2023 Summer 18-CEC Certificate Program
Spiritually-Informed Psychotherapies
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Course Outline
Learning Objectives
The order of courses is TBA.
June 16, 2021
1A – MODES OF SPIRITUAL ASSESSMENT:
9am to 10:30am
Instructor: 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 client. Specific learning objectives include:
1) Explaining the rationale for spiritually integrated psychotherapy;
2) 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
3) Using basic assessment tools in using spiritual assessment in psychotherapy practice.
1B – SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT THROUGH THE LIFESPAN:
10:30am to 12pm
Instructor: Lynn Levy, Ph.D., LMSW
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.
June 23, 2021
2A/B – DIVERSITY, EQUITY, & INCLUSION IN SPIRITUAL CARE: Cultivating a Courageous Heart: Using Somatic Mindfulness to Support Embodied Antiracism as Spiritual Practice:
9am to 12:00pm
Instructor: Francesca Marguerite Maximé, LMSW
This module considers the Western view of an individual approach to healing and explores alternate, collective narratives including nonlinear, transgenerational, ancestral, and cosmic views of understanding ourselves and our communities both as embodied spirit, as well as stardust; as mortal flesh and bone; as unique and particular individuals in our relative world; and as vast and connected beings in the universal realm. This module will explore what it looks like to live with integrity; to explore personal values as well as structural and institutional access and barriers to various people based on their social location/positionality, and will invite those with greater privilege to consider how somatic mindfulness helps support embodied antiracist actions in these encounters. Specific learning objectives include:
- Relating cultural competence to the ethical provision of care in multicultural contexts with diverse clients from a range of religious, ethnic, and racial backgrounds
- Deepening students’ understanding of the spiritual values and commitments that underpin psychotherapeutic practice; and
- Recognizing ethical concerns that may present themselves — including boundary blurring, role confusion, and collusion with clients –and facilitating collegial consultation around those.
June 30, 2021
3.A – SPIRITUAL PERSPECTIVES ON FAMILY LIFE:
9am to 10:30am
Instructor: Kathleen Kelley, MDiv., LMFT
Family life has a profound impact on people’s well-being and also lends itself naturally to a spiritual perspective in assuming that the whole can be even greater than the sum of its parts. This module will acquaint students with how major schools of thought about family life and how those might inform their work with various clients, particularly those who value a spiritual integration in psychotherapeutic treatment. Specific learning objectives include:
- Increasing familiarity with the major schools of thought about healthy family life;
- Gaining clarity and a clinical perspective about how family life may effect clients both spiritually and psychologically; and
- Developing tools for making spiritual attitudes on family life more explicit.
3.B – SPIRITUAL PERSPECTIVES ON INTIMACY AND ATTACHMENT:
10:30am to 12pm
Instructor: Derrick T. Jordan, M.Div., LMSW
This module will explore spiritual and religious attitudes toward intimacy, sexuality and attachment and the ways that those might have a psychological impact on various clients, especially if a conflict of values arises. Specific learning objectives include:
- Developing a better grasp of the client’s attitudes toward intimacy, sexuality, and attachment, especially those attitudes that have a basis in spiritual or religious beliefs;
- Cultivating a capacity to reflect how those spiritual or religious attitudes might create both intrapsychic and interpersonal conflicts for certain clients; and
- Acquiring new tools for providing clients with psychoeducational materials around healthy attachment and intimacy.
July 7, 2021
4A/B – SPIRITUAL APPROACHES TO ADDICTIONS AND COMPULSIONS:
9am to 12:00pm
Instructor: Edmund Griffin, MD, PhD.
This module will provide a brief overview of the twelve-step recovery, which for decades has been at the forefront of approaching addictions and compulsions from a spiritual perspective. We will explore approaches to integrating it into spiritually-informed psychotherapy. Additional meanings that clients might assigned to addictions and compulsions will also be examined. Specific learning objectives include:
- Articulating ways that addictions and compulsions might be understood as expressions of client’s spiritual hunger and longing;
- Exploring the intersection between Twelve-Step language and the client’s way of talking expressing spiritual and/or religious beliefs; and
- Incorporating approaches that allow clients to use the Twelve Step model as a spiritual resource that can improve mental health.
July 14, 2021
5A – SPIRITUAL APPROACHES TO CRISIS AND CONFLICT:
9am to 10:30am
Instructor: Kim Schneiderman, LCSW
This module will present both a framework and specific research-based techniques that students can use with both with clients to reframe crisis and conflict as opportunities for spiritual growth. Specific learning objectives include:
- Redefining conflict in spiritual terms, will include resources from various religious and spiritual traditions;
- Understanding how an altered perspective can not only offer an elevated outlook on conflict, but also help clients develop self-compassion;
- Identifying the specific growth opportunities embedded in each conflict; and
- Helping clients’ access and marshal internal and external resources to successfully resolve conflict and improve mental health.
5B – SPIRITUAL PERSPECTIVES ON DEATH, GRIEF AND LOSS:
10:30am to 12pm
Instructor: H. 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 21, 2021
6A/B – INTEGRATING SPIRITUAL APPROACHES INTO TREATMENT:
9am to 12:00pm
Instructors: Mary Ragan, PhD, LCSW and Jessica E. Heller, MPS, ATR-BC, LCAT
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.
A printable flyer for this program is available here