Spiritual Competency in Psychotherapy, 1st Edition

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 Peter said, “Lord, we left our own homes to follow You.”

Jesus answered, “There is no one who has left a house,

a wife, brothers, parents, or children

For the sake of the kingdom of God

Who will not receive many times as much

at this time and in the age to come—

Eternal life.”

To my kingdom family

And especially those working with broken people in difficult situations:

With humankind what we attempt is impossible

But with God all things are possible.

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 Contents

Foreword Patricia Roberts-Adams xi

Preface xv
Acknowledgments xix
Share Spiritual Competency in psychotherapy

Introduction: Spiritual Competence in Clinical Practice 1

The Nature of Psychotherapy 3
The Issue of Competence 6
Spirituality as a Cultural Issue 8
Competence, Ethics, and Cultural Sensitivity 10
The Purpose of This Book 13
The Structure of the Book 15

PART I: WHAT IS SPIRITUALITY? 19

1. Spirit 21
Various Definitions 23
Spirit or Spirituality in Abrahamic Monotheism 24
Spirit in Eastern Thought 34
Spirit in the New Age 36
Synthesis 38
2. Spirituality and Religion 39
Polarity or False Dichotomy? 40
Psychological Stance 43
Philosophical Stance 46
Theological Stance 53
A Coherentist Web of Belief 55

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 viii contents

3. Spirituality as Process 59
What Is a Process? 60
The What and the How of Spiritual Process 62
4. Spirituality as Relationship 69
What Is a Relationship? 71
The What and the How of Spiritual Relationship 73
5. Personal Spirituality 77
Existentially Meaningful 77
Personally Authentic 79
Ethically Consistent 81

PART II: SPIRITUAL PRACTICES IN PSYCHOTHERAPY 85

6. Spiritual Work in the Context of a Therapeutic Relationship 87
Dialogue 88
Implications 92
7. Spiritual Work in the Context of a Complex Situation 101
The Situation 102
Implications 107
8. Spiritual Work and the Interpretation of Experience 117
The Interpretation of Experience 118
Implications 122
9. Spiritual Work and the Movement to Enactment 133
The Movement to Enactment 134
Implications 140

PART III: COMMON SPIRITUAL ISSUES ENCOUNTERED IN THERAPY 147

10. Living in the Present 149
What to Do 155
11. The Issue of Truth 159
What to Do 166
12. Faith and Uncertainty 169
What to Do 173
13. Communal Belonging 177
What to Do 182
14. Dissatisfaction With God 185
What to Do 189

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 contents ix

15. Rigidity and Legalism 193

What to Do 197
16. Abuse 201
Abuse in Religious Community 202
Abuse of Religious Community 206
What to Do 209
17. Spiritism, Spiritualism, and the Occult 213
What to Do 217
18. Endings, Death, and Personal Eschatology 221
What to Do 225

Conclusion 229
References 231
Index 245

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 Foreword

T he reader of this book is put somewhere between a blik and a bum-

ble bee. For those not familiar with the word “blik,” it was coined
by R. M. Hare at Oxford in 1950, and is an unverifiable and unfalsifi-
able interpretation of a person’s experience.
For other readers who believe that, because of aerodynamic design,
a bumble bee can’t fly—that’s a well-circulated myth. Even though the
bee is a tanker-truck that transports nectar and its left and right wings
flap independently, it does fly. What the bee lacks in design, it makes
up with brute force.
So, we are left between a blik and a myth. I have pitched my mental
tent here and speak from just outside the entrance flap. Speaking of
flap, this is why I find this book so timely and useful. It’s because of
the flap about God, the Bible, and most things spiritual.
The popularity of strident atheists in today’s culture has either intro-
duced, or strengthened, the resolve of many people who chose to dis-
miss a spiritual dimension. For those who have the responsibility of
helping a person through the mental maze, a map may be needed. This
book provides the map.
In the first part, a reader encounters “the” or “a” spirit. One defini-
tion offered is “something imparted or bestowed upon a person, built
into them by God.” Welcome to the world of blik and myth. We can’t
see the object, only the manifestation of possible existence.
After bouncing off of the blik, we impact the myth. Religion, for
some, is to believe in myths. Yet, religion and spirituality are “paral-
lel continuums, twirling around each other like the latticework in a

xi

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 xii foreword

strand of DNA. . . .” This can be overlooked, minimized, or misunder-

stood. But to do so may twirl incompetence around psychotherapy.
Hopefully a reader is open-minded enough to consider the distinct
probability of encountering this combination in fellow human beings.
Even for those who truly believe a bumble bee can’t fly, there comes
a moment when a myth calls for further examination. Dr. Brownell
offers this with professional respect and clarity.
For almost a half-century I have often observed the presence of
something ageless within the human body. When talking with an
elderly woman, she looked at me and said, “When you see me, you see
an old woman. But inside is a 16-year-old girl.” And for a brief instant
she was, and I was privileged to meet the youngster. Blik.
As a fellow writer I have also experienced the possibility of a spiritual
dimension. This happened through a relationship with Jesus Christ.
Yes, I believe in God, in the human manifestation and written revela-
tion of Him. But stop here. That doesn’t make me anti-intellectual or a
victim of delusions, as the more ferocious scoffers portray. My fields
of interest range from philosophy to theology, with musings among
science and logic. Even being able to pronounce some of the words
encountered in these topics should result in some credit.
There are many references to the Christian faith, along with other
religions, but Dr. Brownell claims that “just as this book is not a psy-
chology of religion, nor a philosophy of religion, it is not a Christian
theology of psychotherapy.” Then what is it?
It’s a journey taken by a seasoned psychotherapist who examines
all the dimensions of the “unified whole.” He takes his bag of therapy
tools, checks the mental map, then heads toward the town of Spiritual
Authenticity and rents a room. At least that’s the way I see it.
I also see the vulnerability and competency of the traveler. He feels,
cares, and factors in the spiritual aspect of a human being, if needed.
If I were a client, it would be reassuring to see this book located some-
where in a therapist’s office.
It is apparent that a person’s mental health depends on their connec-
tion with reality, or lack of. Although truth is under suspicion in a rela-
tivistic culture, I continue to seek and believe that it exists. Perhaps it’s
akin to what is called “critical realism.” There are topics such as thera-
peutic relationship, complex situational dynamics, the interpretation
of experience, and the move to behavior enactment that also require
further education on my part, beyond this initial exposure.

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 foreword xiii

In the meantime, Dr. Brownell offers the reader a three-legged stool

with a comfortable “extra-therapeutic factors” cushion upon which
to sit, observe, and think. One leg is solidly stabilized by philosophy,
another by psychotherapy, and the remaining one by theology. Posi-
tion it somewhere between the blik and the bumble bee.
May “the” or “a” spirit be with you.

Patricia Roberts-Adams
Portland, Oregon/Reno, Nevada

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 Preface

T his book has been roaming around in my mind for at least 15 years.
In my imagination it has taken several forms, and it has been
addressed to several different kinds of readers. It has also evolved
within this present iteration.
There is always some “finding out” when it comes to writing, and that
is because of the nature of writing. After I started writing for myself,
instead of writing for professors, I realized why professors assign
writing. People learn from it. I know that I learn from it, and that is
partly why I write. It is the process of reaching out into the world to get
information and relate it to what I’m thinking about, and it is related
to the process of reaching out into the world to think in the first place.
I don’t just collect facts; I grapple with ideas and correlate the facts with
the ideas that grip me. I often interact with my colleagues and run con-
structions by them to see what they will do with them. In that regard
I prize my relationships with Peter Philippson, Dan Bloom, Seán
Gaffney, and others on the discussion lists of the New York Institute
for Gestalt Therapy and the listserv known as Gstalt-L. Thus, writing
becomes an extension of myself, a growth experience that seems a bit
beyond what I ever thought it might be.
Andy Clark (2011) relays an anecdote, attributed to Richard Feynman,
in which a historian refers to Feynman’s notes as the record of his think-
ing, the work having been done in his head, and Feynman responds by
saying, “No, it’s not a record, not really. It’s working. You have to work on
paper and this is the paper. Okay?” (p. xxv).

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 xvi preface

I can relate. I have lived long enough that I have worked on paper, on a
typewriter, and now on a computer. I have learned to think through my
fingers on the keyboard. My cognitive process—my mind, if you will—
extends through my fingertips, onto the keypad, and into the computer
program, and my thoughts often flow out into the world so that my self
extends beyond the bounds of my physical body. I cannot do the same
thing just talking to people; dictation doesn’t work for me. I must write
it. Also, if I am working on an organizational board in which I must talk,
for example, to participate in a phone conference, I am close to useless,
and it is frustrating, because following the conference, I will typically
sit down on my computer and write a long and detailed email laying
out everything I could not say—literally could not find the words to say,
not just could not find a place to say them in the flow of the discussion.
People often wonder why I did not share all that “stuff” when I had a
chance, and the answer is that I was not my normal self. My normal self
is a writing self, and a keyboard-writing self.
Why do I bring this up? It’s because people need to be themselves
when they work as psychotherapists, and one cannot fake such things
as competence. If the extension of one’s mind does not naturally flow
out into the world down spiritual corridors, if one has not developed a
spiritual way of being in this world, then spiritual competence is going
to be a struggle, and dealing in spiritual matters in psychotherapy will
seem like a bad fit until one has mastered it over time.
That might seem like I am building up to claim only spiritual peo-
ple can do spiritual work in psychotherapy. That would be untenable.
After all, I had to learn how to type on the typewriter, going from
paper and pen, and I had to experience countless days of writing dia-
logues with my colleagues on professional e-mail lists before I came
to realize that I had become a certain kind of person—the kind who
thinks best through his fingers on a keyboard. Just so, people who
are not immediately sensitive to the hues of light shining through
stained glass, the smell of incense burning on metal in cold, stone
cathedrals, or the heat of sacrifice on the altar can learn to see beyond
such extensions of the self and work out their own spiritual compe-
tencies. I hope this book will at least point the reader in a direction
that facilitates such growth.
This, however, is not a book that covers all bases. That has been part
of its pruning over time. This is not a book that explores all the major
issues with specificity in reference to a majority of spiritual traditions
and worldviews. That has been part of the focusing of the project in

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 preface xvii

the reduction of time. Given that I don’t have time (perhaps there never
was enough time) to research all the nuances of the major spiritual
and religious systems so as to provide an exhaustive reference, I am
falling back on what I know best, and I am letting it serve as both
specific example and metaphorical illustration. The reader from a dif-
ferent spiritual tradition will, hopefully, be able to apply the principles
outlined in the examples and points that I make. Furthermore, I am not
even providing an exhaustive treatment of my own spiritual tradition
in psychotherapy. Rather, I’m going to explore this from my perspec-
tive and roam around in it. I will go here and there, miss some things
and hit others. I admit this approach from the beginning. This book
will not be all things to all people.
I am a Christian, but having said that, I am not what some might
think of as a Christian. I am an ordained clergyman, and I once
served on the multiple staff of a large church in the Sacramento
Valley of California. In my Bible I carried a picture of what I looked
like in college, and it showed a young man in a navy peacoat, with
shoulder-length hair and a beard. The secretary at that church told
me, “I don’t think a pastor should have ever looked like that!” I never
burned my rock and roll. I drank wine, and I went to movies. On the
other hand, in college I also drove an old, green panel truck with the
words in yellow across the side that said, “Jesus Saves!” I sat in the
hallways with my Bible open and got into conversations with people
about spiritual matters, and to this day I hold to a literal, historical,
grammatical hermeneutic in exegesis.
I am conservative in my theology, but I defy the stereotypes. As one
of my colleagues once said, “I am too Christian for the psychologists,
and too psychological for the Christians.” I am not like the preachers
who feel their calling and task from God is to point out where everyone
is wrong. I think we’re all wrong to some degree, and so it’s a pointless
effort. My education in clinical psychology, my training and growth
in gestalt therapy, and my experience in clinical practice have led me
to appreciate the complexity integral to human life, and that includes
the spiritual dimension of living. I’ve existed as a man trying to live
according to Christian spirituality for almost 45 years, and for part of
that time I was a professional Christian. I speak through my fingers
into your world about some things that I know. I don’t know every-
thing. Life is more than what it seemed in seminary. I have learned
that there are spiritual experiences people have that are different from
my own, and I believe that spiritual competence in psychotherapy

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 xviii preface

requires that the psychotherapist know something before beginning

but be able to learn something from each client as the process unfolds.
What I have intended in the writing of this book is to explore spiri-
tuality in the practice of psychotherapy in order to contribute to the
competence of clinicians.
Philip Brownell
From above Mizzentop on Harbor Road
Warwick, Bermuda

REFERENCE

Clark, A. (2011). Supersizing the mind: Embodiment, action, and cognitive

extension. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

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