Spirituality has become a widely researched topic. This activity has released Christian Spirituality from the encasement classical theology has built around it since roughly the twelfth century. Psychology has faced an equally formidable challenge. As it developed in the nineteenth century under the tutelage of the scientific method psychology became trapped in a positivist approach which, to a large degree, shunned the transcendent and thus spirituality in its multiple forms. It now seeks to remedy this issue.
The 90’s saw the emergence of a new interest in studying religion and spirituality by psychologists as well as a political change of accepting spirituality as a positive dimension of being human and a factor fostering both human growth and mental health.
Integrating Spirituality into Counseling (Routledge, 2023) introduced a new and creative approach which supports the integral inclusion of spirituality into the counseling relationship and shapes the work of this session.
In recognizing that the spiritual is an inherent dimension of the human mind—seen, for example, in the self-transcending act of asking questions and, thus, expanding one’s understanding—then all psychotherapeutic practice and its methods that foster personal integration toward wholesome living ipso facto enhance spirituality. This humanistic theory provides the basis for any religious elaboration, in which case spirituality in psychotherapy becomes more complicated, that is, it needs to respect and work with a client’s beliefs about transcendence in general as well as specific beliefs about God—some of which may be known to be pathological. This paper presents an overarching perspective on recent ways of understanding spirituality in the context of psychology and psychotherapy such that therapeutic research and practices may reach their ultimate desired outcomes.
Around the world the complexity of human body-based experience has become a significant part of people’s awareness, often prompting intense reactions. Consider, for example, abortion, LGBTQIA+ identities, the me-too movement, the Black Lives Matter movement, recorded incidents of police brutality, school shootings, the COVID-19 pandemic, the assault on the U.S. capitol, and, related to all this and more, the ubiquity of trauma. For more and more people, bodies matter. This presentation explores how spirituality and theology as disciplines can assist counselors and psychotherapists in these integrative tasks, especially if they or their clients are adherents of a particular religious faith. Using Christian faith as an example, a theological lens will be brought to bear on some of the body-based challenges and opportunities of spiritually-integrated psychotherapy.
Spiritual Direction is a centuries-old practice of providing mentorship and accompaniment of adults in all stages of their spiritual lives, dating back to the 4th century. The needs of neophytes differ from those who have matured in their spiritual lives and spiritual directors adapt their approaches accordingly. Contemporary spiritual directors attend to the whole person in their accompaniment. They not only foster the spiritual development of those they accompany but also attend to their directees’ psychological well-being and life challenges. They consult with psychologists and refer directees for therapy when appropriate to practitioners who will respect their directees’ spiritual lives. This paper engages the practical challenges faced by practitioners who want to integrate spirituality in their work with clients but struggle with crossing ethical borders of their competencies.
| Ronald Rolheiser | rrolheiser@ost.edu | View |