by students. At posttest, significant differences were found in terms of positive attitude change; infusing diversity into course content did not affect content knowledge
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