Encountering the Sacred in Psychotherapy: How to Talk with People about Their Spiritual Lives - Hardcover

by James L. Griffith (Author), Melissa Elliott Griffith (Author)

Drawing on narrative, postmodern, and other therapeutic perspectives, this book guides therapists in exploring the creative and healing possibilities in clients' spiritual and religious experience. Vivid personal accounts and dialogues bring to life the ways spirituality may influence the stories told in therapy, the language and metaphors used, and the meanings brought to key relationships and events. Applications are discussed for a wide variety of clinical situations, including helping people resolve relationship problems, manage psychiatric symptoms, and cope with medical illnesses.

Author Biography

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. They are also coauthors of The Body Speaks: Therapeutic Dialogues for Mind-Body Problems.