Josie Paul not only built and oversees our Counseling and Mental Health department at Xavier, but she is actively completing her dissertation as a PhD student in Social Health Sciences at Vrije Universiteit, Brussels. Our students are thoroughly enjoying taking part in her doctoral research which investigates how psychotherapy, in a culinary setting, co-creates a collaborative-dialogic space that enriches the identity stories of adolescents who struggle with anxiety.

More specifically, her goal is to gain insight into the experience and meaning of participating in collaborative-dialogic practices in a culinary setting and to explore the identity stories of adolescents who have been formally diagnosed or who self-identify as anxious, from the adolescent’s perspective.

Baking has proven to be a wonderfully therapeutic and enjoyable addition to our students' academic weeks and we look forward to learning the results from her research...and continuing to bring practices like baking therapy to our students moving forward.