Daryl R. Van Tongeren

Learning how to do research well is not easy, and for newer scholars the process can feel overwhelming. Using clear and supportive language, this book is designed to help graduate students and early career professionals in psychology develop skills to effectively work through the research process. Chapters cover the essential character traits and skills that are necessary to become an effective researcher, walk through the main steps for completing a research project from start to finish, and discuss considerations when building a career and research program. Rather than the nitty-gritty of research methods, authors Joshua N. Hook, Don E. Davis, and Daryl R. Van Tongeren focus on the big picture of what is required in research. Chapters in the first section address overarching principles-the personal growth, attributes, and habits that are important to develop to become a successful researcher. The second section illustrates the key steps in completing a research project from start to finish, from formulating an idea for a project, to completing a literature review, collecting data, analyzing data, and writing up the results. The third section discusses developing a research program and transitioning from graduate student to professional-topics such as collaborating with others in research and mentoring students. This section is full of practical advice the authors learned from mentors and from personal experience. Written for people with a broad range of career goals, and with the mentoring relationship in mind, the book helps mentors and students form productive relationships that feel mutually beneficial and rewarding. Each chapter aims to help students and professionals along their research journey, and teaches them not just how to survive the process, but thrive.

This book shows mental health professionals how to help clients deal with existential uncertainties and find meaning as they grapple with their religious and spiritual beliefs. As more individuals leave organized religion, deconstruct long-held beliefs, or seek nonreligious spirituality, their existential and spiritual needs often surface in therapy, whether as a presenting concern or a deeper undercurrent. Clients turn to therapists, counselors, social workers, and other helping professionals, desperate for answers. Drawing from cutting-edge research and clinical wisdom, this book provides tools and guidelines for providing culturally competent spiritual care to help clients along their journeys of religious and spiritual change. The authors introduce their existential distress, growth, and engagement (EDGE) model to help clients make sense of their religious/spiritual identities, develop new worldviews, adjust their morals and values, and cultivate meaningful social connections. They explore the five existential realities that clients often struggle with when their faith is in crisis. These include freedom (the conflict between autonomy and responsibility); isolation caused by loss of community; identity, which includes lacking a clear narrative of one's life journey; death anxiety; and meaninglessness, both in the grand scheme of things and in one's day-to-day life.

This book draws from cutting-edge psychological research to provide advice for people who are undergoing religious change. Americans today are leaving religion in record numbers. For many, the faith, practices, and institutions that once provided comfort and guidance no longer fit their beliefs and values. This shift often comes with a price, however. While turning away from religion can bring about freedom, awe, and wonder, it can also engender a profound loss of meaning, purpose, community, and identity. It can threaten our relationships with friends and family. And it can pose a significant challenge to the mental health of even the most resilient among us. How can people who are no longer served by traditional religion find new meaning and purpose? How can they process the grief that often accompanies religious or spiritual change? And how can they address challenging interpersonal relationships with people who do not support or understand their religious change? In this book, psychologist Daryl Van Tongeren draws from psychological theories and research to examine the emotional and social processes involved with religious change and offers science-based guidance for building a new life-with or without religion. If you are rethinking your religious beliefs, have experienced religious loss or struggle, or have undergone a significant religious change, you are not alone. By understanding how people before us have left or transformed their religion, we can discover new ways of finding peace, experiencing meaning, and, if desired, engaging with the transcendent. Let their wisdom-and this book-be your guide.

'A persuasive case for being honest about your weaknesses – and shows how that can be a source of strength'Adam Grant, New York Times bestselling author of Think Again'Humility is the solid foundation of all virtues' ConfuciusHumility. Understated, undervalued and very much underused; but understood and carried out effectively, it can be the most powerful and influential trait we have at our fingertips.In Humble, Daryl Van Tongeren, PhD, a leading researcher into the science of humility gives this unassuming trait a much-needed rebrand, explaining why the humble enjoy a more secure sense of self, handle challenges better, and, indeed, are often the people we like the most.It seems that we are becoming more and more polarized, and narcissism is on the rise. We live egocentric lifestyles, often driven inward. Can cultivating more humility be the antidote to a more and more self-centred world?In its true sense, humbleness is the happy medium between self-denial and self-obsession: It grants the holder an accurate view of reality. By seeing where we have room to improve, we can grow. By admitting our doubts, we can learn. And by acknowledging our own worldview as one among many, we can truly connect with others despite our differences.A thought-provoking call to reexamine our values, Humble signals a paradigm shift – from the frenzied 'self-esteem movement' to a better world in which we lift one another up.

Suffering is an inescapable part of life. Some suffering is so profound, so violating, or so dogged that it fundamentally changes people in indelible ways. Many existing therapeutic approaches, from a medical model, treat suffering as mental illness and seek a curative solution. However, such approaches often fail to examine the deep questions that suffering elicits (e.g., existential themes of death, isolation, freedom, identity, and meaninglessness) and the far-reaching ways in which suffering affects the lived experience of each individual.In The Courage to Suffer, Daryl and Sara Van Tongeren introduce a new therapeutic framework that helps people flourish in the midst of suffering by cultivating meaning.Drawing from scientific research, clinical examples, existential and positive psychology, and their own personal stories of loss and sorrow, Daryl and Sara’s integrative model blends the rich depth of existential clinical approaches with the growth focus of strengths-based approaches.Through cutting edge-research and clinical case examples, they detail five “phases of suffering” and how to work with a client's existential concerns at each phase to develop meaning. They also discuss how current research suggests to build a flourishing life, especially for those who have endured, and are enduring, suffering.Daryl and Sara show how those afflicted with suffering, while acknowledging the reality of their pain, can still choose to live with hope.