Claire LeBeau, PhD — Faculty ; Associate Professor ; Department of Psychology , College of Arts & Sciences ; Areas of Expertise: Existential Phenomenological Psychology | Relational Ethics | Psychotherapy | Embodied Research .

Dr. Claire Steele LeBeau is the Master of Arts in Psychology (MAP) Program Director and an Associate Professor of Psychology at Seattle University. She teaches courses in existential phenomenological psychology. After completing her Master’s Degree from Seattle University in 1997, she worked in the Seattle area in a broad range of community mental health positions and in private practice. She completed her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, PA in 2013. Her research interests focus on the interpersonal origins of ethics, primarily through the philosophical work of Emmanuel Levinas, and the therapeutic application of phenomenology to the healing relationship.  She has spent the last decade conducting research on the experience of maternal guilt with first-time mothers and the experience of vulnerability between parents couples.  Dr. LeBeau developed a novel research methodology applying the use of Gendlin’s Focusing Technique in the interview process. This methodology continues to inform her current research on the lived experience of forgiveness and existential anxiety and guilt.