My PhD Research
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Spiritual Crisis: Empirical Assessments of Peer-Support & Grounding in Integration
Canterbury Christ Church University supported by the Professional Development Foundation & the Alef Trust.

​My literature review sought to ascertain the empirical evidence-base for interventions in spiritual crisis.

I then performed a service evaluation of the UK Spiritual Crisis Network (SCN) before undertaking an IPA study of the meaning and lived-experience of grounding in spiritual crisis.

Finally, I wrote a case study that utilised the Hero's Journey as a framework for a narrative analysis of one person's path from spiritual crisis to applied practice in the form of peer-support.

My PhD was supervised by Prof. Les Lancaster, Dr David Lukoff, and Prof. David Lane.

To find out more you can listen to the podcast below where I was interviewed about my research by Fiona Robertson for her Dark Night of the Soul Unwrapped series.

My MA Research
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The Esoteric Experience: Positive Experiential Spirituality or Negative Spiritual Experience?
University of Wales, Lampeter

During my MA I studied the neuropsychology of religious experience and topics related to Western Esotericism, including Ancient Mystery Cults and Jewish Mysticism.

For my dissertation, I undertook a thematic analysis of accounts of spiritual experience from 20th century occultism. I focused on three traditions: Helena Blavatsky's Theosophy, GI Gurdjieff's Fourth Way, and the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. I analysed accounts from the literature, contemporary practitioners, and from the archive of the Religious Experience Research Centre.

My MA thesis was supervised by Dr Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke and Dr Sarah Jane Boss.

The SCN Research Group

I run a monthly online research group for the Spiritual Crisis Network (SCN).

We welcome anyone interested in the research into spiritual crisis, whether they are a researcher or not.

The group is currently attended by researchers, students, and experiencers, from the UK, US, Canada, Greece, and Sweden.

We present our research and are also collaborating on activities to disseminate research findings, such as SCN statistics and helpful grounding practices.

For more info please see the group's page on the SCN website here.

Networking

If you are interested in the research into spiritual crisis, please feel free to contact me.

Research Currently in Progress

Please feel free to get in touch about any of these ongoing research projects.

Fifteen Years Online: A QCA of Emails to the UK SCN 

A Quantitative Content Analysis of Emails Sent to the UK Spiritual Crisis Network.
In progress, further details coming soon...
2026

Viking Age Magic & Religion

Fragments of Personhood in the Viking Age.
In progress, further details coming soon...
2025 - 2026

A Case Study in Witchcraft

The life and work of a modern witch.
In progress, further details coming soon...
2025 - 2026

Transpersonal Weird: The transpersonal in 20th century supernatural fiction

An analysis of weird and supernatural fiction from a transpersonal perspective.
In progress, further details coming soon...
2025 - 2026