Search Results for: Spirituality

THE SPIRITUAL HEALING HANDBOOK is the ideal companion to Jack Angelo’s bestselling instructional book Your Healing Power. Drawing on their healing work and teaching experiences, Jack and Jan Angelo provide much-needed, step-by-step advice and guidance on the spiritual aspect of healing.

* Explains the basics of spiritual healing * Provides step-by-step exercises to help you to develop more powerful and rewarding healing techniques * Gives guidance on how breathing, meditation, the etheric body, chakras, intuition and psychic awareness will help you channel healing energies * Includes advice on self-healing and working as a healer.

Based on the extensive experience of two highly regarded healers and teachers, THE SPIRITUAL HEALING HANDBOOK will help you to achieve a new level of insight and understanding.

Elfie Hinterkopf describes the Experiential Focusing Method, a model to help clients work through religious and spiritual problems, deepen existing spiritual experiences, and bring about new, life-giving connections to spirituality. Focusing can be used in conjunction with any psychotherapeutic model and is an essential part of any mental health professional or counselor’s repertoire.

Through Focusing, the client learns to examine subtle, but concrete, bodily feelings that are a vital part of spiritual discovery and growth. Hinterkopf describes the Six Focusing Steps and illustrates the attitudes crucial to the Focusing process (receptive, expectant, patient, and accepting) with case examples, revealing how they help facilitate spiritual development. She also discusses how counselors can use Focusing to explore their own spirituality and outlines special considerations to ensure that sessions suit the individual client’s religious tradition or spiritual orientation.

In THE POWER OF MODERN SPIRITUALITY, William Bloom identifies for the first time the core strategies found at the heart of all spiritual traditions and explains how everyone – regardless of background, beliefs or personality type – can develop them and immediately put them into practice. He structures his book around the key areas of connection, reflection and service, showing us how to recognise and develop these aspects of ourselves in the context of today’s challenges and crises so that we gain greater meaning and purpose in our lives.

Written in a lively, intelligent and inspiring style, and drawn from Bloom’s popular courses and workshops, it will help you to go more deeply into yourself and develop a greater sense of personal integrity, inner strength, a stronger connection with friends, family and colleagues, an increased sense of personal joy and of being in the driving seat of your life, and much more.

What would it take to bring a little bit of modern magic into your everyday life? In How to be a Spiritual Goddess, Stephanie Brookes demystifies modern spirituality and reveals the first steps to understanding what it can do for you. No crystal ball required! Full of fresh ideas, this essential guide helps you discover exciting new ways to connect to the world around you and to discover your own inner confidence. We are all born with an inherent psychic ability and each chapter contains handy ‘how to’ exercises to help you instantly incorporate spiritual practices into your life with the ease of putting together a brand new wardrobe – simply find a fun, perfect fit that is uniquely right for you.
From aura reading and stress-busting meditation techniques, to consulting your spirit guide or finding your soul mate – Stephanie will help you become spiritually savvy and equip you to survive in today’s ‘material’ world. After all, spirituality often has to be fitted in between a work deadline, a date and shopping with friends! And that’s exactly the way it should be.

Positive shifts in attitudes mean that emphasis is now being placed on the person with dementia and their personal relationships, rather than the illness. There is also growing recognition of the significance of a person’s spiritual life in forming an essential basis for their sense of identity, and in providing them with a resource for coping.

Offering an inter-disciplinary approach to spirituality and personhood in dementia care, the contributors to this book are leading practitioners and researchers in the field. They provide both a theoretical structure and a practical understanding of the essential role that spirituality can play in the affirmation of personhood and identity, and of ways in which the spiritual well-being of people with dementia can be nurtured. This thought-provoking book includes chapters approaching the subject from Christian and Buddhist perspectives, discussion of inter-faith relations, and of what spirituality might mean for those not part of any faith tradition.

This will be valuable reading for nurses, care workers, care commissioners and pastoral support professionals interested in a more holistic and contemplative approach to caring for people with dementia.

These diverse case studies make a compelling case for the importance of effective spiritual care in healthcare and provide unprecedented insight into the essential role of the chaplain within the healthcare team. Presented alongside critical reflections and responses from professionals within chaplaincy, psychology, psychiatry and nursing, they provide an honest and detailed look into how healthcare chaplains actually work with the people in their care and reveal the vital role of narrative and imagination in effective transformative practice.

From a 16-year-old with a belief that God would enable a miraculous recovery from paralysis, to an African man with a history of psychosis and depression whose cultural belief in witches complicated his treatment, to a dying Jewish man, aggressive and isolated due to his traumatic life experiences, each case includes insight into the patient’s needs and chaplain’s perspectives, discussion of spiritual assessments and spiritual care interventions, and accounts of significant encounters and dialogues.

The nine paediatric, psychiatric and palliative case studies and reflections in this ground-breaking book will enable chaplains to critically reflect on the spiritual care they provide and communicate their work more effectively, help healthcare professionals develop a clearer understanding of the care chaplains deliver, and provide an informed perspective for those who develop policy around spiritual care and need to make the case for chaplaincy services.

Don’t let fear stand in the way of experiencing your authentic self. In this courageous, non-dogmatic guide, spiritual rebel and internationally renowned teacher Jac O’Keeffe offers the keys to moving beyond the limited perceptions you have about yourself and toward boundless, fearless freedom.

Do you ever feel flawed, anxious, or afraid-like something might be wrong, but you’re not sure what? The truth is, we all feel that way sometimes (or even most of the time!). We’re trapped by a limited sense of self, held back by our own anxieties, fears, and compulsions. Mindfulness can offer intermittent relief from these contrived narratives, showing us how to be present, open, and available in the moment by observing our thoughts and feelings. This is all wonderful-until the fears and doubts rush back in.

How to Be a Spiritual Rebel offers more than simple mindfulness. Drawing on spiritual practices and recent findings in neuroscience, this groundbreaking guide will help you examine the psychological barriers that block your spiritual growth and keep you from embracing true liberation. You’ll learn to cultivate courage, view your thoughts and feelings without letting them define you, and find guidance and support as you navigate the route to boundless freedom without fear or self-limiting attachments.

If you’re ready to take mindfulness-and spirituality-to the next level and experience true freedom and fulfilment, this candid, entertaining, and jargon-free guide will help point the way.

Challenging an exclusively medical approach to mental health and illness, this book considers the impact psychiatric drugs can have on spirituality.

In the last thirty years, a dramatic rise in medication as a treatment for mental illness has occurred in tandem with increasing numbers of people entering treatment with a spiritually-oriented understanding of their suffering. The unforeseen result is that some people taking psychiatric drugs are engaging with them in ways that can have a profound impact on the course and outcome of treatment. Based on interviews with people on psychiatric medication who regard spirituality as significant in their lives, this book reveals how medication can be perceived as both helpful and harmful to spirituality.

The author argues that spirituality must be considered in debates around psychopharmacology.

Would you like to learn how spiritual energies influence your life?

Are you interested in natural healing methods to boost your emotional and physical well-being?

Do you wish you could feel more in tune with the world around you?

Discover how to embrace natural and vibrational energies with this beginner’s guide to spiritual healing. Exploring the fascinating history behind holistic healing techniques, and providing practical advice for trying them yourself, this book will teach you how to achieve true balance in your life.

– Develop an understanding of energies in the universe
– Explore natural healing methods
– Cultivate your own spiritual practice

Reflecting the increasing recognition of the importance of the spiritual in healing, Spirituality and Art Therapy is an exciting exploration of the different ways in which the spiritual forms an essential, life-enhancing component of a well-rounded therapeutic approach. The contributors are leading art therapists who write from diverse perspectives, including Christian, Jewish, Buddhist and shamanic. They explain how their own spiritual and creative influences interact, finding expression in the use of art as a healing agent with specific populations, such as bereaved children, emotionally disturbed adolescents, and the homeless. The relationships between spirituality and visual art, art therapy and transpersonal psychology are examined. Story and image are interwoven in the spiritual journeys of therapists and clients, and suggested creative exercises make this an accessible, practical resource for those who desire to understand and execute an holistic method of therapy. Arguing that art therapists can mediate between the sacred and the mundane, this pioneering book is an affirmation of the transformative power of art therapy.

‘If you only ever read one spiritual book, let is be this one’ Susan Jeffers, author of Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway

‘A kaleidoscope of inspiration‘ The Watkins Review

50 Spiritual Classics captures the diversity of life journeys that span centuries, continents, spiritual traditions and secular beliefs: from the historical The Book of Chuang Tzu to modern insight from the Kabbalah, from Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet to Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

This one-of-a-kind collection includes personal memoirs and complelling biographies of Gandhi to Malcolm X and Black Elk; Eastern philosophers and gurus including Krishnamurti, Yogananda, Chogyam Trungpa and Shunryu Suzuki; and Western saints and mystics such as St. Frances of Assisi, Hermann Hesse and Simone Weil.

Many people experience Christianity as a system of belief, focused on an exclusive Supreme Being who favours some and rejects others, and is defended by a set of change-averse, self-protecting institutions. In The Great Spiritual Migration, Brian McLaren proposes that this conventional understanding of Christianity is ripe for a conversion: from system of belief to way of life, from exclusive Supreme Being to the loving, healing, reconciling Spirit embodied in Jesus, and from an organised institutional religion that supports an unjust status quo to an organising movement-building religion that helps a better world be born.

Drawing from his work as a pastor, speaker, ecumenical networker and activist, McLaren issues a call and offers a plan for radical change that can shift the direction of Christian faith to be more in sync with its founder, more life-giving for individual Christians and congregations – and more of a life-giving resource for the whole world.

In this pioneering book Rupert Sheldrake shows how science helps validate seven practices on which all religions are built, and which are part of our common human heritage:

· Meditation
· Gratitude
· Connecting with nature
· Relating to plants
· Rituals
· Singing and chanting
· Pilgrimage and holy places.

The effects of spiritual practices are now being investigated scientifically as never before, and many studies have shown that religious and spiritual practices generally make people happier and healthier.
Rupert Sheldrake summarizes the latest scientific research on what happens when we take part in these practices, and suggests ways that readers can explore these fields for themselves. For those who are religious, Science and Spiritual Practices will illuminate the evolutionary origins of their own traditions and give a new appreciation of their power. For the non-religious, this book will show how the core practices of spirituality are accessible to all, even if they do not subscribe to a religious belief system.

This is a book for anyone who suspects that in the drive towards radical secularism, something valuable has been left behind. Rupert Sheldrake believes that by opening ourselves to the spiritual dimension we may find the strength to live more wholesome and fulfilling lives.

In this book, Alexander von Gontard, a child psychiatrist, uses the language, thought and imagery of Buddhism to explore the spirituality of children.

The book begins by exploring the Buddha’s own childhood and the ‘divine child’ in Buddhism, a key archetype in Jungian psychology. The author defines the spirituality and religiosity of children and adolescents and identifies manifestations of spirituality in children, such as experiences of awe and wonder, and favourable conditions for spirituality, such as silence, nature, extreme conditions and mindfulness. Drawing on his own experience working with children in therapeutic practice, von Gontard discusses the parallels between spontaneous spirituality seen in childhood and the Buddha’s teachings.

Revealing how the spiritual insights and experiences of children and adolescents can uncover a deep and wise understanding of human life that is compatible with the Buddha’s teachings, this book will be of particular interest to professionals and academics in psychology, psychiatry, psychotherapy, education and religious studies.

This publication brings together plenary addresses and other papers originally present at the Second International Conference on Ageing, Spirituality and Well-Being. The contributions are compassionate, warm and humane. The book is often insightful, frequently surprising, and can, without hesitation, be recommended as an introductory text to undergraduate nurses who wish to pursue those themes so ably captured by the title.’

– Nursing Philosophy

‘This is a timely book, appearing when those in the medical profession are beginning to accept that the spiritual and religious needs of people, and in particular older people, are important subjects which deserve to be considered when assessing the quality of life of a patient.’

– Signpost

‘I enjoyed reading this book, with its rich explorations and insights into spirituality in later life… It brings together the views of some of the most well known academics, theologians and medical professionals working in this area… This book is beautifully edited, with an ample introduction, biographies of each of the presenters and enough reading references to fill at least a section of a library. Jewell says he hopes it will be a worthy contribution to the ongoing discussion of spirituality and well -being, and in this he undoubtedly succeeds. There are many snapshots of the life stories of older people scattered throughout the book. I will conclude with the comment of a woman with dementia to her occupational therapist after an art activity: “We have been on a wonderful journey, you and I. What fun we have had, laughing and singing. Holding a rainbow in our hands”.’

– Journal of Dementia Care

‘It should be required reading for EVERY pastor, carer, visitor, family member’.

-The Expository Times

‘We are told that we live in a society where ageing is often viewed as an embarrassment, suffering and dying a meaningless experience and death a medical failure. The contributors, from medicine, theology and the social sciences, aim to give guidance on how the particular spiritual needs of the elderly can be defined and addressed; and how meaningful care and support can be given.’

– The International Journal of Psychiatric Nursing Research

‘This timely book is an excellent, accessible introduction to the spiritual aspects of ageing and deserves to be widely read by anyone with a pastoral concern. It also offers useful practical insights into our own ageing and suggests ways in which we might approach it creatively and with confidence.’

– Methodist Recorder

‘This collection of essays on the spiritual well-being of older people has something to offer believers and non-believers alike… All the contributors ponder the application of spirituality, either as a part of formal religion or not, to the lives of older people, and conclude that this area of care is fundamental to positive living in the fourth age of life… the essays are a thought-provoking and insightful contribution to the4 provision of hostilic care in old age.

– Community Care

‘This is an interesting and worthwhile book. The writings come from people of disparate professions and experiences and from several continents. We all have a great deal to learn of and from each other’s traditions. I hope it will be read and used widely by church groups as well as professionals “living off the geriatric burden”. There is wonderful material here to help us make something of our awareness that there is more to life than individual material well-being.’

-Dementia Plus Website

How can we promote the enduring well-being of those who are moving into the ‘fourth’ age of life? Ageing, Spirituality and Well-being explores how well-being is not about physical health alone; having purpose in life and continual spiritual growth are vital elements for older individuals. This book provides guidance on how the particular spiritual needs of this age group can be defined and addressed, and how meaningful care and support can be given.

The contributors use their expertise in the fields of medicine, theology and the social sciences to explore ways of overcoming obstacles and finding a balance when dealing with the inner, and inextricably linked outer, lives of elders, including those with dementia or who have had strokes. A collection of diverse views, practical observations and sound advice, this is a thought-provoking resource for all those concerned with the physical, mental and pastoral well-being of older people.

Chaplains in healthcare settings offer patients spiritual care that involves companionship, counselling and maintaining hope. This is particularly important at the point where a patient has run out of treatment possibilities. This book reflects creatively on the work that chaplains do with people who are dying and the unique quality of the relationship that palliative care professionals construct with patients at the end of life.

Based on qualitative research with practising palliative care chaplains, Spiritual Care at the End of Life explores the nature of hope in its different forms at different stages of terminal illness, and asks how chaplains can help dying people to be hopeful even when facing the inevitability of their death. The book identifies key moments in this relationship, from the person’s initial reaction to the chaplain, to the chaplain becoming an accompanying presence and creating the potential to provide comfort, strength and “hope in the present”.

This thoughtful and inquisitive book investigates the underlying theory that spiritual care is rooted in relationship. It has implications for practice in the work of chaplains, counsellors and all healthcare professionals supporting people who are dying.

This sensitive and compassionate book provides older people who are nearing the end of life and their loved ones, as well as the professionals who work with them, with a greater depth of understanding of spiritual issues surrounding death and dying.

Illustrated with the experiences of many older people, it explores important themes such as grief and loss; fear; pain, distress and suffering; acceptance; transcendence; prayer; the healing of relationships; and intimacy, and shows that the final journey towards death can be one of the most spiritually meaningful times in the life of an older person – a time in which there is still hope, and in which the person who is dying and their loved ones can grow spiritually, strengthened by the difficult times they face together. Spiritual issues for older people with dementia who are nearing the end of life are also explored, as are ethical and moral issues in death and dying, and the ways in which bereaved partners and relatives may come to terms with the loss of a loved one.

This concise and accessible book will be a valuable resource for those in the caring professions and a rich source of guidance and support for older people who are nearing the end of life and their families.

Spirituality, religious belief and inclusive faith communities are important for mental well being but mental health practitioners have few guidelines for acknowledging these issues when working with service users.

Spirituality, Values and Mental Health gathers together personal and professional contributions from mental health professionals, carers and mental health service users and survivors. It addresses the stigma that can surround both mental health and spirituality and explores the place of the spiritual in mental health care, teasing out its implications for research, education, training and good practice.

This book is a welcome source of ideas and common-sense that is essential reading for mental health practitioners, carers and service users, chaplains, faith leaders, faith communities, as well as students and professionals working in the field of spirituality and mental health.

This is a very well edited book with a wide range of stimulating contributions. It asks some challenging questions about how far the Health Service is able to embrace a holistic approach to care, given its reductionist tendencies, where systems and structures often override the best interests and sensitivities of individual people. Orchard manages to draw out many key questions for chaplains about the nature of spiritual care and its delivery within the Health Service.’

– Leveson Newsletter

‘Spirituality in Health Care Contexts is a compilation of papers, contributed by a wide and impressive range of authors, each writing from the perspective of their own particular considerable experience and expertise related to this general area. The organization of the book is thoughtfully and thoroughly undertaken by the editor, leading the reader helpfully and progressively through the exploration of the subject. Spirituality in Health Care Contexts is a gem of a book, with something in it for a range of readership, chaplains, nurses, doctors, hospital managers, academics, theology students, indeed everyone whose life in any way touches that of the modern health care institution.’

– Reviews in Religion and Theology

‘This book is written by eminent authors and has an impressive bibliography.’

– Magazine for the Association of Christian Counsellors

‘This book will prick at you, but also push you to grow. It also offers an extensive guide for references that will facilitate further study and discussion.’

– The World Pastoral Care Center Review

‘… it engages theoretically and practically with three areas: 1) the organisational context with which spiritual care is provided, looking at how spirituality is manifested in a health care institution; 2) the work of spiritual care givers, focusing particularly on the development of professional and ethical aspects of practice; and 3) the social-cultural systems in which care is provided, including discussions of issues pertinent to Christian, Jewish, Muslim and “multi-faith” scenarios.’

– Journal of Christian Nursing

‘I enjoyed this short, readable book exploring questions around the spiritual needs of hospital patients (and, briefly, staff). Fourteen chapters are accessibly written by authoritative contributors. Most of them, including the editor, are hospital chaplains, but in writing from different perspectives, they make for an overall sense of informed debate. The book will be stimulating, not only for hospital chaplains, but also for nurses, counsellors, managers, service providers and community spiritual leaders.’

– Healthcare Counselling and Psychotherapy Journal

‘This is a good book, one that takes the important debate in this area on more than a notch or two, and as such is well worth your pennies.’

– Modern Believing

‘This “focus on chaplaincy” is what makes this book particularly important and compelling reading. Every chapter makes a useful contribution to current debates and will be of interest to chaplains. The style throughout is clear and straightforward which should enable other professions to gain insight into these issues.’

– Journal of Interprofessional Care

This much-needed book makes a major contribution to current debates on spiritual care in a health care setting. Written by foremost researchers and practitioners, it engages theoretically and practically with three areas of interest:

* the organisational context in which spiritual care is provided, looking at how spirituality is manifested in a health care institution

* the work of spiritual care givers, focusing particularly on the development of professional and ethical aspects of practice

* the social-cultural systems in which care is provided, including discussion of issues pertinent to Christian, Jewish, Muslim and ‘multi-faith’ scenarios.

This book is an invaluable reflective tool for health care and religious professionals, as well as managers and policy makers seeking to improve the spiritual care of today’s diverse patient populations.

We live in a world of chronic stress and dis-ease, a world of rampant anxiety and depression. If we stay locked onto the horizontal plane of superficial concerns and challenges, we are doomed to feeling deeply unsettled. However, if we intentionally shift our awareness to the vertical plane of life — diving into spiritual depths and rising to transcendent perspectives — we connect with a Spirit that is both beyond and within us.

Chapters Include:

Ch. 1 Awaken

Ch. 2 Connect

Ch. 3 Wonder

Ch. 4 Love

Ch. 5 Trust

Ch. 6 Home

Each chapter offers five specific ‘sacred pause practices’ to instill a habit of first inviting stillness and then weaving a fabric of spiritual experiences. Being intentional in this way, on a daily basis, ultimately makes navigating one’s life a radiant adventure rather than an exhausting race through a dark world.

The Little Book of Spiritual Bliss offers a compendium of simple spiritual practices to help foster connection with the Divine, to cultivate sacred wellbeing, and to increase awareness of being a wave within an ocean of Spirit. Living with this sort of faith underpinning isn’t merely a ‘belief’, it’s an experience.

In two elegant and masterly prefaces, James Weldon Johnson discusses the origin and history of more than 120 of the most significant spirituals known. favourites like “Swing Low Sweet Chariot,” “Deep River,” and “Go Down, Moses” are arranged for voice and piano by his brother, J. Rosamond Johnson, and considered within their African tradition.

The Spiritual Guide to Attracting Love shows you ways to use the Law of Attraction and the wisdom of some of the most ancient spiritual traditions to attract love, helping you to heal past wounds and live a nurturing, joyful life. Containing effective, easily-accomplished love rituals from the East and West, both ancient and contemporary, this book explains how to identify issues from the past and how to heal yourself and move forward. Featuring case studies that demonstrate how others have manifested love in their lives, you’ll learn how to use the Law of Attraction to attract the right partner for you.

Written by significant researchers and practitioners within the field, this unique collection of key texts introduces the reader to practical theology. It critically explores the way in which the spiritual dimension of pastoral care has entered into constructive dialogue with other disciplines and ways of thinking, including: psychiatry, psychology, counselling, intercultural studies, educational methodology, narrative theory and political studies.

Set within this multidisciplinary context, the individual contributions (a selection of articles from a leading journal of pastoral theology, Contact: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Pastoral Studies) cover a wide range of practical and theological issues that alert the reader to the spiritual dimension of pastoral care, such as bereavement, sexuality, ethics, learning disabilities, infertility, the meaning of pain, sickness and suffering and the nature of theology as a practical discipline. The book is an invaluable resource for practitioners, researchers, students and all who have an interest in the ways in which a spiritual dimension can enhance caring practices within a multidisciplinary context.