Comments on: Spirituality And Psychology: A New Openness?

By: Terry wall

Terry wall — Tue, 18 Jul 2017 16:18:30 +0000

I think like a lot of things in life its not the thing its self which is right is wrong its how you are using it in your life and whether its promoting functional or dysfunctional behaviour.

By: Ian Williamson

Ian Williamson — Tue, 18 Apr 2017 21:39:39 +0000

Hi !

1 / To ‘ feel safe ‘ . Absolutely paramount . And to have a sense of being at home , comfortable , without ‘ threat ‘ , is the solid emotional base , essential for happiness and success in life .The emphasis on feeling safe in the Khiron ethic is most appealing .

2 / I would like to make a philosophical addition to the discussion on spirituality .
That is the bald statement : ‘ God is the problem . ‘
‘ The One and only ‘ God of Judaism , Christianity and Islam .
God is the higher power , happiness is the reward for living up to this abstract . Suffering is somehow ‘ good ‘ . We see this elevated to pure psychosis on the news most nights . Anyone affected by ‘ God ‘ tends to disassociate from the real earthy world of creating a place that is comfortable and safe to live in . Believing in reward after death , and feeling guilty about material wealth pleasure ,and physical health . indeed ,, this addiction to higher power / authority , is the reason why people pursue ‘ addictions ‘ , that do have a
‘ real ‘ quality , desperately needed – to have something real in our lives . Something earthy ,comforting and ‘ safe ‘ . Call it comfort zone , as close as one can get to ‘ home ‘ .

The multimodality approach is exciting as there is no ‘ one ‘ therapy to take a sectarian ‘ God like role ‘ Psychoanalytic / Jungarian , CBT / NLP , mindlessness and so on .
Maybe one could discover this innate living in the real world human quality , through a multidisciplinary approach cutting through erroneous ‘ Authority ‘ and come to this natural
inner space naturally . Hopefully the next generation won’t have suffer being the next ‘ lost generation ‘ – again

Bit late in this conversation . None the less .
My two pennies worth !
Thank you

Ian

By: Debbie Friedman

Debbie Friedman — Thu, 23 Feb 2017 15:20:48 +0000

I was brought up according to Freudian principles (my father was a psychoanalyst) and I was therefore in therapy as a child, adolescent and adult. I am now a senior trainer, supervisor and psychotherapist in the Psychosynthesis tradition (Roberto Assagioli) so this subject is very close indeed to my heart. I know what it feels like to have my own sense of spirituality (not religious, but felt) seen as an encumberance to the work of therapy before I encountered a different attitude and approach. Once I experienced being in therapy with someone who held a psycho spiritual context everything changed. I felt met, acknowledged, valued and able to work through the neurotic issues as well as the existential. Some forms of depression, anxiety and even trauma are not neurotic but deeply existential and therefore need to be held as such (as Assagioli described mid 20th century). All the best with your work, Debbie

By: Janys

Janys — Sat, 11 Oct 2014 11:53:54 +0000

My spirituality is my knowing of myself. In awareness I reflect on what I am coming to know.

By: Hilary

Hilary — Sat, 20 Sep 2014 21:14:26 +0000

If a therapist has no lived experience of healthy spirituality how can they work effectively in that area of experience with a client? To me this sounds like a limitation which in any other aspect of psychotherapy would warrant a referral to a more experienced therapist.

By: Jackie

Jackie — Sat, 20 Sep 2014 19:36:15 +0000

In 2014 , to assume people don’t have spirituality or that it is questionable from a therapists point of view I find vulgar . The Internet is awash with moral disregard and society / media seem concentrated on illuminating the throw away society , spirituality is big business. My point being that any faith or belief does not need to be justified to anyone , only that of the person it belongs too .

By: Penny Boreham

Penny Boreham — Mon, 11 Aug 2014 09:33:54 +0000

In reply to cathy brooks craniosacral homoeopath.

Hello Cathy,
thanks for your message. David Tacey is talking about the tradition of psychotherapy that doesn’t recognise spirituality and I totally agree (as I am sure he would) that many therapists, and in particularly those who work cranially have a totally different approach. Do you think this is true?
Very best
Penny

By: cathy brooks craniosacral homoeopath

cathy brooks craniosacral homoeopath — Fri, 01 Aug 2014 08:18:20 +0000

I find this incredibly patronising, as therapists, part of our work is to help clients get in touch with resources in their lives, spirituality can serve as a way in and certainly working cranially can be deepened if a client does have an inner spirituality.

By: Fi

Fi — Thu, 31 Jul 2014 14:22:24 +0000

I am often amazed by the narrow minded ness of some therapists/practitioners when it comes to spirituality,when is the very essence of the problem/ disease that often sinchronistically propels people to become therapists,psychologists and practitioners in the first place,so why forget or ignore this higher force that exists and often pushes people to their very limit so they can get in touch and honour the need to acknowledge and connect with their and .their patients spiritual side which can not only help ameliorate the mental anguish but also enrich and widen their thinking and their world.Of course spirituality can become a pathology but so can anything else when done to extreme,we live in an addictive society(to quote Oliver James), there are indeed worse things to become addicted to