A spiritual strategy for counseling and psychotherapy.Religious and Spiritual Practices as Therapeutic Interventions.
Abstract
What religiously oriented psychotherapists often refer to as spiritual interventions are actually practices, traditions, or rituals that religious believers have been engaged in for centuries (e.g., prayer, meditation, scripture reading, repentance, forgiveness). In this chapter, we describe a number of such practices that have therapeutic potential in ecumenical therapy and across a variety of denominational situations. We also offer some clinical suggestions for implementing these practices appropriately in therapy. These practices have endured because, in different ways, they express and respond to people's deepest needs, concerns, and problems. Research indicates that there is significant healing power in some of them (e.g., H. Benson, 1996; Borysenko & Borysenko, 1994; Krippner & Welch, 1992; W.R. Miller & Martin, 1988). We briefly discuss this evidence in the sections that follow. Spiritual practices can be used as adjunctive interventions in therapy to assist clients in their efforts to cope, heal, and grow. In chapter 10, we describe and provide specific examples of how therapists have applied these practices in therapy. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)