Karina Fernandez

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Verified

Karina verified their affiliation via an institutional email.

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• PhD Clinical Psychology
• Professor at Ateneo de Manila University

Without a doubt, everyone experiences stress. There would be days when you feel so full to the brim with all the different tasks and duties you need to accomplish that you can hardly breathe. Though some people may view stress in a negative light, stress is an all-important natural reaction, where the body stimulates itself to attend to the situati...

Due to the stigma therapists‐in‐training face within the field owing to their woundedness, and the dearth of psychological literature on the healing of wounded healers (WHs), this study examined the healing journeys of nine Filipino therapists‐in‐training who self‐identify as WHs. Narrative Identity framework was utilized to analyse the healing nar...

Research suggests that a clinical diagnosis of schizophrenia is strongly linked with experiencing negative stereotypes and an inability to recover. In challenging the scientific-logical practice of diagnostic labeling, which totalizes the person’s experience around the illness, Narrative therapy offers a unique approach to treating schizophrenia by...

Filipino psychologist Fr. Jaime C. Bulatao suggested that a shared collective consciousness allows for telepathy to occur. In the context of psychotherapy, telepathy may strengthen rapport between therapist and client, as well as enrich insight. This paper aims to describe and discuss a framework of Bulatao-inspired psychotherapy that integrates te...

Objectives. The objective of this evaluation was to assess the effectiveness of Mindfulness for Safe Schools, a mindfulness-based intervention adapted for sexual abuse prevention during peer-to-peer dating among Filipino public school children in Grades 7 and 8. It was hoped that through the intervention, children would be able to regulate their em...

In recent decades, mindfulness-based interventions have been shown to be a very effective and economical approach in treating psychological disorders, with the literature from studies in the Western world, . On the other hand, mindfulness interventions in the Philippine context are just beginning, with limited studies published regarding its effica...

Problems with depression are among the most common and most debilitating psychological issues for which professional help is sought. Narrative therapy offers practices that have been found useful in assisting individuals with depressive thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. This article aims to contribute to the relatively limited literature by presen...

Research is uncovering the repercussions of the COVID‐19 pandemic on the mental and emotional state of various populations around the world. It is of particular interest to this study to explore how the pandemic has affected psychologists conducting therapy with clients in distress during this time. A qualitative approach was used to analyse the na...

Keywords: Counseling, Psychology, Research, Status, Philippines

Attending college is meaningful for many young adults. This period is marked by physical, emotional, and psychological changes that can have both positive and negative effects on college students. The last two decades have seen an alarming increase in the number of college students who suffer from mental health conditions, such as depression, suici...

Objectives This study examines the feasibility and acceptability of a local adaptation of a mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) program for Filipino school children, called Kamalayan, that was facilitated by trained public school teachers. It also presents preliminary evidence of program effects on the children’s depressive and anxiety sympt...

Creating comic strips can be a viable mechanism when utilizing cognitive behavioral interventions. Generating comic strips, which involves a process of constructing sequenced panels and a story-narrative through drawing, can reveal dysfunctional cognitions that can consequently be addressed. The authors of this article discuss a qualitative case st...

The Center for Epidemiological Studies – Depression (CES-D) scale is a well-validated and frequently used measure for assessing symptoms associated with depression. This scale was developed primarily on the basis of American populations, however, and previous research has suggested that the original factor structure may not be appropriate for all p...

More than 6000 seafarers have been held hostage by pirates in the last ten years. There is a small but developing body of research showing that these seafarers may face lasting challenges in recovery. However, current studies on this question have been limited by a lack of comparison groups, a lack of statistical power, and other methodological cha...

The purpose of this study was to develop a theory to explain Filipino wellness (kaginhawaan). Open-ended and semi-structured face-to-face interviews were conducted among 18 Filipinos. Nine resided in the city and the rest lived in the rural areas. The participants were also representative of the low, middle, and high levels of family income prescri...

Psychodynamic play therapy, when used in treating selective mutism, focuses on how a child utilizes materials, which help in understanding the child and the mute behavior through symbols. Playing becomes the child’s way to communicate and make sense of his experiences. The child is given the opportunity to master fears and learn skills, which later...

The study aimed to understand how Filipino seafarers make sense of their maritime piracy experiences. A phenomenological analysis was conducted on data gathered from semi-structured interviews with three Filipino seafarers who have had firsthand experiences of maritime piracy. Analysis results revealed nine salient themes under two categories. The...

Selective mutism is characterized by a child’s inability to speak in certain situations while they manifest adequate speaking in other settings or with particular people. It is considered a type of anxiety disorder where the child dreads situations where there is an expectation to speak for fear of being negatively evaluated. This article discusses...

The importance of social support in people’s lives and well-being is well established. Furthermore, the research literature has presented social support as a multidimensional concept. While there are several typologies of social support in Western literature, there is, as yet, no Filipino typology. In this study, a multidimensional framework of soc...

This study investigated Filipino adolescents’ conceptualization of social support. While Western literature suggests that adolescents, in their developmental task of growing towards independence and individuality, prefer emotional support and acceptance in achieving these goals, it is worthwhile to discover what Filipino adolescents define as suppo...

The history of colonization and persistent attempts at self-governance in the Philippines parallel the beginnings of counseling in the country, which were largely influenced by the United States. Because of the Guidance and Counseling Act of 2004 and the Psychology Act of 2009, counseling is on its way to professionalization and regulation. Counsel...

A child diagnosed with Selective Mutism misses out on several developmental tasks including social interaction and academic growth, which are a significant part of childhood. Psychological literature based on particular theoretical models suggests a range oftherapeutic strategies to deal with this specific anxiety disorder. A case ofa six-year-old...