I was interviewed about the role spirituality plays in therapy recently so have been giving this question some thought. For me, I think the role of spirituality is in how we make meaning in life. There are so many questions that science and our limited human minds cannot comprehensively answer and I think it's in those moments that spirituality can help us - questions of life, death, why we're here and why we suffer. The spiritual traditions have offered me so much more on this level than my 20+ years in clinical psychology. Spirituality picks up where psychology leaves off and vice versa, and the integration of both has brought so much richness to my life and my work. Thanks for exploring these important questions 🙏
That's such a great point. When I was researching Sacred Medicine, I asked every healer and guru and shaman I met if they had an answer to why innocent humans suffer, and every single one had some sort of meaning-making answer, and it was comforting for a while to believe that their answers might settle the question. But in the end, I wound up with more questions than answers and started to doubt anyone who claimed to know for certain why bad things happen to good people, for example, or anyone who claimed they had proof of heaven or proof of past lives or proof of karma. I do agree that meaning-making is essential to resilience and healing, but perhaps it's up to each of us to make our own meaning out of the tragedies that befall us- and avoid the tendency to try to overlay our own meaning-making on someone else for whom it might not resonate at all. I'm not sure, but I appreciate the nudge to ponder this more deeply.
Yes I see meaning making as very personal and definitely not about applying any fixed ideas and beliefs onto others, but rather about encouraging them to engage with their own internal wisdom in grappling with these questions. For many clients, religious or spiritual beliefs are an essential part of this. I find that clients who have no sense of spirituality and only rely on western scientific perspectives can get very stuck in processing large events and traumas in life, particularly around themes such as the injustice of what occurred or the finality of death. Interestingly in EMDR, where the therapy taps clients into their right brain and their intuition, people often spontaneously get in touch with more spiritual perspectives that come from within rather than any external source. It's fascinating to watch it unfold.
A Beltane ceremony in Glastonbury England seems an ideal place to relocate our collective sense of sacred place time and what brings our soul alive! Why do we/I need spirituality? Because Just like my psyche, I've always sensed her Presence but didn't always have words for this kind of holy experience found in human circles. I rarely experienced the same stirring in my heart when listening to a preacher eulogizing from a pulpit that I did in the sacred sounds of a Nature sanctuary , a song called a hymn or praise called a poem.
So I couldn't agree more that a New Moon season is the best time to take a pilgrimage into the collective to sing and dance in the wide open spaces of our Wild Mother Nature. And.... to ask deeply meaningful and questions that cause us to ...Be reflective and listen to our own Inner Source of the Divine to heal lost or exiled soul parts.
Thank you Dr. Lissa for bringing these sacred kinds of medicine to heal my former Spiritual Bypasser part. I'll look forward to sharing more about my collective healing of legacy burdens with Dick Schwarz, Thomas Hubl and how I find spirituality a deep source of meaning peace and presence in future posts!
I just finished reading "Holy Rover journeys in search of mystery,miracles, and God" by Lori Erickson In this book she in search for the holy, Its brought her down many paths, she is a brilliant writer.
Love this article. I just finished "Sacred Nature," by Karen Armstrong. In it she makes a case that our connection with the earth and ability to avert an apocalyptic catastrophe, rest in retrieving our innate spiritual sensibilities. She uses world religions and the core of compassion that unites them, to illustrate the connective energy of spirituality and nature are one and the same thing. She is a brilliant thinker and writer, author of many books on religion and spirituality and founder of the Charter for Compassion. https://www.ted.com/participate/ted-prize/prize-winning-wishes/charter-for-compassion
"our lives are better when we have some kind of connection to the sacred- in community- even if it’s just going out in a nature with our fellow humans to sing and dance and laugh and play and share rituals together, to remember what really matters in life- love, connection, relationships, service, purpose, meaning, compassion, creativity, expression, beauty, and joyful celebrating to balance out the pain of our inevitable human suffering." Amen sister! ✨🌟💖🙏🕊️
I left the religion I grew up in and I am also a survivor of clergy sexual abuse. But I then found another religion which nourishes me. I love it because I need the community and inspiration that praying and studying with others gives me. I need the support and friendships. BTW I was also a Communist back in the 70s and 80s and when that fell apart around 1990, I was lost and went through an existential crisis. I came to the conclusion that I did indeed need spirituality and that healthy religion contained wisdom that I could benefit from.
Happy Beltane! So cool that you are doing a thing with Dick Schwartz! IFS is really catching on!
I was interviewed about the role spirituality plays in therapy recently so have been giving this question some thought. For me, I think the role of spirituality is in how we make meaning in life. There are so many questions that science and our limited human minds cannot comprehensively answer and I think it's in those moments that spirituality can help us - questions of life, death, why we're here and why we suffer. The spiritual traditions have offered me so much more on this level than my 20+ years in clinical psychology. Spirituality picks up where psychology leaves off and vice versa, and the integration of both has brought so much richness to my life and my work. Thanks for exploring these important questions 🙏
That's such a great point. When I was researching Sacred Medicine, I asked every healer and guru and shaman I met if they had an answer to why innocent humans suffer, and every single one had some sort of meaning-making answer, and it was comforting for a while to believe that their answers might settle the question. But in the end, I wound up with more questions than answers and started to doubt anyone who claimed to know for certain why bad things happen to good people, for example, or anyone who claimed they had proof of heaven or proof of past lives or proof of karma. I do agree that meaning-making is essential to resilience and healing, but perhaps it's up to each of us to make our own meaning out of the tragedies that befall us- and avoid the tendency to try to overlay our own meaning-making on someone else for whom it might not resonate at all. I'm not sure, but I appreciate the nudge to ponder this more deeply.
Yes I see meaning making as very personal and definitely not about applying any fixed ideas and beliefs onto others, but rather about encouraging them to engage with their own internal wisdom in grappling with these questions. For many clients, religious or spiritual beliefs are an essential part of this. I find that clients who have no sense of spirituality and only rely on western scientific perspectives can get very stuck in processing large events and traumas in life, particularly around themes such as the injustice of what occurred or the finality of death. Interestingly in EMDR, where the therapy taps clients into their right brain and their intuition, people often spontaneously get in touch with more spiritual perspectives that come from within rather than any external source. It's fascinating to watch it unfold.
A Beltane ceremony in Glastonbury England seems an ideal place to relocate our collective sense of sacred place time and what brings our soul alive! Why do we/I need spirituality? Because Just like my psyche, I've always sensed her Presence but didn't always have words for this kind of holy experience found in human circles. I rarely experienced the same stirring in my heart when listening to a preacher eulogizing from a pulpit that I did in the sacred sounds of a Nature sanctuary , a song called a hymn or praise called a poem.
So I couldn't agree more that a New Moon season is the best time to take a pilgrimage into the collective to sing and dance in the wide open spaces of our Wild Mother Nature. And.... to ask deeply meaningful and questions that cause us to ...Be reflective and listen to our own Inner Source of the Divine to heal lost or exiled soul parts.
Thank you Dr. Lissa for bringing these sacred kinds of medicine to heal my former Spiritual Bypasser part. I'll look forward to sharing more about my collective healing of legacy burdens with Dick Schwarz, Thomas Hubl and how I find spirituality a deep source of meaning peace and presence in future posts!
I just finished reading "Holy Rover journeys in search of mystery,miracles, and God" by Lori Erickson In this book she in search for the holy, Its brought her down many paths, she is a brilliant writer.
Love this article. I just finished "Sacred Nature," by Karen Armstrong. In it she makes a case that our connection with the earth and ability to avert an apocalyptic catastrophe, rest in retrieving our innate spiritual sensibilities. She uses world religions and the core of compassion that unites them, to illustrate the connective energy of spirituality and nature are one and the same thing. She is a brilliant thinker and writer, author of many books on religion and spirituality and founder of the Charter for Compassion. https://www.ted.com/participate/ted-prize/prize-winning-wishes/charter-for-compassion
"our lives are better when we have some kind of connection to the sacred- in community- even if it’s just going out in a nature with our fellow humans to sing and dance and laugh and play and share rituals together, to remember what really matters in life- love, connection, relationships, service, purpose, meaning, compassion, creativity, expression, beauty, and joyful celebrating to balance out the pain of our inevitable human suffering." Amen sister! ✨🌟💖🙏🕊️
I left the religion I grew up in and I am also a survivor of clergy sexual abuse. But I then found another religion which nourishes me. I love it because I need the community and inspiration that praying and studying with others gives me. I need the support and friendships. BTW I was also a Communist back in the 70s and 80s and when that fell apart around 1990, I was lost and went through an existential crisis. I came to the conclusion that I did indeed need spirituality and that healthy religion contained wisdom that I could benefit from.
“If you’re not a communist before you’re thirty, you haven’t got a heart. If you’re still a communist after you’re thirty, you haven’t got a brain.” ?
I think I first heard this quote from Dorothy Day of Catholic Worker fame, but it is not original to her.