Eros & Psyche (Volume 2: Spiritual & Clinical Perspectives)

Maxime Charest, MA, MA, is a doctoral student in Epidemiology in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Ottawa. He has completed Masters degrees in Religious Studies from Queen’s University and in Clinical and Counselling Psychology from the University of Toronto. Charest’s research interests include optimizing sexual experiences, sexual minority health and HIV prevention, particularly for gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men. He has been working, volunteering and conducting research in the field of sexuality for more than a decade. Most of his research has utilized a transdisciplinary, mixed-methods, community-based lens to improving the health and wellness of sexual, gender and relationship minorities.

Susi Ferrarello, PhD, is Assistant Professor at California State University, East Bay. Among her books: Husserl’s Ethics and Practical Intentionality (Bloomsbury 2015), Phenomenology of Sex, Love and Intimacy (Routledge, 2018), Human Emotions and the Origin of Bioethics (Routledge, 2021), The Ethics of Love (Routledge, 2022). She writes for Psychology Today and works also as a philosophical counselor.

Nisha Gupta, PhD, is an associate professor of psychology at the University of West Georgia, where she works as a liberation psychologist, arts-based phenomenological researcher, and creativity scholar. She disseminates research about lived experiences of oppression and empowerment through art for social advocacy and community healing. Her work as a researcher, artist, and educator seeks to embrace the creative process as a vehicle for building solidarity across difference, evoking empathy and compassion, and fostering joy and empowerment. Nisha was also trained clinically as a psychotherapist for eight years, with a focus on trauma therapy as well as liberation psychotherapy with queer people of color.

Louis Hoffman, PhD, is a licensed psychologist in private practice and the Executive Director of the Rocky Mountain Humansitic Counseling and Psychological Association. An avid writer, Dr. Hoffman has edited over 20 books and 100 journal articles and book chapters. He has been recognized as a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and six of its divisions (1, 10, 32, 36, 48, 52), and he is a recipient of the Rollo May Award of the Society for Humanistic Psychology. Although Dr. Hoffman left fulltime academia to pursue private practice, writing, and nonprofit work, he continues to teach at the University of Denver, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, and Saybrook University. You can find out more about Dr. Hoffman at www.louis-hoffman.com.

Peggy J. Kleinplatz, PhD, is Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Ottawa. Please seewww.optimalsexualexperiences.com. She is a Certified Sex Therapist and Educator. Her research focuses on optimizing sexual experience, with a particular interest in sexual health in older people, the disabled, chronically ill and marginalized populations. Kleinplatz has edited or authored five books including New Directions in Sex Therapy: Innovations and Alternatives, winner of the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counsellors and Therapists (AASECT) 2013 Book Award and with A. Dana Menard, Ph.D. Magnificent Sex: Lessons from Extraordinary Lovers, winner of the 2021 Society for Sex Therapy and Research Consumer Book Award. In 2015, Kleinplatz received the AASECT Professional Standard of Excellence Award. In 2021, Kleinplatz received the Distinguished Sexual and Gender Health Revolutionary Award by the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health of the Medical School, University of Minnesota. In 2021, she became a Fellow of the American Psychological Association.

McKenzie Lockett’s research interests involve investigating the widespread effects of trauma exposure and traumatic stress on social and emotional functioning. McKenzie often applies existential frameworks, including terror management theory, to understand the role that existential awareness and anxiety can play in the onset and maintenance of posttraumatic stress symptomatology. McKenzie has a particular interest in the intersection of social identity, mental health, and existential concerns.

Nwachi Gamba Eze Pressley-Tafari, EdD, PhD, has been a developmental educator and group coach for over 20 years. He holds an Ed.D. in higher education and a Ph.D. in the human sciences with a specialization in creativity studies, with a research focus on BDSM spirituality and personal mythology. Dr. T holds a sex coaching certification from Sex Coach University and a narrative coaching licensing from New Life Coaching. All of Dr. T’s research and published work focuses on human adult development, holistic wellness, and success. He generally has three areas of research: Dr. T focuses on using creativity in adult development, healing, and learning as well as connecting eroticism and spirituality. His greatest accomplishment is sharing the responsibility of rearing two daughters, De (Day) and Niani.

Tom Pyszczynski, PhD, and his colleagues have played a major role in the development of Experimental Existential Psychology, an emerging sub-discipline of social psychology that applies rigorous experimental methods to the study of human confrontation with existential problems such as death, freedom, isolation, and nature. He teaches a variety of courses in social psychology.Dr. Pyszczynski’s research is focused primarily on Terror Management Theory, which is concerned with the role of self-esteem and cultural belief systems in providing protection against core human fears, especially the fear of death. Over the years Professor Pyszczynski and colleagues have explored the role of terror management processes in a wide range of topics, including self-esteem, self-deception, prejudice, interpersonal relations, altruism, aggression, sexual ambivalence, disgust, depression, anxiety disorders, trauma, unconscious processes, aging, human development, and terrorism. He has also conducted research on how people fool themselves into believing that their biased views follow logically from the available facts and on the role of self-regulatory processes in depression and other psychological disorders.

Melissa Racho, PhD, is a Licensed Psychologist in private practice at The Racho Group in Colorado Springs, CO. Using a dynamically informed, existential framework, she provides individual therapy to adolescents and adults, and conducts psychological evaluations for Service Members and Veterans. Dr. Racho serves on the Rocky Mountain Humanistic Counseling and Psychological Association’s Continuing Education and Training Committee, and in addition to her work in private practice, she founded the Denver Society for Creative Philanthropy. She loves poetry, writing, and hiking, and lives in the mountains with her two young sons.

Stephen W. Simpson, PhD, is a psychologist and Associate Professor in the School of Psychology and Marriage and Family Therapy at Fuller Theological Seminary. He has published a number of articles and books, including What Women Wish You Knew about Dating: A Single Guy’s Guide to Romantic Relationships, Assaulted by Joy: The Redemption of a Cynic, and Single Sex Stories: Tales of Unmarried Sexuality and Faith.

Ana Wilhelm received her master’s degree in clinical-community psychology at Point Park University, where she is currently a doctoral candidate. Ms. Wilhelm incorporates phenomenological, relational, and existential approaches into treatment and clinical research. Her clinical interests include working with those who have experienced complex trauma, helping individuals explore their identities (e.g., racial, gender, disability, etc.) and partnering with people who are processing experiences of religious trauma. As a therapist and researcher, she works to aid in navigating the at-times paradoxical journey of sexual development and religious commitment in hopes of defragmenting aspects of identity that can cause a debilitating shame of self.