Brief Psychotherapy And Spirituality

The overarching theme of this book is that spiritually-oriented psychotherapy is entirely consistent with brief psychotherapeutic relationships. In advancing this claim, I first present an overview of contemporary spirituality and the brief psychotherapy movement. I later seek to describe the subtle but powerful connections that exist between certain approaches to brief therapy and the experience commonly referred to as cosmic consciousness. Before beginning a deliberate description of what I call Brief Spiritual Psychotherapy (BSP), I describe the experience of cosmic consciousness from the perspectives of Christian doctrine, Eastern philosophy and transpersonal psychology. Throughout I attempt to show how it is that these bodies of thought lay the conceptual groundwork in our day for the practice of therapy that is based upon a spiritual outlook. I follow this preparation with a discussion of the specifics of BSP, using the elements that are inherently involved in any psychotherapy - view of the client, view of the problem, role of the therapist, and theory of change -as orienting structure.

Spirituality as a Working Model in Brief Psychotherapy is a practical book that describes easily applicable methods for use by nontheologically trained therapists. The focus is on brief psychotherapy, since long-term treatment is no longer possible for many individuals today living busy lives on a limited budget. The book is unique in its approach involving real-life encounters between patients and therapists with years of experience in both spirituality and psychotherapy. While there are other books in the field of spirituality and psychotherapy, they are written from a traditional Freudian-based philosophy and do not include practical, easily applicable methods for use when time is limited. Most assume a traditional longer commitment by both therapist and patient, which today is often unrealistic. The authors of this book come from multiple disciplines including pastoral counseling, psychology, psychiatry, medicine, social work, and theology. Major areas of presentation include: Spirituality as a Multidimensional Model for Psychotherapy; The Ubiquity of Spirituality; Dynamics of Faith: Understanding Religion and Spirituality; Spirituality and the Therapist; Counseling Body/Soul Persons; Energy of Change; Spiritual Competence in a Medical Setting; Rituals and Symbols in Brief Psychotherapy; Working through the Steps of Spiritual Development; and Ethics in Spiritually Based Psychotherapy. The primary audience for this text is students in all the human behavior fields, professional counselors, clergy, chaplains, as well as professionals already in practice looking for better ways to achieve real results using brief psychotherapy. Each of the 11 chapters contains many practical applications for therapists.

This book explains when forgiveness and spiritual transformation might be appropriate clinical goals, as well as how to facilitate these processes in psychotherapy. The model is applied to short-term therapy, long-term therapy, couple and family therapy, and group therapy.

This book explores how Western European psychotherapists, interviewed between 2016 and 2019, understand spirituality and how they address spiritual matters in clinical sessions.By studying a purposive sample of 15 Clinicians from Spain, England, Switzerland, Greece, Norway and Denmark, it was found that these shared similar views about spirituality, understood as dynamic, fluid and independent from religion. The interviewed psychotherapists showed great variation in their psychotherapy trainings, theoretical background and spiritual stances. However, the participants' rich narratives illustrate that independently from their personal and professional background they all approached spiritual matters from a client centered, humanistic perspective. Spirituality was often addressed heuristically, integrating different approaches in a creative manner through an array of interventions. Differences in the participants' religious and cultural background did not appear to determine the clinicians' views and approaches. Recommendations for practice are discussed, stressing the relevance of implementing a non-materialistic scientific paradigm that acknowledges different personal experiences, as a source of spiritual knowledge. The importance of keeping a non-judgmental perspective and the need to acknowledge views and practices of those considering themselves as spiritual but not religious are also highlighted.Different audiences may find this book relevant, for instance psychotherapists and those in charge of psychotherapy training programs wishing to integrate a spiritual perspective in clinical work independent from religious doctrines. Likewise, those interested in historical perspectives about the traditional exclusion of spirituality from clinical work as well as the current re-integration of non- dogmatic, fluid spiritual perspectives may find relevant information. The theoretical discussions and methodological explanations could be of interest for those considering to implement thematic analysis or to pursue qualitative studies from a collaborative and reflexive stance.

`Fascinating. There is much here that is controversial, thought provoking and very useful. It is encyclopaedic in its breadth and use of knowledge. [Like] rich food [it] needs to be taken in slowly, savouring every morsel!′ - Thresholds `[Spirituality] has been traditionally ′taboo′ within the counselling and psychotherapy profession. Denis Lines comes into this controversial scene with a rigorous-but-gentle, mystical-but-grounded, inspiring and thought-provoking voice.... The book is well written and presents the model in the context of other therapeutic modalities, which makes it interesting and useful for therapists from different backgrounds and practice settings. It could also be of use for those involved in religious education, pastoral care or anybody interested in the spiritual development of the self or the existential quest of humankind′ - Therapy Today ′This gentle, mystical, empirical and scholarly book is truly inspirational and it deserves the widest possible readership among therapists, religious educators and all those who care about the spiritual destiny of humankind′ - Professor Brian Thorne, Co-founder The Norwich Centre and Emeritus Professor of Counselling, University of East Anglia Spirituality in Counselling and Psychotherapy explores the idea that throughout the course of a therapeutic relationship between therapist and client, a spiritual level is reached by the two people involved. The author shows how this dimension can help clients who are living in an increasingly secular and faithless society to find some resolution with the issues they bring to therapy. By exploring different perspectives on religion and spirituality, the book provides therapists with the grounding they need to introduce spiritually-centred counselling into their practice. It describes the characteristics of spiritual counselling and covers practical considerations such as: " recognising indications from the client to move into a spiritual mode of therapy " exploring the ′self′ through spiritual work within the therapeutic process, and how this can lead to healing and growth " how to deal with doubt and scepticism over issues of spirituality. The book is illustrated throughout with transcripts and case studies to show how therapists can integrate the spiritual within their own approach to therapeutic work. It will be invaluable to all those who wish to explore this dimension in their work with clients.

The authors argue that when psychotherapists diagnose and assess their clients, they should routinely assess the religious and spiritual values of their clients to obtain a fuller and more accurate diagnostic picture. This book is the first to provide guidance for integrating a theistic spiritual strategy into mainstream approaches to psychotherapy in order to reach a large, underserved population of clients with religious and spiritual beliefs.

More activities to tap into the strength of your clients’ spiritual beliefs to achieve therapeutic goals. The Therapist’s Notebook for Integrating Spirituality in Counseling II is the second volume of a comprehensive two-volume resource that provides practical interventions from respected experts from a wide range of backgrounds and theoretical perspectives. This volume includes several practical strategies and techniques to easily incorporate spirituality into psychotherapy. You’ll find in-session activities, homework assignments, and client and therapist handouts that utilize a variety of therapeutic models and techniques and address a broad range of topics and problems. The chapters of The Therapist’s Notebook for Integrating Spirituality in Counseling II are grouped into four sections: Models of Therapy Used in Integrating Spirituality; Integrating Spirituality with Age-Specific Populations: Children, Adolescents, and the Elderly; Integrating Spirituality with Specific Multicultural Populations; and Involving Spirituality when Dealing with Illness, Loss, and Trauma. As in Volume One, each clinician-friendly chapter also includes sections on resources where the counselor can learn more about the topic or technique used in the chapter—as well as suggested books, articles, chapters, videos, and Web sites to recommend to clients. Every chapter follows the same easy-to-follow format: objectives, rationale for use, instructions, brief vignette, suggestions for follow-up, contraindications, references, professional readings and resources, and bibliotherapy sources for the client. The Therapist’s Notebook for Integrating Spirituality in Counseling II adds more useful activities and homework counselors can use in their practice, such as: using religion or spirituality in solution-oriented brief therapy “Cast of Character” counseling using early memories to explore adolescent and adult spirituality cognitive behavioral treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder age-specific clients such as children or the elderly multicultural populations and spirituality dealing with illness, loss, and trauma recovering from fetal loss creative art techniques with caregivers in group counseling and much more! The Therapist’s Notebook for Integrating Spirituality in Counseling II provides even more creative and helpful homework and activities that are perfect for pastoral counselors, clergy, social workers, marriage and family therapists, counselors, psychologists, Christian counselors, educators who teach professional issues, ethics, counseling, and multicultural issues, and students.

A survey of how spirituality can be incorporated into a range of psychotherapeutic approaches, including psychoanalytic, cognitive-behavioral, humanistic, interpersonal, transpersonal, and others.