Spiritually Oriented Psychotherapy

Rating:
Summary: Psychological Approached to Spirituality
Review: Spiritually Oriented Psychotherapy edited by Len Sperry, Edward P. Shafranske (American Psychological Association) Spiritually Oriented Psychotherapy is the first book to critically and coherently survey how spirituality can be incorporated into a range of psychotherapeutic approaches, including psychoanalytic, cognitive-behavioral, humanistic, interpersonal, transpersonal, and others. Volume editors Len Sperry and Edward P. Shafranske, both well recognized as outstanding scholars, bring together a stellar group of contributors to describe the theoretical and clinical basis for their approaches and to illustrate their clinical application. A uniform structure across chapters and an integrative final chapter allow for easy comparison of the approaches. The volume editors examine current and future issues as well as the legacy of the psychoanalytic and Jungian foundations of spiritually oriented psychotherapy. This volume demonstrates the utility and accessibility of examining the spiritual dimension in therapy. It is likely to become a vital resource for the experienced clinician and the standard text for graduate programs in clinical, counseling, and consulting psychology and clinical social work.
Excerpt: Our basic intention in compiling this book was to invite creators or prominent advocates of the best known and regarded spiritually oriented psy¬chotherapeutic approaches to share both the theoretical model on which their approaches were based and compelling case material to illustrate these approaches. Our primary goal was to make this book as reader-friendly as an edited textbook can be. To this end, we charged contributors with present¬ing their approaches in an engaging style and follow a consistent framework to foster the reader's journey within and across chapters. To assist readers in comparing and analyzing the difference among these approaches, we believed that a separate chapter should provide a side-by-side, point-by-point com¬parisons of these major approaches. We also believed that it was important not only to situate the trend toward spiritually oriented psychotherapies in its historical context but also to provide the reader with some sense of the future context, that is, theoretical and clinical developments, opportunities, and challenges. The book consists of three parts that are briefly described here.
Part I, "Theoretical Foundations," introduces the reader to the basic issues involving the integration of spirituality in psychotherapeutic practice. The first chapter addresses the spiritual dimension and its implications for psychotherapy, and chapters 2 and 3 delineate the foundations of spiritually oriented psychotherapy as they evolved from psychoanalysis and Jungian-archetypal analysis.
Part II, "Contemporary Approaches," describes and illustrates 10 con-temporary approaches to spiritually oriented psychotherapy: psychoanalytic, cognitive-behavioral, existential-humanistic, interpersonal, transpersonal, experiential focusing, forgiveness, theistic, soul care-spiritual direction, and integrative. The structure of each of the chapters in Part II follows a com¬mon outline. As noted earlier, a common outline structures the description and illustrative case material so that the reader can more easily follow and compare the various approaches. Each approach provides the following theo¬retical information: The historical and theoretical basis of the approach in¬cludes a description of both the historical circumstances and the professional(s) who created to the approach, as well as the main theoretical constructs that undergird it. The nature of the relationship between psycho-therapy and spirituality is then explained and articulated with regard to its clinical implications. The therapist's skills and attributes necessary for effec¬tively utilizing the approach are then discussed. Indicated are the profes¬sional requisites in terms of skills, training, and experience, as well as the personal attributes that a therapist should possess to utilize the approach effectively. Next, the strengths and limitations of the approach are briefly addressed, including theoretical and practical strengths and weaknesses and the appeal of the approach for certain groups of psychologists and therapists.
The indications and contraindications for the use of the approach are then addressed-specifically, which diagnostic conditions and spiritual and reli¬gious issues are most appropriate and effectively addressed by this approach, and which are less appropriate. Next, cultural and gender considerations that may affect the therapeutic process are briefly considered, particularly those that might influence therapeutic process and outcome. Finally, future devel¬opments and directions of the approach are briefly noted. These include theo¬retical and research developments, as well as cultural trends, that are antici¬pated to affect the approach in the near future. Some approaches have considerably more empirical support than others, and this is not surprising given that some approaches are relatively new. A revised edition could con¬ceivably update both theoretical and empirical developments.
Each approach provides the following clinical information in terms of an extensive case example that illustrates its clinical application: The case begins with client demographics, history, and presenting concern. This section describes relevant client data (i.e., gender, age, religious history and upbringing, current affiliation, spiritual practices, level of devoutness and orthodoxy), relevant client history (i.e., family, social, physical health history), and presenting client problem(s) and concern(s). Next, the relation-ship of therapist and client is discussed. This includes the nature of the thera¬peutic relationship (i.e., the therapist and client as collaborators, the therapist as expert and the client as learner, the therapist as spiritual director and the client as directee, the therapist and client as fellow travelers on the spiritual journey). Because of its importance in the therapeutic process, assessment is then considered. The rationale for assessment are discussed (i.e., how it relates to the basic constructs of the approach, the assessment process and methods, and the type of personality and psychological, diagnostic, and reli¬gious and spiritual history and information collected). This may include a formal spiritual assessment with inquires about the client's spiritual beliefs and spiritual practices or disciplines. Next is the diagnostic and clinical case conceptualization section, which provides a summary of the diagnostic for¬mulation, usually in terms of DSM-IV Axes I and II, as well as a clinical conceptualization or formulation that provides an explanation for how the presenting problem or concern relates, or may relate, to the client's religious background and spiritual factors in the client and his or her context. Then the treatment goals, process, and intervention strategies of the case are noted, indicating specific goals and objectives as well as psychological and spiritual interventions for attaining those goals. This is followed by a timeline of the course of treatment and frequency and duration of sessions. Here the typi¬cal duration of treatment for this approach and the expected frequency and duration of sessions are indicated. Next is a discussion of termination and relapse prevention, which describes indicators for termination and the process of terminating treatment. If relapse prevention is integral to a given approach, it is briefly described in this section. Finally, therapeutic out-
comes: immediate and long term are discussed (i.e., the extent to which treatment goals were achieved in this particular case, as well as the client's overall level of spiritual and psychological functioning, at 6 and 12 months following termination).
The 10 approaches described in Part II are applicable to the majority of North American and European readers. We are not suggesting that these represent all possible spiritual approaches to psychotherapy, and we recog¬nize that contributing authors have presented case examples that do not rep-resent the full scale of diversity at this time. It would be our intent to include additional and more diverse approaches in a revised edition.
Part III, "Commentary and Critical Analysis," contains the final two chapters. The first is a comparative analysis that includes a detailed side-by-side comparison of the 10 approaches along with narrative commentary. The second addresses future directions in spiritually oriented psychotherapy and speculates on various theoretical and clinical developments as well as issues such as training, scope of practice, and related ethical and praxis issues.