A qualitative exploration of clinical psychologists' understanding of spirituality in psychotherapy (original) (raw)
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PERCEPTIONS OF PSYCHOLOGISTS REGARDING THE USE OF RELIGION AND SPIRITUALITY IN THERAPY
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Many in the caring professions consider spirituality to be a fundamental dimension of human experience and identity. Consequently, some claim that this dimension cannot be ignored in disciplines such as psychotherapy that deals with the human being and with human experience. Moreover, the increase in secularisation and the emphasis on the subjective and the personal in people's experience of spirituality and religion, have led to an increased interest in psychotherapy, counselling and other forms of activities and professions that deal more closely with the personal and subjective. Other themes that connect spirituality and psychotherapy include: spirituality is related to a person's mental health; people make meaning which assumes that they are spiritual beings; and spirituality and psychotherapy both involve enlightenment and meaning-making. For some, spirituality is manifest in psychotherapy either because of spiritual concerns that are raised by clients in the psychother...
Revista De Psiquiatria Clinica, 2012
Background: The importance of having to consider the role of spirituality in health, mental health and psychiatry in South Africa has in particular been emphasized by recent legislation on African traditional health practice. Objective: The purpose of this study was to explore the views and experience of local psychiatrists regarding the role of spirituality in South African specialist psychiatric practice and training. Method: This study is an explorative, descriptive, contextual, phenomenological and theory-generating, qualitative investigation. In-depth, semi-structured interviews with individual academic psychiatrists affiliated to a local university were conducted as primary data source. Measures to ensure trustworthiness included credibility, transferability, dependability and confirmability. Results: Awareness of spirituality, "mindfulness" and an open-minded approach about spirituality should, according to participants, be facilitated in psychiatric practice and training. Six themes were identified through open coding. Discussion: All participants, disregarding of their own views on spirituality and religion, agreed, that under certain conditions, spirituality must be incorporated into the current bio-psycho-social approach in the local practice and training of specialist in psychiatry.
Understanding of Spirituality: Implications for Psychotherapy
1993
Susman who served on the thesis committee and provided thorough suggestions. A special appreciation to my parents, John and Ellie Mack, who have instilled the values that have made the completion of this thesis possible. Specifically, thanks to my father for modeling the values of hard work, committment and honesty. Thank you to my mother, for encouraging me to listen attentively to my own creative inner voice. Most important, thanks be to God, for the strength, courage and resilience to believe in myself and in humanity.
2008
The authors present a theoretical and visual taxonomy of the possible relationships that can exist between the domains of psychology and spirituality. These focus on the context of spiritually oriented counseling and psychotherapy with the aim of further developing this field as an academic discipline and clinical specialty. Attention is paid to how Individual Psychology fits the taxonomy. For spiritually oriented counseling and psychotherapy to develop and become a respected academic discipline and clinical specialty, theorists will, of necessity, need to specify its basic philosophical premises and to validate empirically its premises, constructs, and methods. For such theoretical and clinical developments to occur, the basic relationship between the psychological domain and the spiritual domain needs to be articulated and validated. This article is an initial attempt to specify the nature of the relationship between these two domains coupled with conjecture about where Individual...
ABSTRACT There is a continuing interest in spirituality, a fact that seems to fly in the face of claims that UK society is becoming more secularized. Although there has been increased interest and research in spirituality in counselling, there is little specifically concerned with psychodynamic counselling. This thesis argues that incorporating spirituality into psychodynamic practice, in response to client demand, may be harder than for many other counselling approaches. This is because of its roots in psychoanalysis, a field that has been consistently resistant to validating the spiritual dimension. This study explores how counsellors understand spirituality within the theoretical framework of psychodynamic counselling, and employs a narrative methodology to consider how they understand their attitude to impact on their practice. A key finding of the study is that there is an absence of spirituality within the psychodynamic profession, whose structures and training provides little impetus or encouragement to explore it. This research shows the complexities in working with spirituality and the need to work at the boundaries of practice. Because of the complementary nature of spirituality and psychodynamic counselling, this study demonstrates that spirituality is always a possibility in the work. As a result, the research identifies the need to increase professional discourse, from the start of counsellor training, in an area consistently important to clients, so that understanding can be shared and counselling practice in this area more fully understood.