Denise Larsen

Professor; Director of Research, Hope Foundation of Alberta

Educational Psychology
denise.larsen@ualberta.ca
http://www.hope-lit.ualberta.ca, http://www.ualberta.ca/HOPE/

Research and Interest

Dr. Larsen's primary interest is in the study of hope especially as it relates to counselling and educational practices. Her research broadly focuses on how hope is experiences and constructed by both clients and helping professionals during care interactions. At present, she is especially interested how language is used during caregiving conversations to both explicitly and implicitly address hope. In related research, she is also a member of an interdisciplinary research team examining compassion fatigue across a variety of professions. Dr. Larsen's research is and has been funded by several sources including federal granting agencies (SSHRC) and local funders. She is involved in several international research collaborations related to hope. She also teaches a university credit course on hope, entitled, Hope and the Helping Relationship, at both the undergraduate and graduate student levels. Dr. Larsen maintains a limited counselling psychology practice through the Hope Foundation of Alberta.

Representative Publications

Austin, W., Brintnell, B., Goble, E., Kagan, L., Kreitzer, L., Larsen, D., & Leier, B. (in press). Down in the endlessly falling snow: Canadian healthcare professionals’ experience of compassion fatigue. Waterloo, ON: Wilfred Laurier University Press. (Authors alphabetical).

Li, Y., & Larsen, D. (2012). Finding hope in the darkness: Stories of two Chinese newcomers enrolled in Canadian high school. Canadian and International Education, 41(1), 39-58.

Larsen, D. (2012). Exploring will and surrender: Try looking in Copala. In R.F.J. Jevne (Ed.), Images and echoes: Exploring life with photography and writing. Edmonton, AB: JAG.

Goble, E., Austin, W., Larsen, D., Kreitzer, L, & Brintnell, S. (2012, May). Habits of mind and the split-mind effect: When computer-assisted qualitative data anlsyis software is used in phenomenological research. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung/Forum: Qualitative Social Research.

Larsen, D., & Stege, R. (2012). Client accounts of hope in early counseling sessions: A qualitative study. Journal of Counseling and Development, 90,45-54.

Flesaker, K., & Larsen, D. (2012). To offer hope you must have hope: Accounts of hope for reintegration counsellors working with women on parole and probation. Qualitative Social Work: Research and Practice, 11(1), 61-79.

Yohani, S., & Larsen, D. (2012). The cultivation of hope in trauma-focused counselling. In R.A. McMackin, E. Newman, J.M. Fogler, &  T.M. Keane (Eds.). Trauma therapy in context: The science and craft of evidence-based practice (pp. 193-210). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Larsen, D. (2011). Un saule: Reflexions personelles sur la vie et la connaissnce. In R. V. Peavy (Ed.), Counseling sociodynamique: Une approche pratique de la construction de sens (pp. 17-22). Quebec City, Quebec: Septembre Editeur.

Larsen, D., & Stege, R. (2010). Hope-focused practices during early psychotherapy sessions: Part I: Implicit approaches. Journal of Psychotherapy Integration, 20(3), 271-292.

Larsen, D., & Stege, R. (2010). Hope-focused practices during early psychotherapy sessions: Part II: Explicit approaches. Journal of Psychotherapy Integration, 20(3), 293-311.

Yohani, S., & Larsen, D. (2009). Hope lives in the heart: Refugee and immigrant children’s perceptions of hope and hope engendering sources during early years of adjustment. Canadian Journal of Counselling (Commemorative Issue), 43(4), 246-264.

Larsen, D. (2009). “It gives me a kind of grounding”: Two university educators’ narratives of hope in worklife. In A. Mattos (Ed.). Narratives on Teaching and Teacher Education: An International Perspective (pp. 151-166). New York: Palgrave: MacMillan.

Larsen, D., Flesaker, K., & Stege, R. (2008). Qualitative interviewing using Interpersonal Process Recall: Investigating internal experiences during professional-client conversations. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 7(1), 18-37.

Harris, G., & Larsen, D. (2008). High-Risk behaviours following an HIV diagnosis. Counselling Psychology Review, 23(3), 48-68.

Harris, G., & Larsen, D. (2008). Understanding hope in the face of an HIV diagnosis and high-risk behavors. Journal of Health Psychology, 21, 843-859.

Larsen, D., Edey, W., & LeMay, L. (2007). Understanding the role of hope in counselling: Exploring the intentional uses of hope. Counselling Psychology Quarterly, 20(4), 401-416.

Harris, G. E., & Larsen, D. (2007). HIV peer counseling and the development of hope: Perspectives from peer counselors and peer counseling recipients. AIDS, Patient Care and STDs, 21(11), 843-859.

Larsen, D.J. (2007). En hyldest til daggryet ... En fortaelling a fog om Dr. R. Vance Peavy. Det Vejlednigsfaglige Udvalg: Rounborgs Grafiske Hus, pp. 5-16. (Danish)

Larsen, D., & Boisvert, J. (2006). Women's professional mentorship in psychology and the academy: One group's stories of quilting and life. In W. Schissel (Ed.), Home/Bodies: Geography of Self, Place, and Space (pp. 44-59). Calgary, AB: University of Calgary Press.

Larsen, D. (2004). Willow: (Auto)Biographical Reflections on Life and Theory. In R. V. Peavy. SocioDynamic Counselling: Swathmore, PA: Taos Institute.

Larsen, D.J., & Larsen, J.E. (2004). 'I am a puzzle': Adolescence as reflected in self-metaphors. Canadian Journal of Counselling, 38, (4), 246-259.

Larsen, D., Cumming, C., Hundleby, M., & Kuiken, D. (2003). Innovating a writing group for female cancer patients: A counselling field description. Canadian Journal of Counselling, 37(4), 279-294.