The Spiritual Horizon of Psychotherapy

This book explores the wise and conscious use of spiritual resources within counselling and psychotherapy. Written by veteran clinicians from different spiritual perspectives, and from various therapeutic schools of thought, this book provides a broad view of how the spiritual is present within therapeutic practice.

The work of counselling and psychotherapy is increasingly seeking to ground its efforts within the richness of spiritual traditions. One of the surprising developments of the contemporary psychotherapeutic scene is a growing reliance on both hard, objective sciences - such as, for example, neurology or Genetics - whilst at the same time engaging very subjective, "soft" sciences - such as states of consciousness studies, psychology of religion, clinical or Pastoral Theology, and the over-arching tasks of meaning-making.

Written by and for clinicians who are also teachers in the field, this collection offers a variety of viewpoints in terms of the diverse spiritual traditions they draw from, theoretical sources that guide and inform them, or the spiritual applications they bring to their work.

This book was published as a special issue of the Journal of Spirituality in Mental Health.

William S. Schmidt is Associate Professor at Institute of Pastoral Studies at Loyola University Chicago, USA. He is the former Graduate Director of Masters degree programs in both Pastoral Counseling and Spirituality. He is currently the Editor of the Journal of Spirituality in Mental Health.

Merle R. Jordan is Emeritus Professor of Pastoral Psychology at Boston University School of Theology, USA. He is the author of Taking On the Gods: The Task of the Pastoral Counselor and Reclaiming Your Story: Family History and Spiritual Growth.