Encountering the Sacred in Psychotherapy

Encountering the Sacred in Psychotherapy
Author: James L. Griffith
Publisher: Guilford Press
Total Pages: 340
Release: 2012-01-19
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 146250583X

Drawing on narrative, postmodern, and other therapeutic perspectives, this book guides therapists in exploring the creative and healing possibilities in clients' spiritual and religious experience. Vivid personal accounts and dialogues bring to life the ways spirituality may influence the stories told in therapy, the language and metaphors used, and the meanings brought to key relationships and events. Applications are discussed for a wide variety of clinical situations, including helping people resolve relationship problems, manage psychiatric symptoms, and cope with medical illnesses.

Psychotherapy & Spirituality

Psychotherapy & Spirituality
Author: William West
Publisher: SAGE
Total Pages: 164
Release: 2000-05-02
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 9780761958741

`This book is encyclopaedic in its range compacting much fascinating material into a small space....West has a gift for summarising and critiquing others' thought with brevity....The book will resource and stimulate its readers' - Counselling `There have been many books written about counselling with respect to class, politics, gender, culture and similar issues but, as far as I am aware , this is the first major work to be presented in this country about working with a client's spirituality and the importance this may have... Is a must for trainees in the field and for those who feel a client's spirituality is an irrelevance.'- Cahoots This thoughtful and intelligent book encour

Religion That Heals, Religion That Harms

Religion That Heals, Religion That Harms
Author: James L. Griffith
Publisher: Guilford Press
Total Pages: 289
Release: 2010-08-09
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 1606238906

From James L. Griffith, well known for his work on harnessing the healing potential of religion and spirituality, this book helps clinicians to intervene effectively in situations where religion is causing harm. Vivid examples illustrate how religious beliefs and practices may propel suicide, violence, self-neglect, or undue suffering in the face of medical or emotional challenges. Griffith also unravels the links between psychiatric illness and distorted religious experience. He demonstrates empathic, respectful ways to interview patients who disdain contact with mental health professionals, yet whose religious lives put themselves or others at risk. The book incorporates cutting-edge research on the psychology of religion and social neuroscience.

Psyche and the Sacred

Psyche and the Sacred
Author: Lionel Corbett
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 361
Release: 2019-10-21
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 1000031268

This book presents an approach to spirituality based on direct personal experience of the sacred. Using the language and insights of depth psychology, Corbett outlines the intimate relationship between spiritual experience and the psychology of the individual, unveiling the seamless continuity between the personal and transpersonal dimensions of the psyche. His discussion runs the gamut of spiritual concerns, from the problem of evil to the riddle of pain and suffering. Drawing upon his psychotherapeutic practice as well as on the experiences of characters from our religious heritage, Corbett explores the various portals through which the sacred presents itself to us: dreams, visions, nature, the body, relationships, psychopathology, and creative work. Referring extensively to Jung’s writings on religion, but also to contemporary psychoanalytic theory, Corbett gives form to the new spirituality that is emerging alongside the world’s great religious traditions. For those seeking alternative forms of spirituality beyond the Judeo-Christian tradition, this volume will be a useful guide on the journey.

Handbook of Spirituality and Worldview in Clinical Practice

Handbook of Spirituality and Worldview in Clinical Practice
Author: Allan M. Josephson
Publisher: American Psychiatric Pub
Total Pages: 192
Release: 2008-05-20
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 158562697X

This refreshing new work is a practical overview of religious and spiritual issues in psychiatric assessment and treatment. Eleven distinguished contributors assert that everyone has a worldview and that these religious and spiritual variables can be collaborative partners of science, bringing critical insight to assessment and healing to treatment. Unlike other works in this field, which focus primarily on spiritual experience, this clearly written volume focuses on the cognitive aspects of belief -- and how personal worldview affects the behavior of both patient and clinician. Informative case vignettes and discussions illustrate how assessment, formulation, and treatment principles can be incorporated within different worldviews, including practical clinical information on major faith traditions and on atheist and agnostic worldviews. The book's four main sections give concise yet comprehensive coverage of varying aspects of worldview: Conceptual Foundation -- The Introduction explains the significance of worldview and its context in the development of psychiatry; reviews misunderstandings about spirituality and worldview and how they can be resolved in contemporary practice; and discusses Freud's significant influence on psychiatry's approach to religion and spirituality. Clinical Foundations -- Three chapters review how clinicians can integrate spiritual and religious perspectives in the basic clinical processes of assessment (gathering a religious or spiritual history); diagnosis and case formulation (including religious and spiritual factors); and treatment (including a review of ethical issues). Patients and Their Traditions -- Six chapters discuss Catholic and Protestant Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, Jews, and secularists (atheists and agnostics), including a brief history, clinical implications of core beliefs, and variations of therapeutic encounters (both where patient and clinician share the same faith and where they do not) for each faith tradition. Worldview and Culture -- A concluding chapter reviews issues of a global culture where faiths once rarely encountered in North America are increasingly seen in clinical practice. This well-organized text sheds much-needed light on an area too often obscure to many clinicians, fostering a balanced integration of religion and spirituality in mental health training and practice. Bridging several disciplines in a novel way, this thought-provoking volume will find a diverse audience among mental health care students, educators, and professionals everywhere who seek to better integrate the religious and spiritual aspects of their patients' lives into assessment and treatment.

Counselling and Spiritual Accompaniment

Counselling and Spiritual Accompaniment
Author: Brian Thorne
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 353
Release: 2012-08-02
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 1118329244

Counselling and Spiritual Accompaniment presents the key spiritually-focused writings of Brian Thorne, one of the most influential thinkers on the convergence of spirituality with counselling, along with new material reflecting his recent work in spiritual accompaniment. Reflects the increasing focus on spiritual issues as an essential part of therapy Represents the culmination of an intellectual quest, undertaken by the most senior figure in the field, to integrate spirituality with counselling and the person-centred approach Features chapters that span thirty years of work, along with new writings that bring readers up to date with the author's most recent work in spiritual accompaniment An invaluable guide for counsellors and therapists who acknowledge the importance of spirituality to their clients, but doubt their abilities to help in this area

Spirit in Session

Spirit in Session
Author: Russell Siler Jones
Publisher: Templeton Foundation Press
Total Pages: 289
Release: 2019-06-17
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 1599475626

Spirituality is an important part of many clients’ lives. It can be a resource for stabilization, healing, and growth. It can also be the cause of struggle and even harm. More and more therapists—those who consider themselves spiritual and those who do not—recognize the value of addressing spirituality in therapy and increasing their skill for engaging it ethically and effectively. In this immensely practical book, Russell Siler Jones helps therapists feel more competent and confident about having spiritual conversations with clients. With a refreshing, down-to-earth style, he describes how to recognize the diverse explicit and implicit ways spirituality can appear in psychotherapy, how to assess the impact spirituality is having on clients, how to make interventions to maximize its healthy impact and lessen its unhealthy impact, and how therapists can draw upon their own spirituality in ethical and skillful ways. He includes extended case studies and clinical dialogue so readers can hear how spirituality becomes part of case conceptualization and what spiritual conversation actually sounds like in psychotherapy. Jones has been a therapist for nearly 30 years and has trained therapists in the use of spirituality for over a decade. He writes about a complex topic with an elegant simplicity and provides how-to advice in a way that encourages therapists to find their own way to apply it. Spirit in Session is a pragmatic guide that therapists will turn to again and again as they engage their clients in one of the most meaningful and consequential dimensions of human experience.

Wrestling with Our Inner Angels

Wrestling with Our Inner Angels
Author: Nancy Kehoe
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 180
Release: 2009-05-26
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 0470455411

Wrestling with Our Inner Angels is Nancy Kehoe’s compelling, intimate, and moving story of how she brought her background as a psychologist and a nun in the Religious of the Sacred Heart to bear in the groups she formed to explore the role of faith and spirituality in their treatment – and in their lives. Through fascinating stories of her own spiritual journey, she gives readers of all backgrounds and interests new insights into the inner lives of the mentally ill and new ways of thinking about the role of spirituality and faith in all our lives.

Religion and Spirituality in the Life Cycle

Religion and Spirituality in the Life Cycle
Author: James Gollnick
Publisher: Peter Lang
Total Pages: 300
Release: 2005
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9780820474113

In recent years, profound changes have affected the way people view the role of religion and spirituality in the life cycle. For many people, spirituality, always considered an essential part of religion, has become an interest no longer tied to organized religion. This book addresses the evolving relationship of spirituality to religion in our time, and the consequences of this change for understanding personality development. It also applies the concept of implicit religion to show how the least easily observed aspects of religion are at work in the growth of personality.