Trauma can impact people not only psychologically, socially, and physically, but spiritually as well. Recent clinical research has shown that psychotherapists working with traumatized clients can foster better outcomes if they exercise sensitivity to their clients' spiritual needs. This book addresses a wide range of different client presenting problems, with a specific focus on relational forms of trauma, such as sexual abuse, partner violence, and other familial forms of trauma. It includes case studies that highlight how to assess and help clients process these and other types of trauma, including war and natural disasters. The case studies illustrate multiple facets of spirituality rather than explaining it as merely a source of anxiety reduction, social connectedness, or control. Readers will learn how to differentiate between healthy and unhealthy forms of spirituality, and how to apply spiritually-oriented practices within their own setting, theoretical framework, and unique client populations. They will also learn how to work with the ethical challenges and dilemmas trauma treatment can pose to the therapist's competence and world view. Recent years have brought broader awareness and openness to talking about child abuse and other traumatic life events. Survivors of these events often experience spiritual struggles in the course of healing; likewise, in helping clients process trauma, therapists too may come to question why evil exists or why so many people suffer. This book offers practical and reassuring guidance for performing therapy in these situations.

A survey of how spirituality can be incorporated into a range of psychotherapeutic approaches, including psychoanalytic, cognitive-behavioral, humanistic, interpersonal, transpersonal, and others.

From a leading researcher and practitioner, this volume provides an innovative framework for understanding the role of spirituality in people's lives and its relevance to the work done in psychotherapy. It offers fresh, practical ideas for creating a spiritual dialogue with clients, assessing spirituality as a part of their problems and solutions, and helping them draw on spiritual resources in times of stress. Written from a nonsectarian perspective, the book encompasses both traditional and nontraditional forms of spirituality. It is grounded in current findings from psychotherapy research and the psychology of religion, and includes a wealth of evocative case material.

Trauma represents a spiritual or religious violation for many survivors. This book describes how to promote healthy healing and meaning-making in clients with a history of trauma.

In this book, therapists are urged to take into account the existence of spiritual aspects of personality, both in terms of making proper assessments and more focused treatment plans for people under their care. Although addressing itself chiefly to art therapists, the thrust of the text is an attempt to sensitize all clinical practitioners to the spiritual dimensions of therapy. By drawing on sources in the literature of religion, psychodynamics, systems theory, sociology, art, and ethics, the author lays a foundation for discovering and measuring clients’ spiritual sensibilities and search for personal meaning of their relationship to God. Chapter 1 discusses the evolution of the book and how the author embarked upon the inclusion of the spiritual dimension in assessment and treatment. Chapter 2 reviews the literature that encircles art therapy, mental health, and spirituality and explores its impact. Chapter 3 examines the Belief Art Therapy Assessment (BATA). Chapter 4 highlights the interviews and use of the BATA with clergy, while Chapter 5 explores its use with a “normal” adult artist population. Chapter 6 looks at spiritual art therapy with emotionally disturbed children and youth in residential treatment. Chapter 7 offers a case vignette of spiritual art therapy with a suicidal anorectic bulimic. Chapter 8 summarizes the author’s position and theosophy, while Chapter 9 examines the use of phototherapy as a means to investigate mourning and loss issues. The final chapter explores humankind’s search for inner and outer meaning after the tragedy of September 11. In addition to art therapists, this unique book will be useful to mental health workers, social workers, educational therapists, pastoral counselors, psychologists, psychiatrists, and other creative arts therapists.

The authors argue that when psychotherapists diagnose and assess their clients, they should routinely assess the religious and spiritual values of their clients to obtain a fuller and more accurate diagnostic picture. This book is the first to provide guidance for integrating a theistic spiritual strategy into mainstream approaches to psychotherapy in order to reach a large, underserved population of clients with religious and spiritual beliefs.

This book presents guidance for integrating spiritual interventions into psychotherapy with children and their families. Case studies are included, and ethical issues are given special consideration.