The antipathy between psychology and spirituality is longstanding. Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, characterized religion as a “mass hoax.” Such attitudes have recently softened as scientific evidence for the health benefits of practices such as prayer and meditation mounts. But mistrust persists.
“There is a religiosity gap between psychologists and the general population,” said David Lukoff, a clinical psychologist. Although mental health professionals are often uncomfortable with the topic, in which they have little personal experience, more than half of patients are interested in spiritually integrated therapy.
That can be a challenge. Only a quarter of psychologists and psychiatrists have received training in meeting clients’ spiritual needs, according to Lukoff, who recently helped develop a program to promote “spiritual competition” for therapists, which includes classes on mindfulness, self-compassion, forgiveness, and mystical experience. He says that spiritual techniques can be especially helpful when people are dealing with deep existential questions.
“When people moan and say, ‘God, why are you doing this to me? Why is there suffering in the world? What is the meaning and purpose of life?’—that is not a psychological problem. It is a spiritual struggle,” said Eric J. Hall, a Presbyterian minister and president of HealthCare Chaplaincy Network, a nonprofit chaplaincy service that works in hospitals and other health care settings.
Our spiritual struggles can lead to tremendous personal growth, Reverend Hall observed. “But when the struggle deepens without the ability to process it, people’s health often deteriorates.”
Research shows that spiritual distress increases rates of heart disease and other ailments, as well as anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts, he said.
Major health care organizations have taken note. A new diagnostic category, “Religious or Spiritual Problem,” was added to the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association) in 1994. In 2016, the American Medical Association advised that physicians should provide a spiritual care plan as part of their treatment for patients.
Spiritual care does not mean solving someone’s problems for them, russell siler jonesexplained the director of the CareNet/Wake Forest Baptist Health psychotherapy residency. “You don’t need to have the answers, just be willing to join the people in the fight,” he said.
Jones, a Baptist minister, often asks those who come to him for therapy, ‘Where do you get your strength? What gives you hope? “With religious clients, he can ask them to talk about their prayer life or ask when they feel most connected to God.
For many, however, their spirituality may have little to do with organized religion, he noted.
Kenneth Parliament, an emeritus professor of psychology at Bowling Green State University who continues to actively research the connection between spirituality and health, recalls working with a man who was not a religious believer. “I was feeling pretty frustrated,” Pargament said. “I was deeply depressed. I couldn’t find a way to generate any kind of spark or excitement in his life.” He then asked Joe if he had ever been just happy to be alive.
“Joe lit up. He told me that he had been a jet pilot. He said, ‘man, when you cut the sky with that thing, you can touch the face of God!’ Pargament recalled. “We talked about what it was like to fly and the skills involved and how he could use those skills in his life to become more assertive, more of a take-charge kind of person. The therapy was about putting him back, literally and figuratively, in the cockpit of his life.”
Another client suffered from advanced HIV/AIDS. Feeling despondent, she considered not undergoing kidney dialysis as a way to die. Pargament suggested another option. “You have lost a lot,” she said, “but you can still have sacred moments in your life by being with your loved ones and helping others.”
Ultimately, she decided to go on dialysis and became, Pargament said, “a wonderful patient advocate for others at the rehab center, laughing with them, helping them and feeding them.” She lived for three more years with a renewed sense of spiritual purpose.
“We’re not just shaped by our genetics or our broader environment,” Pargament explained. “We are also goal-directed creatures searching for deep meaning and purpose in our lives.”
“The term ‘spiritual’ is often associated with religion, but I don’t use it that way,” explained Steve Taylor, professor of psychology at Leeds Beckett University in the UK. “Spiritual awakening is simply a shift to a more expansive state of consciousness.” Many people are experiencing this change today, he said, but added that it can be disorienting to adjust to a radically new outlook on life.
The first step in spiritual therapy, says Taylor, is for clients who are opening to their highest possibilities to know that they are going through a natural process and that they are not going crazy. “I really don’t think therapists need to do much,” she said. “Once a person understands and accepts himself, his spirituality will take care of itself.”
