1. New Ways of Hearing Sacred Stories
2. Opening the Door
3. Metaphor and Spirituality
4. Stories of Spiritual Experience
5. Conversations between Person and God
6. Spiritual and Religious Beliefs
7. Rituals, Ceremonies, and Spiritual Practices
8. The Community in Spirituality
9. When Spirituality Turns Destructive
10. Living beyond Medical and Psychiatric Illnesses
James L. Griffith, MD, is Professor of Psychiatry and Neurology at The George Washington University Medical Center, where he directs the psychiatry residency training program and the consultation-liaison psychiatry service. Melissa Elliott Griffith, CNS, LMFT, serves on the psychiatry clinical faculty at The George Washington University Medical Center and practices psychotherapy in Vienna, Virginia. They are both affiliated with the Center for Multicultural Human Services in Falls Church, Virginia.
Once again, as they did with The Body Speaks, James Griffith and
Melissa Elliot Griffith have opened a domain--this time,
spirituality and religious experience--to their particular blend of
gentle, curious, and loving inquiry. Rich clinical vignettes are
used to illustrate how spirituality and religious experience can
contribute to meaning-making in therapy, guiding therapists in
making key distinctions and opening up their own conversations with
clients. Never preachy, always engaging, this book will be of use
to beginning and advanced clinicians in all of the helping
professions.--Kaethe Weingarten, PhD, Harvard Medical School and
The Witnessing Project, The Family Institute of Cambridge
This is an important book. Through it, therapists will witness
intimate and sacred conversations that will open their hearts and
work to new possibilities. The authors' therapy is exquisitely
respectful, their writing fascinating and accessible, and their
ideas inspiring and practical for therapists of all disciplines and
approaches. This book illuminates not one path but many to take in
talking meaningfully with people about the spiritual and religious
dimensions of their lives.--Jill Freedman, MSW, Evanston Family
Therapy Center
Freud ushered God out of the therapy room in his search for a
scientific psychotherapy. However, leaving religious and spiritual
discussions out of our work means that we ignore vital parts of
many people's lives. This book suggests that we don't need to
remain God-phobic, nor must we become clergy, in order to bring
people's spiritual beliefs into therapy. Griffith and Griffith
illustrate how spiritual beliefs and experiences can be resources
for healing in a wide range of contexts: recovery from abuse,
trying to solve relationship dilemmas, coping with chronic pain and
illness, and even making the decision to take medication for
emotional illness. At the same time, the authors do not shy away
from the hard questions....How can a therapist work with people
whose beliefs present obstacles to cure? What can we do when belief
is used to justify cruelty or abuse? This book strikes a deep chord
because it gives voice to something that many of us know has been
missing from psychotherapy. This is a book every therapist needs to
read.--Eric E. McCollum, PhD, Marriage and Family Therapy Program,
Virginia Tech University
Having spent 35 years caring for persons with progressive,
incurable, and fatal illnesses, my double calling as physician and
priest has made me see each patient's personal stories of faith as
a privileged revelation. James and Melissa Elliott Griffith have
now brought this inquiry to a new level of sophistication and art.
Showing how people in pain become more alive as we elicit their
sacred stories, this book helps the empathic reader learn how to
ask the right questions at the right time. Today's doctors and
therapists--harassed by the for-profit obsession that now degrades
the people who seek our help--will find in this book a powerful
antidote to restore the possibility of stellar care delivery.--Ned
H. Cassem, SJ, MD, Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical
School.
- While the topic of integrating psychotherapy and spirituality has
been widely examined for many years, few texts have provided the
detailed theoretical rationale, practical techniques, and case
studies found in James and Melissa Griffith's Encountering the
Sacred in Psychotherapy ....The authors have a gentle, respectful
manner of inviting clients to explore spiritual matters. They view
psychotherapy itself as a sacred encounter, assuming that spiritual
matters will surface when the practitioner listens with an open
heart....This book would be of interest not only to
psychotherapists but also to a general audience interested in the
intersection of religion, illness, and health....The numerous
examples of questions to use in exploring various aspects of
spirituality will be of practical value to psychotherapists of
various orientations. The many clinical examples interspersed
throughout the book are its strength. --Journal of Religion,
Disability, and Health, 7/31/2003ƒƒ James L. Griffith and Melissa
Elliott Griffith have written a thoughtful, balanced, and often
creative work describing not only how to talk about spirituality
but also, perhaps more importantly, how to think about and listen
to the spiritual dimension of people's lives. --Psychiatric
Services, 7/31/2003ƒƒ Remarkable....The authors write very well,
and the book is filled with countless real-world case studies and
even some transcripts of counseling sessions that are quite
interesting in their own right, not to mention the role they play
in illustrating the authors' general themes. --Research News and
Opportunities in Science and Theology, 7/31/2003ƒƒ The very style
of presentation of the subject matter awakens the reader's
sensitivity to the spiritual elements in psychotherapy and to when
and with whom it is appropriate to enter into the spiritual domain.
--Pastoral Sciences, 7/31/2003
Once again, as they did with The Body Speaks, James Griffith and
Melissa Elliot Griffith have opened a domain--this time,
spirituality and religious experience--to their particular blend of
gentle, curious, and loving inquiry. Rich clinical vignettes are
used to illustrate how spirituality and religious experience can
contribute to meaning-making in therapy, guiding therapists in
making key distinctions and opening up their own conversations with
clients. Never preachy, always engaging, this book will be of use
to beginning and advanced clinicians in all of the helping
professions.--Kaethe Weingarten, PhD, Harvard Medical School and
The Witnessing Project, The Family Institute of Cambridge
This is an important book. Through it, therapists will witness
intimate and sacred conversations that will open their hearts and
work to new possibilities. The authors' therapy is exquisitely
respectful, their writing fascinating and accessible, and their
ideas inspiring and practical for therapists of all disciplines and
approaches. This book illuminates not one path but many to take in
talking meaningfully with people about the spiritual and religious
dimensions of their lives.--Jill Freedman, MSW, Evanston Family
Therapy Center
Freud ushered God out of the therapy room in his search for a
scientific psychotherapy. However, leaving religious and spiritual
discussions out of our work means that we ignore vital parts of
many people's lives. This book suggests that we don't need to
remain God-phobic, nor must we become clergy, in order to bring
people's spiritual beliefs into therapy. Griffith and Griffith
illustrate how spiritual beliefs and experiences can be resources
for healing in a wide range of contexts: recovery from abuse,
trying to solve relationship dilemmas, coping with chronic pain and
illness, and even making the decision to take medication for
emotional illness. At the same time, the authors do not shy away
from the hard questions....How can a therapist work with people
whose beliefs present obstacles to cure? What can we do when belief
is used to justify cruelty or abuse? This book strikes a deep chord
because it gives voice to something that many of us know has been
missing from psychotherapy. This is a book every therapist needs to
read.--Eric E. McCollum, PhD, Marriage and Family Therapy Program,
Virginia Tech University
Having spent 35 years caring for persons with progressive,
incurable, and fatal illnesses, my double calling as physician and
priest has made me see each patient's personal stories of faith as
a privileged revelation. James and Melissa Elliott Griffith have
now brought this inquiry to a new level of sophistication and art.
Showing how people in pain become more alive as we elicit their
sacred stories, this book helps the empathic reader learn how to
ask the right questions at the right time. Today's doctors and
therapists--harassed by the for-profit obsession that now degrades
the people who seek our help--will find in this book a powerful
antidote to restore the possibility of stellar care delivery.--Ned
H. Cassem, SJ, MD, Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical
School.
- While the topic of integrating psychotherapy and spirituality has
been widely examined for many years, few texts have provided the
detailed theoretical rationale, practical techniques, and case
studies found in James and Melissa Griffith's Encountering the
Sacred in Psychotherapy ....The authors have a gentle, respectful
manner of inviting clients to explore spiritual matters. They view
psychotherapy itself as a sacred encounter, assuming that spiritual
matters will surface when the practitioner listens with an open
heart....This book would be of interest not only to
psychotherapists but also to a general audience interested in the
intersection of religion, illness, and health....The numerous
examples of questions to use in exploring various aspects of
spirituality will be of practical value to psychotherapists of
various orientations. The many clinical examples interspersed
throughout the book are its strength. --Journal of Religion,
Disability, and Health, 7/31/2003Æ’Æ’ James L. Griffith and Melissa
Elliott Griffith have written a thoughtful, balanced, and often
creative work describing not only how to talk about spirituality
but also, perhaps more importantly, how to think about and listen
to the spiritual dimension of people's lives. --Psychiatric
Services, 7/31/2003Æ’Æ’ Remarkable....The authors write very well,
and the book is filled with countless real-world case studies and
even some transcripts of counseling sessions that are quite
interesting in their own right, not to mention the role they play
in illustrating the authors' general themes. --Research News and
Opportunities in Science and Theology, 7/31/2003Æ’Æ’ The very style
of presentation of the subject matter awakens the reader's
sensitivity to the spiritual elements in psychotherapy and to when
and with whom it is appropriate to enter into the spiritual domain.
--Pastoral Sciences, 7/31/2003
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