GRAD SCHOOL APPLICATIONS —Master's degree program at Harvard University
Aureet Bar-Yam Hassan, December 1981,
Autobiographical Background
For as far back as I can remember I have always been fascinated by the human mind, the forces that shape it, and the elements that combine to promote mental health. My goal is to create a program that is geared towards facilitating optimal mental health development of adolescents while preventing entrenchment of problems leading to mental illness. My background experiences have provided me with a wealth of resources and ideas towards accomplishing this goal.
Educational Background
Aureet's Master's Celebration, 1983
I was raised in an academic environment which instilled in me a profound appreciation and enjoyment of intellectual and academic achievement. My mother is a Developmental Psychologist, graduate of Harvard, has been closely associated with Dr. Kagan, and worked with Dr. Kohlberg for many years. Therefore, I am particularly familiar with their work. My father is a Professor of High Energy Physics. As a result of his work I have spent a number of rewarding summers with the scientific community at Brookhaven National Laboratory. I also spent a number of years growing up on a kibbutz in Israel which provided an interesting cross-cultural perspective. It has one of the most facilitative, enriching, youth-oriented program for its adolescents.
Upon returning to the United States I completed my secondary education at Brookline High School in a unique experiment in alternative education called "School-within-a-School". SWS was developed under consultation with Harvard and Boston University Developmental Psychologists. Its aim was to incorporate academic knowledge in a program designed to facilitate social and moral development, in addition to the traditional cognitive approach. This program was successful in helping me to form a social consciousness that mandates a personal commitment to not only help an individual but to evolve methods that effect a broader population.
After completing High School, I decided to postpone my formal education for two years in order to travel and experience other walks of life. I gained many valuable experiences, including an amusing short stint as part-owner and operator of a shrimp trawler. I believe that those many experiences enhance my potential impact as a clinician since they made me more aware of the problems and needs within various life styles.
I then returned to Boston, and began my formal education at Boston University majoring in Psychology. After a year I began to search for a program where greater emphasis was placed on clinical application of psychological theories. Since I was motivated towards augmenting and maximizing my learning experiences, I eventually switched majors to a program called "Humanistic Education and Human Services". This program provided field experiences and internships. One course included field experience in a school system, and required devising and teaching only one lesson plan. Taking advantage of this opportunity, I taught a High School creative writing class on my own for the entire semester. I also established a counseling relationship with some of my students and worked in conjunction with their guidance counselor. The most attractive feature of the "Humanistic Education and Human Service" program was that it provided greater flexibility in allowing me to pursue more advanced studies. Consequently, I completed the majority of advanced Graduate courses in Counseling Psychology, such as Family Therapy and others. During this time I also gained a working knowledge of counseling through employment as a Women's Reproductive Health Counselor (a job not usually available to Undergraduates).
Finally, during my senior year, seeking to expand further as well as develop my skills, I participated in an extensive seminar in "Neuro-Linguistic Programming". NLP is a synthesis of a variety of communication and counseling techniques and provides a pragmatically oriented training. I have also been developing skills in Ericksonian Hypnosis.
Research Experience
My research experience has covered four areas of interest. I have researched Kibbutz child-rearing and its effects on mental health. I have examined the literature in the area of adolescent suicide including the dynamics and attributes of suicidal depression. I have also initiated an exhaustive research effort into the vital attributes of the effective counselor. This resulted in an extensive paper on those attributes and their relationship to Women's reproductive health counseling. Finally, during the last year I have spent a great deal of time researching Cult Mind Control and the Conversion experience, and have submitted over fifty pages examining the literature in the field.
