All EVENTS with Dr. Christy Bauman
EVENTS CALENDAR 2024-2025 w/ Dr. Christy Bauman
- A Marriage Thing Conference - Elysian, MN (April 5-6th, 2024)
- Her Rites Listening Party - Brevard Music Center, NC (April 9th, 6:30-8:30 pm), Free, open to the public.
- Theology of the Womb Talk—St. Philips Church, 256 E Main St, Brevard, NC (Sunday, April 14th, Coffee & Conversation / Miller Hall, 9:15 am), free & open to the public.
- Sacred interruptions - Pauley’s Island, SC (April 19-21, 2024)
- Her Rites Talk—St. Philips Church, 256 E Main St, Brevard, NC (Sunday, April 14th, Coffee & Conversation / Miller Hall, 9:15 am-10 am)—is free and public.
- Her Rites Book Release Party - Austin, TX (April 30, 2024, 7-9 pm)
- Her Rites Experience - Waco, TX (May 1, 2024) - Ticketed All-Day Event
- Fabled Bookstore - WACO, TX (May 1, 2024, 3-4 pm) - Free, Open to the Public
- Her Rites Happy Hour Event - Dallas, TX (May 2, 2024, 6-8:30 pm) Private Event
- Her Rites Experience - Seattle, WA (May 5, 2024, Time TBD) Free, Open to the Public
- Her Rites Experience - Nashville, TN (TBD)
- Womaneering Belize - (May 27-31, 2024) - Belize, CA (CLOSED EVENT)
- Her Rites & Sarah Siskind- Wake Forest, NC - 158Books (JUNE 2024, TBD)
- Her Rites Experience - Portland, OR (July 2024, TBD)
- Womaneering Retreat - Hendersonville, NC (September 12-15, 2024)
- Sacred Interruptions - Knoxville, TN (October 18, 2024)
- Sacred Interruptions - Saas Fe, Switzerland (January 2025 TBD)
The Work of Celebration: Three Kings Day & King Cake Traditions
The Work of Celebration: Three Kings Day & King Cake Celebrations
Their thumbs and forefingers drop purple, green, and gold dyed sprinkles on top of the warm, liquid glaze. My kids have been waiting after hours of measuring, mixing, kneading, and baking to get to this moment, the decorating.
“What do the colors stand for again, mom?” She is trying to memorize all the information to present her king cake to her classroom tomorrow. “Purple stands for justice, green represents faith, and gold symbolizes power; legend says these were the colors of the jewels in the king’s crowns.”
I answer as she continues to spread sprinkles half-listening but also dreaming about eating this traditional delicacy.
“And what’s the story again?” Her questions continue and I turn my attention from baking to storytelling.
Long ago, before we celebrated Christmas with ornaments on trees, stockings, or presents from St. Nicholas, the tradition of king cakes marked the Magi who traveled to see Jesus. The Wise Men, or the Three Kings, who traveled to baptize baby Jesus' journeyed for years following the stars as their map, because they didn’t have GPS. The three Magi were named Gaspar, Melchior, and Balthasar and in many other cultures around the world, people celebrate the day the three kings finally made it to Jesus and baptized the newborn king. This day, normally celebrated on January 6th each year, is referred to as Reyes, The Twelfth Night, Three Kings Day, Epiphany, Timkat, Little Christmas, or Denha. These cultures celebrate by gathering as a family, exchanging small gifts, taking down your Christmas decorations, and baking sweet bread or king cakes.
My daughter interrupts my story, “Why do they make king cakes?”
The story goes that the three kings had traveled so long, they had to ration food because the journey took years longer than they intended. They were weary and almost hopeless when they finally found out they were one day’s walk from meeting Jesus. As a way to celebrate their journey’s completion, they took out all the food they had left and “feasted” because they no longer had to ration, they had found their King. The next day when they walked into the town Jesus was staying in, the children put out grass and cakes on the road to welcome their coming. The grass was laid to feed their weary and hungry donkeys, and the sweet cakes were celebrating the completion of the Magi’s long journey and the baptism ceremony for Jesus.
“Is that why we put a small, plastic baby in the king cakes?” Her question makes me smile.
“Yes, and the tradition has it whoever gets the baby in their piece of cake must bring the king cake at the next gathering.”
We are all quiet for a few minutes. I hand out the plastic babies and each child finds a secret place underneath their king cake to insert the small doll. I try to imagine Mexico’s traditional mile-long Rosca de Reyes bread that feeds over 200,00 people who gather to celebrate. I am overwhelmed by making a king cake for each of my children’s classrooms and worldwide there are king cakes created miles long filled with as many as 7,000 dolls inside the pastry.
There are some Guinness World Records held for king cakes, such as chefs from La Universidad Vizcaya de las Americas were awarded the Guinness record for the longest Rosca de Reyes bread in the world. Measuring at 2,065.43 meters, the lengthy traditional bread beat the previous world holder for the longest loaf, which was Switzerland. Carlos Tapia of Guinness World Records for Latin America verified the length of the bread and its new world record, noting that the previous record held by Switzerland measured in at 973.24 meters. Haydel’s Bakery created a king cake that completely circled the United States, Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans, weighing 4,075.7 lbs | 1,847.68 kg with a circumference of 2,643 feet.
“And why is Mardi Gras the last day we can eat king cakes?”
Mardi Gras, which is French for “Fat Tuesday” is the day before Ash Wednesday, it is the last day we can celebrate before we go into fasting or penance. It is our last day of celebration before we get ourselves ready for Easter. My daughter doesn’t skip a beat when she responds to my answer with, “phew, it takes a lot of work to celebrate big.”
I smile. “Yes my darling, it takes a lot of work to celebrate well. Now, let’s go celebrate while there is still time.”
The Liberated Female - Christy Bauman, PhD
“So long as the feminine is unconscious,
dependent on the masculinity that is dependent on her,
the psychic constellation is incestuous -
mother bound to son and daughter bound to father.”
-Marion Woodman, Leaving My Father’s House
“I hope your session goes well and you feel liberated.”
My husband's words are intended to be kind. I have a therapy session with our beloved mentor and it is coming on the heels of my almost mental breakdown this past month. When we sold our house and moved as a family of five from the Pacific Northwest to Asheville, North Carolina it was possibly the best financial decision we will make in our lives. What we weren’t ready to encounter was that this decision was possibly the worst emotional decision for me personally. It would take me twelve nights of dry heaving and panic attacks to muster my way through as we drove cross country to my husband’s hometown where we had purchased a house in cash from the gains of our Seattle home sale.
One month in this new town, our kids settled into new schools, and our work life was much simpler. I was not as acutely manic but still thoroughly depressed. I couldn’t shake this exhaustion that overtook my body every time I thought about going into this new town and building a new life of friendships and community. Even now, as I type the words, disdain and heartache rush through my veins.
We began visiting churches and I was almost shocked to see pastors not even acknowledge me but speak solely to my husband. I had forgotten that the South holds deep in its soil the sin of misogyny. Misogyny is ingrained dislike or contempt for women. My husband was at the top of the caste system, and bar being a woman of color, being a woman was further down on the Totem Pole than it had been in the Pacific Northwest.
My body struggled to articulate the feelings I was experiencing without letting my trauma hijack the conversation. It was this invisible energy that weighed on me when I walked in stores, engaged other women in town, and talked with Christian men who grew up dismissing women for their gender. This move for us was a very good move for my husband and a very bad move for me. My husband is a white, Christian male from this state. He could be a progressive liberator in the Northwest and could be assumed as a good ole boy in the South. Whether or not he chose to be, he knew a language that I had only learned a few phrases of.
In 2021, a census was conducted over the 50 states showing the top states to live in for women’s economic and social well-being and women’s health and safety. The top 30 states are in the North, and the top 10 are in the Northeast. While the most unhealthy, underpaid, and at-risk states for women to live in were all in the South, the lowest being Mississippi, Texas, South Carolina, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Alabama. These statistics showed women were paid less, endured higher accounts of being raped or murdered, and were undereducated in the South. Sadly, for me, I moved from #7 in Washington to #35 in North Carolina.
My husband is a good guy, and I believe he wants me to succeed but my past trauma from men triggers me to question all men’s intent. I knew it was my trauma that made me question my husband’s goodness but it still felt paralyzing. Even for the liberated female, she must still be in a relationship with a male-dominant world. I have a list of good men I keep tucked in my top dresser drawer who I know I can trust but I am also bound to those men to ameliorate me when my trauma sends me to a place of regression.
My husband and I agree, I should call Dan.
Days before the session, I realize that I want to ask Dan if my husband Andrew is a good man. Immediately after I conjure the thought, I know I can not give Dan that much power. Here I am a woman, looking for a man to tell me what I need to know within myself. “You must answer that question yourself.” It is almost as if God’s audible voice beckons me. Without hesitancy, I whisper aloud, “yes, my husband is a good man but he hasn’t been gentle with my wounded places”.
As quickly as I am aware of my trauma from misogyny and patriarchy, I feel a rush of sadness wash over me. I return to what I have come to know is most true, I don’t have control and I must grieve what I can not change. It isn’t but seconds when Dan’s beautiful, Jewish face fills the desktop screen that I relax. A man I trust. We smile and take each other in, I know he sees me.
“Dan, will I ever be free from men’s reign on this earth in my lifetime?”
Dan smiles tenderly and doesn’t waste time, “We both know the answer is no.” For some reason, tears don’t come like I imagined they would. It was all I needed to be seen and understood. He was right.
I, a woman, will never be free of a man’s world.
“Christy, you have moved to the South, slavery is in soil and even deeper, the ancient sin of misogyny. You have returned to your father’s house.” Finally, his words were making all my invisible angst visible. It wasn’t only my trauma that had me spinning, I had moved back to the South, the very birthplace of misogyny in the United States. If slavery is the reduction of humanity based on skin color, misogyny is a reduction of humanity based on gender.
All women engage in the rite of passage to leave their father’s house. My father’s house is the symbol of a girl’s journey into womanhood, she must leave her father’s reign and become her own. Yet, the patriarch is such a historical filter the woman can never truly become her own without being marked by male impact. Eve came from Adam, a woman came from a man. The very act of taking my father’s name and then changing it to take on my husband’s name is a symbol of that continued oppression.
Even if I could somehow free myself in surname, in financial inequities, or in sexual relationships, the male dominance is still pulsing through our media, our presidencies, an umbrella of power and control. In the United States, women have yet to break the glass ceiling in politics, we represent less than a quarter of the Senate and House of Representatives. Women have yet to take the title of Madame President.
Looking at Dan, I feel hope. The answer is not to unleash my wrath on men, it also would not alleviate the issue if I run from men and refuse relationships with them. Sure, I can change my name, own my own land, get my own education, but all those decisions would not change the fact that I can not break the ingrained misogyny that prevails.
Ugh.
Only men can do that.
I am at the mercy of men recognizing their sin and changing their hearts to people under their regime.
Dan says quietly, “your only hope is to have a husband who sees your grief and grieves alongside you.” Even in my marriage, I need my husband to see me. In a sense, he holds the power that I wish could be eradicated from the female world. As we say goodbye, I resolve in my heart that I will live my life in a relationship with men using my liberated female voice - one which sounds like a tender revolution of honesty, strength, and love.
The Silenced Voice: The Godly Female Voice Has Been Under Attack
Reposted from Red Tent Living
“I hate being a pastor’s wife. My experience from the church has been a re-enactment of my own past trauma,” she says with a trembling voice.
I remain quiet, holding the tension for a bit longer.
“How will you take your power back from this re-enactment?” I ask with curiosity.
This client is one of twelve pastor’s wives that I work with within my practice. Their stories are all different, but their experience in the church is hauntingly similar. This pastor’s wife has just completed her Master's of Psychology and two years of her own therapy. She is weeping that she may have to leave the church altogether. My heart hopes to help salvage her relationship with herself and God. I long to invite her to bring her voice to her role as a pastor’s wife.
“Why don’t you ask your husband if you can teach a series on psychology and the church?” I ask.
My question is met with a heavy silence. She looks up at me, her eyes wide with bewilderment. She has never thought of teaching at her own church. I have to restrain my frustration at another brilliant and highly-educated woman who has remained silent in the Western church culture. Sadly, we both know the answer. Although her husband would welcome her voice and expertise, her gender would never be invited by their congregation to the pulpit.
The most common complaint of middle-aged women in my practice is a lack of knowing their life’s calling and using their voice in this world. Research shows us that a woman who has not established a strong self-identity will struggle to feel self-worth and fulfillment. The number one indicator of a woman's well-being is her level of self-identity, and the second indicator is the community that bears witness to her life. In short, self-awareness and friendships are vital to wellness.
Many women have been raised in an objectifying society, and most Christian women have been groomed to be subordinate by Western patriarchal culture. The female has been unconsciously named through a patriarchal reading of Scripture as the “weaker vessel”, “taken from the rib of a man”, or taught that she is to not speak, teach, or preach in church. This narrative, coupled with objectifying media that reduces women down to their body image as a measure of worth, has left many women without the most important tool for success-- self-identity. The godly female voice has been under attack as the pyramid of power often looks like God, male pastor, husband, wife, and children. Regardless of whether you hold complementarian or egalitarian beliefs, the psyche of the woman is not well in our Christian society.
The Western Christian church has a history of male dominance. As Mike Cosper states in his podcast The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill, “The church seemingly is more comfortable to be led by misogynistic leaders.” Spiritual trauma shows up deeply ingrained in women who believe they must serve the male voice in their life rather than show up individuated and require from it. In the Creation story, the female has deemed the “helpmate” to men, which translates in Hebrew as “savior” to men. The objectifying lens on our Christian narrative implies to both males and females that women are subordinate to men. This ingrained belief keeps women from naturally seeking their own self-identity and ultimately keeps them from knowing their voice in the Christian world.
My client is looking at me in silence, but her eyes have shifted from sadness to disbelief.
“Have I really been serving a church for 24 years that doesn’t believe in my voice?” she asks.
Internalized sexism is one of the women’s greatest betrayals. Women find that they have come to participate in the misogyny that has spiritually traumatized them. While the lack of female voices in the church is tragic, it doesn’t break my heart as much as the disconnect that happens in women’s spiritual relationships with God.
When we illuminate the spiritual abuse that has been perpetuated onto women in the Western church, we begin to see the Christian female name her own distance with a male-dominant God. I have found the plight of a woman is untangling and individuating herself from men. First, she must do the work to leave her father’s house, such as a daughter finding freedom from her father’s ownership of her. Second, she must engage Genesis 3:16 that “she will long for her husband and he will rule over her.” Spiritual trauma shows up deeply ingrained in women who believe they must serve the male voice in their life rather than show up differentiated and bring their whole self to the relationship.
At the end of our session, my client thanks me for our time. As she opens the door to leave, she turns and looks at me,
“I know what I must do now. I must use my voice.”
Dr. Christy Bauman, LMHC is committed to helping women come into their true voice. She offers meaning-making and story work consulting. She is the author and producer of three works: Theology of the Womb, A Brave Lament, and Documentary: A Brave Lament. She is a psychotherapist, supervisor, and adjunct professor who focuses on the female body, sexuality, and theology. Christy is co-director of the Christian Counseling Center for Sexual Health and Trauma with her husband Andrew. They live in Seattle with their three kids: Wilder, Selah, and River.
Womaneering Podcast: the Rise and Fall of Mars Hill
In this episode of Womaneering podcast, Tracy Johnson and Christy Bauman discuss the episode “What We Do To Women” from the Rise and Fall of Mars Hill podcast. Trigger warning: there is a lot of open conversation about spiritual abuse and dominance on women by misogyny and violent men in power.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/womaneering/id1556620322?i=1000533354745
Self-Care During the Pandemic: A Budget-Friendly Guide for Women
The pandemic has changed the lives of countless women around the world. Before the pandemic, women held the majority of the jobs in the food, hospitality, and tourism industries — all of which were hard hit by the pandemic. Beyond grappling with the economic effects of the pandemic, women have also had to take on new roles at home. Given the increased demand for your time and mental energy, practicing self-care is more important than ever right now.
One great way to care for yourself is by working with a therapist who specializes in women’s health and well-being, like Christy Bauman. Keep reading to learn what else you can do to feel your best during the pandemic — without blowing your budget!
Get Active
As Verywell Mind explains, exercise is an effective form of stress relief that can have a very positive impact on your mood. If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the pandemic, bumping up your activity levels could be a great way to cope. Pick up running, hiking, or cycling. Getting outdoors is always best, but if you feel safer staying close to home, try following some at-home workout videos in your living room — there are plenty of free routines you can find on YouTube, as well as fitness apps that cost little to nothing.
Treating yourself to new athletic apparel can help you get motivated for your new exercise routine. For example, a new pair of leggings or a workout tank from Lululemon will make you feel beautiful and confident as you venture outside for an exercise session. Search online for Lululemon coupons before shopping so you can save money and stick to your budget.
Eat Well
Eating well goes hand in hand with regular exercise. Eating healthy, nutrient-packed foods will keep your blood sugar stable so you can enjoy consistent energy and emotional stability throughout the day. This will make it much easier to stay calm when your spouse or children leave unwashed dishes in the sink. Good nutrition will also improve your mental focus so you can plug away at your remote job, despite all of the distracting things going on around you.
Eating healthy can even help you save money. Steer clear of pre-packaged products and stick with fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and lean proteins. You’ll be surprised how affordable healthy eating really is when you shop smart and cook everything from scratch.
Go to Bed Early
Alongside healthy eating and exercise, sleep makes up the third pillar of health. It’s also one of the most overlooked elements of a healthy lifestyle. If you’ve been taking on additional roles around the house during the pandemic, there’s a good chance your sleep is suffering. But getting enough sleep every night is vital to stress management, emotional coping, mental focus, and more.
Thankfully, you don’t have to splurge on expensive sleep gadgets or a fancy mattress to improve your sleep. Sticking to a regular sleep schedule — even on weekends — is the best way to fall asleep quickly and wake up more easily in the morning. Better yet, get outside in the sunlight immediately after waking to reset your body’s internal clock.
Spend Some Time Alone
With everyone stuck at home, it’s hard to find time for ourselves. But a little alone time here and there can do your mental health a lot of good. Women are all too familiar with the feeling of being needed, and while this is often a wonderful thing, it can get old after a while. Running around, tending to everyone can cause you to lose sight of your own needs. Carve out some time for yourself to take a solo walk, go for a drive, relax in a hot bath, or lock yourself in the bedroom with a book. You don’t have to spend a dime to give yourself some much-needed attention.
Pick Up a New Hobby
Making time for a personal hobby is a fantastic way to disconnect from the demands of life and practice self-care. Fortunately, the pandemic is a great opportunity to pick up affordable hobbies you can do from home. Find a used guitar and learn how to play, try soap making, rehab your furniture, or start an indoor herb garden — your options are nearly endless! Pouring your heart into something you’re excited about can be a breath of fresh air during the monotonous days of the pandemic.
The importance of self-care during COVID-19 cannot be overstated. Exercise, eat healthy foods, get enough sleep, and make time for things that matter to you. Whether you’re caring for a household full of kids or you’re still getting the hang of remote work, finding ways to care for your mental well-being will help you cope as we ride out the rest of the pandemic.
Do you need to talk to someone? Christy Bauman can help you identify your needs and learn how to live more fully. Check out the website to learn more!
For more information about Cheryl and Wellness Central, click here.
Womaneering A Jailbreak
Welcome to our first episode, where Dr. Christy Bauman and Tracy Johnson recorded an exciting conversation (by mistake) about de-feminization in the church and it became their first episode to launch the Womaneering Podcast. The conversation begins with Tracy accidentally saying the word “labia” and the women engage in a difficult conversation of women’s struggle to bring their female, and often objectified, bodies to take a seat at the table in the Western church. Join us for the conversation on the Womaneering Podcast and follow us on IG at womaneering_
Resurrection for All
I can tell by the hue of the light peeking in around my bedroom curtains, it’s too early. I should know from past experience that my body isn’t going to let me sleep in today. I tiptoe through the house putting finishing touches on our Easter morning. I’m excited for the kids to wake up and find the tomb at ur Easter display, empty...to find their baskets filled and relieved that Jesus has conquered death. I slip on my fur-lined rain-boots, grab a jacket and one Easter egg. I sneak out of the quiet house into the dawn lit streets. The familiar drive through our neighborhood is peaceful and I stop at random trees to pick up flowers for his grave.
I always feel the invitation to know what Mary was feeling that Easter morning when she went to Jesus‘s grave. My experience will be different, I know, but even so, the walk up the dew covered grass hill holds even a little bit of mystery still. I see my boy’s name on the headstone and I greet him with tears. I kneel to lay down the flowers and I say with trembling...”hi sweetie, we will see you one day, that is what today means.”
I kiss the cold ground and head back home to welcome my children’s delight. I know that there will be many more years of this act, but one day full resurrection will come for all of us. Selah.
Making Meaning: Marking the Simple Moments Matter in Life
I am restless. My three kids are all quieted and settled for the next hour, and I am well aware this is my only window of time for myself. The barrage of ideas floods my mind: exercise, soak in a bath, watch a show, run an errand, wash clothes, start prepping dinner, go hang out with my partner, finish weeding the garden beds….the list goes on and on. I am acquainted with these moments all too well, and I have trained myself to recognize them and pause.
When I feel restless, I recognize it, stop, take a few breaths and ask myself: What do I need?
What I need most right now in this isolation period of COVID-19 is to get outside whenever possible. I also know that I need to make meaning of the time that is passing by without my active intention. What I am trying to say is that I realize the greatest thing I can do during this outbreak is to isolate my family. By staying home, I help discontinue the spread of this virus and give healthcare workers a chance to catch up. Yet, this feels useless when I so badly want to actively help. Research tells us that making meaning of a situation helps humanize our understanding and psychological health (Park, 2006). My body wants to mark this time somehow, and the next step is to listen to how I might do this. I put my windbreaker and running shoes on, headed for the small wooded path near our house. As I reach for the doorknob to leave, I realize my daughter has my phone and is FaceTiming with her cousin. I feel immediate panic at the thought of leaving the house without my podcasts or audiobooks to bolster an already begrudgingly choice to exercise. There is no time to change my mind, I walk out and face my disappointment head-on.
When being present with one’s self, we often have to push through the disappointment of our comfort-lessness.
The fresh air and hard dirt path seem resistant to welcoming my compartmentalized thoughts - colliding in the infinite space of silence. I heard the words from my conversation with my grandparents yesterday, “If we die, Christy, no one can come to our funeral; the churches are practically shut down”. Their fears feel overwhelming to me, as I think of the thousands within the 70+-year-old demographic who are facing such realities. Community comforts our loneliness and when it's taken away, we find ourselves faced with a loud silence.
Being alone is often an invitation to mark and make-meaning.
I stop to stretch and feel tightness in my calves and if I stay with my body, I can also sense the aging of my knees. What does it mean to be alone with ourselves? What does it feel like to face our aging bodies? I don’t want to think about my own body aging, I run back to my house, climb onto my trampoline and I jump until I can’t catch my breath. Then, I head to my back fence and pick up my garden clippers and fill the fire pit with dead blackberry bushes. Clearing the land feels good to my cooped-up body. I grab matches, light the brush, and let it burn. As I cut back branches, I can feel the need to stop and mark this unprecedented time.
Marking is done by adding intention and presence to the simple acts we are doing.
I then take a match for my grandparents, I light it and watch it burn - I say a prayer for their fear of a lonely death. I light another match for my friend who I know is miscarrying and can’t go to the hospital, I say a prayer. I light a match for a family member who is scared and alone through this time of isolation. I light another match for all the lives that were taken in the past 24 hours and I say a prayer. I can hear the wind chimes in the background, my Pop gave them to me as a way to make the Holy Spirit audible. I lit a last match for the first responders who are working around the clock to serve the sick, the grocery clerks who are stocking food for our families. Finally, I end my time of intention with a deep breath and a whisper, “In Your mercy, hear my prayer”.
Meaning-making consists of warming up to your body’s experience of a situation, stopping to partake in a physical act of marking, and intentionally ending the time.
As I continue to cut down and burn the brush, I feel my body is more at ease, my mind is not running with unaddressed thoughts, I am not irritated about being without my phone or any other comforts, I feel present and at peace with the situation, I am in, because I have been intentional to walk with the body through the process of making meaning of the unknown.
“Lord, grant me the discipline to be alone with myself,
The fortitude to find you there.
Thank you for this very breath I have,
may I use it honorably today.
Selah.”
Further Research on Meaning-Making and Marking Events
Marker events are commonly displayed in acts of ritual, rites of passage, and ceremonies, such as quinceaneras, bar mitzvahs, and other coming-of-age celebrations, weddings, or funerals. Whether they evoke situational meaning or ceremonial meaning, these acts have an important effect on the level of resilience and well-being in a person’s lifespan (Park & Folkman, 1997; Ungar, 2011). Park and Folkman identify two levels of meaning, global and situational, in the Meaning-Making Model. Situational meaning refers to a person’s understanding of a specific instance, while global meaning refers to an individual’s broad orientation and perspective of multiple situations (Park, 2013). The theory of meaning-making has more recently been used in conjunction with narrative and social constructivist therapies as a way to humanize the assessment process and enhance therapeutic change. Meaning-making is used in case studies, clinical vignettes, and therapeutic dialogue. The integration of meaning-making practices into day-to-day talk therapy sessions has shown positive results, and its application has assisted in closing the g
ap between theory and practice (Neimeyer & Raskin, 2000).
References
Park, C.L. & Folkman, S. (1997). Meaning in the context of stress and coping. Review of General Psychology, 1, 115-144.
Neimeyer, R. A., & Raskin, J. D. (Eds.). (2000). Constructions of disorder: Meaning-making frameworks for psychotherapy. Washington, DC, US: American Psychological Association.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/10368-000
Park, C. L., & Ai, A. L. (2006). Meaning-making and growth: New directions for research on survivors of trauma. Journal of Loss and Trauma, 11(5), 389-407.
Park, C. L. (2008). Testing the meaning-making model of coping with loss. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 27(9), 970-994.