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Psilocybin and MDMA: On the Trail to a New Psychopharmacology

27 March 2023
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Bonnie Settlage, Ph.D., a professor in the Humanistic Clinical Psychology program at Saybrook University, has long been fascinated with altered states of consciousness, including dreams and psychosis. However, she had not given much thought to psychedelic drugs until a client who “struggled on multiple different levels” exhibited an extraordinary transformation, which Dr. Settlage later learned had followed an experience with ayahuasca, a hallucinogenic tea first brewed in the Amazon.

Observing the profound effect that a naturally occurring, mind-altering compound could have on a person in psychological distress inspired a journey of discovery. Dr. Settlage read renowned science writer Michael Pollan’s book “How to Change Your Mind,” which details much of the lost history of experimentation with psychedelics, and she was amazed at how much research already existed. “When I was in grad school, I never learned about this whole history and how promising psychedelics were psychotherapeutically,” she says.

What Settlage discovered was that a highly successful, decades-long program of drug research and trials had been halted at the stroke of a pen and kept hidden for years. Drug trials begun in the 1950s that had proved to be highly effective in the treatment of alcoholism, depression, and anxiety were shut down by presidential decree. Draconian laws against possession were passed, condemning young users to long prison sentences and casting a hard freeze on scientific inquiry. Decades later, the prohibitions are thawing. Researchers today are rediscovering these once-forbidden substances and have been dazzled by the results. Many believe a psychedelic renaissance has dawned.

Throwing Open the Doors of Perception

Looking back through the prism of criminalization, it is difficult to grasp how widely accepted the therapeutic promise was for lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) and other hallucinogens. Throughout the ’50s, researchers sought to ascertain how “psychedelics” could be beneficial in psychopharmacological settings. At the same time, supporters of the psychedelic movement endeavored to legitimize their use among “healthy normals” by introducing them to prominent members of society across a broad spectrum of disciplines—captains of industry, Silicon Valley pioneers, and Hollywood actors, including screen star Cary Grant.

Then, in the early ’60s, LSD “escaped the lab.” Young people were dropping bootleg LSD, which was inexpensive and not yet illegal, while a Harvard psychology professor named Timothy Leary advised young people to “tune in, turn on, and drop out.” The explosion of the use of hallucinogens among teenagers and college students ignited a moral panic among parents and politicians alike.

In 1971, President Nixon declared drug abuse public enemy number one and signed the Comprehensive. Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act, ending nearly all government-funded research. For nearly the next half century, hallucinogenic drugs were listed as Schedule 1 narcotics, and the movement Leary sought to lead was relegated to head shop mythology.

“I went to Berkeley in the ’90s, and I never heard a thing about the large body of academic and clinical research using LSD and psilocybin,” Dr. Settlage says. “It was a shock that all this had happened back then without me knowing.”

Decriminalizing Nature

What gets lost in the crackdown by the federal government, which was motivated in part by a fear and loathing of counterculture gurus like Leary and their perceived mind control over a large swath of American youth, is that naturally occurring psychedelics—including psilocybin, peyote, and ayahuasca—have been used by humans for centuries, even millennia. Furthermore, the harsh punishment for even small doses scared away researchers who had years of experience in utilizing these substances. And though the lengths of some sentences have changed, many of these laws are still in place.

For more than 20 years, any research being done was conducted underground, and some continues today. “It’s kind of the wild west out there,” Dr. Settlage says. “I do think people have been doing underground work for years and have been tremendous help to a lot of people.”

Talking with people who describe transformative experiences was also pivotal in the course of her research. “Just hearing people’s stories was kind of a spiritual awakening,” she says, “about a lot of things I had wanted to believe but hadn’t allowed myself to. Since then, I haven’t looked back.”

Green Shoots of a Psychedelic Spring

Last year, Dr. Settlage attended a training by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) for the use of methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) for treatment-resistant post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The MAPS organization is currently in stage three clinical trials for the use of MDMA to treat PTSD, which Dr. Settlage hopes will gain approval so MDMA can be prescribed to qualified patients outside of an experimental clinical setting. Since her interest in this area has become more widely known among her colleagues, Dr. Settlage says she has been overwhelmed with questions. “Students are asking me about it all the time,” she says. “It comes up in our courses quite a bit.”

Dr. Settlage believes Saybrook is a natural home for research into the broader scientific and cultural significance of this renewed focus on psychedelics, given the traditions for open inquiry among the students and faculty. Richard Tarnas, Ph.D., who received his doctorate from Saybrook University in 1976, was an acolyte of Stanislav Grof, Ph.D., an early researcher into psychedelics and former clinical and research fellow at Johns Hopkins University, which is currently one of the epicenters of renewed research into psychedelics. Dr. Tarnas went on to found the program in Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness at the California Institute of Integral Studies.

Ritual and Community

Coming from a dance background, Selene Kumin Vega, Ph.D., professor in the Mind-Body Medicine Department at Saybrook, espouses the essentiality of mind-body wellness as well as the centrality of the individual within a group setting, and that philosophy has guided her work in drug-assisted therapy. She feels that more and more people are entering into these sorts of therapies with the understanding that there is something sacred about them. “People in Native American peyote circles aren’t taking peyote as a party drug,” she says. “They are taking it as a healing drug, not just for individual healing, but for community healing.”

This is a key aspect of the culture of psychedelics in its more traditional forms that attracts Dr. Vega within the context of the mind-body wellness program: a sense of healing within a larger context. “That health and wellness aren’t just individual activities,” she says. “They are community processes.”

Like Dr. Settlage, Dr. Vega has undergone MAPS training, which she says aligns well with the way she is accustomed to working. The guide is not there to direct the experience. They are there to create “a safe container for whatever is happening.” The key is to trust the client and allow them to go where the experience takes them rather than to steer them toward a predetermined outcome. For instance, researchers in the 1950s and ’60s noticed that clients tended toward outcomes that mirrored the training of the clinician administering the drug and providing their treatment. In contrast, Dr. Vega sees contemporary approaches as being very different. “Our role is really more as a midwife to follow the process that’s going on rather than try to make it go a certain way,” she says.

Freeing the Mind in Safe Settings

While the client is enabled to associate freely during these sessions in MDMA assisted therapy, the protocols are organized to include typically three preparatory sessions before the medicine is introduced. Then, clients alternate between sessions in which the drug is administered in the presence of a guide followed by a session to process that experience. The course of treatment takes nine to 12 sessions. However, as other substances, including psilocybin, move through trials and are approved for use, protocols will vary, and, of course, people continue to experiment on their own.

“As a therapist, I’ve worked with people who had had experiences in an ayahuasca circle or in just an LSD trip and then come in to say, ‘Help me understand what that was and what it means for me in my life,’” Dr. Vega says. “And the work that we do then has to do with reconnecting with that state of consciousness that they went to in a very deep way, exploring what happened for them, and what it feels like now in their body in a way that helps to integrate that experience.”

Gazing Beyond the Horizon

As befitting the substances themselves, the future of psychedelic inquiry is both foreseeable and, for now, unknowable. Given the status of current research, the clinical use of MDMA and psilocybin are all but certain. A recent article in National Geographic described how drug manufacturers are working on perfecting psilocybin delivery so that the drug takes effect more quickly, the effects do not last as long, and the potential for nausea as a side effect is reduced.

What is less clear, with some states looking to legalize psilocybin as they have marijuana, is what the future of personal use, outside of clinical applications, will look like. Dr. Settlage is of two minds on the question. “For me, in the beginning, I was so enthusiastic that I felt like a proselytizer, like, ‘Everybody should have this, go out and do it,’” she says. “But I no longer feel that way. It’s wise to approach these drugs with caution, and I am on the fence about how regulated they should be or how prescriptive they should be. The extent to which an individual can make that choice versus the state is another question.”

What seems certain, however, is that armed with the lessons of the past, researchers are going to make great strides in treating mental illness with the use of substances the possession of which can, currently, get you arrested. As Dr. Vega says, “I am so excited that this is getting out into the world and the way that it seems to be kind of exploding everywhere around us. I think it’s going to make a huge difference.”


*The term was coined by the Canadian psychiatrist Humphry Osmond during correspondence with the visionary writer Aldous Huxley.

Learn more about Saybrook University

If you are interested in learning more about the community and academic programs at Saybrook University, fill out the form below to request more information. You can also apply today through our application portal.

Saybrook’s Annual Gala Honors Supporters of the Saybrook Mission

8 February 2023
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On November 9, 2022, Saybrook hosted its Annual Awards and Spotlight Gala at the University Club of Pasadena to celebrate the community and honor the generosity of those who support Saybrook initiatives. The event was Hollywood-themed with live jazz music performed by Sir Henry on Sax. Almost 200 participants attended in person and around 50 joined online.

Event host Daniel Sieberg, a member of the Saybrook Board of Trustees, began the evening by introducing President Nathan Long, Ed.D., who delivered opening remarks. Dr. Long thanked donors for their generosity and reiterated the university’s legacy and values.

“Saybrook is known as a pioneer both in its unique humanistic heritage, as well as its approach to distanced learning and education. By taking a concept that increases access to graduate education and supercharging it with outstanding faculty, mentors, scholars, and practitioners, students receive, in my estimation, one of the finest educations out there today,” Dr. Long said.

Dr. Long also discussed the larger context of the Saybrook mission and how it addresses some of society’s greatest challenges.

“Our country today is in great need. A mental health crisis looms large. Not enough therapists populate our communities to provide the mental health support that’s needed,” he said. “I’m asking you to join me tonight to help Saybrook answer the various needs of our nation.”

Saybrook faculty and students are constantly engaged in innovative work and research that remain vital to the university’s history and legacy. Donations help enable this work to create long-term sustainability for Saybrook’s progressive, humanistic programs. Additionally, many of the scholarships offered by Saybrook directly further its mission, provide access to a graduate education that otherwise might not be possible.

Dr. Long’s opening remarks were followed by Board of Trustee members Michael Horowitz, Ph.D., and Gloria Chance, Ph.D., both of whom have contributed to scholarships at Saybrook.

Dr. Horowitz, president of TCS Education System, stressed his confidence in Saybrook’s mission and his admiration for its values. “I have a deep appreciation for this institution. There’s nothing like it,” he said. “Over recent years, we’ve been growing by leaps and bounds because I think the world needs more and more of Saybrook University.” At Saybrook, Dr. Horowitz and his wife, Jeannie Gutierrez, Ph.D., established the Dr. Michael Horowitz & Dr. Jeannie Gutierrez Immigrant / First Generation Scholarship program.

Dr. Chance, chair of the Institutional Advancement Committee, announced the Marlene Chance Scholarship in honor of her late sister and former Saybrook faculty member. The scholarship is intended to bring more practitioners to the field of mental health who support incremental innovation.

“We need to be able to bring solutions to populations in the way that they need them,” Dr. Chance said. “Whether it’s the homeless population, BIPOC communities, or others, through the Marlene Chance Scholarship we want to fund opportunities for people to heal that are non-traditional.”

After dinner, faculty and staff presented Saybrook’s 2022-2023 scholarships and awards to the distinguished recipients.

The Annual Awards and Spotlight Gala is Saybrook’s signature fundraising event and important to maintaining university programs. By the end of the evening, this year’s event raised $40K through donations, tickets, raffles, and auction items. All proceeds will be used to fund Saybrook student scholarships, innovative research, fellowships, and other initiatives.

Learn more about giving to Saybrook

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The Necessity Of Critical Race Theory

1 December 2022
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Critical Race Theory. Three simple words, and yet their mere utterance in succession strikes fear in the hearts of a significant chunk of the American population. But what is it about this academic concept that has drawn such ire in the wake of renewed calls for racial justice across the United States? Rather than being the reductive boogeyman detractors describe, Critical Race Theory (CRT) has been vastly misrepresented in national conversations.
In a point/counterpoint piece published by The Gazette, a newspaper based in Colorado Springs, Nathaniel Granger, Psy.D., and adjunct faculty in Saybrook University’s Department of Humanistic and Clinical Psychology, argued in favor of teaching Critical Race Theory in Colorado Schools. According to him, “It is crucial to understand CRT prior to entertaining and/or establishing policies against or in support of it.” However, many who use the term do not understand it.
It seems that many of the recent discussions surrounding CRT have focused on fears and misconceptions about the theory rather than what the theory is and why it was created. However, in order to have open and productive discussions, it’s vital to come to a mutual understanding of what CRT actually is and what the intentions were behind creating it.

What is Critical Race Theory?

Critical Race Theory, commonly abbreviated as CRT, was created in the 1970s and 1980s by legal scholars including Richard Delgado, the late Derrick Bell, and Kimberlé Crenshaw—the latter of whom coined the term. The theory grew from the field of Critical Legal Studies, a field that was considered radical at the time according to Laura Turner-Essel, Ph.D. and adjunct faculty in the Department of Transformative Social Change at Saybrook. “It argued that the law was not objective, neutral or apolitical, contrary to the common perception within the legal studies field at the time,” Dr. Turner-Essel explains.

“Critical race theorists saw that the law could be complicit in maintaining this unjust racial caste system within society, but also that it held potential as a tool for promoting justice and racial equality.”

-Laura Turner-Essel, Ph.D.

The intent behind the theory was to examine racist systems that persist within the make up of law enforcement and criminal justice in the U.S. Despite the passing of the Civil Rights Act in 1968 and desegregation efforts since, these types of systems continue to disproportionately affect marginalized groups in the United States, especially Black Americans.
“Critical race theorists saw that the law could be complicit in maintaining this unjust racial caste system within society, but also that it held potential as a tool for promoting justice and racial equality,” Dr. Turner-Essel says. “They wanted to show how the concept of race and the realities of racism had been encoded into the laws and institutions of the nation and were continuing to reproduce racial disparities in almost every aspect of life.”
When created, CRT was intended to address the role of racism in the law and to work to eliminate it. However, the term has since caught on outside the field of law, and there has been a great deal of discrepancy in the way it has been portrayed in media and public discourse ever since.

Confronting Misconceptions

Discrepancies in the perception and reception of CRT seem to begin with misunderstandings of the intent behind the theory, in addition to fundamental differences of perception regarding the current reality black people are living in.
According to a recent article from Politifact, “Supporters describe critical race theory as a collection of ideas, not a single doctrine, that explain why racial inequality and disparities persist long after civil rights laws and court rulings barred discrimination.” This view aligns with the intent behind the theory as indicated by its creators. Alternately, Politifact says, “opponents use it as a blanket label for any discussion of white privilege, and they have encouraged local school districts to forbid the teaching of anything that addresses systemic racism.”
Additionally, though K-12 schools across the U.S. have been accused of implementing CRT into curricula, it is not a K-12 concept. It was created specifically for law school circles in higher education. However, anti-racist and anti-bias initiatives for K-12 educational environments have been implemented in some schools nationwide, prompting critics to conflate them with CRT due to overlap in objectives.

“CRT focuses on the opportunities that all people, including White Americans, have to correct the situation by noticing how racism lives on within our social systems.”

-Laura Turner-Essel, Ph.D.

In the couple of years since CRT exploded onto the scene as the latest buzzword, criticisms have continued to grow, and school boards across the U.S. face attacks on any CRT-related policies. Additionally, many of the same CRT detractors have begun misrepresenting other modern educational initiatives and associating them with CRT, including Social-Emotional Learning.
Dr. Turner-Essel points out the importance of continuing to challenge misinformation. “We must clarify terms by referring people to the work of reputable scholars who have dedicated their careers to this approach,” she says. “Everyone need not adopt the CRT perspective, but it is important for the sake of intellectual integrity to accurately represent what CRT says and what it does not.”
It is vital to keep pushing back against lies with the truth. Fortunately, many academic programs, including Saybrook’s Transformative Social Change program, are preparing aspiring agents of change to meet the challenge. Though CRT itself is not taught at Saybrook due to its nature as a law school concept, its systemic perspective and progressive approach aligns with Saybrook’s core mission and values.
“The program in Transformative Social Change aims to help students understand, at a very deep level, the systemic and interconnected nature of societal problems and to use this awareness to implement positive remedies,” Dr. Turner-Essel says.

Why we need Critical Race Theory

As Dr. Granger states in The Gazette, “We are disillusioned if we believe or act as if racism has had no part in the shaping of America.”
If anything, the evidence of persistent systemic racism has been thrust into the spotlight more than ever over the past few years due to various widely publicized acts of violence and injustice against Black Americans, including many perpetrated by law enforcement officers.

Black Americans account for 13.4% of the population in the U.S., the third largest racial group in the country after Hispanic or Latino at 18.5% and white at 76.3%. However, the rates of arrest, conviction, and incarceration for Black Americans are disproportionately higher than those of larger racial groups.
A recent report found that black men and boys face the highest lifetime risk of being killed by police among all groups, and incarceration rates reveal a similar discrepancy. Even with results demonstrating an overall decline in incarceration for all people as recently as 2020, “Black Americans remain far more likely than their Hispanic and white counterparts to be in prison. The black imprisonment rate at the end of 2018 was nearly twice the rate among Hispanics (797 per 100,000) and more than five times the rate among whites (268 per 100,000),” according to Pew Research.
Science has reaffirmed time and again that race is a social construct, not a biological attribute, meaning the continuation of high racial inequity is not due to any factors inherently found within the biological make up of humans. Many have gravitated toward CRT to get a better understanding of the nature of the issue. Dr. Turner-Essel notes, “As with any theoretical perspective, CRT’s value is in its ability to explain the realities we observe. But CRT also expands our understanding by including the perspectives, scholarship, and lived experiences of people of color in its analysis, rather than only viewing people of color as being full of deficits and problems.”
Only with critical analysis of systems can meaningful structural changes begin. However, the key to this type of systemic analysis is for it to remain honest. CRT conversations might not always be comfortable for everyone involved, but they’re necessary to break down misconceptions and move forward. As Dr. Granger stated in The Gazette, “To raise the question of if CRT should be taught in our schools is asking if the truth of America should be taught to those who hold our future, or should they be bamboozled with distorted information, such as being taught that Christopher Columbus ‘discovered’ America.”

Moving Forward

In the couple of years since CRT exploded onto the scene as the latest buzzword, criticisms have continued to grow, and school boards across the U.S. face attacks on any CRT-related policies. Additionally, many of the same CRT detractors have begun misrepresenting other modern educational initiatives and associating them with CRT, including Social-Emotional Learning.
Dr. Turner-Essel points out the importance of continuing to challenge misinformation. “We must clarify terms by referring people to the work of reputable scholars who have dedicated their careers to this approach,” she says. “Everyone need not adopt the CRT perspective, but it is important for the sake of intellectual integrity to accurately represent what CRT says and what it does not.”
It is vital to keep pushing back against lies with the truth. Fortunately, many academic programs, including Saybrook’s Transformative Social Change program, are preparing aspiring agents of change to meet the challenge. Though CRT itself is not taught at Saybrook due to its nature as a law school concept, its systemic perspective and progressive approach aligns with Saybrook’s core mission and values.
“The program in Transformative Social Change aims to help students understand, at a very deep level, the systemic and interconnected nature of societal problems and to use this awareness to implement positive remedies,” Dr. Turner-Essel says.

The Necessity of Critical Race Theory

1 December 2022
T12 Titans
No comments

Critical Race Theory. Three simple words, and yet their mere utterance in succession strikes fear in the hearts of a significant chunk of the American population. But what is it about this academic concept that has drawn such ire in the wake of renewed calls for racial justice across the United States? Rather than being the reductive boogeyman detractors describe, Critical Race Theory (CRT) has been vastly misrepresented in national conversations.

In a point/counterpoint piece published by The Gazette, a newspaper based in Colorado Springs, Nathaniel Granger, Psy.D., and adjunct faculty in Saybrook University’s Department of Humanistic and Clinical Psychology, argued in favor of teaching Critical Race Theory in Colorado Schools. According to him, “It is crucial to understand CRT prior to entertaining and/or establishing policies against or in support of it.” However, many who use the term do not understand it.

It seems that many of the recent discussions surrounding CRT have focused on fears and misconceptions about the theory rather than what the theory is and why it was created. However, in order to have open and productive discussions, it’s vital to come to a mutual understanding of what CRT actually is and what the intentions were behind creating it.

What is Critical Race Theory?

Critical Race Theory, commonly abbreviated as CRT, was created in the 1970s and 1980s by legal scholars including Richard Delgado, the late Derrick Bell, and Kimberlé Crenshaw—the latter of whom coined the term. The theory grew from the field of Critical Legal Studies, a field that was considered radical at the time according to Laura Turner-Essel, Ph.D. and adjunct faculty in the Department of Transformative Social Change at Saybrook. “It argued that the law was not objective, neutral or apolitical, contrary to the common perception within the legal studies field at the time,” Dr. Turner-Essel explains.

The intent behind the theory was to examine racist systems that persist within the make up of law enforcement and criminal justice in the U.S. Despite the passing of the Civil Rights Act in 1968 and desegregation efforts since, these types of systems continue to disproportionately affect marginalized groups in the United States, especially Black Americans.

“Critical race theorists saw that the law could be complicit in maintaining this unjust racial caste system within society, but also that it held potential as a tool for promoting justice and racial equality,” Dr. Turner-Essel says. “They wanted to show how the concept of race and the realities of racism had been encoded into the laws and institutions of the nation and were continuing to reproduce racial disparities in almost every aspect of life.”

When created, CRT was intended to address the role of racism in the law and to work to eliminate it. However, the term has since caught on outside the field of law, and there has been a great deal of discrepancy in the way it has been portrayed in media and public discourse ever since.

Confronting Misconceptions

Discrepancies in the perception and reception of CRT seem to begin with misunderstandings of the intent behind the theory, in addition to fundamental differences of perception regarding the current reality black people are living in.

According to a recent article from Politifact, “Supporters describe critical race theory as a collection of ideas, not a single doctrine, that explain why racial inequality and disparities persist long after civil rights laws and court rulings barred discrimination.” This view aligns with the intent behind the theory as indicated by its creators. Alternately, Politifact says, “opponents use it as a blanket label for any discussion of white privilege, and they have encouraged local school districts to forbid the teaching of anything that addresses systemic racism.”

Additionally, though K-12 schools across the U.S. have been accused of implementing CRT into curricula, it is not a K-12 concept. It was created specifically for law school circles in higher education. However, anti-racist and anti-bias initiatives for K-12 educational environments have been implemented in some schools nationwide, prompting critics to conflate them with CRT due to overlap in objectives.

Detractors present CRT as a static concept, permanently casting white Americans as racist oppressors and Black Americans as victims. However, CRT is not so constrictive. As Dr. Turner-Essel explains, “Psychologically, I understand how being affiliated with a group that has enacted harms could induce an emotional response. However, CRT focuses on the opportunities that all people, including White Americans, have to correct the situation by noticing how racism lives on within our social systems (whether or not any one person in that system appears to be a “racist”) and to actively change those systems to stop harming people of color.”

Changing harmful racist systems requires open and honest acknowledgement that they exist in the first place. CRT opts to meet the truths of persistent racial inequality in the United States head-on, rather than shying away from them. However, demands for change are directed at systems, rather than individuals. “CRT recognizes that racism is indeed foundational to many of our societal institutions, not just a periodic malfunction, and focuses on ways that we can collectively change structures,” Dr. Turner-Essel says. “It does not focus on making individuals feel like ‘bad people’ for being a certain race.”

In his piece for The Gazette, Dr. Granger contends that CRT’s aim of striving for equality transcends the Black vs. white racial binary to recognize the impact racism has had on experiences of various people of color, including Latinx individuals, Native Americans, and Asian Americans. “CRT challenges white privilege, a primary factor for its resistance, and exposes deficit-informed research that ignores, and often omits, the scholarship of people of color,” Dr. Granger writes. “Contrary to what is often stated, CRT does not suggest any ‘racial’ group is inherently inferior or biased, which would contradict the foundational premise that race is a social construction.”

Ultimately the social construction of race must be recognized as such: a human concept influenced by culture and socialization, rather than an inherent biological set of characteristics.

Why we need Critical Race Theory

As Dr. Granger states in The Gazette, “We are disillusioned if we believe or act as if racism has had no part in the shaping of America.”

If anything, the evidence of persistent systemic racism has been thrust into the spotlight more than ever over the past few years due to various widely publicized acts of violence and injustice against Black Americans, including many perpetrated by law enforcement officers.

Black Americans account for 13.4% of the population in the U.S., the third largest racial group in the country after Hispanic or Latino at 18.5% and white at 76.3%. However, the rates of arrest, conviction, and incarceration for Black Americans are disproportionately higher than those of larger racial groups.

A recent report found that black men and boys face the highest lifetime risk of being killed by police among all groups, and incarceration rates reveal a similar discrepancy. Even with results demonstrating an overall decline in incarceration for all people as recently as 2020, “Black Americans remain far more likely than their Hispanic and white counterparts to be in prison. The black imprisonment rate at the end of 2018 was nearly twice the rate among Hispanics (797 per 100,000) and more than five times the rate among whites (268 per 100,000),” according to Pew Research.

Science has reaffirmed time and again that race is a social construct, not a biological attribute, meaning the continuation of high racial inequity is not due to any factors inherently found within the biological make up of humans. Many have gravitated toward CRT to get a better understanding of the nature of the issue. Dr. Turner-Essel notes, “As with any theoretical perspective, CRT’s value is in its ability to explain the realities we observe. But CRT also expands our understanding by including the perspectives, scholarship, and lived experiences of people of color in its analysis, rather than only viewing people of color as being full of deficits and problems.”

Only with critical analysis of systems can meaningful structural changes begin. However, the key to this type of systemic analysis is for it to remain honest. CRT conversations might not always be comfortable for everyone involved, but they’re necessary to break down misconceptions and move forward. As Dr. Granger stated in The Gazette, “To raise the question of if CRT should be taught in our schools is asking if the truth of America should be taught to those who hold our future, or should they be bamboozled with distorted information, such as being taught that Christopher Columbus ‘discovered’ America.”

Moving Forward

In the couple of years since CRT exploded onto the scene as the latest buzzword, criticisms have continued to grow, and school boards across the U.S. face attacks on any CRT-related policies. Additionally, many of the same CRT detractors have begun misrepresenting other modern educational initiatives and associating them with CRT, including Social-Emotional Learning.

Dr. Turner-Essel points out the importance of continuing to challenge misinformation. “We must clarify terms by referring people to the work of reputable scholars who have dedicated their careers to this approach,” she says. “Everyone need not adopt the CRT perspective, but it is important for the sake of intellectual integrity to accurately represent what CRT says and what it does not.”

It is vital to keep pushing back against lies with the truth. Fortunately, many academic programs, including Saybrook’s Transformative Social Change program, are preparing aspiring agents of change to meet the challenge. Though CRT itself is not taught at Saybrook due to its nature as a law school concept, its systemic perspective and progressive approach aligns with Saybrook’s core mission and values.

“The program in Transformative Social Change aims to help students understand, at a very deep level, the systemic and interconnected nature of societal problems and to use this awareness to implement positive remedies,” Dr. Turner-Essel says.

Learn more about Saybrook University

If you are interested in learning more about the community and academic programs at Saybrook University, fill out the form below to request more information. You can also apply today through our application portal.

Saybrook alumna Carole Patrick, Ph.D., pays tribute to a fellow Saybrook alumna and dear friend

15 November 2022
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Saybrook University celebrates the life of alumna Dr. Lael Curtis who passed away on September 10, 2022. Fellow Saybrook alumna, Dr. Carole Patrick, submitted this eulogy to UNBOUND to honor Dr. Curtis’ work, impact, and their meaningful friendship.

In Memory of Dr. Lael Ann Curtis
October 2, 1950 – September 1, 2022

Lael Curtis, Ph.D., maintained an outlook of deep respect for all life on earth throughout her lifetime. It colored her studies, her work, and her friendships in positive and invaluable ways. I was fortunate enough to have felt her impact firsthand, and I hope to pass it on by honoring and celebrating her memory.

Dr. Curtis was a lifelong learner. Throughout her educational journey, she earned a master’s degree in theology, a master’s degree in social work, and a degree in law, as well as a doctorate in psychology from Saybrook in 2017. During her professional career, she spent more than a decade working in Indigenous law. Most recently, she worked to provide social services to seniors living in care facilities until health concerns forced her into retirement in 2020.

A profound value for life and social issues motivated Dr. Curtis’ life and work. She was guided by empathy and compassion for people who are disadvantaged and struggling for survival, as well as concern for the environment and the impacts of climate change. Every life, big and small, mattered to Dr. Curtis. When I sent her flowers for her birthday one year, she followed up with a message saying, “Your flowers still smell lovely. They smile at me every day.”

As an antidote to the sense of isolation and loneliness often pervasive in our current world, Dr. Curtis believed in the strength of families and the need for deep connections and meaningful communication. I believe our relationship served as the perfect example that she was right.

I met Dr. Curtis in 2012, during our first semester at Saybrook University while we were both attending a class in human science. Though she seemed like a quiet person and kept to herself, I introduced myself and we began a dialogue that would grow into a lifelong friendship.

For the rest of our time in the Ph.D. program, we supported each other, providing motivation and words of encouragement through our most difficult and challenging times. Our friendship gave me the strength I needed to complete the program, and Dr. Curtis often spoke about how much it meant to her as well.

We remained close long after our time at Saybrook ended, and in 2020, I unofficially adopted Dr. Curtis as a sister. Our weekly meetings continued until September 10, 2022, when her spirit left this earth.

I will forever be grateful that while gaining a valuable education at Saybrook, I also gained a dear friend and sister for life. Goodbye, Lael.

Carole Patrick, Ph.D.

Saybrook community members participate in Creativity Conference

1 November 2022
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From July 14-17, Southern Oregon University hosted its Creativity Conference, boasting some of the biggest names in our field for keynotes, seminars, and on-on-one interactions. Saybrook faculty, students, and alumni showed strong representation at the conference.  

 A Gathering of Creatives 

I was honored to present “Across the Spectrum of Creativity and Contemplative Inquiry” alongside my colleague and friend Dr. Gina Belton at the conference. At first glance, our collaboration on the topics may appear to be at different ends of a spectrum in that they utilize creativity through different lenses, but it came together through thought and application of a variety of creative and innovation models in tandem with Saybrook’s schools of humanistic/existential and transpersonal psychologies. Our aim was to keep the presentation effectively grounded, offering some new “food for thought” for participants.  

 Additionally, Saybrook community members hosted stellar seminars throughout the conference, including:  

  • Dr. Marina Smirnova, faculty in the Department of Humanistic Psychology: Unveiling, Retrieving, and Redeeming Creativity and Creative Living in Midlife: An Inward Gaze  
  • Jeannel King, Roxanne Hornbeck, and Elaine Blasi, students: Creativity at Work: An Invitation to Systemic-Change in the Workplace  
  • Jeffrey Mims, alumnus, Experiential Capacity & Music  
  • Dr. Ruth Richards, adjunct faculty in the Department of Humanistic Psychology: Creativity and Who We are: A New Normal  
  • Carol Barrett, adjunct faculty in the Department of Humanistic Psychology: Hugging the Shore: Poetry’s Contribution to Environmental Consciousness  
  • Melinda Rothouse, alumna: Getting Lost and Finding your Way Through the Creative Process  
  • Gayle Byock, student: Creative Writing with a Surprise Ending  

Members of the Creativity Studies program very much want to honor the important contributions made to the conference by Saybrook community members.

Starting Creative Conversations 

The conference facilitated dialogue on the most critical issues of the day and how creativity plays an integral role in solutions and innovations in response to them. For example, surviving the pandemic took creative  imagination to get kids in front of their computers, to pick and choose where to go while considering exposure to COVID-19, and to navigate questions that arose from the Black Lives Matter movement, to name just a few. As Saybrook moves forward with its own Creativity Studies Specialization, it is imperative to stay informed of both the current thinking in the field and how this might effectively inform our curriculum and research areas of interest.  

Our students offered insights from their various cutting-edge research interests and their successfully defended dissertations. This was a critical opportunity to navigate public, hybrid, and virtual presentations in the professional arena. Many of our students come to us with skill sets firmly in place in their current careers, but being able to collaborate in live sessions with academics whose work they are most interested in is invaluable. Marc Runco, Michael Mumford, Ruth Richards, and many others who were present at the conference are our seminal authors in the field of creativity. 

Many thanks! 

 We want to thank our current students Lyza Fontana, Amy Murray, and Katie Keller for their assistance in preparing for the conference and Katie and Lyza’s efforts to make Saybrook’s presence at our sponsor table both unique and alluring to passersby. Our table was informational and interactive for conference attendees, allowing them to participate in our “Creativitree” to share their thoughts, experiences, and insights about their conference attendance. 

 We lastly want to thank our admissions and marketing teams (Karyn Lee and Itzel Gonzalez) for supporting our efforts through a sponsorship at the conference. This allowed us to share detailed information about the Creativity Studies Specialization and Saybrook University.  

  About the Author: Robert A. Cleve, Ph.D., Creativity Studies (CS) Specialization Coordinator 

Dr. Cleve has been the coordinator of CS at Saybrook since January 2022. His background is in academia, research, and art, with a focus on stained and fused glass. He earned his Ph.D. from The Chicago School in International Psychology with a focus on Organizations and Systems. 

Stay tuned for more information in future blogs about our students and our creative endeavors. For more information about the Creativity Studies Specialization, contact Creativity Studies Specialization Coordinator Dr. Robert Cleve. 

Fill out the form below to learn more about Saybrook University. 

Marina Smirnova, Ph.D.

31 August 2022
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Marina Smirnova, Ph.D.
Faculty, Department of Humanistic Psychology

“I am most grateful to walk in my calling and tend to my spiritual journey while helping others to do the same.”

Centering the Spirit

Marina A. Smirnova, Ph.D., serves as psychology faculty in the Department of Humanistic Psychology at Saybrook University, overseeing the specialization in Consciousness, Spirituality, and Integrative Health (CSIH).

Marina Smirnova, Ph.D., says her interest in all things related to the transpersonal began in childhood while growing up on Sakhalin Island off the far northeastern coast of Russia. “My mother, my first teacher, taught music at the college level for 33 years,” she recalls. “Since my childhood, my mother has been kindling my interest in teaching, scholarship, and education.”

Throughout adolescence and adulthood, Dr. Smirnova’s passion continued to blossom, eventually leading her to the field of transpersonal psychology, the field of psychology that focuses on spiritual aspects of humanity. “What drives my interest in transpersonal psychology, intuitive healing, consciousness, spirituality, longevity, and integrative health is an embodied sense of my personal calling and destiny,” Dr. Smirnova says. “I’m fascinated by the mystical dimensions of existence and the mystery of life itself, as seen through my experiences and those of others.”

Dr. Smirnova entered the field of higher education in 2010 after many years of K-12 teaching and counseling in the U.S. and abroad. During her time as a Ph.D. student studying psychology with a transpersonal concentration, she simultaneously began teaching at community college. In addition to her Ph.D., Dr. Smirnova also completed a two-year training in holotropic breathwork, a method of breathing used in therapy to facilitate emotional healing and personal growth that Dr. Smirnova says added “integrative value” to her journey as a student and educator. She is now a certified holotropic breathwork facilitator.

Eventually, her journey as an educator brought Dr. Smirnova to Saybrook University, where she found a community of kindred spirits. “Saybook is a sui generis [of their own kind] community of world-class, leading humanistic, existential, and transpersonal scholar-practitioners who embody the values and ideals they teach. They care deeply about humanity and are committed to partaking honorably and justly in the world,” she says. “Saybrook is my intellectual and experiential family, and I am deeply grateful to belong and to contribute to Saybrook’s life, legacy, present, and future.”

On Nov. 10, 2021, Dr. Smirnova received Saybrook’s Presidential Award for Excellence. At the award ceremony, Nathan Long, Ph.D., Saybrook president, shared that Dr. Smirnova had been nominated for “excellent implementation of the best traditions and principles of transpersonal and humanistic psychology and spirituality into the field of science and psychological research and professional growing of psychologists in training.”

Just in the past 10 years, Dr. Smirnova’s contributions to the field of education and transpersonal psychology have been vast and varied. She gives frequent talks all over the country, sharing her studies and insights through presentations and workshops that cover a multitude of topics. Examples include her presentation at the 2022 annual conference of the Michigan Academy of Science, Arts, and Letters on cultivating creative risk-taking in online and/or hybrid classrooms; her presentation at the 25th annual conference of the Midwest Institute for International-Intercultural Education titled “Mythopoetic and Archetypal Sensibilities in the Halls of Ivy: Considerations for International Relevance;” and her presentation at The Chicago School of Professional Psychology titled “Music of the Soul: The Art and Science of Transformative Hypnotic Relationships, Mutual Regulation, and Gene Expression Modulation.”  She was also featured in the first episode of the Saybrook Insights podcast.

Additionally, she contributed chapters to “Holistic Treatment in Mental Health: A Handbook of Practitioners’ Perspectives” related to clinical hypnosis and holotropic breathwork, as well as publishing reviews of multiple other books and collections related to topics in humanistic and transpersonal psychology, hypnosis, and neurolinguistic psychotherapy. She also contributed to the research edition translation into Russian of “TA-285-Body Insight Scale (BIS)” by Rosemarie Anderson. In the classroom, Dr. Smirnova regards embodying and centering her key personal and transpersonal values and virtues as essential to her pedagogy. “I subscribe to the phenomenon of ‘growing down,’ as described by James Hillman, with a focus on being and becoming a good ancestor and the pursuit of wisdom and wholeness,” she says. “I encourage those in my classes to maintain wholehearted commitment to ongoing growth and transformation, as well as to trust the experiential process.”

Dr. Smirnova is proud of the fulfilling work she does as a part of the Department of Humanistic Psychology at Saybrook. “The Psychology Program and CSIH Specialization at Saybrook University teaches students to mindfully witness, ardently pursue, and skillfully engage their personal and transpersonal interests from a scholar-practitioner perspective,” she says. “We encourage students in the program to approach their psychology practice with a sense of integrity, ‘response-ability’, authenticity, confidence, experiential truths, humility, diversity, and wholeness, to become practitioners who can give the most holistic and effective care to their clients.”

Drake Spaeth, Ph.D.

23 June 2022
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Drake Spaeth, Ph.D.
Faculty, Humanistic and Clinical Psychology

“Saybrook is where I’ve really been able to explore the full existential humanistic perspective that inspired me and drives my passion.”

Transformer

With the same youthful enthusiasm that first began his journey, Dr. Drake Spaeth inspires curiosity and meaningful interaction in his classes as he strives to help those around him unlock the power and meaning of humanistic psychology.

Not many people discover their life’s calling in childhood, but a career in psychology nearly knocked Saybrook University’s Drake Spaeth, Psy.D., over the head—literally.

Dr. Spaeth, Saybrook Humanistic Psychology Department chair and Existential-Humanistic Psychology Specialization coordinator, approaches life with unbridled curiosity and enthusiasm he feels fortunate to have retained since childhood.

“When I’m feeling patient, generous, and in touch with my sense of humor and play, I feel blessed because I feel like a part of me has stayed at age 10 while the rest of me grew up and got old,” he says with a twinkle in his eye. “There’s a part of me that stayed a child in the greatest way possible; a boyish kind of enthusiasm that’s alive and well.”

Perhaps it has to do with the moment he discovered psychology around the age of 11, a story he tells fondly.

“I was in a very small bookstore in a shopping mall looking at the sci-fi/fantasy section, when a book from the psychology section above fell off the shelf and bonked me on the shoulder,” he recalls. “It was titled, ‘The Portable Jung.’ Up to that point, my big career aspiration was to become a geologist, so I hadn’t even thought about psychology of all things. But I started reading a little bit, and I was just captured.”

After studying psychology throughout his higher education and postgraduate experiences, Dr. Spaeth went on to serve as an educator in various forms at Lakehurst College, The Chicago School of Professional Psychology, and Northwestern University. When he moved his teaching practice entirely online, he began adjunct teaching for Saybrook University. A few years later, he assumed his roles as chair of the Humanistic Psychology Department and coordinator of the Existential-Humanistic Psychology Specialization.

Throughout his studies, Dr. Spaeth has found a deep appreciation for humanistic psychology and existential psychology, inspired by the works of psychologists like Carl Rogers and Rollo May. His passion for humanistic approaches has informed his teaching, helping him keep his students inspired.

“I love sharing my excitement about questions in existential psychology and sharing things that I’ve learned along the way,” he explains. “I love drawing out the commonalities of experience that students and clients have, and then seeing their curiosity awaken. I think curiosity is one of the single greatest qualities of being human.”

Saybrook students keep Dr. Spaeth’s curiosity thriving every day.

“Recently, I’ve seen an evolution in students in a very short time,” he says. “They’ve become very challenging in the best ways. They don’t take anything at face value, and it can be startling, but it keeps me on my toes and keeps me feeling young. Their lively curiosity invigorates mine.”

As existential-humanistic psychology begins to assume a greater role in mainstream conversations, Dr. Spaeth is excited about being a part of Saybrook to help expand the understanding of the existential-humanistic paradigm on a global level.

“The old humanistic psychologists used to say, ‘If I just know how to express myself, everything is going to be OK,’” he says. “But not everybody gets to do that. And until we all can do that, we can’t say that any of us are whole.”

Saybrook’s Mind-Body Wellness Fair 2022 Emphasizes the Importance of Holistic Approaches to Health and Wellness

23 June 2022
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“Wellness can be defined many ways, but it is a global issue. And it applies not only to us individually but our communities, our nations, and our planets.”

These were the words Luann Fortune, Ph.D., LMT, faculty at Saybrook University and specialization coordinator in the Mind-Body Medicine department, chose to kick off her presentation at Saybrook’s 2022 Mind-Body Wellness Fair. As the first presentation of the fair, these words summarized Dr. Fortune’s own points and set the tone for what attendees could expect from the rest of the festival.

Held annually, the Mind-Body Wellness Fair speaks to the core values of Saybrook University. It provides the opportunity for faculty and students to share their academic knowledge and experienced wisdom regarding overall health and wellness with the greater community, further extending the important work happening at Saybrook every day.

Saybrook’s holistic perspective, based on a belief in the inherent interconnection of all things, was one of the main themes of the fair—held May 20-21—not only as a part of each presentation, but as a driving force behind the festival itself. Though organized in categories, every subject taught at Saybrook is interconnected through an overall mission to pursue a socially just, sustainable world.

Throughout the 2022 Mind-Body Wellness Fair, presenters from each department at Saybrook were able to share their perspectives on health and wellness, providing a comprehensive view of the multifaceted concept we call health. Attendees had opportunities to participate in guided meditations, ponder reflective questions, and share their personal experiences, gaining new insights into their own health and its connection to the earth and greater universe.

Fittingly, Dr. Fortune’s opening presentation provided an overview of mindfulness and how it can positively contribute to mind-body wellness. She reviewed her work in self-care and wellness and the model she has developed to aid clients in her own practice, identifying the key sources of human health and how they can be further developed and strengthened to support wellness. Dr. Fortune concluded her presentation with a guided love and kindness meditation that repeated three simple wishes for listeners: “May you be well. May you be happy. May you be free.

Re-learning how to see ourselves in nature

Cynthia Kerson, Ph.D., faculty and specialization coordinator in the psychophysiology department, took the floor next to present about the field of psychophysiology and its various attributes and uses, including biofeedback.

“As clinicians, we’re teaching people how to communicate with their bodies on a physiological level,” Dr. Kerson explained of the preventative nature of biofeedback. “What we teach you in biofeedback is how to recognize physiological responses before it becomes too late.” The practice is used to help clients with a number of issues, including panic attacks and chronic pain.

Lindsay Fauntleroy, a licensed acupuncturist and Ph.D. student in the Mind-Body Medicine program at Saybrook, presented “Magic Is Medicine,” a dive into her work with flower essence therapy. Her organization, The Spirit Seed, helps train professionals and aspiring practitioners to integrate flower essence therapy into their practices. Fauntleroy highlighted the uses and benefits of this therapeutic aid, as well the deeply rooted beliefs among the African diaspora and Indigenous cultures about the importance of humanity’s relationship to nature. “Our health and our humanity is intricately, intimately interconnected with nature and the cosmos,” she explained. “As much as the training is about flower essence therapy, it’s also relearning how to see ourselves, our humanity, in connection with nature.”

Tune in

Venturing further into the world of meditation, Aparna Ramaswamy, Ed.D., Ph.D., LCPC, ACS, faculty in the Department of Counseling, encouraged her audience to “Tune in to the quietness.” She focused her presentation on the knowledge and study behind chakras and chakra meditation. These energy pools within humans cover different domains of being, and when they can flow clearly and smoothly, stress and disease can be reduced. Meditative activities can be used to help keep chakras clear, and to end her session, Dr. Ramaswamy led her group in a guided chakra meditation to demonstrate its powerful effects.

To conclude the first day of presentations, Gina Belton, Ph.D., faculty and specializations coordinator in the Mind-Body Medicine program, addressed the process of aging and the importance of practicing self-compassion as one ages. To reflect on the importance of mindfulness with aging, Dr. Belton invited attendees to think of activities that felt different with age. She shared her experience with not being able to go on runs the way she used to but still finding solace in walking her same routes. “On those pathways where I used to run and now walk, I can still enjoy connecting with nature, being present with the eternal … and experiencing my body in a different way,” she reflected.

Connecting to the world around us

Presentations on the following day included “Leadership Tools for Balance in Chaos” by Megan Ratcliffe, Ph.D., faculty in business administration department, Mary K. Chess, Ph.D., department chair of Leadership and Management, Stacey Heiligenthaler, Ph.D., Patty Neil, Ph.D., Petural (PJ) Shelton, Ph.D., and Magda Capellao Kaspary, a doctoral student at Saybrook. “We are delighted to be sharing with you what we think is a smart, useful, and heart-centered approach to dealing with some of the chaos that is emerging in any and all of our environments,” Dr. Ratcliffe began. The group shared their experiences meeting and conferring to help navigate the post-COVID-19 chaos in their professional lives. Their findings resulted in a strategy called PAUSE (patience, action, understanding, sustaining, engaging), designed to help with healthier leadership interactions going forward.

Finally, Joel Federman, Ph.D., program director and department chair of Transformative Social Change, and Joy Meeker, Ph.D., faculty and specialization coordinator for Transformative Social Change, brought the overall perspective back to the big picture by discussing systemic crises and how to navigate them. “People in general tend to think of health as something very individual, but in Transformative Social Change, we think of it as a social issue as well,” Dr. Federman said. The presenters reviewed the biggest stressors of the current global landscape, including climate change and systemic racism, and the challenges posed by these issues. But ultimately, hope for humanity—as the Transformative Social Change department sees it—lies in community and social policy change at every level, encouraged by liberatory models of learning like those practiced within the Transformative Social Change department at Saybrook.

From the individual level to the higher systemic level, the health of each person and the planet we all inhabit are all interconnected. Attendees at this year’s Mind-Body Wellness Fair got an extensive look at many of the different factors affecting their health and strategies they might use to improve their wellness going forward. Keep an eye out for next year’s Mind-Body Wellness Fair to see what new insights the Saybrook community may have in 2023.

To learn more about academic programs at Saybrook University, fill out the form below.

The Clouded Contours of Change

29 April 2022
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The lingering pandemic exposed divisions in our society that are still trying our notions of the American way of life and have some believing that the country is in a state of irreversible decline. Faced with this climate of vexation, angst, and national self-doubt, we must ask ourselves how we got to this point and what can we do to shift both perception and reality.

Two members of the Saybrook University community are undertaking research that will help to map the contours of our societal landscape and, in doing so, may be offering a way forward. Tom Hayashi, Ph.D., Department Chair in Saybrook University’s Department of Leadership and Management, and Nancy Pearson, a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Transformational Change at Saybrook, have examined the origins and impact of persistent phenomena that are contributing to our state of pessimism.

Dr. Hayashi is studying the effects of the pandemic on single women of color who are heads of households in the Los Angeles area, while Pearson is drawing upon her experience as a public official to trace the origins of public meetings and how they are structured to serve those in power.

The impact is plain

During the lockdown of 2020, women of color were hit with a one-two punch. According to the bureau of labor statistics unemployment among Hispanic or Latina women more than tripled from 4% to 18%, and as they were losing their jobs, they found themselves with their children at home because of the closing of schools, and therefore in need of childcare just when childcare providers were closing down as well.

It is no wonder that former U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis says, “This pandemic has had a disproportionate impact on women, people of color, and households with lower incomes.” The reasons are apparent. As Wendy Chun-Hoon, director of the Women’s Bureau at the U.S. Department of Labor, says in a recent interview with Bloomberg News, “Because we lacked a care infrastructure heading in, everything was worse for women and women’s labor force participation.”

In order to better grasp the scope of the crisis facing low-income communities, the California-based policy group New Economics for Women (NEW) sponsored a pilot study conducted by Dr. Hayashi and his colleagues at Saybrook University titled “Place-based Needs Assessment of Economically Vulnerable Populations in North Los Angeles County during the COVID-19 Pandemic.”

Understanding the scale

Among the key findings of the study was that households saw an average drop in income of $8,000 dollars, the equivalent of a 31% decrease. Additionally, over 40% reported that their primary income earner was not working fulltime and that those who had stable housing dropped by twenty points from 64 to 43%. “We’ve known all along about the stresses upon this population,” Dr. Hayashi says. “Unmet basic needs, homelessness, and food insecurity are not unknown in this country.”

In addressing the significance of the study’s findings, Dr. Hayashi references Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, a central tenet of humanistic psychology often displayed as a five-tiered pyramid. Needs are distinguished between “deficiency” needs, which are fundamental for survival, and higher level “growth” or “being” needs. The idea is that humans must first meet basic needs, including food and shelter before being able to devote themselves to more abstract concepts such as self-fulfillment.

This depiction of the human condition reflects one of the major underlying causes of our current divisions. While one sizable and visible segment of the population binge-watched television shows and took up COVID projects, another sizable, though less visible, segment of society depended on food pantries and eviction moratoriums to get by.

Who’s in the room where it happens?

While many people shake their heads at our inability to muster an equitable response to the current economic upheaval, one researcher was not surprised. Until recently, Nancy Pearson served on the city council of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Before her election, she had sat on the board of the city’s cultural commission and attended many meetings in which the city’s leaders often boasted about Portsmouth’s art scene. “We punched above our weight, especially in performing arts and music, and had a pretty good emerging visual arts scene as well.”

Coming from a background in women’s empowerment and economic development, Pearson was confident she could make an impact by serving on the council, particularly in support of the arts community, which she viewed as an important economic engine for the city. Her illusions were swiftly shattered.

“When I sat on the other side of that dais as a decision maker,” Pearson recalls, “my observation was, ‘Boy, this is a really bad system,’ where truly marginalized people or the people that are really affected by the decisions that are made in these meetings aren’t at these meetings, but the people that do come already have influence and power.” The result she realized is a cycle in which the existing power structure acted to reinforce their powers. “The same thing happens with all policies,” she says, “which is a very small group of well-connected people influence the decision makers.”

Searching for a reason

After leaving office, Pearson was determined to discover the origins a system that consistently rewards those who are in power. “I quickly realized that change cannot come from the elected officials,” she says. Seeking answers to her questions about the structures she encountered in her development work and as an elected official, Pearson enrolled in the Ph.D. program in the Department of Transformational Change at Saybrook University.

Through her research, Pearson learned that this dynamic of self-perpetuating power structures was literally written into the first laws creating public hearings in England in the 18th century. The issue at the time was the transfer of public lands to private landowners. The law calling for public hearings also empowered Parliament to disregard public input. Additionally, testimony was largely given by landowners who were seeking to buy more land testifying before members of parliament who were themselves landowners. “These meetings were specifically created to be exclusionary and performative,” Pearson says.

And it wasn’t just that those in power devised the system to perpetuate their power. Pearson also recognized a clear dynamic regarding those who spoke at public hearings. They exhibited a certain type of personality, “the kind of person who likes to report,” as Pearson puts it, not consensus builders or those seeking dialogue. In other words, the type of personalities who resist changes to the status quo have been historically advantaged to exploit public hearings to tout their views.

Person began her studies at Saybrook in January of 2020, just before the lockdown and the Black Lives Matter protests and, she says, “Every single system started to break down before our eyes, and, suddenly, I didn’t have to explain what I was researching or why anymore. Everyone understood.”

Measuring mobility

In Dr. Hayashi’s view, the solutions are not abstract. “We know what works,” he says. “If we provide individuals with a living wage and an education, they can become self-actualized members of society.” This means education is the most indispensable key to economic mobility and the kind of well-paying jobs that come from being educated.

With education comes increased financial reliance that can insulate those who have been traditionally vulnerable from the caprices of economic uncertainty and shifting government policies.

NEW, the organization that commissioned the Saybrook study, seeks to not merely measure women’s circumstances but also finding ways to improve. Toward that end, they assess their clients according to a series of criteria, and for each, individuals are determined to be in one of three phases: crisis, surviving, or thriving. Much like Maslow’s hierarchy, as individuals move up this scale, their horizons widen, and they are able to make decisions beyond the fundamentals of survival. The opportunity is also to support the current work of community-based organization such as NEW with injection of 21st-century resources including technology solutions such as AI-enabled solutions and mobile application to enhance financial literacy and asset building of working families.

Come to order

Similarly, Pearson sees an opportunity for positive change through a reform of the system. She is researching how the switch from in-person to online public meetings during the pandemic affected who participated and how. “I’ve gotten the green light from the mayor of Manchester, the largest city in New Hampshire, to do a qualitative case study on how moving from meeting in-person to online has affected the quality of civic engagement,” she says. She hopes that the data will provide insight as to how to make the public meeting process more inclusive.

Her goal is to present her findings to the New Hampshire Municipal Association and to share them across the regions so that decision makers who are in charge of public meetings, so they have data that to help them make decisions. As one of the first academic research projects specifically related to public meetings during COVID, Pearson would like to see the results guide communities to reimagine how they engage. “That’s the ultimate goal,” she says.

An opportunity for change

As we emerge from a global health crisis more gradually than most expected and anyone hoped, our society is remaking itself in unexpected ways. What remains to be seen is if the uncertainty that is roiling the American psyche signals a regression to the way things were before in which the powerful maintain their grip on an increasingly dissatisfied population who face a return to stagnant wages and an uncertain future or if this an opportunity to build upon lessons learned in a time of crisis.

Working out of the Saybrook University’s model of combining big-picture theoretical concepts with objective research data, both Dr. Hayashi and Pearson are exploring new pathways for traditionally marginalized people to contribute to our society, an approach that, in the end, will benefit everyone.

Learn more about Saybrook University

If you are interested in learning more about the community and academic programs at Saybrook University, fill out the form below to request more information. You can also apply today through our application portal.