ABSTRACT

This key text presents an accessible and diverse exploration of spirituality in mental health practice, broadening the definition of spirituality to comprise a variety of transcendent experiences.

Chapters include a brief history of the tensions of spirituality in mental health practice and consider a range of emerging topics, from spirituality among the elderly and energy work (Reiki), to spirituality in addiction recovery, incarceration, and hospice work. The book offers a close examination of the limits of the medical model of care, making a case for a more spiritually sensitive practice. Rich case examples are woven throughout, and the book is paired with podcasts that can be applied across chapters, illuminating the narrative stories and building active listening and teaching skills.

Suitable for students of social work and counseling at master's level, as well as practicing clinicians, Spirituality in Mental Health Practice is an essential text for widening our understanding of how spiritual frameworks can enrich mental health practice.

chapter |12 pages

Introduction

Making the Case for Podcasts

chapter 1|20 pages

A History of Spirituality, Religion, and Social Work

Using the “Circle of Insight” to Challenge, Question, and Create a Framework for Spiritually Sensitive Practice

chapter 2|10 pages

The Spiritual Call to Helping Professions

Job Crafting, Meaning Making, and Field Work as Spiritual Experience

chapter 4|14 pages

Radical Empathy, the Thin Place

Hearing Voices in Psycho-Spiritual Group Therapy

chapter 5|23 pages

Pulling Yourself Up By Your Bootstraps

Transcending the Stories of the Ego

chapter 6|20 pages

A Power Greater

Exploring Spirituality in Addiction Recovery

chapter 8|14 pages

When Life Review Is Not Enough

The Spiritual Present(ce) of Older Adults

chapter 9|31 pages

The Asana of Being with Living and Dying

Reflections from a Day of Hospice Work