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Archetypes and their applications

11 November 2019
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Our human experience unfolds in chapters. With every turn of the page and throughout all the plot twists life throws our way, our search for self continues. We find ourselves on a ceaseless quest to discover our own identity and ultimately our purpose.

The search for self is arguably one of the greatest puzzles we work to solve. As we channel our inner investigator, we uncover clues. Some are evident or surface level in nature while others have roots that run deep and are buried in the depths of our unconscious. All of which, when unearthed, help us uncover our power and potential.

Mapping the search

Since this quest is highly personal and has the potential to last an entire lifetime, it can leave humans feeling inspired or, conversely, completely adrift. The road to enlightenment is not new—humans have been compelled to walk it for centuries. Millions across the world have discovered a roadmap to navigate this exploration of self in archetypes.

Archetypes have a storied past, and the mere idea of them has sparked the imagination of poets, philosophers, psychologists, and dreamers. When tracing the origin point, all roads lead to Greek philosopher Plato and his Theory of Forms, which introduced constructs such as “paradeigma,” a Greek term meaning “pattern.”

Although the earliest constructs for archetypes can be traced back to Plato, he cannot be credited with popularizing the term. Instead, that honor rests with Carl Jung, a Swiss psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, and the founder of analytical psychology, now known as Jungian psychology.

Jung helps navigate

In 1919, Jung introduced the world to four archetypes: the self, the shadow, the animus, and the anima.

  • The self: the whole that connects the unconscious and subconscious
  • The shadow: the deeper elements of our psyche often ripe with chaos
  • The animus: the collective unconscious masculine psychological qualities a woman possesses
  • The anima: the collective unconscious feminine psychological qualities a man possesses

Jung believed that when people tap into their own archetype, they create a vital pathway toward understanding one’s self and purpose. Most people have a primary or dominant archetype that takes the lead, but it’s not uncommon to have a few archetypes at play. Depending on how you are wired and what drives you, your primary archetype is compelled by either the self, the ego, or the soul.

Evolution and application of the archetypes

Since the early 1900s, when Jung first revealed his theory, archetypes have undergone an evolution into many different forms and applications. Others interested in further examination of patterned behavior began to add more classifications—with more nuanced differences and definitions. Twelve personalities emerged, and although many have different names, the meanings and descriptions remain the same in most analyses. Although they are a departure from Jung’s original four, these archetypes still offer unique insight into the interplay between the self and the conscious and unconscious mind.

Take this quiz to find your primary archetypes and learn more about the ways these personas can offer understanding and empowerment.

Organizational archetypes

Finding your archetype is a deeply personal examination, but human beings aren’t the only ones who benefit from identifying and working with personas. Organizations can also identify and work to understand their patterned behavior. Saybrook University alumnus and organizational systems expert Jorge Taborga, Ph.D., explains how organizational archetypes relate to Jung’s original four.

“Organizational archetypes are structured in four life forces in competing pairs: people and results, and learning and stabilizing,” Dr. Taborga explains. “This competition is well documented in the Competing Values Framework (CVF). CVF has been used to identify four primary cultures in organizations, namely adhocratic, collaborative, competitive, and controlling. No organization expresses a single culture but will gravitate or show a preference for one over the others.”

In order to build a stable culture, it’s imperative to tap into the individual archetypes of each employee.

“While archetypes are always present, however, they need to be activated, channeled, and supported. Culture change is not easy and requires the desired archetypes to be activated and emphasized through organizational structures, strategies, and rewards,” Dr. Taborga says. “Balance is always required to achieve stability (homeostasis). Otherwise, the system (organization) will be in a perpetual state of change (entropy) that will tire everyone and ultimately result in failure.”

Activating, channeling, and supporting your primary archetype can help harness the power of you and any system you are a part of. The beauty of archetypes is that they are pattern-based, so understanding yours enables you to forecast your reaction to life’s variables. This deeper understanding of self can lead to a heightened ability to actualize your and your organization’s potential.

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From cooking to counseling

31 October 2019
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In a switch from career to calling, R. Paul Johnson is increasing the quality of life for both his clients and himself.

Living in a flat in Paris and baking croissants in the city’s finest restaurants may sound glamorous, but for R. Paul Johnson, whose time in Europe trickled into an expansive 20-year career in the restaurant industry, it led to burnt out.

“I got tired of the lifestyle,” Johnson says. “I eventually became managing director for a restaurant group and had about 800 employees under my purview. It’s really difficult work.”

The burn out led Johnson to search for more fulfilling work.

He was taking a walk on his day off when he wandered onto the campus of a community college. It was the first day of the semester, and the campus was buzzing with students. He explored further and found himself in a Psych 101 class.

“I was amazed by the discussion and lecture from a great professor, and I thought OK, this is cool. So I eventually enrolled in the class,” Johnson says. “It was difficult—I was working 60 hours a week on top of the class, but I did it. I thought well, if I ever get a chance to go back, this is what I’m interested in learning more about.”

It might seem like a stark transition—working in a restaurant to studying psychology. But the parallel is very much there: The industry has the highest correlation with mental health issues. The high-pressure environment and long hours make for a taxing culture. It’s something Johnson can now reflect on more holistically. “I began to be aware of things and really see the behavioral issues that go on and the erratic emotions people have,” he says.

He went back to school full-time, graduating with his bachelor’s in psychology in 2012. This would proliferate into a Master’s in Psychology from Saybrook University in 2013, and his current tenure as a Clinical Psychology doctoral student.

As he started his Ph.D., Johnson also worked at a facility that served people with schizophrenia. It informed his dissertation—a body of research that explores the lived experiences of those whose loved ones have been diagnosed with schizophrenia.

Johnson didn’t believe in the siloed approach that clinicians often took when it came to recommending treatment for those who are chronically mentally ill. “I was interested in understanding why some clinicians feel like that—because that’s not the case at all. We know the research. And that’s where my work as a counselor came in,” he says.

Today Johnson works at a large hospice organization—a place where he believes the care team functions as a united front. Johnson frequently works with doctors, nurses, and social workers to support both patients and their loved ones in the bereavement department.

“For those with anticipatory grief, we need to allow ourselves to live for today, and remember that they’re still here. There is so much out of our control, and in our human effort to control everything, we miss out on a lot.”

His works applies personally, too. It’s something he saw with his own mom.

“My mom passed—she had been sick for a long time. What I tried to do for her was just offer the best quality of life for as long as she was here. It involved saying the things I thought I needed to say, encouraging other family members to do so as well, and just being open and honest about it. So often we can get caught up in the fear of death that we forget to live our life.”

Creating the best “quality of life” is something that Johnson works on daily. It was the impetus for his move out of the restaurant industry, and it’s what drives most of his work with clients today.

“I think to be happy you need to feel like you’re really making a difference in your community—and there is a lot of work that needs to be done around helping each other out,” Johnson says. “I always felt like there had to be an opportunity for me to help people in a more impactful way. For me, that’s helping people improve their quality of life through all stages.”

Johnson believes the key to this starts with what that means to you—the answer is not universal. For him, it means freedom to travel, to sit and be somewhere, to have friends and family close, and to be happy in his career. At this stage of his life, he feels good about what he’s doing. He has options—something he lacked for so many years with such a grueling schedule—and it’s a luxury he appreciates.

“I have a wide-open future. I don’t really know where I’ll be next, but the fact that I have options is a good thing.”

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If you are interested in learning more about Saybrook’s graduate programs in counseling, fill out the form below to request more information.

Remembering Carrie Mangels Phelps

28 October 2019
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A pioneer in the mind-body medicine and integrative nutrition fields, Saybrook professor and alumna Carrie Phelps, Ph.D., BCC, CWWS, passed away on Oct. 6. Carrie was a Mind-Body Medicine (MBM) alumna and chair of the Integrative Wellness Coaching (IWC) program. We remember her as kind, funny, brilliant, inspirational, compassionate, and deeply committed to her field, her friends, and all those she served, and she served everyone. She was devoted to shifting healthcare to promote optimal wellness for communities and energize well-being for individuals to expand potential, foster fulfillment, and enrich lives. Her work inspired the work of numerous Saybrook students, alumni, and faculty to promote advancements in mind-body medicine techniques and applications, research, and scholarship.

Carrie’s accomplishments in scholarship and practice were outstanding. These were important to her, and they will remain important contributions to our field, our work, and our Saybrook community. Carrie was with the MBM community from the start: Carrie was in our second cohort beginning in 2010. She earned her Ph.D. at Saybrook in Mind-Body Medicine in 2014, with a specialization in Healthcare Systems. Carrie also held a B.S. from Colorado State University and an M.S. from the University of Denver in exercise science.

Mind-Body Medicine Department Chair, Devorah Curtis, Ph.D., witnessed Carrie’s journey through her successful career. “Carrie was a humble, brilliant scholar/practitioner who loved talking about health and wellness coaching, related theories, and how to integrate the practices in daily life. We often discussed these topics which evolved into the idea of launching a mind-body coaching program. She mentioned it would be her dream to create a program like this and teach full time.”

“Carrie believed in this dream and made important decisions to make this happen. Over the past seven years, I witnessed Carrie transition from corporate work to full-time student to adjunct faculty and business owner to core faculty and department chair of the coaching program,” Dr. Curtis said. “She lived a life on purpose to serve others in the field of integrative health and wellness through teaching, coaching, and mentoring.”

Carrie was the creator and chair of the Department of Integrative Wellness Coaching from July 2017 to Aug. 2019. Grounded in her extensive practice experience and clear scholarship, Carrie developed, implemented, and conducted the new IWC program in response to a growing need and awareness of the power of wellness coaching.

Dean of College of Integrative Medicine & Health Sciences Donald Moss, Ph.D., worked with Carrie as a graduate student at Saybrook, and continued working with her in the mind-body medicine field.  He eventually recruited her to serve as chair of the Department of Integrative Wellness Coaching. “From the beginning, she distinguished herself as a thought leader on issues of health promotion and wellness coaching. The department benefited enormously from Carrie’s understanding of coaching and her perspective as a national leader in the movement to create the certification standards for health and wellness coaching.”

Carrie’s contributions extend far beyond Saybrook. In Feb. 2016, Carrie joined the National Wellness Institute (NWI) as the Director of Membership and Resource Development. She also served on the NWI Board and the NWI Council for Wellness Accreditation and Education (CWAE). In Carrie’s own words, “NWI was formed to realize the mission of providing health promotion and wellness professionals unparalleled resources and services that fuel professional and personal growth. This mission continues to drive the National Wellness Institute and forms the basis for the annual National Wellness Conference, the most highly acclaimed professional conference in health and wellness.”  Previously, Carrie served as the Director of Integrative Medicine at the Institute of Healing Arts, and the Vice President of Membership and Program for the YMCA of Middle Tennessee.

Carrie was a national consultant of significant breadth. For over 20 years she led and supported wellness initiatives around the country. She was a board certified wellness and life coach, and a coach trainer, teaching certification courses throughout the US. Carrie was a frequent presenter at national conferences and served as the Senior Director of Strategic Initiatives and National Consultant for Activate America, which included strategic planning, project management, impact analysis, executive coaching, and leading organizational change initiatives.

At Saybrook, the depths of her reach throughout the community is immeasurable. Working with students and colleagues in the field and beyond, she was always willing to offer support and mentorship.

Julie Cerrato, Ph.D., Integrative Wellness Coaching Department Interim Chair, credits Carrie with introducing her to Saybrook and her current career path. “I have no words to express my gratitude for her introducing me to Saybrook, mentoring me, allowing me to grow and develop my identity in my role, and honoring me with the opportunity to carry on her work. Certain people touch our lives with inspiration, wisdom and grace. Carrie Phelps enriched my life on a daily basis and her voice echoes on my path.”

The Saybrook community mourns the loss of our friend and colleague but is celebrating her contribution with a scholarship for two students in the Integrative Health Sciences program. The scholarship is designed to support students who embody the deep passion and commitment to humanistic values to pursue masters and doctoral degrees in integrative medicine and health science disciplines and apply their knowledge to holistic health practices. You can read more about the scholarship here.

The mind-body medicine field has lost a pioneer and the Saybrook community has lost a friend. But we were all touched personally by her kindness and professionally by her contributions. With the Dr. Carleen Mangels Phelps Integrative Health Sciences (IHS) Scholarship we hope to continue to bring light and encouragement to those aligned with the values she embodied. You can support this scholarship here by clicking the dropdown box and selecting her scholarship.

*****

Remember Me – Margaret Mead (1901-1978)

To the living, I am gone,
To the sorrowful, I will never return,
To the angry, I was cheated,
But to the happy, I am at peace,
And to the faithful, I have never left.

I cannot speak, but I can listen.
I cannot be seen, but I can be heard.
So as you stand upon a shore gazing at a beautiful sea,
As you look upon a flower and admire its simplicity,
Remember me.

Remember me in your heart:
Your thoughts, and your memories,
Of the times we loved,
The times we cried,
The times we fought,
The times we laughed.
For if you always think of me, I will never have gone.

Carrie is survived by her husband, Todd Phelps. For those wishing to send condolences, Todd’s address is Todd Phelps, 1240 Washington Ave. Stevens Point, WI 54481. A memorial fund has also been established in Carrie’s name.

Lessons in self-directing curiosity

15 October 2019
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Alison Horstmeyer—Saybrook alumna and former Fortune 500 executive—seeks to help others better their lives by understanding and harnessing curiosity.

Alison Horstmeyer, M.S., MBA, was a powerhouse in corporate America—a success by any metric—before she decided to look for more. From roles at Walmart, NBC Universal, Liberty Media, and Omnicom, she paved the way for emerging businesses and networked her way through the Fortune 500. But something felt unfulfilled and under-nourished: her creativity. She was surrounded by colleagues who were stressed, anxious, and complacent, having to wade through a sea of empty promises of promotions, and a trajectory that sometimes stagnated rather than soared.

“As a female executive progressing up the ladder, there were times where I couldn’t get promoted, or my bosses promised to expand my roles, and then nothing would happen,” Horstmeyer says. “There were times where I felt I was unable to contribute my full potential or grow to expand my impact and influence in a positive and meaningful way. When that happened, I could feel myself shutting down. That’s one of the reasons that I went to Saybrook at the time I did because I realized I no longer had the energy to play the politics. I found it was more interesting to be of service to help others in the organization succeed.”

Horstmeyer now works as a management consultant, executive coach, and humanistic researcher—as well as completing her Ph.D. in the College of Integrative Medicine & Health Sciences at Saybrook and serving as the inaugural Research Fellow at the USC Annenberg Center for Third Space Thinking. Having already completed her M.S. in Mind-Body Medicine and her certification in coaching, Horstmeyer is fully diving into her life’s next direction.

Seeing all sides

This evolution isn’t completely novel though. Horstmeyer is not one thing or the other, rather she honors both sides of herself: her business acumen and her humanistic perspective.

She nurtured both sides from a young age. Horstmeyer worked on herself by going to therapy during college and was the first in her family to ever go on to graduate school, where she earned an MBA at the USC Marshall School of Business.

“I was speaking with a colleague recently, who works as a qualitative researcher and has been in academia for a long time. He could not wrap his head around the fact that I had a strong business orientation as well as a sophisticated humanistic perspective,” Horstmeyer says. “To me, this integration of the two worlds was so natural and innate. I’ve always been fascinated by the more humanistic side of how we show up and about the mind-body-behavior connection. I wanted to be able to combine my business-building background with the humanistic expertise in a way that could be of service to corporations.”

Curiosity in the workplace

At this current evolution, one word to describe Alison would be “curious.” In the fall of 2018, Horstmeyer published an article “Ease Stress by Getting Curious” in Saybrook’s UNBOUND digital magazine. Her doctoral research is investigating curiosity in the context of executive coaching. Originally wanting to research anxiety and the use of mindfulness to address it, Horstmeyer realized that there’s a part of mindfulness that requires one to be inquisitive and open—essentially, to be curious.

“The irony is that anxiety is inherent in curiosity. Think about it: if you’re going to explore unfamiliar territory, that’s when anxiety kicks in,” Horstmeyer says. “There are people who are curious enough to get back to certainty and those people are great problem solvers. There are also those who can stay with the highs and lows of navigating risky situations—they tend to be creators and innovators. It’s not if you are curious, it’s how you are curious. This is what we need to support in the workplace, especially in the corporate world. You have to set up an environment that makes it psychologically safe for people to ask questions, experiment, and learn from failure.”

For someone who works to cultivate curiosity in others, to inspire executives to change their practices, cultures, or workplaces, to continue to do the research she does, Horstmeyer has to prioritize staying curious herself. For her, it’s about creating a pause and setting an intention that informs how she shows up. The rest follows. It doesn’t mean she’s immune to anxiety herself.

“The last 18 months, I have been super uncomfortable because I’m doing things that I’ve never done before,” Horstmeyer says. “I feel like I have to practice what I preach. What I’m experiencing helps me to be more empathetic with others, particularly the people I coach. When individuals are willing to embark on their respective journeys to discover new aspects about themselves and about the world around them, that inspires me to get back to work, to do more research so I can present something meaningful to equip them with the tools to keep going.”

She’s quick to remind others though that curiosity doesn’t necessarily come easily. It takes effort.

“Curiosity can ebb and flow. You need to do things to nurture it, such as giving yourself permission to explore and to experiment with different scenarios or possibilities; in essence, to test and iterate,” Horstmeyer explains. “I’ve found that Saybrook provides a safe environment for experimentation. And isn’t that what every academic institution should offer?”

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If you are interested in learning more about Saybrook’s graduate programs in counseling, fill out the form below to request more information.

Becoming the kind of person she needed, for the next person in need

5 September 2019
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Alumna Ashley Nash has worked through her trauma, blazing the trail for others to find healing and kindness that she didn’t always have.

For Ashley Nash, nothing is accidental. Her life is an homage to the mantra she lives by: be the person you needed when you were younger.

Today, Nash is a 27-year-old doctoral student, Saybrook alumna, twice-published author, and therapeutic art life coach. Her path has been paved by resiliency, underscored by her drive to be and do more for others as a way to right the wrongs she experienced. She has drawn inspiration from her struggles and hardships—from the moments and people that have kept her going and helped her move on.

Nash grew up in South Carolina, living in 12 different cities during her childhood. From the ages of 2 to 14, she was molested four times by four different people. She was depressed from the ages of 7 to 14 and tried to commit suicide. Her parents weren’t around much, and she had to look after her siblings.

One day when she was 11, she had so much pent-up frustration that she put it down on paper. When she showed someone what she wrote, they called it poetry.

“Writing ended up helping me the most by getting my feelings out and on paper, instead of using more negative coping methods,” Nash says. “Even if I didn’t believe that anyone wanted to hear what I had to say or what I needed to say, at least I got it out of my head.”

She started with poetry and nonfiction, until her writing got too dark. She turned to fiction then, liking the feeling of having control over the fate of her characters and the possible paths they could take. For her, the opportunity to unburden herself from her feelings and channel the energy into something else—whether through her writing or later through art therapy—offered her a way out of pain.

She also saw another way out: education. Nash went to South Carolina State University in Orangeburg, South Carolina, when she was 18. While there, she discovered psychology—unknowingly changing her life’s trajectory.

“I was a sophomore when I had my first psychology class,” Nash says. “I was amazed that I could learn the ins and outs of people’s minds, and understand how to help them through some strenuous or difficult things in a healthy way. When I had to go through my own trauma, I was pretty much alone, so I wanted to change this.”

Upon graduating, she realized she wanted to work in psychology, not just use it as a subset in another career. It was then she found Saybrook and began her M.A. in Counseling. While attending, she learned about art therapy, something that helped her make major breakthroughs with some difficult cases.

“It was one of my first clients as an intensive in-home therapist. She was a pregnant 14-year-old girl who witnessed her brother’s murder. She had such severe PTSD that she couldn’t even go to Walmart by herself,” Nash explains. “When we first talked to her about hobbies, she mentioned art and I was able to go back into the art therapy experiences I had. That’s what broke the barrier; I saw how something so simple as giving someone a full range of expression could open someone up. It’s almost like she thought, ‘I did something crazy on this paper, and she did not judge me—maybe she’s okay to talk to.’”

Her Saybrook education informed who she would be as a practitioner. When she was ending her master’s program, she had an ectopic pregnancy with two weeks left in the program. She lost the baby and her fallopian tube and had to have massive surgery. Throughout the experience, however, her Saybrook community was there for her.

“Once you have this education and have the opportunity to help people that are going through something difficult you just help them, innately. It’s on instinct, not out of academic obligation. That’s what my Saybrook professors did,” Nash says. “To the professors I had at the time, it wasn’t a grand decision to help me. It’s was just like, ‘Okay, this is what you need.’ And that meant so much.”

With the kindness she found in this experience, she saw a way to further help others. It made her want to educate other counselors, to be the type of professor she had at Saybrook—one that can be both educator and supporter.

Upon graduating in 2018, Nash started her Ph.D. in Counselor Education at North Carolina State University and works as a graduate assistant at the counseling center on campus. In addition to eventually becoming a professor, Nash—who worked three jobs while completing her Saybrook degree—has already published two books (her latest was published in 2018), became a certified therapeutic art life coach this past summer, now runs a social media outreach called N.A.S.H. (Not All Scars Heal), and has even bigger plans.

“I want to open up a mental health wellness center and get people in the community involved so they can see what mental health care actually is, not what they think it is. I want to help break down the stigma surrounding mental health,” Nash says.

From her writing to her mission to give people the resources she didn’t have in the wake of her own trauma, Nash is poised to be the person scores of people need—the person she needed when she was younger.

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If you are interested in learning more about Saybrook’s graduate programs in counseling, fill out the form below to request more information.

Breaking the Silence

25 July 2019
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Arielle Dance, Ph.D., is using her education to challenge taboos around women’s health and mindfulness in the workplace.

Mind-Body Medicine alumna Arielle Dance, Ph.D., has long been an advocate for women’s health.

She’s served as a doula, supporting and assisting women before, during, and after the birthing process. She has helped fight cancer through her work as a volunteer, intern, and now manager at the American Cancer Society (ACS). And she has dedicated countless hours to researching innovative techniques that can ease the physical and mental pain caused by endometriosis, a disease she was diagnosed with at 15 years old.

Through it all, she’s striven to break down the stigmas that surround unconventional treatments and preventative care.

“I’ve always had women coming to me and asking about my research, or what types of breathing exercise might be able to help them with a certain issue,” Dr. Dance says. “I will get text messages from someone asking if I will reach out to someone else they know, whether it be their co-worker, or cousin, or friend who needs help.”

After earning her master’s degree in women’s health, Dr. Dance chose to continue her education at Saybrook University because it was the only graduate school she found willing to support her unconventional research interests. In 2015, her choice paid off: she was awarded the Herbert Spiegel Scientific Poster Award for her research poster titled “The Utilization of Hypnosis, Hypnotherapy, and HypnoBirthing for Childbirth and Labor.”

Throughout her time at the Saybrook, she continued to study how specific relaxation techniques including meditation, deep breathing, and guided imagery could positively affect different aspects of women’s health—specifically endometriosis, which often results in infertility.

Today, she finds that her research continues to attract a diverse range of women seeking to learn more about her nontraditional methods of treatment

“Besides my full-time job, I am balancing roles as a doula and unofficial consultant,” Dr. Dance says. “Because of my final dissertation on endometriosis, I have found a lot of people reaching out to me specifically related to their pain and how they can cope with their pain and infertility. I have begun to do less work with women who are having babies and more with women who are trying to have babies, who can’t have children or are dealing with pelvic pain. It’s been a unique group of women all in different phases.”

Dance has also used her education to help transform the culture in her day-to-day work at the ACS. She has begun integrating techniques she learned during her time at Saybrook to increase mindfulness in the workplace, where she manages a team of employees. She recalls how she was initially told by colleagues and friends to stay away from using words like meditation in corporate settings because the way some people may react to the terminology, “Instead, they might prefer something like ‘stress management techniques’,” she says.

But after attending a management academy that called for bringing more mindfulness to the workplace, she saw an opportunity to begin sharing some techniques with her staff.

“It’s definitely something that is beginning to change,” says Dr. Dance, joking that as soon as people heard that Google was using it to increase productivity in the workplace it became much more acceptable. “So I took that opportunity to begin shifting the language and introducing some of the skills I had learned, and it has worked out really well.”

She now routinely begins staff meetings with mediation. She also uses aromatherapy and dim lighting in her office to help her begin each day. “Before they even knock on my door, everyone knows I’m meditating first thing when I walk in.”

Down the road, she hopes to use her research and experience to possibly begin her own business focused on coaching and advising women who are struggling with health concerns. Until then, she is committed to bringing awareness to the issues she is passionate about by speaking up.

“My degree from Saybrook is kind of unconventional,” Dr. Dance says. “And what I am doing is unconventional. My original research is still kind of stigmatized because it is very much about every female topic possible, and every taboo topic that a woman could talk to a male-identified person about. But it is important that we continue to talk about these issues so we can bring the pain that so many people are experiencing to the surface, and then work to help them heal.”

Bringing the Outdoors in

25 July 2019
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I look around my office and see four plants without turning my head, a wall sheathed in bright, natural colors, with a white board surrounded by natural wood. I recently learned that the flowers in my office are routinely cared for and changed with the season. On the 19th floor of our building, we have an atrium with a windowed ceiling to give the appearance of the outdoors, all to enhance the worker experience. Am I happier than the average worker because of my surroundings? Research suggests this just may be the case, and biophilia, the human tendency to interact or be closely associated with nature, could explain why.

We spend about 90 percent of our time in a “built environment”—at home and at work—and it is no secret that the walls surrounding us have progressively taken us out of nature. We spent thousands of years evolving in nature, relying on the four elements—earth, air, fire, and water, but now we’ve removed ourselves, supplementing the elements with technology and modified substitutions. As we have moved into a life spent mostly indoors, biophilic design seeks to rectify the disconnect between outdoors and in.

Biophilic design traces its roots to E.O. Wilson’s 1984 book “Biophilia.” Wilson was a biologist and research professor at Harvard University, when he outlined the innate tendency of humans to be attracted to nature and crave natural structures in everyday life. This provided the guiding principle for biophilic design: to create architecture and interior design that is an extension of nature.

Molly Stillwell, who has an M.A. in Interdisciplinary Psychology from Saybrook University and is currently a Ph.D. student in Saybrook’s Transformative Social Change program, found particular interest in biophilic design. When she arrived at Saybrook, she intended to study environmental psychology with a focus on transformative social change. She ended up combining her interests in the environment and social consciousness through an independent study, which led her to explore biophilia and the long-standing relationship of the environment and humans.

“There’s no separation between ourselves and the natural world around us,” Stillwell says. “This is an important part of our lives and always has been. Our relationship with nature was part of our survival mechanism. One of the most important collaborations was with the world around us, because if we didn’t listen to and pay attention to it, we weren’t going to survive.”

Our relationship with nature was part of our survival mechanism. One of the most important collaborations was with the world around us, because if we didn’t listen to and pay attention to it, we weren’t going to survive.

Should nature come inside?

A study from the Journal of Happiness Studies found that psychological health is directly correlated with nature relatedness, with nine in 10 office workers reporting improved well-being after incorporating natural elements. Yet in office buildings often dictated by cubicles and personal computers, it is easy to see how the relationship with nature may have been forgotten. “We feel like we can be so separate because we’ve removed ourselves so much, but then we realize something is missing,” Stillwell says.

Perhaps that missing link is causing the problems we see, including stress. The World Health Organization has dubbed stress the “health epidemic of the 21st century.” A recent study suggests that much of this comes from the workplace. Seventy-six percent of respondents said that workplace stress “had a negative impact on their personal relationships,” and 66 percent lost sleep due to work-related stress. A stunning 16 percent have quit jobs because the stress became too overwhelming, yet we seem to be at a loss for long-term solutions.

With biophilic design, we can address some of this stress and disconnect by simply changing the interiors of office buildings. Research suggests that by effectively recreating nature indoors, one can reduce stress and restore energy levels with the same impact as real contact with nature. By simply introducing more plants into an office space, productivity increased by 15 percent.

In the workplace, the importance of these natural elements has been proven to make a difference over and over again. In an office of 90 people, a study found that workers who had a window that afforded a view of nature recovered from low-level stress at a much quicker rate than those who only had a view of a blank wall. Further, the longer participants spent looking out the window at nature, the more quickly their heart rate tended to decrease.

Stillwell explains how biophilic design seems to work in tandem with mindfulness to focus on the holistic health of the individual.

“I think that the rise of mindfulness is really connected to bringing more awareness to our lives and the connections that we have. When you boil it down, it isn’t all about the connections that we have just with other people, but to our environment—to the space in which we’re living,” she says. “As we move from focusing on simply surviving, mindfulness allows us to say, ‘Wow, we’re experiencing some disruption and dysfunction in our life, why is that, why am I feeling depressed when I have everything on paper that I could want?’ I think the more we look internally we realize we’re missing some fundamental connection in our life, and that is to the natural world,” Stillwell says.

I think that this emergence of biophilic design is one of the best things that we can do because it’s bringing together technology and the natural world

The importance of letting the outdoors in

One of the guiding tenets of biophilic design is spirit of place, and the ways that designers and architects attempt to create this spirit are varied—from natural light, ventilation, and quality of view, to natural materials, spaciousness, green walls, plants, and even pet-friendly work places. Businesses are increasingly adopting the design principles.

“I think that this emergence of biophilic design is one of the best things that we can do because it’s bringing together technology and the natural world,” Stillwell says. “People are not going to give up technology. We’re not going to give up our societies and go live in the forest, it’s just not very likely. But finding that middle path, I think, is always the most effective answer.”

As we explore this middle path, the design will continue to have to evolve because the built world continues to segregate from the natural world. Unemployment rates are the lowest they’ve been in 50 years, and depression rates are higher than they’ve ever been. It’s hard not to imagine these two things could be related.

A study by Human Spaces shows that 58 percent of office workers report they do not have live plants in the office and 47 percent report having no natural light. With the United Nations predicting that by 2050 68 percent of the world’s population will live in urban environments, the imperative for biophilic design continues to grow.

“We must remember to care about our happiness, instead of just surviving,” Stillwell says. “The natural world is a fundamental piece of that happiness. We just haven’t always related to it that way.”

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CBD: What Can’t It Cure?

24 July 2019
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Gummies, pain relieving lotion, sleeping masks, beer, hamburgers, coffee, tea, essential oils, mascara, bath bombs, chocolate, pet treats, face serums, and water—what do all these have in common? They’ve been infused with CBD (cannabidiol). CBD is taking over, no matter the product, no matter the industry.

CBD is a derivative of marijuana and hemp. It does not contain THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), the psychoactive component of the cannabis plant, but is promoted as a way to produce the relaxation and soothing feelings found in cannabis consumption. Relatively new to the market, and still involved in legal murkiness, the uses and benefits can get confusing and hard to prove.

It seems as though pharmacy companies and venture capitalists with deep pockets haven’t decided if CBD is worth their interests, and by doing so, may have stifled studies on the effectiveness. As a faculty member of Saybrook University’s Integrative and Functional Nutrition (IFN) program and nutrition specialist, Lori Taylor expresses concern with a new product that doesn’t have the research backing for implementation.

It’s really hard to assess something’s effectiveness when you don’t know how much of it to take, and there simply haven’t been enough studies.

“I’m really happy to see these medicines coming up, I just wish we had a little bit more of an idea on how to start using it,” she says. “We don’t know enough about dosing—for instance what’s the milligrams-per-thousand that provides the most effective pain control? It’s really hard to assess something’s effectiveness when you don’t know how much of it to take, and there simply haven’t been enough studies.”

While research is lacking, anecdotal evidence has shown that CBD can help with everything from PTSD, to anxiety, pain, Multiple Sclerosis, and even epilepsy. A recent Gallup poll found that four in 10 Americans think that CBD should be legally available for adults over-the-counter, and nearly two in three indicated that they have some familiarity with CBD. It is a quickly growing business, and if predictions are right, the industry is on the verge of a major boom.

According to a study by investment research firm Cowen & Co., the CBD market generates $2 billion in annual sales currently. By 2025, the study projects the number of Americans using CBD will grow to 10 percent and generate $16 billion in sales. Will the promise of more sales be what it takes to conduct more studies?

“The medicines really do have a whole lot of promise. I don’t know what it’s going to take to get it into more people’s hands, get more studies done, and have more medical practitioners take it seriously,” Taylor says. “I do have my worries. It’s going to be a big moneymaker; I don’t want it to get so expensive that it’s beyond the range for most people. That’s a real plus with CBD right now, it’s not that expensive.”

CBD, in most of its varied forms, is reasonably priced and available at the local drug store or gas station, making accessibility another benefit for the large swath of the population that doesn’t have access to insurance and, in effect, a doctor or prescription.

A much needed alternative
Americans are looking for more alternative treatments for holistic healing, ways to treat the body without the harsh effects of some medicines, or the addictive qualities of opiates. In pain management, for instance, there is usually a short ladder of products that can quickly lead to opiates. For Taylor, she witnessed this firsthand, which is another reason she believes in the promise of CBD to treat pain management.

“I went through a period last year where I had some really bad back pain and I was first offered over-the-counter stuff,” she says. “From there, it went to muscle relaxers, then steroids, and finally opiates—and personally I cannot tolerate opiates, but also, we know opiates are super problematic. With these medications coming forward, we may have another option that can help slow the path to opioids. We’ve got to find better things and I think CBD and cannabis medicines may help.”

CBD may also go beyond just simply slowing the path to opioids: a recent study suggests that CBD can also help reduce stress and cravings among those currently addicted to opioids. And while Taylor is quick to mention that if a medicine is strong enough to have an effect then it’s strong enough to have a side-effect, it doesn’t appear that CBD has the same addictive tendencies as other drugs. The World Health Organization reported in 2018 that they found no negative public health effects or public abuse potential.

Yet the stigma surrounding cannabis-related medicines reaches deep into the medical field.

As an oncology nutritionist, Taylor has seen this before with medical marijuana. She found doctors and pharmacists alike unwilling to learn about the treatment options and veracity of benefits of medical marijuana that their patients were experiencing, and believes this is the case with CBD, as well. “I think it’s really underutilized by medical professionals and perhaps over utilized by the public. All cannabis medicines are underutilized by medical professionals, in my opinion,” says Taylor.

Taylor adds that in the field of integrative and functional medicine, there is a tool called “Evidence Risk Grading.” The tool precludes that sometimes there may not be a lot of evidence or research about something, but if the risk is really low, it’s worth a try. In the case of CBD, this may be the guiding principle. Specifically in the case of anxiety, Taylor believes it has a lot of promise for adolescents and adults alike with much lower side effects than treatments that are currently available.

While CBD may be oversaturating the market with uses that may not be practical, the way to fight stigma is by making it everyday, nominal, or something that everyone uses in one way or another. Moving the perception of CBD into a true, respected alternative treatment for chronic illnesses like pain and anxiety may be a long way away, but perhaps one way to continue the conversion is through the bustling business that all these products are creating.

The market that these products are creating will hopefully fight the stigma and encourage more verifiable research and long-term studies on CBDs efficacy. These studies will be able to tell us if it really is worth the hype. For now, we will have to eat our own gummies, rub some pain lotion on what aches us, enjoy a beer, and take our own word for if it works or not.

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A Corporate Coming-of-Age

24 July 2019
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In 2017, 56 million millennials were working or looking for work in the U.S., officially replacing Generation X as the largest workforce. This type of generational shift is not new, and, in fact, is impossible to avoid—time remains undefeated.

But, as opposed to race or gender, rarely does generational diversity come to mind when considering the demographics that make up a company or organization. However, with a generational shift currently underway, it is something more companies are being forced to address.

For companies seeking to remain inclusive, diverse, and competitive, these moments can present a great opportunity for reflection and organizational growth.

Telecommuting benefits are now offered by roughly 60 percent of organizations, as opposed to just 20 percent in 1996—and surveys show it is most appealing to both millennials and employees 55 and older (a blend of baby boomers and Generation X).

Rethinking talent recruitment and employee retention

Simone DiMatteo, a business operations manager and Saybrook student in the Ph.D. in Managing Organizational Systems program, is researching how generational shifts can impact talent retention within organizations for her dissertation.

“In 2015, the figure for turnover costs was $30.5 billion—today, it sits at $600 billion,” DiMatteo says, citing Work Institute’s 2018 Retention Report. The report estimates turnover costs could reach nearly $680 billion by 2020 and may be influenced by millennials becoming the most likely generation to job-hop. “For my research, it is important to understand whether generations of employees are more influenced by generational theory or whether their motivation is more driven by where they are at in their career arc, which could be correlated across generations.”

DiMatteo manages a team of five—each person from a different generation—and is focusing her research on motivational factors for employees that an organization can influence, such as compensation, career development, or job security.

“I want to know if certain factors are more important to specific generations,” she says. “You would imagine that for someone headed toward retirement, security might be more important, but it isn’t necessarily true. Security might mean something completely different to a younger generation, like millennials, who are coming out of school with more student loan debt than ever before.”

Companies can use this knowledge to alter their recruitment and employee retention strategies to place greater emphasis on what matters most to employees most.

For example, health care plans and 401(k) accounts were staples of employee benefits in the 1990s as a recruitment and retention strategy. However, while each are still popular, Roth 401(k)s have become increasingly common in place of the traditional 401(k). In another example, telecommuting benefits are now offered by roughly 60 percent of organizations, as opposed to just 20 percent in 1996—and surveys show it is most appealing to both millennials and employees 55 and older (a blend of baby boomers and Generation X).

Organizations that are able to restructure benefit packages to meet the demands of shifting generational demographics can position themselves well to attract and retain talent of any age.

The best way to approach these situations, not surprisingly, is with respect.

Generations are essentially a collective group comprised of millions of individuals who share formative experiences (such as world events and technological, economic, and social shifts) that shape the way in which they see the world. In a work setting, this can sometimes cause conflict and negatively impact an organization’s culture and production.

David Galowich, a Forbes contributor and executive coach, provides an example of this in his article, “The Business Leader’s Guide to Communication Across Generations”.

“I had a coaching situation in an organization recently where a baby boomer kept leaving voicemails for a millennial, and the millennial would only respond using text. The boomer was frustrated about the inability to have a verbal conversation, and the millennial was irritated that he had to constantly pick up voicemails for things that he felt could easily be handled with a quick text.”

The best way to approach these situations, not surprisingly, is with respect. For managers and fellow employees, it’s important to remain open-minded to the way others may be comfortable completing tasks and consider facilitating in-person conversations about the best way to find a middle ground moving forward.

It is also important to be cognizant of generational stereotypes. For example, while there may be a perception amongst baby boomers and Generation X that millennials lack a strong work ethic, there is little validity to this argument. In fact, there is research that may prove the opposite is true.

A study from ManpowerGroup reported that roughly 20 percent of millennials are holding down two jobs; another by Project: Time Off and GfK found they were more likely to identify as “work martyrs” and take less time off than other generations. And technology has enabled employees of all generations to remain connected every hour of every day, blurring the perception of what can truly be classified as “on the clock”.

To get ahead of interpersonal issues that may arise from generational differences, organizations may consider implementing mentoring programs—which can go both ways. This can bridge a divide between both younger and elder generations by encouraging them to share knowledge of how they perceive the workplace and explain different methods they have found to be most effective for their work.

Transferring knowledge

Mentorship programs that bridge generational divides can also be a powerful tool to address another challenge of this type of demographic shift in the labor force: institutional knowledge loss.

The BLS projects the number of workers over the age of 55 to more than double (from 12 to 25 percent of the labor force) by the year 2024. And, currently, nearly half of workers age 55 or older work in management positions. But eventually these workers will retire, and take with them much of their expertise.

“It’s one of the expenses that can be difficult to quantify for an organization,” DiMatteo says, “Somebody that has been in an organization for five or 10 years—even their entire career—when they walk away that can be a major loss for an organization.”

One story published in the Harvard Business Review claims an organization estimated that a retirement wave of 700 employees would amount to over 27,000 years of experience lost.

In addition to mentoring programs that can encourage the organic transfer of knowledge from one generation to the next, companies can also mitigate this risk through some type of knowledge repository. This can be developed by formally documenting processes and procedures with the goal of enhancing the onboarding process for new employees or easing the transition process upon someone’s retirement or departure from a company.

The next generation

Generation Z is just beginning to enter the labor force, and will soon begin to put their own unique spin on it. One day, they will be pushed aside by Generation Alpha. This shouldn’t be seen as a problem, but rather an opportunity that forces organizations in every generation to find better ways to incorporate and include diverse age populations, because that is who makes up the workforce. Every generation will continue to bring a unique influence to the way organizations function. But the best organizations will remain proactive and willing to adapt.

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Mindfulness Over Matter

24 July 2019
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In the final moments of 13 Reasons Why’s first season, Hannah Baker, the main protagonist of the series, steps into a bathtub, slits her wrists, and dies alone. The camera doesn’t pan away, doesn’t offer any respite from the horror that unfolds onscreen. It’s gruesome by design, and incredibly difficult to watch.

This scene played out on Netflix screens big and small for the past two years. But after a 2019 study confirmed that 13 Reasons Why led to a 28.9 percent increase in suicide rates among U.S. youth ages 10 to 17 in April 2017, Netflix finally announced that it made the decision to cut the scene entirely. Now it goes from Hannah looking in the mirror to her mother finding her body.

The released data indicates the phenomenon of suicide contagion—the process in which the suicide of one person or multiple people can contribute to a rise in suicidal behaviors among others. The concern with suicide contagion is that it suggests that suicide is a viable or realistic option to escape pain. In the case of 13 Reasons Why, it was the graphic suicide scene coupled with Hannah’s perceived lack of options that created a perfect storm: teenagers were visually shown a way out, but not a path forward.

“Adolescents are really good at making rational decisions when their full cognitive processes are fully connected,” says Dominique Avery, Ph.D., a faculty member in Saybrook’s Counseling department. “The problem is that they get hijacked by emotions so much more easily than adults. Adolescent brains are imbalanced due to differing rates of development in various parts of the brain. Adolescent brains are more sensitive to emotional cues and social pressures.  As a result, they are more likely to react from the impulsive, reward-seeking, and emotional subcortical areas (limbic system) rather than accessing the rational, decision making prefrontal cortex under times of stress. You could think that everything’s going fine with a teen but then something triggers them and they’re not able to look at long-term consequences.”

It’s not necessarily the media that’s the fiend: risk factors can include bullying, stressful or traumatic life events, anxiety disorders, feelings of disconnection, or substance abuse. The media can actually be helpful in showing adolescents that options beyond suicide do exist. And while peer groups, family systems, and schools are valuable resources, teaching teens how to regulate their emotions and conquer that impulsivity is just as important.

Mind-body practices help people cope with unmerciful treatment, a crisis, or other personal trauma, by bringing people back in relation to themselves.

Emotional regulation = mindfulness

“A big part of mindfulness is about emotional regulation,” Dr. Avery explains.

Teaching mindfulness practices—and in turn, helping students with emotional regulation—can be a key preventative tool. If the brain is retrained, and a person learns emotional regulation, then they’re more likely to be able to sit with an uncomfortable emotion, process it, and move on. Because of this, adolescents can learn to regulate when experiencing adverse periods like hyper-arousal (the fight-or-flight response, with feelings of anxiety, panic, and racing thoughts) or hypo-arousal (a freeze response, characterized by feelings of emotional numbness, paralysis, and disassociation).

You may think of traditional mindful practices as breathing exercises or other sensory-grounding experiences. In Dr. Avery’s “Advanced Child and Adolescent Counseling” course, she uses some unconventional methods—like glitter bottles, stress balls, bubble blowing, and calming scents—to help children learn some grounding techniques for when they start to experience a fight-or-flight response. This response is a survival mechanism that allows humans to respond quickly to life-threatening situations, but can now occur from not life-threatening stressors (and can in turn contribute to anxiety and depression).

“Breathing has a huge impact on the vagus nerve, which regulates our autonomic nervous system,” Dr. Avery says. “The vagus nerve controls our heart, lungs, digestive system, and even the tension in our pelvic floor—so everything related to that fight-or-flight response system. If we can learn to calm the fight-or-flight response, then that’s going to lead to better emotional regulation.”

This is not to say these practices don’t help in a crisis situation. Darlene Viggiano, Ph.D., adjunct faculty in Saybrook’s Mind-Body Medicine department, extrapolates on the long-term benefits of mindfulness during and after a traumatic experience, including larger mind-body practices.

“Mind-body practices help people cope with unmerciful treatment, a crisis, or other personal trauma, by bringing people back in relation to themselves,” Dr. Viggiano says. “The mind and body are one, but since the time of Descartes, they’ve been treated almost as opposites, which was in itself a trauma to humankind.”

One example of mind-body intervention was with the healing of Marjory Stoneman Douglas (MSD) students following the school shooting on Feb. 14, 2018, in Parkland, Florida.

Studies are clear: surviving school shootings not only negatively impacts academic performance, but can also lead to trauma. According to the National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), 28 percent of people who witness an American mass shooting develop PTSD. These repeated cycles of stress, much like the fight-or-flight response mentioned above, can lead to long-term consequences for the mind.

The summer after the shooting at MSD, the Broward County Public Schools partnered with the Center for Mind-Body Medicine (CMBM) to create the Comprehensive Wellness Program. To start, they had 180 teachers and service providers across Broward County participate in the Professional Training Program in Mind-Body Medicine, teaching them “the biology and psychology of stress and trauma alongside a comprehensive set of mind-body medicine techniques.”

CMBM also piloted a four-week, mind-body medicine curriculum for all 130 MSD peer counselors, focusing on stress reduction and self-regulation. By the third week, 98 percent of the students who participated slept better, focused more effectively, and were able to cope with panic attacks. These students now will go on to help 3,200 of their peers, effectively creating a wide peer support network and starting the healing process.

“Mind-body medicine definitely has a role in crisis response in terms of being able to get people settled and get them in a space where they’re able to start processing,” Dr. Avery says. “If it’s something that’s been a part of their practice, then it’s going to be so much easier to get there. For people who don’t have really solid emotional regulation, it’s going to be much harder to move out of that initial crisis response phase.”

Trauma-informed schools help with crisis response

Even though mind-body medicine can be helpful in crisis situations, the trauma first needs to be identified. If a crisis isn’t as universal as a school-wide shooting, and is more personal to the individual student (like experiencing bullying or violence at home), spotting trauma and providing the student with resources can be tricky.

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) is a term used to describe the abuse, neglect, and other traumatic experiences that can happen to people under the age of 18. According to the CDC-Kaiser ACE study, dealing with early adversity is related to the following negative future outcomes: physical ailments, unintended pregnancy, STDs, cancer, diabetes, alcohol and drug abuse, mental health disorders, and suicide.

For schools, trauma-informed care (TIC) is a way to combat ACEs. This type of training teaches teachers, support staff, and administrators to recognize the behavioral, emotional, and inter-relational symptoms of trauma, and how to address it. It can be as simple as shifting the language of a question, from “what’s wrong with you?” to “what happened to you?”

Dr. Avery explains the impact ACEs can have by using the example of a traumatized second grader. The child comes to school feeling irritable because of circumstances at home, and because of this, they react disproportionately to what a teacher considers to be a reasonable request. That’s where the trouble begins for teachers with a lack of trauma training.

“What we see in schools is a teacher who feels their authority is being challenged and comes down with an even harder consequence,” Dr. Avery explains. “The child, who doesn’t know how to self-regulate, starts to escalate. It turns into a vicious cycle where staff doesn’t approach students from a trauma-informed way, and kids are suspended or expelled from school because of their trauma-related behavioral issues as a result.”

Little data exists on just how many schools in America are trauma-trained. In August 2018, Denver public schools received a $1 million donation to train teachers in how to understand and respond to trauma. Washington State and Massachusetts both have systematic frameworks in place to enact training into schools to help traumatized students. The state departments of education in Illinois, Wisconsin, and Massachusetts all include resources to address trauma.

The results are beyond promising though: at Lincoln High School in Walla Walla, Washington—which is the subject of the 2015 documentary Paper Tigers—the school had 90 percent fewer suspensions, a threefold increase in college-bound students, and a fivefold increase in graduation rates after incorporating trauma-informed practices.

For kids, having trauma-informed teachers can mean the difference between being re-traumatized or being understood and cared for. It can help them see options where none previously existed. And for kids that are taught mindfulness exercises as more of a preventative measure, it can set them on a clear path forward.

Conversations don’t inevitably begin and end when the school bell tolls. Suicide will remain a reality in communities, across the country, and around the globe—and there will always be a larger conversation about it in the media, even if it retreats to the back of a news cycle. For now, mindfulness can be the starting point to developing a more widespread effort to address trauma.

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