Search Results for: Spirituality

Combining psychology and spirituality, this practical book considers archetypes from Asian, Middle Eastern and European myths and explains how they can be used in therapeutic practice to help clients achieve personal or clinical goals.

This innovative model of archetype imagination is a powerful tool for coaches and therapists. It involves visualizing an archetype, which teaches the mind to focus, relaxes the ego, and opens the unconscious. This makes space for spiritual insights and allows the mind to let go of distracting sensations and emotions. Combining foundational psychological theories, brain physiology, and Hindu philosophy with the author’s visionary experiences, this book explains how to use this technique in clinical practice. It also includes case studies, engaging images, practical exercises, and quizzes for use with clients. Spiritual seekers will find the book’s insights a great complement to their practice.

This book will help counsellors, coaches, psychologists, psychotherapists, arts therapists, and other therapeutic practitioners to use archetype imagination techniques to guide their clients to emotional health and spiritual awareness.

Through a rich variety of case studies, this book provides insight into the patient’s needs and the chaplain’s perspective, as well as discussions of spiritual assessments and spiritual care interventions. Case studies such as a request to baptise a child complicated due to his admission for ‘psychiatric reasons’, as well as work with military veterans, such as a female transgender veteran who has been alienated from her faith, show the breadth and complexity of work that chaplains undertake daily.

Each section also includes critical responses to the case studies presented from a chaplain and related healthcare professional. This book will enable chaplains to critically reflect on the spiritual care they provide, and provide an informed perspective for healthcare professionals and others involved in chaplaincy services.

Increasing numbers of professionals in the fields of psychology and therapy are seeking to incorporate elements of spirituality into their therapeutic oeuvre, addressing not only mental and emotional issues, but also the soul.

This book discloses how indigenous traditions can be adapted to offer practitioners a highly effective repertoire of insights, psycho-spiritual approaches and therapeutic tools. The underlying concepts and world-views of indigenous and contemporary shamanism are explained and tied in with current developments in psychology and science. After clarifying altered states of perception, concepts of integrative wholeness of mind, body, soul and spirit and transformative shamanic ‘healing’ approaches, the book goes on to outline concrete contemporary tools and techniques that can be applied directly to work with clients. It presents research, examples and case studies throughout.

This will be enlightening and compelling reading for psychologists, therapists, counsellors and coaches looking for profound insights and innovative methods of practice that cater for the whole human psyche, reaching beyond contemporary Western mind and body approaches.

Diana Cooper is a bestselling author and international speaker. In this updated edition of A Little Light on the Spiritual Laws, Diana Cooper offers 36 laws on life and spirituality.

If you do not understand the rules of the game you cannot play in the top league. In the same way you cannot be happy, healthy and successful until you understand the Laws of Life. A Little Light on the Spiritual Laws sets out clearly and simply the Spiritual Laws which govern life on Earth. Vividly illustrated with stories and metaphors, it shows how to achieve prosperity, success and happiness. This book offers a definitive, accessible guide to mastering life and, when practiced at the highest level, it contains the keys to heaven.

Restore and rejuvenate your mind, body and soul with this modern introduction to the ancient wisdom of energy therapies

Whether you seek better emotional and physical well-being, improved connection to the world around you, or just inspiration for your own unique spiritual practice, this little book will be the perfect companion on your quest to find true balance in your life.

Discover practical guidance on a variety of holistic healing methods and learn how to incorporate these techniques into your daily routine. Within these pages, you will uncover:

– The deep and fascinating history of spiritual healing across time and cultures
– How to listen to your body’s needs and understand which practice will best suit you
– How to use these methods to balance your natural energies and find your highest purpose in life

From Ayurveda and acupuncture to crystals and chakra healing, this treasury of information holds everything you need to know in order to embark on your own personal journey to health and harmony.

This is not a book about theory, it is a book about life. This volume is in the excellent Practical Theology Series published by Jessica Kingsley and under the general editorship of John Swinton of Aberdeen University who writes the Foreword. Ray Anderson is an American pastor and academic of many years standing. His starting point is (pre) theoretical, arguing vigorously that practical theology has a particular end in view and therefore differs from the empirical (social) sciences. It is well worth sticking with his argument to see how it works out in practice. Early chapters with phrases in their titles such as “Spiritual Praxis of Practical Theology”, “Integrative Gestalt of the Human Self”, “Ecological Matrix of the Human Person” and “Social Ecology of Human Spirituality” might seem heavy going at times. Don’t be put off! The reader is rewarded with highly relevant contemporary understandings of spirituality illuminating and illuminated by both Scripture and modern theologians and therapists. This book comes highly recommended for anyone involved in the field of mental health care.’

– Leveson Newsletter

‘This is a book that deserves to be read, and perhaps re-read, by those who deliver spiritual care and wish to reflect on what they do.’

– Scottish Journal of Healthcare Chaplaincy

Bridging the gap between clinical and religious professionals, this book examines how both can understand the spiritual needs of the individual, and the importance of this spirituality in bringing about health and wholeness.

With an emphasis on mental health, the author explores spirituality in the context of the individual and of society, and discusses how those practicing pastoral or health care can deal with the issues raised outside of any specific religious ideas or practice. Taking an ecological approach to understanding the needs of the individual, Ray S. Anderson shows how professionals can help people move towards a more positive state in the face of pain, distress and illness.

Moving religious professionals away from the pursuit of simple edification, and those in health from purely medicalized approaches, Spiritual Caregiving as Secular Sacrament brings together professionals’ roles in the context of spirituality to enable them to bring the greatest benefit to those in their care.

A person’s sense of spirituality informs his or her awareness of self and of the society around them, and is intrinsic to their mental well-being. In this balanced and thoughtful book John Swinton explores the connections between mental health or illness and spirituality and draws on these to provide practical guidance for people working in the mental health field. He analyses a range of models of mental health care provision that will enable carers to increase their awareness of aspects of spirituality in their caring strategies.

Using a critical evidence-based and interdisciplinary approach to contemporary mental health practice, Swinton explores the therapeutic significance of spirituality from the perspectives of both carers and service-users, looking at mental health problems such as psychotic disorder and depression, Alzheimer’s disease and bipolar disorder. He also provides a critical review of existing literature in the field to place spirituality in contemporary theory and practice.

Showing how spiritual care is practiced in a variety of different contexts such as healthcare, detention and higher education, as well as settings that may not have formal chaplaincy arrangements, this book offers an original and unique resource for Hindu chaplains to understand and practice spiritual care in a way that is authentic to their own tradition and that meets the needs of Hindus. It offers a Hindu perspective for all chaplains to inform their caregiving to Hindus.

The book explores the theological and metaphysical roots of Hindu chaplaincy and puts forward the case for Hindu chaplaincy as a valuable spiritual practice. It covers the issues that arise in specific locations, such as college, healthcare, prison, military and the corporate sector. Chapters also examine Hindu pastoral care offered in other, ‘non-chaplaincy’ settings, such as LGBT centres, social justice work and environmental activism.

Made up of some 30 essays by chaplains, scholars and other important voices in the field, Hindu Approaches to Spiritual Care provides spiritual caregivers with a comprehensive theoretical and practical approach to the relationship of Hinduism and chaplaincy.

Encouraging a broad, compassionate, humanistic approach to spirituality, this book shows how patients’ spiritual needs can be communicated well within interdisciplinary teams, leading to better patient wellbeing.

This book describes the art of charting patients’ spiritual perspectives in an open way that will help physicians and nurses to better direct medical care. It includes practical information on how to distil spiritual needs into pragmatic language, helping to demystify spiritual experience. Drawing on his extensive practical experience, the author also suggests key points to emphasise that will enrich chart notes for medical records, including brief, relative narratives, trusting one’s own impressions, reflecting holistically on the patient’s life, patient attitudes towards treatment and recovery, and describing families’ opinions on the health care situation of their loved one. The book shows healthcare professionals of all disciplines how to engage in a shared responsibility for the spiritual care of their patients.

Many spiritual caregivers, including chaplains, spiritual directors and clergy, are unaware of how they can support people with chronic health conditions. This book combines insights on chronic illness with spiritual care skills and suggestions to enhance well-being for people living with long-term illness.

Using a narrative approach, the author reflects on the stories of two women – Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz, who travels from Kansas (a state of health) to Oz (an illness experience), alongside the author’s personal experiences of managing an incurable autoimmune disease. Chapters will include guidelines and exercises that help equip caregivers to facilitate healing with people who live with long-term health conditions.

Providing spiritual care is an important part in administering person-centred holistic care. This textbook explains why it is so important for any allied health professional (AHP) to be involved in, or assist with, the provision of spiritual care for patients and how to do so.

Each chapter addresses a specific field of allied health practice, such as speech-language therapy, physiotherapy, occupational therapy and other allied heath areas. The contributors explain how spiritual care can be applied in their specialist area, making it relevant for all AHPs. With contributions from leading academics and practitioners in allied health practice, this book will help AHPs understand how to give patients the complete care that they need, making this text essential reading for AHP practitioners, clinical supervisors, researchers, academics, tertiary lecturers and allied health students.

Health and social care practitioners are increasingly called upon to provide care to elderly people from a number of different faiths and cultures. This collection of essays examines ageing in the context of the many faiths and cultures that make up Western society, and provides carers with the knowledge they need to deliver sensitive and appropriate care to people of all faiths.

Chapters are written by authoritative figures from each of the world’s major faith groups about the beliefs and practices of their older people. Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Jewish and Buddhist perspectives are covered, as well as those of ageing veterans and ageing religious sisters. Issues of appropriate care are also addressed, and the book includes recommendations for policy and practice.

This accessible and inspiring book will be a useful text for academics, policy makers and practitioners in health and social care, aged care workers, pastoral carers, chaplains and religious professionals, in hospital, residential and other care settings.

Bob Woodward, a respected member of the National Federation of Spiritual Healers, and a senior co-worker at the Sheiling School, a Camphill Centre, draws on the practice both as a healer and curative educator in order to share key concepts of both areas of experience with the reader. Examples of individual healing sessions with children with a variety of special needs demonstrate the part that spiritual healing can play in calming emotional disturbance, and helping to restore harmony to body, soul and spirit: a marked improvement in the ability to relate to both peers and adults was noticed by carers and teacher.’

– The Christian Parapsychologist

Spiritual Healing with Children with Special Needs gives a fascinating account of individual healing sessions with children with complex special needs and moderate to severe learning difficulties. Drawing on his experience as a qualified spiritual healer and senior co-worker at The Sheiling School, a Camphill Centre, Bob Woodward shows how spiritual healing can help children with special needs to achieve peace and relaxation.

From his perspective as both spiritual healer and curative educator, the author introduces the key concepts of both subject areas to the reader and explains how the two disciplines can be combined and applied, providing case examples of healing sessions with children with a range of special needs, including autism, epilepsy and emotional and behavioural difficulties. The author demonstrates the benefits of spiritual healing for these children as a natural, non-invasive, holistic approach that restores balance and harmony to body, soul and spirit.

This unique book will be of interest to parents and professionals involved with special needs children, as well as practitioners of and those interested in spiritual healing.

More and more, it is has become essential for mental health professionals to understand and competently navigate clients’ religious and spiritual beliefs in treatment. In Spiritual and Religious Competencies in Clinical Practice, you’ll find sixteen research-based guidelines and best practices to help you provide effective therapy while being conscious of your clients’ unique spiritual or cultural background.

With this professional resource as your guide, you will be prepared to:

·Take a spiritual and religious history when treating a client
·Attend to spiritual or religious topics in a clinical setting
·Hold clear ethical boundaries regarding your own religious or spiritual beliefs
·Know when and how to make referrals if topics emerge which are beyond the scope of your competence

This book is a must-read for any mental health professional looking to develop spiritual, religious, and cultural competencies.

Spiritual reminiscence is a way of communicating that acknowledges the person as a spiritual being and seeks to engage the person in a more meaningful and personal way. This practical guide teaches carers how to facilitate engaging and stimulating spiritual reminiscence sessions with older people, and particularly with people with dementia.

After reading the guide, carers will understand the many and varied benefits of spiritual reminiscence, and will have developed the skills, confidence and communication techniques needed to support people with dementia in this activity. The authors present in accessible terms the evidence-base to support the benefits of the approach and provide clear, step-by-step instructions for facilitating spiritual reminiscence sessions, including useful suggestions for ideas and questions to stimulate discussion.

Intended to be used either as a self-learning tool or as the basis for staff training sessions, this will be a valuable resource for staff in care homes and day centres, activity coordinators, pastoral and spiritual care professionals, clergy and spiritual leaders.

Two-books-in-one by #1 New York Times bestselling author Joyce Meyer, BE ANXIOUS FOR NOTHING and its companion study guide will teach readers how to rid themselves of their fears and anxieties by drawing peace from God.

Fear is an unfortunate part of living in this world–something that each and every one of us faces. However, God has provided a way for everyone to enjoy His peace as part of our daily lives. It is up to each of us to decide whether we allow ourselves to be burdened with worry and anxiety or if we choose to live in the peace and joy that God lovingly provides. Joyce Meyer helps readers rely on God’s strength during difficult circumstances by revealing the nature of God’s peace as found in Scripture. By embracing God’s peace and strength, we can trade anxiety for joy, develop a childlike attitude of faith, and give our worries to the Lord so that we can live the happy lives that He intended for all of us.

What does it mean to grow old? What makes later life meaningful? What gives a frail and isolated or institutionalised older person their sense of wholeness and self?

This substantially updated new edition of Elizabeth MacKinlay’s seminal text presents the latest theory and research to explore these questions in depth, pointing the way towards new ways of thinking about and engaging with the spirituality of ageing. Encompassing the findings of a new research study on baby boomer spirituality, the book presents a wider and more comprehensive view of ageing and spirituality, concluding that spirituality for the baby boomer generation is every bit as important as for the cohorts before them, but also fundamentally different, with fewer being practicing members of a religious faith. Drawing on in-depth interviews with older people, and containing many new ideas whilst also addressing the foundational theories and questions essential to scholarship in this field, the book also includes a new and timely chapter on the spirituality of older people in our increasingly multicultural and multifaith societies.

This clear and practical text presents much-needed guidance for health and social care practitioners, chaplains, clergy and others seeking to identify and support the spiritual needs of older people, as well as students and researchers in related disciplines.

Research shows that non-responsive patients benefit significantly from spiritual and pastoral care. This book equips chaplains with the confidence and skills to deliver excellent care in this challenging context. With exercises, worksheets, small group activities and case studies, it sets out how best to use words and body language, foster trust and respect, and involve patients’ loved ones. It provides practical ways to recognise and affirm the humanity of the patient, and how to engage with the patient by employing skills of listening and presence.

Young people are doing faith differently. They are redefining community, ministry and ritual for a new era. In the face of planetary crisis, the next generation no longer see faith as a private matter, instead they are integrating it with activism and the need for systemic change. Influenced by the wealth of different teachings and traditions available around them, their identities are increasingly multifaceted and emphatically global.

This collection of stories and interviews with young adults and their allies explores this new landscape, reflecting both the energy and inspiration of the next generation and the tremendous challenges they face. It points towards an exciting evolution in the way we are relating to the sacred.

With stories from:
Adam Bucko, Xiuhtezcatl Martinez, Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee, Kara Moses, Abbas Zahedi, Camille Barton, Bruna Kadletz, Dekila Chungyalpa, Matt Youde, Amrita Bhohi, Sun Kaur, and many others.

With supporting stories from senior leaders including:
His Holiness the 17th Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje, Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, Dr John Sentamu, Archbishop of York, Tiokasin Ghosthorse, Rabbi Laura Janner Klausner, Bhai Sahib Dr Mohinder Singh, and more.

Meeting the psychological and spiritual needs of patients is vital to supporting their wellbeing in health care settings. To develop an effective, holistic and inclusive approach to care within predominantly medical health care models, practitioners across health care disciplines must work collaboratively to understand the complex, significant relationships between their patients’ medical, therapeutic and spiritual requirements.

Bridging the gap between care disciplines, the book presents an innovative vision of patient wellbeing enriched by a synthesis of psychological, spiritual and medical approaches. Prominent practitioners from a range of disciplines including nursing and psychiatry demonstrate how their psycho-spiritual approaches meet the individual needs of patients, adapting to their emotional, spiritual and religious requirements.

Accessible and enlightening, this book offers significant practical insight into the role of psychologically informed spiritual care.

Health care professionals who endeavour to work holistically face a number of questions about spirituality. What is meant by `spirituality’ as opposed to `religion’? What is its specific relevance to health care practice?

This accessible book provides answers to these questions and offers a model for personal and professional development. Gillian White sets out a framework within which health care professionals can discuss spirituality and equip themselves to respond appropriately to the spiritual concerns of their patient in daily practice. She draws on her experience of sharing and discussing spirituality and spiritual care with other health care professionals and proposes that multi-professional health care teams should talk about spirituality in challenging but safe environments to develop shared understanding of it, and to increase their confidence about integrating spiritual care into their daily practise.

This text is a useful contribution to the multi-disciplinary, whole-person approach in health care and will be of interest to all health care professionals, nursing staff and students in these fields.

Exploring both principles and best practice of the spiritual care of sick children and young people, this remarkable and inspiring book equips the reader to think critically and creatively about how to provide care in hospitals, hospices and other care contexts for ill and disabled children.

Written for staff from any allied health discipline, the authors explore the potential spiritual needs and issues faced by sick children and young people. They provide evidence-based practice principles, and a range of activity-based interactions that empower the child or young person and expand discussion of meaning and identity. The book includes stories and multidisciplinary practice examples, as well as many ideas; practical activities; discussion of work with families, and also of the various tensions and issues that can emerge.

Based on evidence-based practice and research carried out by the Chaplaincy Team at Birmingham Children’s Hospital, the book will be helpful and inspiring reading for chaplains, nurses, play and youth workers, therapists and anyone else involved in the care of sick children and young people.