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Article Excerpt
The authors show how theoretical and empirical findings from the common factors and psychotherapy integration literatures possess potential for infusing soul into psychotherapy. They describe the term soul, outline how the definition translates into soul-nurturing psychotherapy, examine the common factors and integration literatures, and discuss how their recommendations can reorient psychotherapy toward a more soulful practice.
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Lately, a burgeoning literature has emerged concerning religion and spirituality in psychotherapy, topics that the profession of psychotherapy has historically benignly neglected or scornfully rejected. This extensive literature includes musings on the therapist's own spiritual development (e.g., Becvar, 1997; Dass, 1974; Murgatroyd, 2001; Rosenbaum, 1999) as well as approaches for infusing the religious and spiritual into psychotherapy (e.g., Griffith & Griffith, 2002; Kelly, 1995; Propst, 1988; Shafranske, 1996; Sperry, 2001; Zinnbauer & Pargament, 2000). Indeed, the incorporation of religiosity and spirituality into psychotherapy has been identified as one of the most important developments for the future of psychotherapy (Prochaska & Norcross, 2003). This development should hardly be surprising, given that a host of theoreticians (e.g., Fromm, 1950; Helminiak, 2001; Jones, 1994; Lawner, 2001; Slife & Richards, 2001) have discussed how psychotherapy, religion, and spirituality are intricately intertwined.
Yet, some observers have raised serious questions about predominant philosophical stances and clinical practices that seem antithetical to authentic spiritual work in psychotherapy. Over 60 years ago, Rank (1941/1958) cautioned about psychology's tendency to control and direct other people. He characterized psychotherapy "as a kind of 'white magic,' promising to 'cure' everything in the other which we dislike" (p. 44). Rank's disappointment is evident as he lamented that
psychology is the last and youngest offspring of religion, more specifically of the age-old belief in the Soul. Yet ... in order to appear rational, psychology had to deny the very existence of its parent, the belief in the Soul, and rationalize man's desire for immortality in terms of a psychological equality or likeness. (p. 61)
Today, psychotherapy's penchant for cure, control, and rationality is still very much in evidence in various guises, and critics within the field warn of the consequences. Thus, Roy (1998), pointing to significant trends toward standardized, "scientific" approaches to psychotherapy, said that the "soul of psychotherapy" is being seriously challenged. Becvar (1997) contended that psychology's alliance with the medical model and empirical research allows little room for spirituality and soul. Kochunas (1997) said that technology, rationality, and the medical model perspective dominating the mental health professions support the "soullessness" of our culture. Sollod (1993) cautioned that contemporary psychology has lost sight of important aspects of human experience and ways of helping people burdened by life's difficulties. Elkins (1995) eloquently argued that "medical and mechanistic models" are wisely integrated into a comprehensive theory of psychotherapy,
but when these models serve as the foundation of our profession, they produce a psychology that is barren of soul. Thus, they unintentionally participate in the further desacrilization of our society and in the desouling of individual lives. Soulless, therapies produce soulless results [italics added]. (p. 82)
If these observers (and others) are raising a legitimate concern--that the broad field of psychotherapy is seriously deficient in what is termed soul--can spirituality be effectively incorporated into the psychotherapeutic process? If psychotherapy, when dominated by control, cure, and rationality, is bereft of soul, how can psychotherapy be an appropriate vehicle for sensitively addressing the spiritual issues of clients? These questions are highly relevant in light of Elkins's (1995) belief that soul represents the portal through which spirituality can be brought back into Western psychology.
According to Elkins (1995), there are several reasons for why a soul perspective lends itself to bringing the spiritual dimension back into psychotherapy. First, soul (psyche) is a concept indigenous to Western culture--the etymological roots of the term psychotherapist as "attendant to the soul" hark back to ancient Greece--with manifestations of soul still surviving in "nooks and crannies" of some of our Western institutions. Moreover, Elkins pointed out that Western psychotherapists who are receptive to spiritual matters are likely unfamiliar with the esoteric constructs and language of Eastern thought that permeate transpersonal psychology. Second, a soul-based psychology would honor other forms of knowledge and free the field from the rigid scientism that dominates the profession's epistemology. Finally, despite its contributions, the medical model paradigm is antagonistic to spirituality and has effectively squeezed the soul out of psychotherapy.
In this article, we show how the theoretical arguments and empirical findings from the common factors and psychotherapy integration literatures have exceptional potential for infusing soul into psychotherapy and for lending support to Elkins's (1995) position. We believe that the clinical recommendations emanating from the corpus of common factors literature represent one of the "nooks" where soul is alive and waiting to be tapped. Furthermore, the rationale behind the common factors and integration movement is highly compatible with the knowledge base of practicing (Western) psychotherapists. These literatures also have much to say about how mainstream psychotherapy has been overtaken by medical and mechanistic models and rigid scientism.
The aim of this article is first to shed some light on what is meant by the term soul. Next, we expand on our understanding of soul to describe how that understanding can be translated into soul-nurturing therapy. Third, we examine some of the findings and recommendations from the common factors and psychotherapy integration literatures. Finally, we demonstrate how implementing these findings and recommendations can reorient psychotherapy toward a more soulful practice, and we examine the implications for addressing clients' spirituality.
TOWARD AN UNDERSTANDING OF SOUL
Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (Mish et al.,1999) gives the two main definitions of soul as "1: the immaterial essence, animating principle, or actuating cause of an individual's life 2a: the spiritual principle embodied in human beings, all rational or spiritual beings, or the universe" (p. 1123). As precise...
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