A spiritual strategy for counseling and psychotherapy.Spiritual Interventions Used by Contemporary Psychotherapists.

Abstract

In this chapter we describe and give specific examples of how therapists have adapted or applied the religious and spiritual practices described in chapter 9 to the psychotherapy situation. Some spiritual practices are used in therapy in the same way that they might be used by religious leaders in religious settings (e.g., encouraging clients to pray for guidance in overcoming their problems). Other theistic spiritual practices have been adapted or partially integrated with secular concepts or techniques so that the practice is used in therapy somewhat differently from how it typically would be practiced within the religious community (e.g., asking clients to read specific spiritual literature to challenge and modify their irrational cognitions). Ultimately, however, most spiritual interventions that have been used in therapy can be traced to some religious or spiritual practice that is advocated by one or more of the world religions. We first describe some of the specific purposes of using a theistic approach. We then review the empirical literature to determine which theistic spiritual interventions therapists have used, how frequently they have used them, and what percentage of therapists use them. We discuss several schemes for classifying theistic spiritual interventions and briefly describe a number of them specifically. We also briefly discuss how these techniques have been used with different theoretical orientations, treatment modalities, clinical issues, and special populations. We discuss when spiritual methods are contraindicated, and then we offer some general process suggestions. We conclude by briefly discussing research concerning the efficacy of theistic spiritual interventions and treatment approaches. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)