Academic Highlights

Kirwan Rockefeller, PhD is Adjunct Faculty at the Saybrook University College of Social Sciences and College of Integrative Medicine and Health Studies. He has a 35+ year career in mind-body modalities and received his PhD from Saybrook University; MPA in Organizational Development/Behavior from the University of Washington, and BA from the University of Richmond, Virginia. He has a Level 1 Certification from the Academy of Guided Imagery, under the direction of David Bresler, PhD and Martin Rossman, MD. He was Editor of The California Psychologist, the bi-monthly peer-review publication of the California Psychological Association (2007-2012), serves on the CPA Editorial Review Board, and is a member of the American and California Psychological Associations. Dr. Rockefeller lives in Newport Beach, California.

Approval status: Approved to chair or serve as a committee member on master’s degree projects of theses; chair or serve on doctoral essay committees; chair or serve on dissertation committees.

Faculty member is qualified to direct the following research methods: Action research, narrative inquiry, case studies, expressive arts inquiry npsychotherapy, semi-structured interviews, survey research, participant-observational, and archival/historical research.

Personal research interest: Guided imagery, expressive arts/authentic movement, spirituality and consciousness, affirmative LGBT psychology, addiction, leadership development, personal mythology, dreamwork, psychology of shamanism, psychoneuroimmunology, media, social and organizational psychology.

Past experience supervising student research: Dr. Rockefeller is currently serving as dissertation chair and committee member for several Saybrook students, and has been a dissertation committee member for students at Capella University (effectiveness of organizational affinity/diversity groups), The Chicago School of Professional Psychology, formerly California Graduate Institute (narrative in psychology, super model body imagery and adolescent girls impacted by anorexia, teen peer counseling, high-risk sexual behavior of gay men), and Pacifica Graduate Institute (depth psychology for gay men).

Sample Publications

  • Rockefeller, K. (2007). Visualize Confidence: How to use guided imagery to overcome self-doubt. Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications. ISBN-10 #157224491 and ISBN-13 #978-1572244948
  • Rockefeller, K. and Brown, S. (Eds). (2007). Psychology, spirituality and healthcare: Volume 2 in Serlin, . (Series Ed.), Mind-body medicine: the art of whole person healthcare. Westport, CT: Praeger/Greenwood Publications, a division of Harcourt Brace. ISBN-10 #0275992314 and ISBN-13 #978-0275992316
  • Rockefeller, K., Serlin, I. and Fox, J. (2007). Multimodal imagery in healthcare. In Serlin, I., Rockefeller, K. and Brown, S. (Eds.). Psychology, spirituality and healthcare. Westport, CT:
  • Praeger/Greenwood Publications, a division of Harcourt Brace. ISBN-10 #0275992314 and ISBN-13 #978-0275992316
  • Rockefeller, K. (1994). Film and dream imagery in personal mythology. The Humanistic Psychologist. 22 (2), 183-202.