Spirituality and Mental Health: Clinical Applications Book

My belief is that spirituality and mental health make a brilliant pairing, especially for improving oneself they're mutually beneficial. Once you get to a certain point in your spiritual journey, or you've worked really hard on your mental health, it seems to plateau. For a large period of time there was something solid and large to work through but once you've accomplished most of it (I won't say all of it because this is a lifelong process), what's the next step?

I worked on my mental health most of last year and this year was my awakening, finally I've begun merging these two within myself. This book was so interesting in that regard because it's actually written for therapists to integrate their client's spirituality into their overall treatment. It often regarded people's religion and spirituality the same until there's clear differences, such as what different religions teach about forgiveness. I've photographed some of the interesting parts of this book for you to check out here ~

I never realized there are aspects of spiritual/religious belief that can also stunt our growth, such as the belief that God punishes us for our wrongdoings and gives us what we deserve. I've never felt aligned to that teaching because its one built from the fear of God, but of course such a fear programmed into someone would hinder growth. Those who seek therapy are subconsciously wishing to operate from love, and so the book recommended that if a therapist cannot help with this dilemma to seek help from a minister of their religious community. Sit down together with them to help improve the client's belief system because the therapist can be biased or unknowledgeable about their faith, which is highly admirable to me.

This book is written like a scientific journal so you have to keep ignoring the many sources scattered throughout the text. I was lucky enough to borrow it from Einstein Medical school library. It kept making me wish I was a therapist, but I get that feeling occasionally regardless haha.