Maj Marušič

PhD Student

Biography

Maj Marušič holds a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and a Master’s in Clinical Forensic Psychology and Victimology from the University of Groningen (The Netherlands), as well as a pre-doctoral background in Somatic and Spiritual Psychology from the International University of Professional Studies (USA). He is currently a PhD candidate in Applied Transpersonal Psychology at Alef Trust, in academic partnership with Liverpool John Moores University (UK).

Maj’s academic and personal journey reflects over a decade of immersion in spirituality-informed altered states of consciousness, contemplative practices, and therapeutically oriented approaches. His background includes extensive study and practice of meditation across traditions such as Zen Buddhism, Atma Vichara, and Vipassana, alongside travel in India and Nepal and sustained engagement with Advaita Vedanta. He has also trained in energy- and healing-based approaches, including Reiki, Spiritual Psychology modules in the Netherlands, various forms of energetic or psychic healing practices, and Traditional Chinese Medicine, with supervised acupuncture practice in China. His current focus lies around two main streams: developing a cosmology of existence, informed by Bashar’s ontological model, Advaita Vedanta, and direct experiential realisation, and applying his experience and calling toward healing and patient care, particularly in relation to physical illness and the inherent capacity for self-healing therein.

PhD research

Maj Marušič’s PhD research explores whether consciously engaging with, and integrating in an embodied way, the meaning deeply held or stored within the experience of physical imbalance or chronic illness can lead not only to mental or emotional change, but also to physiological healing of the condition itself and its affected systems—a form of conscious healing. In this research, illness is understood as a sacred malady, acting as a catalyst for psychospiritual growth, and has varying and ever-unfolding layers of self-meaning, with the capacity to inform, realise, and transform the individual through its direct engagement and embodiment. Within his study, he investigates this through a body-oriented psychotherapeutic approach (Focusing), connecting to the felt sense of the condition with individuals living with chronic physical illness, combined with real-time physiological tracking (EDA, HRV, etc.). As part of this work, he is developing the first language-based coding system specifically designed to identify markers of embodied experiential process change in the context of physical illness. The system is used to mark embodied psychotherapeutic processes as they occur alongside concurrent physiological monitoring, examining temporal correspondences and whether they reflect patterns of physiological healing or self-restoration within and across sessions towards embodied wholeness.