Spirituality in Mental Health Practice

Miriam Jaffe, PhD, LSW, is an associate teaching professor of graduate composition in the Rutgers University Writing Program. She specializes in life-writing and narrative activism. She is the lead editor of casebooks on K-12 schools as therapeutic communities, sexual trauma, and LGBTQ sexual trauma.Widian Nicola, LCSW, DSW, is a clinical social worker, qualitative researcher, and assistant professor at Seton Hall University.Jerry Floersch, LCSW, PhD, is an associate professor of social work at Rutgers University. He is the author of Meds, Money, and Manners: The Case Management of Severe Mental Illness and co-author of Qualitative Methods for Practice Research. His clinical practice focuses on adolescents and adults. Jeffrey Longhofer, PhD, LCSW, is an associate professor of social work at Rutgers University. He is the author of A-Z of Psychodynamic Practice and the co-author of On Being and Having a Case Manager. His clinical practice focuses on children, adolescents, and adults.

"This carefully crafted book presents detailed narratives of spiritually sensitive clinical practice that stretch across various worldviews and life challenges of clients. It integrates professional knowledge and values with insights from the very personal spiritual journeys of the authors. Case presentations are matched with deep reflective questions and podcast interviews with professional helpers. Thus, this wise book encourages close, empathic listening and communicating, both within clinical encounters and in readers’ own personal and professional development." – Edward R. Canda, PhD, professor, School of Social Welfare, The University of Kansas"This beautiful book embraces the tensions that exist when doing clinical practice with spiritually diverse populations. Centering the stories of clinicians, students, and clients, the rich phenomenological narratives remind readers that storytelling and the art of listening are pathways to spiritually sensitive practice. The imagery and attention to the details of lived experiences and settings fertilize the ground for deepening empathy, creating more participatory forms of knowledge, and strengthening opportunities for transformational change." – Loretta Pyles, PhD, professor, School of Social Welfare, State University of New York at Albany

• 1. A History of Spirituality, Religion, and Social Work: Using the "Circle of Insight" to Challenge, Question, and Create a Framework for Spiritually Sensitive Practice Anthony Nicoterra 2. The Spiritual Call to Helping Professions: Job Crafting, Meaning Making, and Field Work as Spiritual Experience Kanako Okuda 3. Spiritual Emergence and Spiritual Emergency Michael Garbe 4. Radical Empathy, the Thin Place: Hearing Voices in Psycho-Spiritual Group Therapy Cristina Blasoni 5. Pulling Yourself Up By Your Bootstraps: Transcending the Stories of Ego Michael Jarrette-Kenny 6. A Power Greater: Exploring Spirituality in Addiction Recovery Debra Ruisard 7. The Spirituality of Incarceration Bianca Ramos-Channer 8. When Life Review is Not Enough: The Spiritual Present(ce) of Older Adults Robin Wiley 9. The Asana of Being with Living and Dying: Reflections From a Day of Hospice Work Joan Ordille 10. The Shared Spiritual Energy of Reiki and Early Psychoanalytic Practice Lynda Fabbo