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Narrative Therapy – healing childhood trauma with popular culture: Developing Janina Scarlet’s Superhero Therapy with the perspective of cPTSD in teens and adults
University of Gävle, Faculty of Education and Business Studies, Department of Humanities, Religious studies.
2025 (English)Independent thesis Advanced level (degree of Master (Two Years)), 20 credits / 30 HE creditsStudent thesis
Abstract [en]

 The purpose of the thesis is to explore Janina Scarlet’s therapy method Superhero Therapy specifically from the perspective of childhood trauma and complex posttraumatic stress disorder (cPTSD) in teens and adults. The research questions are, 1) How has Scarlet developed her therapy method Superhero Therapy? 2) What are the clinical and scientific limitations with Superhero Therapy? 3) How could other therapy methods and approaches be added to develop Scarlet's method? The thesis main material is Scarlet’s book Superhero Therapy for anxiety and trauma and research articles on narrative therapy and cPTSD. The theoretical perspectives are, a ‘(c)PTSD theoretical tool’ to determine the view on PTSD and cPTSD being different diagnoses and ‘the therapy method-framework’ for adding other types of psychology methods. The method used is a question-based qualitative content analysis. Previous research shows the lack of similar research, meaning reviewing Scarlet’s Superhero Therapy and narrative therapy for childhood trauma and cPTSD in teens and adults. Therefore, the previous research of this thesis has been broken into parts, cPTSD and PTSD, narrative therapy and superheroes in therapy. This indicates the need for more research on popular culture in therapy, especially for those with cPTSD and childhood trauma. This also shows the need for more understanding about cPTSD and how it differs from PTSD and how its effects linger over time. The thesis also explores the strengths and limitations of Scarlet’s Superhero Therapy resulting in a development of a version specifically to cPTSD in teens and adults called Fantasy Therapy. The thesis results are important because many teens and adults do not get the right treatment for their cPTSD and childhood trauma, and using popular culture in therapy (narrative therapy) is one technique for treatment. It is also important to delve in to the subject of cPTSD and PTSD being different diagnoses, with further knowledge more people can get better help and understand themselves better. More research and awareness also mean reduced stigma against mental health.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2025. , p. 71
Keywords [en]
cPTSD, Childhood Trauma, Narrative Therapy, Superhero Therapy, Popular Culture, Mental Health, Meaning-Making, Fandom Culture, Fantasy Therapy.
National Category
Religious Studies Psychology Cultural Studies
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:hig:diva-47784OAI: oai:DiVA.org:hig-47784DiVA, id: diva2:1979024
Subject / course
Religious studies
Educational program
Master Programme in Religious Studies
Supervisors
Examiners
Available from: 2025-06-30 Created: 2025-06-29 Last updated: 2025-10-02Bibliographically approved

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Master's thesis. 2025. Amanda Vargvinge(1124 kB)210 downloads
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