College of Psychology and Humanistic Studies

Videos of Peace Movements Worldwide event now online!

On October 30th, AHIMSA and The Metta Center for Nonviolence Education presented a free public forum, entitled: Taking stock of peace: Inspiration from Peace Movements Worldwide.

This special event launched the recent publication of Peace Movements Worldwide, a three-volume anthology with chapters covering insights and action from every continent with accounts of courageous and creative actions, ranging from the personal to the global.

Saybrook professor Marc Pilisuk co-edited the volume and speakers included members of the Saybrook community: Donald Rothberg, Melissa Anderson-Hinn, Angel Ryono, Gianina Pellegrini, and moderator Bob Flax.

The event was recorded by Wolfgang Saumweber and made available free online, in 5 parts.

 

 

 

Alumna Lyn Freeman launches new, revolutionary, technique for post-cancer recovery

Saybrook Alumna Lyn Freeman has been one of the leading researchers on guided imagery as a healing technique.  In 2005 she received the first National Institutes of Health grant to study it as a method of support for cancer survivors.

Treatment for cancer can often leave survivors exhausted, depleted, and drained -- but modern medicine had little to offer them.  Freeman's research was designed to give them something to lead them back from "surviving" to "health."

Based on the Phase I and II results of her studies, the National Cancer Institute has directed Dr. Freeman’s company, Mind Matters Research, to make its therapeutic intervention available to cancer patients and survivors.

While the company is launching the program in Alaska, there is every possibility that it will grow nationally.  The Phase II grants Dr. Freeman received require Mind Matters Research to develop and clinically test their approach via tele-medicine and the web.

Dr. Freeman’s ENVISION Behavioral Medicine Intervention is one of a kind anywhere, relying on brain plasticity strategies that are imagery-based.

Strategies include imagery-driven biofeedback to assess and modify heart rate variability and temperature; art, storytelling, and sound to effect physiology and mood state; mind mapping memory practices; and many other therapies that are implemented and evaluated on a daily basis with cancer patients and survivors. Methods utilized are personalized depending on participant symptoms and response. The Intervention optimizes health promoting changes in physiology, biochemistry and mood state.

Alumna Kaffia Jones promoted to Brigadier General

Saybrook is pleased to announce that psychology alumna Colonel Kaffia Jones was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General on Sept. 10. 

The ceremony was held it Atlanta, Georgia, and attended by Brigadier General Jones’ immediate family, officers of the General corps, and enlisted servicemen and women.  Saybrook Faculty member Eugene Taylor was also in attendance. 

The ceremony was conducted by Major General Stuart M. Dyer, Commanding General of the 335th Signal Command (Theater), based in East Point, Georgia, where Colonel Jones served as Chief of Staff for two years.

Immediately following the ceremony, Brigadier General Jones left for a posting in the Middle East.  The 3200 Soldiers and civilians in her command build, operate, maintain, and defend the military computer network in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Persian Gulf.

As a Saybrook student, then Colonel Jones produced what Taylor called “an outstanding dissertation” entitled “Expatriate Warrior:  the experiences of World War II American veterans of African descent,” under faculty members Theopia Jackson, Zonya Johnson, and Charles Canaday. 

Jones earned her PhD in Psychology, graduating in 2010.

Carl Hild given award for research, scholarship, and creativity

Saybrook alumnus Carl M. Hild was awarded the 2010-2011 Alaska Pacific University Faculty Merit Award for Research, Scholarship, and Creativity.

Hild, Organizational Systems '07, is Director of the Health Services Administration Program at Alaska Pacific University, and Chair of its Business Administration Department for the 2011-2012 academic year. 

He has worked closely with native healers and hospital administrators to develop the health care system in a state with a large indigenous population, where many remote villages are not accessible by road.  By combining the traditional and the modern elements of health care, he has helped develop systems of care that often surpass those available in the lower 48 states.

Bob Flax Elected to Board of Directors of the Democratic World Federalists

Saybrook alumnus and faculty member Bob Flax, Ph.D.. '92, was recently elected to the Board of Directors of the Democratic World Federalists, a non-profit organization based in San Francisco. The DWF is one of a number of organizations around the world that is dedicated to establishing a democratically elected world government with a constitution and bill of rights that is capable of handling the great problems of our time -- including climate change, economic crises, famines, pandemics, poverty, and war.

Bob’s interest in world government grew out of his work as a clinical psychologist treating individuals, couples, families, and groups. He expanded his focus to include larger systems and studied organization development and conflict resolution. He has worked in a wide range of settings, including businesses, non-profits, intentional communities, and over 16 years with the California State Prison system. Finally he arrived at the next logical step – the way we work together as citizens of the world.

Bob has participated in international citizen diplomacy projects and is currently designing a course in World Federalism for Saybrook University, where he has been on the faculty for over 18 years. Bob teaches courses in the Social Transformation, Psychology and Research areas and can be reached at bflax@saybrook.edu.

Alumna Ann Williams says give the disabled access to research studies

Saybrook Alumna Ann Williams, PhD '05, has Co-Authored an article in Science Translational Medicine calling for an end to the practice of barring people with physical disabilities from participating in some research studies.

In her article Practicing and Implementing Changes Through CWRU's Federally-Funded FIND Lab, she asks researchers "to rethink participation criteria that exclude people with sight, hearing or mobility problems, or other disabilities."

Wiliams is an Associate Professor and Research Associate in the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing at Cayse Western Reserve University.