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Elena is a developmental, clinical and critical social psychologist, currently associate professor at the psychology department, where she teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in Lifespan, Moral, Social, and Spiritual Development, Mindfulness, Health Realization Counseling and Psychotherapy, Cross-Cultural Communications, Community Development, and Prevention, and Global Studies. She is a Licensed Professional Counselor in private practice, in addition to which she does extensive pro-bono psycho-social and clinical work with immigrant Hispanic populations in rural West Georgia. In 2003, she received the Carter Campus/Community Partnership Award for her work in founding the Latino Initiative of UWG.
Elena’s re-thinking of the field of moral psychology in the context of the study of critical consciousness won her the 1995 Dissertation Award of the Henry A. Murray Research Center for the Study of Lives at Harvard University, and the 1998 Best Dissertation of the Year Award of the Association for Moral Education. Her recently published book, Critical Consciousness: A Study of Morality in a Global Historical Context, has been described as “a courageous tour de force on the order of Maslow’s Toward a Psychology of Being; a landmark contribution to the field”.
Elena has taught in Switzerland, Zimbabwe, United Arab Emirates, and Bulgaria. She grew up in Bulgaria, negotiating existential freedom under communism till the age of 29. Her life passion became the understanding of the human predicament, which she first explored symbolically, through world literature, Eastern and Western philosophy and the history of art; then through psycho-linguistics; and now through a specialization in the constructive-developmental evolution of meaning in the life-span
Having lived on three continents, experienced life in six European, two African, and one Arab country, and taught for 20 years, she has witnessed first hand the profound processes of historical change, liberation, and transformation shaking the world. As a result, she is deeply interested in the psychological, social, philosophical, and spiritual implications of the progressive integration of East and West, North and South into a global civilization. Her approach to the study of individual and collective consciousness is historical and contextual, interdisciplinary, cross-cultural, evolutionary, and dialectical, emphasizing the spiritual integration of issues of personal growth and development with collective social change and global sustainability. Elena works with graduate students to help them apply this psycho-spiritual understanding beyond traditional therapeutic settings, to work in prevention and organizational change, as well as with minority groups and displaced populations, and on a larger global scene around emerging questions of sustainability. Elena encourages students to develop new roles as future psychologists in the 21st century, in a daily changing global context.
Influential Works
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Elena Mustakova-Possardt, Ed. D.
Wednesday Matters Presentation E-mail: elenam@westga.edu |
