Solution-Oriented Spirituality: Connection, Wholeness, and Possibility for Therapist and Client

by Bill O'Hanlon

Overview

Skills and techniques from a master therapist on how to help clients connect to their lives spiritually.

Although a growing number of Americans are turning to spirituality to help explain and supplement their lives, and a vast majority identify as religious, psychotherapy has long been reluctant to work alongside clients’ sense of “something bigger.” But what kind of resources might a spiritual sensibility offer from a mental health standpoint? How can therapists helpfully and respectfully integrate spiritual feelings into their work with clients?

Bestselling author Bill O’Hanlon tackles these questions and others in this pioneering foray into the uses and pitfalls of spiritualities—both secular and religious—in a therapeutic setting. Here, spirituality is defined by its three integral components: a feeling of connection to something beyond oneself, a capacity for compassion or “feeling with,” and a sense of responsibility to make a contribution to others and to the world.

Each of these “3 Cs” comes with illustrative anecdotes, case vignettes, and specific techniques for unlocking clients’ own spiritual resources. Solution-Oriented Spirituality is O’Hanlon at his best: erudite, conversational, and committed to mining any resource that might help clients get “unstuck” from constrictive behavioral and thought patterns.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393710625
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	01/12/2015
Pages:	160
Sales rank:	435,134
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Bill O’Hanlon, is a founder of Possibility and Inclusive Therapies and is the author or coauthor of more than thirty books, including Out of the Blue, Becoming A Published Therapist, and Quick Steps to Resolving Trauma. He is a Diplomate, Board Member, Fellow and Master Therapist in the American Psychotherapy Association and was awarded the "Outstanding Mental Health Educator of the Year" in 2001 by the New England Educational Institute. He lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Visit his website for more information: BillOHanlon.com.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction: Why Spirituality in Therapy? 1

Chapter 1 Seven Pathways to Connection 13

Chapter 2 Pathways to Compassion 41

Chapter 3 Pathways to Contribution 71

Chapter 4 Spirituality Assessment 83

Chapter 5 Comparing Religion and Spirituality 91

Chapter 6 Solution-Oriented Spirituality 101

Spirituality and Therapy Reading List 113

Bibliography 129

Index 133

Editorial Reviews

"O’Hanlon achieves his aim of easing clinicians and clients into discussions related to spirituality. . . . I liked that O’Hanlon never imposes his own beliefs on the reader, and instead acknowledges that certain types of spiritual beliefs help certain people, and not necessarily everyone. . . . [E]specially useful for clinicians who want to address spirituality but are afraid to offend, or who have a spiritual or religious client but are unsure how to integrate their faith into the work."

PsychCentral