Bridging personal and scholarly discovery

trevor.kenney — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 18:05:57 +0000

In her thirst for spiritual knowledge, Lauren Boni has spent time at a remote Buddhist temple near Tokyo, worked for a non-governmental organization in Nepal and recently, is studying at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge.

Boni majored in Buddhism and East Asian Religious Studies as an undergraduate at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Toronto and spent several summers travelling overseas to get a sense of the religious experiences she was studying.

"I was very curious about different ways of life, different ways of being in the world," she explains.

These experiences solidified a fascination with spirituality's healing benefits.

"I realized that, although people had less in the way of material goods, they had a lot of intrinsic joy and well-being."

This is also confirmed by holistic health research, which links concrete factors like lower blood pressure with spiritual practices.

Now, Boni is at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge, working towards a Master of Science (Health Sciences) under the supervision of Dr. Gary Nixon, director and coordinator of the U of L's Addictions Counselling Program. Boni's research will employ transpersonal psychology – which asserts that psychological health is improved by connecting with a greater spiritual whole – to look at the spiritual journeys of Canadians practising Sufism, a 1,400-year-old mystical tradition of Islam.

She explains that "all religions have a mystical orientation, which focuses on the internal experience of the practitioner, more so than a specific system of beliefs."

In the course of her qualitative research, Boni will interview Sufi practitioners in Toronto to capture their experience of "non-dual self-realization" – the process of integrating their consciousness with a higher consciousness.

Although in the early stages of her thesis research, Boni says Nixon has become a mentor.

"He's exposed me to so many new ideas in such a short period of time."

Nixon says supervising students isn't unlike counselling: it's about facilitating the growth process.

"A thesis project is like a journey; a person goes through a number of phases. So, I see it as a journey of self-discovery, as well."

Uncovering stories of healing

trevor.kenney — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 18:14:26 +0000

U of L health sciences professors Dr. Gary Nixon and Dr. Brad Hagen are aware of the potential stigma and suffering associated with psychosis. Both having worked in the field of mental health (Nixon as a psychologist and Hagen as both a registered nurse and a provisional psychologist), they've seen firsthand how people with psychosis struggle with not only with their conditions, but also with feelings of isolation and the side-effects of the psychotropic drugs they're often prescribed.

"People with psychosis very seldom say they receive messages of hope through the mental health system," says

(l-r) Dr. Brad Hagen, research assistant Krystal Kingston and Dr. Gary Nixon delve deeper into psychotic episodes and the sometimes positive transformations that can result.

Nixon. "They may be told that this is the way they'll be for the rest of their lives, and there's not much that can be done about it other than to take medication. After diagnosis people can lower their expectations."

During a two-year research project involving people with psychosis, however, Nixon and Hagen spoke with participants who claimed that their psychotic episodes, although troubling at the time, subsequently proved to be transformative in nature, often leading to significant spiritual or psychological growth.

"The entire concept of psychosis is always seen as very negative" says Hagen. "We're not trying to downplay how disturbing and crippling psychosis can be for many individuals, but our research suggests that there may be a significant number of people who describe their psychosis as a kind of spiritual or psychological awakening. We wanted to get those stories out there."

Nixon and Hagen, together with research assistant Krystal Kingston (BSc '07), a second-year master of education student, interviewed 30 people in Western Canada who felt their psychosis had resulted in a kind of personal growth or transformation. One important finding of the study is that this group of people – or "transformers," as the researchers have called them – found alternative ways to deal with their delusions and/or hallucinations, after finding that traditional treatments were not helpful.

Transformers reported success in managing their symptoms in a variety of ways, most often associated with meditation or other forms of spiritual practice. Successful transformers felt their journey through psychosis, although initially difficult, was eventually a path to greater inner peace and calm.

"We're certainly not saying that this approach works for everyone, but our research suggests that for some individuals, it does," Hagen says.

Hagen and Nixon are in the final stages of their study, and are presently writing several manuscripts describing their findings.

UNews - Gary Nixon

Bridging personal and scholarly discovery

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Uncovering stories of healing

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