Spiritual Competency in Psychotherapy

Historically, mental health clinicians were trained to refer clients’ spiritual issues to pastoral professionals. However, the current requirement for competence with diverse cultural concerns in counseling and psychotherapy may include those of a religious nature. This book helps therapists and counselors gain competence in working with clients who are dealing with spiritual issues in their lives. It offers counselors and psychotherapists who lack experience or comfort in dealing with spiritual issues ways of understanding the nature of spirituality. The book is divided into three parts. Part I orients clinicians to respectfully help clients who have spiritual and religious issues. It provides basic information about Western and Eastern spiritual worldviews and provides a basic framework for competently addressing spiritual issues for clients of any faith. Part II of the book discusses four ways in which spirituality can inform psychotherapy, spiritual work in the context of a therapeutic relationship, in the context of a complex situation, in the interpretation of experience, and in the movement to behavior enactment. In Part III, the book addresses specific issues therapists may encounter such as the issue of truth, clients’ uncertainties in faith, struggles with oppressively rigid faith communities, grief and loss, and abuse at the hands of religious community leaders. Specific recommendations for providing therapeutic help as well as case examples drawn from actual practice provide practical guidelines for enhancing spiritual competency in psychotherapy.