Spiritually Integrated Psychotherapy: Understanding and Addressing the Sacred

Kudos! In the best tradition of William James, Pargament highlights the role of spirituality in the lives of clients and psychotherapists and critically examines the assessment and treatment implications. Drawing on research and clinical examples, he describes important and often overlooked ways that attention to spirituality can be integrated into psychotherapy. This book should be of interest to both the novice and seasoned psychotherapist, and will also challenge practitioners and educators in other domains to consider when and how to address issues of spirituality. This is an important book that should stimulate much debate. --Donald Meichenbaum, PhD, Department of Psychology (Emeritus), University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

From one of our foremost thinkers in psychology and religion, this book provides an up-to-the minute, spiritually informed approach to helping people. The strength of the book is its general applicability for most clients who are spiritually attuned. It is the best available resource of its kind for practicing therapists, and would be a great supplemental text for psychotherapy courses. Easy reading--brilliant thinking. --Everett L. Worthington, Jr., PhD, Department of Psychology, Virginia Commonwealth University

A remarkable combination of clinical acumen and spiritual sensitivity--there is nothing like it in the literature. This book is clearly the work of a mature clinician with a wide range of experiences to draw upon. It offers a wonderful balance of the theoretical and the practical, is genuinely ecumenical and open in its orientation, and is approachable by members of any religious community (or no religious community). Psychotherapists of all persuasions will welcome this book, and it would be an ideal text for any course in spirituality and psychotherapy or pastoral counseling. --James W. Jones, PsyD, PhD, Department of Religion, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

Exceptional. Pargament offers a sweeping, well-balanced view of spirituality from a clinical perspective, without reducing spirituality to psychology. Through a clear command of existing theory and research, compelling clinical vignettes, wonderful quotations, practical recommendations, and his own gracious therapeutic attitude, Pargament gently reminds the reader that spirituality is a legitimate--often pivotal--dimension of clinical practice. He has 'done the work' for the rest of us who may wonder how to address spirituality within a professional context. Clinicians at all levels of experience will grow by reading, and rereading, this book. --Christopher K. Germer, PhD, private practice, Cambridge, Massachusetts

What is spirituality, as distinct from religiousness? What is its impact on our lives? Are there psychological approaches that incorporate the client's spiritual values and yearnings? Are these approaches effective? Free of jargon and accessible to all mental health professionals, this volume speaks with clarity, sympathy, and wisdom that make it hard to put down. As a therapist, Pargament interweaves the text with delightful clinical vignettes; as a researcher, he explains the studies on spirituality in everyday life and in therapy in a most compelling way. This book is a wake-up call to the mental health profession. --David Greenberg, MD, Department of Psychiatry, Herzog Hospital, and Faculty of Medicine, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel

This is a book for psychotherapists who take spirituality seriously--their own and that of their clients--and who want to include it in their scope of practice as helpers. In clear prose and with many illustrative case examples, Pargament addresses practical issues of providing spiritually integrated therapy and counseling. He cogently argues that spirituality cannot truly be separated from psychotherapy; to practice without considering this vital dimension of human nature is to risk missing, misunderstanding, and mishandling fundamental struggles of the inner life. --William R. Miller, PhD, Departments of Psychology and Psychiatry, (Emeritus), University of New Mexico