2023 Curriculum*
Summer Certificate Program in Spiritually Informed Psychotherapies
* Course details are subject to change
June 14, 2023
1A – MODES OF SPIRITUAL ASSESSMENT:
9:00 am – 10:30 am EDT
Facilitator: Mary Ragan, PhD, LCSW
Both implicit and explicit spiritual assessment will be introduced as helpful tools for integrating spiritual experiences and practices into psychotherapeutic work with various clients. Specific learning objectives include:
- Explaining the rationale for spiritually integrated psychotherapy;
- Examining the resources of individuals related to their spiritual beliefs and support systems and how these can contribute both positively and negatively to their mental health; and
- Using basic assessment tools in using spiritual assessment in psychotherapy practice.
1B – INTEGRATING SPIRITUAL APPROACHES INTO TREATMENT:
10:30 am – 12:00 pm EDT
Facilitator: Mary Ragan, PhD, LCSW
This module considers the elements involved in successfully integrating spirituality into psychotherapeutic treatment, for clients and clinicians alike, in the interests of improved mental health care, taking into consideration compulsions, addictions, and various life crises. Specific learning objectives include:
- Articulating the role spirituality can play in improving various client outcomes and promoting individuals’ resilience;
- Addressing the spiritual needs and desires that might underlie an array of presenting problems; and
- Connecting with a full range of spiritual resources available to both clients and clinicians.
June 21, 2023
2A/B – APPROACHES TO SPIRITUALLY-INFORMED CARE FOR GENDER-EXPANSIVE CLIENTS:
9:00 am – 12:00 pm EDT
Facilitator: Lana Hurst, MA, MDiv
This module considers the clarifications necessary for the ethical practice of spiritually informed psychotherapy in contexts where clients identify as transgender and/or gender – expansive. Specific learning objectives include:
- Relating cultural competence to the ethical provision of care in contexts with clients who are transgender and/or gender-expansive;
- Deepening students’ understanding of the spiritual concerns that may arise with transgender and/or gender-expansive clients; and
- Gaining clarity and a clinical perspective about how gender identity may affect clients both spiritually and psychologically.
June 28, 2023
3A – SPIRITUALITY AND FAMILY SYSTEMS: CONVERSATIONS AND CLINICAL APPLICATIONS:
9:00 am – 10:30 am EDT
Facilitator: Sarah McCaslin, MDiv, LCSW, and PSI Executive Director
Psychotherapists are uniquely situated to assist clients in developing nonjudgmental curiosity toward the role that spirituality plays, and has played, in their lives and family systems. Through increased awareness, clients gain the capacity to better align with, or withdraw from, spiritual legacies, and, in so doing, cultivate new ‘spiritual scaffolding.’
This module will acquaint students with published literature on family systems and spirituality; introduce case studies; and provide clinical interventions for a variety of therapeutic contexts.
- Increasing familiarity with published literature on spirituality and family systems;
- Use of genograms to uncover spiritual legacies;
- Development of clinical tools to identify spiritual themes in family systems and guide clients toward new understanding.
3B – SPIRITUAL SELF-CARE FOR HELPING PROFESSIONALS THROUGH MINDFULNESS PRACTICES:
10:30 am – 12:00 pm EDT
Facilitator: Dharmachari Ananta
This module focuses on self-care as a spiritual practice for helping professionals. We will explore mindfulness, with an emphasis on stress reduction (MBSR), and a suite of mindfulness practices as ways to enhance self-care, and how these can address issues related to vicarious trauma, job burnout, and compassion fatigue. We will consider mindfulness principles and practices as supports that nurture wellness and increase our capacity to be present. Specific learning objectives include:
- Lightly learn about the Buddhist origins of mindfulness practice
- Understanding the value of mindfulness as an approach to self-care in promoting professional longevity and personal and spiritual wellness;
- Increase familiarity with mindfulness practices for spiritual wellness; and
- Enhance learning about mindfulness for stress reduction (MBSR) and how to incorporate techniques of mindfulness into daily life.
July 12, 2023
4A – SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT THROUGH THE LIFESPAN:
9:00 am – 10:30 am EDT
Facilitator: Kim Schneiderman, LCSW
Each life stage calls forth two archetypes that appear to oppose another and press for resolution, for example Innocent vs. Orphan; Seeker vs. Lover; Warrior vs. Caregiver; Destroyer vs. Creator; Ruler vs. Magician: Sage vs. Fool. Each archetype has a specific spiritual energy that has gifts, lessons, and shadow sides. The goal of each stage of life is to balance the opposing archetypes. Specific learning objectives include:
- Contemplating the archetypal patterns as presented by each developmental life stage;
- Improving the ability to listen for themes that suggest which archetype is dominant in a given stage of life; and
- Improving the ability to effectively tailor mental health interventions according to each archetypal pull.
4B – THE INNER LANDSCAPE OF DREAMS: EXPLORING DEPTH PSYCHOLOGY AND SPIRITUALITY
10:30 am – 12:00 pm EDT
Facilitator: Shivam Gosai, MS, LMHC
Throughout cultures and spiritual traditions, dreams have offered a portal to an inner world, offering contact with the transcendent. The course explores the fundamentals of dream work through the lens of depth psychology and introduces techniques to integrate dreams into clinical work.
- To provide an overview of the basic principles and concepts of Jungiandream analysis, including the role of archetypes and the collective unconscious.
- To develop an understanding of the significance of dreamsand how they can be used for spiritual growth and transformation.
- To learn techniques for working with dreams in clinical settings, such as association, amplification, and animation, and to apply these techniques to personal and clients’ dream material.
July 19, 2023
5A – MULTIPLICITY AS PATH TO WHOLENESS: SPIRITUAL PERSPECTIVES ON CRISIS AND CONFLICT
9:00 am – 10:30 am EDT
Facilitator: Kim Schneiderman, LCSW
This module will present how the Internal Family Systems (IFS) model, a modality designed by family therapist Richard Schwartz, PhD., can help us restore the loss of connection to our divine source oftentimes resulting from crisis and conflict, by befriending our protective system and exiled inner children and enlisting the help of spirit guides.
- Understand the spiritual core of Internal Family Systems model
- Understand how befriending protective parts and witnessing exiles can heal trauma and restore our connection to spirituality
- Gain tools to increase self-energy and unblend from parts via a meditation and writing exercise
- Understand how IFS aligns and departs from other spiritually-informed psychotherapies
5B – SPIRITUAL PERSPECTIVES ON DEATH, GRIEF AND LOSS:
10:30 am – 12:00 pm EDT
Facilitator: Kimball Jones, MDiv, PhD, LMHC
Together we will look at how certain spiritual values and practices might affect our treatment of grief and loss in our therapy practices, taking into special consideration the client’s spiritual life. Specific learning objectives include:
- Achieving a better understanding of how death and grief are dealt with in American society;
- Articulating how religious beliefs and practices might be helpful tools for those facing death or grief; and
- Considering how psychotherapy approaches that integrate spiritual perspectives can be most effective in working with those clients who are facing death and loss.
July 26, 2023
6A – THE MINDFUL THERAPIST: INTRODUCING MINDFULNESS INTO CLINICAL PRACTICE
9:00 am – 10:30 am EDT
Mental health clinicians that cultivate mindfulness and meditation practices experience benefits that support wellness, minimize burnout and provide a foundation for incorporating mindfulness and meditation into clinical practice regardless of theoretical orientation.
This module will present formal and informal mindfulness practices, potential benefits and risks of mindfulness and meditation, the state of research on mindfulness in mental health practice, tools for developing and maintaining a personal mindfulness practice, and the steps that clinicians can take to incorporate both implicit and explicit uses of mindfulness in clinical work.
- Describe mindfulness and the potential benefits and research supporting mindfulness practice
- Describe how mindfulness practices can enhance clinical practice regardless of theoretical orientation
- Describe how to begin to apply mindfulness practice in a therapeutic setting
6B – GROUP PROCESS ON THE APPLICATION OF SPIRITUALLY-INFORMED PSYCHOTHERAPIES:
10:30 am – 12:00 pm EDT
Facilitator: Jessica Heller-Nili, MPS, ATR-BC, LCAT
This final module aims to synthesize the content of the six-week program through dynamic group discussion and clinical examples and to further contextualize considerations in spiritually-informed care in a psychotherapy practice.
- Articulating the role spirituality can play in improving various client outcomes and promoting individuals’ resilience;
- Addressing the spiritual needs and desires that might underlie an array of presenting problems; and
- Discussion and group networking including a full range of spiritual resources available to both clients and clinicians.
A printable flyer for this program is available here