ABSTRACT
This chapter shows how psychospiritual theory and practice from the Sufi and Islamic spiritual traditions can inform a person's psychological healing and soul journey. It begins with history and background, including the relation between "traditional" Islamic healing and Sufism. The chapter proceeds to introduce Sufi and Islamic personality theory via the best-known component of its psychology: Sufi stories and poetry. It discusses in detail the view of the soul in Sufi and Islamic psychology as a multilayered, multifaceted reality, more akin to a community than an individual. The chapter then examines practical psychotherapeutic techniques used by Sufi teachers in various lineages, including breathing, body awareness, sound, music, and movement. Many Sufi practitioners also practice psychotherapy or somatic therapy without any overt disclosure that they are engaging in "Sufi" psychology. The chapter mentions recent efforts to merge traditional Sufi and Islamic personality theory with various Western psychotherapeutic approaches and models of holistic health.
