For transgender clients, societal stigma often leads to adverse formative experiences rooted in gender experience and expression, potentially resulting in early maladaptive schemas related to disconnection and rejection. Schema Therapy offers a powerful avenue for healing through emotionally corrective experiences. However, many therapists have not been supported in recognising how social and cultural factors, such as cisgenderism and heteronormativity, impact the therapeutic needs and opportunities for healing when working with marginalised communities. This influence extends well beyond individual and family-of-origin issues. This underrepresentation of LGBTQIA+ therapists may also create therapeutic blind spots and biases, potentially affecting treatment effectiveness. This paper describes the aims and impacts of a half-day Schema Therapy Workshop on adapting the modality for trans clients. The purpose of this workshop was to explore treatment approaches that actively challenge biases and incorporate social and cultural factors into every facet of therapy, from formulation to treatment implementation. This paper reflects on how we aimed to fulfill this purpose, the lessons learned, and potential ways forward by reimagining Schema Therapy through a queer lens to enhance its therapeutic potential in the mental health care of clients with diverse gender identities.
Gendered safety work is a response to gender-based violence (GBV) where harm is caused through the reinforcing of problematic gender norms, or through actions against others based on their gender identity or sexuality. Traditionally masculine, or male-dominated, workplaces often have a culture that lends itself to sexual harassment and GBV. To prevent the threat and experience of GBV, individuals report altering their behaviours via 'safety work'. The aim of this study was to explore the perception people have of their engagement in gendered safety work in the context of traditionally masculine workplaces. Reflexive thematic analysis and social constructionist epistemology were adopted; 13 in-depth interviews were conducted. Participants identified as working in a traditionally masculine workplace, and as currently or previously aligning with womanhood or femininity. Four themes were identified: workplace gendered safety work; burden of responsibility; deprivation of independence; and gendered workplace culture. Notably, participants reported making personal sacrifices to ensure their safety at work, for example downplaying their expression offemininity to avoid sexual harassment and avoiding confrontation to ensure job security. Findings allowed further development of our conceptualisation of safety work and its gendered aspects.
More than half of adult women experience some form of gendered abuse in their home (Fanslow & Robinson, 2011). Recognising patterns of abuse embedded in and through white heteronormative coupledom can be difficult. Speaking of felt unease and danger can be fraught particularly in the absence of explicit physical abuse, stereotypically understood as domestic violence. As researchers, we have heard many stories of women's endurance of abuse by someone they love. Women we speak with have often expressed the desire for their stories to be shared so that other women may see themselves in such stories, recognise danger in their experience of abuse, and become safer in their lives. In this paper, we share one woman's story of coercive control in her relationship in the context of Aotearoa New Zealand. We provide an orientation and coda for her story, gifted to us in the hope that others may recognise more quickly the entrapment of coercive control.
Attuned to a note of peace and dignity, this project joins a chorus formed through the voices of researchers dedicated to transforming the wicked problem of gender-based violence located within the precarious and inequitable material conditions of daily lives that are manifest in and through gendered structural and social power relationships of domination and subordination. Situated both within a psychology discipline in Aotearoa and a collaborative community response to family violence with Sahaayta and Gandhi Nivas, the project stories a process of narrativity as a research practice of response-ability (Haraway, 2016), responding to a call in the violence sector to tell and hear stories differently to transform possibilities for ethical responses. As a mode of bearing witness to the pain of living through violence, the project addresses issues of fragmented and siloed knowledges and responses to gendered violence by remembering and re-telling a moment of response to a woman and her partner-a creative re-telling process that demonstrates how stories are sites where power dynamics can be recognised and challenged (Sonn & Baker, 2016), transforming the way we understand and respond to violence and distress.
Femininity is often reductively conceived of in feminist research as oppressive and synonymous with the experiences of cisgender heterosexual women, excluding the wealth of diverse LGBTQIA+ lived experiences of femininity. To exclude gender and sexually diverse voices in the context of a social issue they are central to, is in great misalignment with community psychology values. Thus, the current qualitative research explored gender and sexually diverse understandings and engagements with femininity. Fourteen gender and sexually diverse people shared their valuable insights and personal experiences via semi-structured interviews. Individually and collectively, the depth and complexity surrounding participant experiences was apparent, as was the clear value femininity held. Through a reflexive thematic analysis, several main and sub-themes were identified; a theme whereby normative and alternative conceptions of femininity were defined by participants, and where engagement with femininity was identified by participants as a journey including stages of separation, ordeal and meaningful return. The current paper interrogates a notable gap in critical feminist literature by centering LGBTQIA+ experiences of femininity, untethering femininity from gender and/or sexual orientation with the overall aim of fostering greater gender inclusivity and equity for feminine people in future research, intervention and practice.
This article comes from the perspective of a research-practitioner, and it aims to engage with practice concerns by resourcing psychologists in the field of community psychology on some of the practical considerations when dealing with people or communities affected by domestic and family violence (DFV). As the legal definition of DFV expands to include an understanding of coercive control, it is important for psychologists to be aware not only of the variations on the application of the term, but also how the public may take up this concept to understand their experiences. While legal changes can spark interesting and innovative community responses to violence, history in the policing of DFV proves that many times survivors, particularly women, can find themselves in a worse situation with new legislation due to intersecting vulnerabilities and an inbuilt difficulty of law to listen to women's voices. Awareness, transparency with clients and communities, and readiness to support communities while considering possibilities of collaboration with the state and services is a requirement in this changing landscape.
Reflections on life stories from those who began their journeys with psychology in the transformational decades of the 1960s and 1970s are now appearing, often with reflections on interrelationships between personal, professional, and political experiences and contexts. In this article three women psychologists from Australia and Aotearoa/New Zealand with over 150 years of connection to psychology between them reflect on their career-long journeys with feminism and community psychology, and their shared commitments to social justice. We recall our first encounters with psychology, our growing awareness of social inequities outside and within psychology, and the challenges and achievements that came from insisting that careers made room for values. We go on to consider how we are each continuing such efforts in our older years, and in different times from those that shaped us. Our three life stories illustrate how creativity, effort, privilege, commitment, and luck allowed us to confront the mainstream and align our work and workplaces with values of inclusion, equity, and justice. At the same time, we acknowledge that we are not entirely the authors of our own lives, which have been shaped by dear colleagues, by privilege and adversity, by changes achieved and resisted within psychology, and by the wider forces of social change over the decades.
The SAR-COV 2 coronavirus (henceforth COVID-19) pandemic brought the globe to a standstill, giving ample time for reflection on many aspects of the human experience, including identity. During this time, the authors of this paper collaborated on a photographic artistic project to explore their experiences of gender and bodies. The process and the product created by impostor (the artist) and impostor (the subject) had a profound impact on the authors, generating opportunities for both to reflect on their journeys as a professional artist and a non-binary person, respectively. While this project did not intentionally set out to explore the impostor phenomenon, nor the impacts of COVID-19 on gender, hindsight and collaboration have given the authors the opportunity to reflect on how these factors permeated and influenced their experiences throughout the creative process. This article is a culmination of their reflections. Utilising pastiche, the authors reflect on this process and product, drawing together academic, creative, and reflective writing styles, and images to reveal and explore the systemic, contextual, and personal factors that contribute to gendered experiences of the impostor phenomenon. In doing so, the authors highlight that community and collaboration are essential remedies to the pandemic and impostor phenomenon.
This paper introduces the concept of gender schema and argues for its inclusion as a target of treatment in schema therapy intervention. The paper explores the origins of gender schema, using Bem's pioneering work in the 1980's as a platform from which to extrapolate the ways in which the hegemonic/patriarchal gender binary is internalised as gender schema. The paper introduces schema therapists to post-heteronormative discourse, which is not easily or readily available to most clinicians and is mainly absent within dominant psychology discourse. The project of incorporating gender schema into the schema therapy field might be considered within a broader practice and project of decolonising our discipline.
Kick Start is a program to facilitate the transition to university for students who are the first in their family to attend university. Previous research has identified the achievement gap between first-in-family (FiF) and non-FiF students and the unique challenges FiF students encounter. This research focuses on the social dimension of learning using the community psychology framework of sense of community (SoC) and the individual-place relationship, and explores how familiarising FiF students with the university settings can improve their social integration into the university community. Social constructionism was used to frame the research. Seven Kick Start participants were interviewed, and thematic analysis was utilised to explore how the program facilitated the process of building environmental understanding upon their transition to university. Six themes were identified that were relevant to SoC, namely, confidence, competence, feeling settled, connectedness, relaxed, and relatedness. The findings have suggested that place familiarity can strengthen the link between individuals and the community, where an increased SoC leads to motivation to utilise resources to achieve positive university outcomes. One implication of the current research is to support the efficacy of contextualised learning opportunities like Kick Start to provide FiF students with hands-on experience of university when assisting with their transition.
Alienation from nature may be deeply implicated in the global ecological crisis and its associated deleterious wellbeing impacts. This highlights the importance of research that focuses on addressing and improving human connectedness with nature. Our study aimed to investigate the human-nature connection by exploring the concept of human-nature wellbeing reciprocity in the context of ecotherapy theory and practice. A qualitative research methodology was employed and grounded in a critical realist ontology and epistemology. Participants were seven ecotherapy practitioners. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews, analysed using thematic analysis, and explored with reference to social and biological science, First Nations, ecological land management, and other literatures. Analysis constructed three themes: (1) Human-Nature Connection is Multidimensional, (2) Ecotherapy May Initiate Transactional Reciprocity, and (3) Ecotherapy May Facilitate Co-becoming with Nature. The findings suggest that the human-nature connection can be understood in diverse but ultimately compatible ways offering a multidimensional and ecocentric perspective on human-nature wellbeing. Furthermore, human-nature wellbeing reciprocity may influence ecotherapeutic outcomes and may be harnessed through ecotherapeutic practices. This research contributes to the conceptual articulation and practical application of ecotherapeutic approaches that empower mutually healing engagements of humans with nature.
It is evident that LGBTQIA+ people are at higher risk of mental health difficulties which is worsened by discrimination and poor work relationships. The theory of employee engagement suggests that work engagement can be facilitated through positive psychological experiences of meaningfulness, availability, and safety at work, which is expected to also promote wellbeing. This study expands on this understanding by examining how these positive psychological conditions can relate to work engagement and positively affect the overall mental health of LGBTQIA+ employees daily. Data was collected from a diverse group of Australian LGBTQIA+ employees (N = 27) over five consecutive days (N = 135 observations). Results from regression analysis demonstrated that psychological meaningfulness and psychological availability fostered work engagement among LGBTQIA+ employees and improved their overall mental health through work engagement. Psychological safety decreased anxiety among LGBTQIA+ employees when the workplace climate was supportive. Thus, it was determined that psychological meaningfulness, availability and safety are important not only for employees to engage, but also the mental health of LGBTQIA+ employees. This provides important insights for organisations and employees that can guide them to target factors in the workplace to improve the mental health ofLGBTQIA+ employees.
Health care services have become increasingly concerned for asylum seekers suffering physical pain, which medical examinations cannot explain. This is the case of a growing number of traumatized asylum seekers holding temporary visas, who experience debilitating, long-term pain. With increasing presentation of pain, it is imperative to investigate a possible link with past trauma, as it often remains underdiagnosed, hindering recovery. Furthermore, there is a need to examine the efficacy of interaction with general practitioners as first-point of contact. Acknowledging trauma by GPs can promote safety, trust in health professionals and compassionate care. For this study, participants were 21 female asylum seekers, all ethnic Tamil women from Sri Lanka and Indonesia, aged between 31 and 39 years. Quantitative measures were used to obtain pain history: McGill Pain Questionnaire; Universal Pain Assessment, Wong-Baker Faces Pain Rating Scale, and Harvard Trauma Questionnaire. Results showed a link between somatic pain and PTSD, exacerbated by ongoing trauma such as visa insecurity. Semi-structured interviews revealed participants felt GPs, although caring, did not have sufficient time to explore trauma and listen to their trauma stories. Findings show that trauma exploration with asylum seekers presenting with pain can help better identify symptoms, providing comprehensive and empathic care. Addressing this link is important for devising effective referrals and developing appropriate and beneficial treatment programmes for improving overall health outcomes.
To inform the development of a measure of non-religious spirituality for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, this review examined studies utilising scales that assessed non-religious spirituality. We also investigated associations between nonreligious spirituality and health and identified the cultural groups in which these instruments had been validated. Across the 115 studies included, 28 spirituality tools were employed. A total of 50 health outcomes pertaining to physical health (34%) and psychological wellbeing (66%) were observed in their relationship to spirituality. The studies were conducted across 32 different countries, with the majority from the USA and involving White populations. Only seven studies used instruments developed for specific cultural groups. Future research is needed to enhance our understanding of how spirituality can be understood and measured in various cultural contexts.
Climate change affects all social and ecological systems, and its mitigation will entail billions of humans transforming their relationships with those complex systems. Amid signs that more people are alarmed and taking action to mitigate climate change, a new concept of deep behavioural engagement (DBE) in climate action is presented and explored through a mixed methods study. Australian adults (N=384) were surveyed anonymously online using open- and closed-ended items, with the sample including 111 people who reported practising DBE. Thematic analysis of open-ended items revealed that DBE activities ranged from nonviolent direct action to teaching climate science to practising permaculture. Binary logistic regression identified that people who reported higher levels of duty to mitigate climate change for the sake of others, combined with climate anxiety, active hope, and biospheric values, were more likely to practise DBE. Findings are important for understanding the motivations of people who are already doing the kinds of collective activism, career shifts and major lifestyle changes that are needed on a global scale as part of limiting climate change.
Lesbian women continue to experience interpersonal and institutional oppression in Australia. When lesbian women are also persons of colour, multiple and braided layers of discrimination from the intersection of identities intensify experiences of oppression, with negative consequences for mental health. Currently, there is no research investigating how lesbian women of colour (WOC) experience heterosexism and related systems of oppression, the perceived effects of these experiences on their mental health, and the strategies they use to cope with these experiences. Inductive data-driven thematic analysis of individually conducted semi-structured interviews with six, lesbian WOC living in Australia revealed that they experienced discrimination from a variety of sources based on gender and sexuality but also race, and that this discrimination was perceived to affect their mental health. Participants employed self-directed strategies (e.g., avoidance, denial, and assertiveness) and outward-directed strategies (e.g., seeking psychological support, legal or human resources support, and finding community) to cope with heterosexism and racism. Findings can be used to inform the design and implementation of culturally safe and sensitive psychoeducation and community-based programs and clinical interventions applied by psychologists and other mental health professionals working with lesbian women at the intersections.
Lateral violence is the act of directing one ' s dissatisfaction inwards, towards another member of an oppressed group. Lateral violence is believed to be an ongoing and intergenerational consequence of colonisation and oppression for many Indigenous peoples around the world. Within Australian, oppression in the form of racism and negative stereotypes has consequently enabled lateral violence to thrive in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and in the workplace. The undermining of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples ' identity and authenticity is a powerful and destructive tool of lateral violence. Lateral violence within the workplace can be via disempowering structures, management, ignorance, and lack of understanding and acknowledgement. To further explore this issue, the current study used a survey methodology to examine Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples ' understandings, experiences and impacts of lateral violence within the workplace, as well as participants ' experiences of reporting lateral violence via a national online questionnaire. Of the 120 participants in the present study, 90% reported having experienced lateral violence within the workplace, while 86% reported having witnessed lateral violence. For nearly 40% of participants, experiencing or witnessing lateral violence was a weekly or daily occurrence. These experiences were reported to be associated with feelings of sadness, anxiety, and anger. Furthermore, 59% of participants who reported lateral violence to a supervisor stated that they were largely unsupported. The results indicated that within the sample population lateral violence is highly prevalent and associated with negative impacts on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples ' work satisfaction, and social and emotional wellbeing.
Individuals and teams in the journalism community cover stories relating to death, destruction, and tragedy in society, exposing themselves to potentially traumatic events (PTEs). The aim of this review was to explore: (1) the impact trauma exposure may have on substance use, (2) substance use as a method of coping, and (3) personality profiles that are predictive of substance use. Findings indicate that journalists are exposed to a wide variety of PTEs. Despite substance use being considered a trauma reaction in the broader literature, this connection has not been adequately addressed within journalist samples. The most common substance researched in journalists is alcohol consumption, with few studies considering other substances (e.g., nicotine, caffeine, or illicit substances). Future research with journalist samples could evaluate substance use as a method of coping and incorporate broader theory relating to substance use risk personality profiles. There is a need to bridge the gap that exists between broader trauma and substance use literature and a focus on journalist samples, with the intention of: (1) providing a more holistic understanding of psychosocial issues associated with trauma exposure and substance use to inform diagnosis and treatment, (2) assessing risk and protective factors for this community, (3) informing the development of health promotion and education programs specific to practising journalists and journalistic organisations, and (4) highlighting opportunities for trauma specific education targeted at those training to become a journalist, including protective coping strategies.
Our study involves collaboration/participation in order to develop culturally sensitive multinational tools for assessing post viral symptoms. We discuss the creation of questionnaires using patient participation, and the translation of these questionnaires using international collaboration. Patient engagement in collaboration on the creation and use of these types of instruments is of particular importance for patients who historically have not been true partners in collaborative efforts to understand diseases. This has occurred for those with the post-viral illness called Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS), which has generated considerable resentment and estrangement among the patient community. Our article reviews: 1) why participation of diverse groups/patients is important in the development of instruments to measure key symptoms of ME/CFS, 2) why the ME/CFS group of patients needs to be included specifically (as an example), and 3) why structured health questionnaires are important/useful. Our article also has an overall aim of demonstrating collaborative efforts with patients and others on creating multinational scales. We provide examples of participatory processes used in developing and translating patient-driven instruments so that they can be used in non-English speaking countries. Our article illustrates how patients and international researchers can be involved in efforts to develop and translate international assessment instruments to validly capture domains of unexplained illness like ME/CFS. With the onset of another post-viral illness, Long COVID, there is a world-wide need to create valid and culturally sensitive assessment instruments to measure critical symptoms, many of which are similar to ME/CFS.
This study explored the manner in which Muslims emerging into adulthood carve their social identity as Muslims, and their sense of belonging through their experiences in Australia. An interpretative phenomenological methodology was utilised. In depth interviews were undertaken with eight emerging adults and four adults who work with emerging adults. The article presents data that indicates that this group of Muslims emerging into adulthood in Australia face various hurdles of discrimination while they try to retain and represent their religious identity. Community volunteering seemed to be a protective factor. Despite the unique challenges faced, they still feel a sense of belonging and identify as Australian Muslims.
