Spirituality in Psychotherapy : How Do Psychotherapists Understand, Navigate, Experience and Integrate Spirituality in Their Professional Encounters with Clients? / Amalia E. M. Carli.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Carli, Amalia E. M., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Psychotherapy--Religious aspects.

Psychotherapy.

Spirituality--Psychology.

Spirituality.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (332 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Leiden, Netherlands : Sidestone Press, [2020]

Summary:

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.

Contents:

Intro

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

ABSTRACTS

INTRODUCTION - RATIONALE AND CONTEXTUALIZATION

Starting this journey

Theories underpinning this dissertation

Situating this dissertation within a historical and professional context

Qualitative methodology and methods of data generation

Values and personal experiences that inform my work

Blurring borders of schools of psychotherapy thought

Writing from the margins

An invitation into a pilgrimage

Approaching the literature on the subject matter

SPIRITUALITY AND RELATED CONSTRUCTS

Religion: rebinding with a higher dimension

Spirituality, religiosity and religiousness

The Evolution of Spirituality as a construct

HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES on SPIRITUALITY AND PSYCHOTHERAPY

Spirituality and Mental Health: a contextualization

Acknowledging the spiritual: Carl Gustav Jung

Jung and Alcoholics Anonymous

Jung excluded from academia

A non material paradigm in science

Changes of paradigm are demanding

A non material paradigm and spirituality in clinical practice

A SPIRITUAL REAWAKENING

Research on religion, spirituality and mental health

Some psychotherapy approaches integrating spirituality

Addressing negative religious and spiritual experiences

Therapists' attitudes influence clinical work

THEORETICAL INFLUENCES

A bricolage approach to qualitative inquiry

Metatheories - theories on what research is about

Towards a postmaterialist view of science

Postmodern perspectives

METHODOLOGY AND METHODS

An overview of the research design: Crotty's model

Choosing a qualitative research methodology

Methods

Research as an invitation

Approaching the interview situation

DATA ANALYSIS, QUALITY STANDARDS AND ETHICAL ISSUES

The analysis process

Choosing Thematic Analysis

The Coding Process.

Addressing quality criteria in this inquiry

Addressing external parallel criteria of quality

Addressing intrinsic standards of trustworthiness

Ethical concerns

My influences on this inquiry

FINDINGS-UNDERSTANDING SPIRITUALITY

The Participants' understanding of Spirituality

Integrating different spiritual perspectives

Feeling of "Awe" and wonder

"Old Times" spirituality

Space for new spiritual expressions

An individual, non-religious search

Spirituality: fluid and evolving

Spirit is dynamic and can respond

Jesus: a spiritual and therapeutic inspiration

Integrating different spiritual worldviews

FINDINGS - NAVIGATING THE SPIRITUAL

Spiritual approaches and the therapist's orientation

Addressing the formless level: Time Therapy

The therapist introduces spiritual themes

Spiritual translations

Clients in conflict with their family's worldviews

Spiritual needs come from soul, not culture

Therapist's self-disclosure-or not?

FINDINGS - INTEGRATING SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCES

Giving words to nonverbal experiences

Getting help from spiritual guides

Personal and professional growth

The impact of the spiritually charged interactions on the therapist

Personal experiences influencing the therapists' spirituality

The therapists' own spiritual practices

The call to become a therapist

Signs of a paradigm shift

An array of intervention forms

DISCUSSION - UNDERSTANDING SPIRITUALITY

Spirituality difficult to define

Increasingly secularized societies

DISCUSSION - NAVIGATING SPIRITUAL ISSUES IN SESSIONS

A bricolage of interventions

A globalized, non-local psychotherapy culture

Openness to a spirituality within psychotherapy

Jung inspired understanding

Integrating interventions

A convergence with postmodern psychotherapy approaches.

DISCUSSION - INTEGRATING SPIRITUALITY and CRITICAL REMARKS

Experiencing and integrating spirituality

Critical perspectives and power issues

Reflections about the participants' contributions

An autoethnographic reflection

PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS and EVALUATION of the INQUIRY

Co-constructing an understanding of spirituality

Suggestions for practice

Learning from this study

Experiencing Social Construction

Main premises suggested to consider in psychotherapy

Addressing spirituality in generative ways

Limitations of this study

E-valuation of the dissertation work

BIBLIOGRAPHY

APPENDICES

Blank Page.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN:

9789088909344

9088909342

OCLC:

1228032788