Spiritual Resources in Family Therapy, Article Writing Example

The authors deal with mindfulness meditation as an approach in therapy. Their article gives an account of the use of mindfulness meditation in teaching therapeutical presence, which has been a challenge to most beginning therapists. The overriding theme in their work is meditation and its influence on therapeutic practice. The authors Gehart and McCollum (2010) advocate for the importance of mindfulness in the development of a therapeutic relationship that is effective. According to Gehart and McCollum (2010), mindfulness refers to the practice of meditation involving bringing the awareness of the practitioner into the present moment avoiding evaluating or judging that experience. The authors view spirituality as something that can bring a change in therapeutic experience. However, they prefer a careful handling of religious views to encourage participants who might think that supervisors are forcing religion upon their experiences.

Crucial ideas or aspects of the article

This was a study, which sought to evaluate the influence of meditation on the approach of beginning therapists towards clients suffering from psychological disorders. The study has crucial ideas about meditation in the discussion section where the authors discuss the experiences by those students who participated in the program.

One of the aspects in the article was that of students becoming aware about their inner experience. According to Gehart and McCollum (2010), students viewed this component of presence as something they could attend to and observe. The students described being aware of what was going on around them, specifically being aware of their clients during therapy sessions coupled with increased internal awareness or focus. The authors report one of the participants feeling an increased sense of wellbeing after meditating regularly for several days. The student reported that she arrived at her workplace with a jolly mood and felt present for the students than she had felt before. The students kept their attention to clients as well as keeping attention to self. The authors report that the students were able to make progress in using meditation in providing therapeutic measures.

Another crucial aspect discussed by the authors involved compassion and acceptance. The students whose journals featured in the study by the authors reported a growing sense of compassion and acceptance throughout their journals, which they attributed to their practice of meditation. According to Gehart and McCollum (2010), the students noted that they felt more compassionate and accepted than before, in addition to feeling compassion for, themselves.

Critique

However, it matters to note that the study could have had flaws in that students could have been feeling the journals with the information expected by the supervisors. The authors who were the supervisors, however, discouraged this by encouraging students to incorporate the positive, as well as negative experiences in their work.

Rivet Mark and Street Eddy

The authors deal with connections and spirituality themes in family therapy. The authors give an overview of spirituality considerations in the literature and practice of family therapy. The family therapy literature has reflected a growing awareness of spirituality issues in therapeutic practice over the last two decades according to Rivett and Street (2001). The authors mention that, in therapeutic practice, the client’s preferences and belief systems should feature. Therefore, the practice of ethics requires professionals in therapeutic practice to respect the clients’ beliefs. The recognition of the therapist’s ‘self’ by family therapy is also a significant move that means integration of the beliefs of the therapists into the practice.

Crucial aspects or ideas in the article

The relationship between spirituality and therapy has been a troubled one historically. In this article, the authors discuss a connection framework where they deal with instrumental and metaphysical connections.

According to Rivett and Street (2001), instrumental connections concern belief systems of the clients. The connections deal with three themes used in therapy by therapists. The themes include spiritual ethnosensitivity, use of spiritual beliefs, and use of religious or spiritual practices. Spiritual ethnosensitivity describes a position of ethics, which respects the diversity of spiritual beliefs. The authors cite that therapists should actively use spiritual beliefs in their practice by involving the recognition of a power beyond man. This high power is God according to the account of these authors (Rivett & Street, 2001, p 462). The authors give an example of prayer used in family therapy as one example of using spiritual practices. According to the authors, use of spiritual and religious practices has been in use for long in psychotherapy.

In metaphysical connections, the authors assert that the spirituality and psychotherapy realms have a connection because both involve the human condition aspects of philosophy (Rivett & Street, 2001, p 463). This is the reason why spiritual therapists use spiritual nature ideas and attempt providing therapeutic thinking and spiritual integration. According to the authors, practitioners focus on the link between the spiritual and therapeutic through the beliefs of the therapists. They, therefore, offer categorization according to different places, steps and stages, and ‘the same and different, and the same’.

Critique

It is not substantially clear how the influence of spirituality works. The article argues that a method applies whatever the approach, provided transformation of the client happens in the end.

Anderson A. D. and Worthen Dan

The authors deal with spirituality’s influence on family therapy. In the article, the authors explore ways of making the spirituality of the therapist serve a function in couple therapy. The authors define spirituality as a subjective engagement that bear human experience, transcendent dimension. The engagement evokes corresponding behavior and enhances human life. According to Anderson and Worthen (1997), there are three things influencing spiritually based therapy. These include the assumptions: that God is there, that humans desperately need a connection with God and that God or the Supreme Being has a concern over humans.

Ideas or aspects crucial in the article

The authors view spirituality as a human experience, fourth dimension. According to the article, there are three experience dimensions that most therapies address (Anderson & Worthen, 1997, p. 4). The three dimensions include time, space and story. The authors assert that spirituality determines how a person approaches therapy work. A therapist expands the use of his or her therapeutic directions and resources through the way or manner of listening to clients. This includes how he or she responds verbally or nonverbally towards the couple. Thus, we have the aspects of how the therapist listens and how he or she responds during couple therapy.

While listening, a family therapist looks for a fourth-dimensional process occurrence through the happenings in the three dimensions of story, space, and time. Thus, the therapist’s spirituality leads as the therapist listens to the clients.

Listening to a couple meditatively makes a therapist respond in a number of ways. The therapist in most cases offers a compassionate, emotional response and show unconditional acceptance. The therapist allows himself or herself to undergo a deep affection including bringing into accounts his or her experiences of suffering. The therapist will be able to view the couple with grace and thus developing love for them. The therapists work to accept the clients’ condition of suffering without passing judgment.

Critique

Researchers have shown that the belief systems of clients in therapeutic work should also feature. However, this article does not consider this fact. It overemphasizes on the therapists’ belief system

References

Anderson, A. D. & Worthen D. (1997). Exploring a Fourth Dimension: Spirituality as a Resource for the Couple Therapist. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, Vol. 23, No. 1, 3-12

Gehart, R. D. & McCollum E. E. (2010). Using Mindfulness Meditation to Teach Beginning Therapists Therapeutic Presence: A Qualitative Study. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, Vol. 36, No. 3, 347-360

Rivett, M. & Street E. (2001). Connections and Themes of Spirituality in Family Therapy. Family Process, Vol. 40, No. 4, 459-467