Ruthellen Josselson, Ph.D.
Doctoral Faculty - Clinical Psychology | Fielding Graduate University
Baltimore, MD, UNITED STATES
Psychodynamic and an existential psychotherapist
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Biography
Dr. Ruthellen Josselson is Professor of Clinical Psychology at Fielding Graduate University and a psychotherapist in practice. She was formerly a professor at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Harvard University and a Visiting Fellow at Cambridge University.
Her research focuses on women’s identity and on human relationships. She received both the Henry A. Murray Award and the Theodore R. Sarbin Award from the American Psychological Association, as well as a Fulbright Fellowship.
Dr. Josselson has been active in group relations work for many years, consults to organizations, and lectures and conducts workshops both nationally and internationally. She is co-director of the Irvin D. Yalom Institute of Psychotherapy. She is also the editor of the APA journal "Qualitative Psychology."
On her approach to therapy, she says: “I work from a psychodynamic and existential therapist perspective. I think of psychotherapy as a project that two people undertake together to try to better understand the problems of living in order to make changes that serve growth and personal fulfillment. I work primarily with conflicts concerning relationships, work and identity, and these often underlie symptoms of anxiety and depression.”
Industry Expertise (4)
Mental Health Care
Research
Training and Development
Education/Learning
Areas of Expertise (15)
Group Dynamics and Group Therapy
Individual Psychotherapy
Narrative and Life History Research
Qualitative Research Methods
Psychology of Women
Psychology of Adolescence
Personality Theory
Human Relationships
Women's Development
Narratives of Life History
Group Dynamics
Individual and Group Psychotherapy Practice and Supervision
Group Process Consultation
Life Span Development
Theories of Relationship
Accomplishments (5)
Theodore R. Sarbin Award (professional)
(2009) Awarded by the American Psychological Association.
Diplomate in Group Psychology (professional)
(2004) Conferred by the American Board of Professional Psychology.
Fellowship (professional)
(2001) Conferred by the Institute for Advanced Study, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Fellowship (professional)
(2000) Conferred by the A.K. Rice Institute.
International Educator's Award (professional)
(1997) Awarded by Delta Kappa Gamma.
Education (1)
University of Michigan (APA Approved): PhD, Clinical Psychology 1972
Affiliations (4)
- American Psychological Association : Fellow (Divisions 5 and 35)
- A.K. Rice Institute for the Study of Social Systems : Fellow
- American Group Psychotherapy Association : Member
- Society for Personology
Links (1)
Event Appearances (5)
Individual, Interpersonal, and Systemic Implications of Developing Group Psychotherapy in China
(August, 2014) Division 49, American Psychological Association Washington, DC.
Accumulating Knowledge in Qualitative Inquiry
(August, 2014) Division 5, American Psychological Association Washington, DC.
The Sum of Stories
(June, 2014) Narrative Matters Paris, France
Accumulating Knowledge in Qualitative Inquiry
(March, 2014) Mofet Tel Aviv, Israel
Interviewing for Qualitative Research
(August, 2013) CE workshop for American Psychological Association Honolulu, HI.
Articles (5)
The promises of qualitative inquiry
American Psychologist
(2015) We address the significance and implications of the formal entry of qualitative inquiry into the American Psychological Association. In our view, the discipline is enriched in new and important ways. Most prominently, the qualitative movement brings with it a ...
Eriksonian personality research and its implications for psychotherapy
Journal of Personality
(2013) Erikson's comprehensive theory of human development has been empirically validated by personality researchers who have taken a status approach to the adult stages of the life cycle: Identity, Intimacy, Generativity, and Integrity. An understanding of these ...
Love in the narrative context: The relationship between Henry Murray and Christiana Morgan.
American Psychological Association
(2013) This chapter is a contrast of parallel biographies, one of Henry Murray, the other of Christiana Morgan—two people in a complex relationship with one another—and my aim is to analyze the ways in which this relationship has been narrated (and thereby ...
"Bet you think this song is about you": Whose narrative is it in narrative research?
Narrative Works
(2011) This paper examines the dilemmas in narrative research created by the gaps between the authority of experience (the participant's understanding of his or her life) and the authority of expertise (the researcher's interpretive analysis of that life). It raises the ...
Epistemological lenses and group relations learning
Organisational and Social Dynamics
(2010) This qualitative study uses a constructive—developmental approach to explore learning in a group relations conference. It investigates how orders of consciousness development (as assessed by Lahey et al.'s Subject-Object Interview) affects the sense of identity and the ...
Social