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Encountering the Sacred in Psychotherapy: How to Talk to People About Their Spiritual Lives.

J.L. Griffith & M.E. Griffith.

Routledge. 2002.

ISBN: 9781572309388.

Encountering the Sacred in Psychotherapy argues that therapists should respectfully explore clients’ spiritual and religious lives as part of clinical work. The book draws on narrative and postmodern therapeutic ideas to show how spirituality can shape the stories people tell in therapy, the metaphors they use, and the meanings they give to relationships and illness.

Its basic contribution is to normalize spiritual conversation in psychotherapy without collapsing spirituality into pathology or doctrine. The book is also noted as useful in a range of clinical situations, including relationship problems, psychiatric symptoms, and medical illness.

James L. Griffith, MD, MS, is a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at George Washington University, where he has also served as chair and helped build training in refugee mental health, human rights advocacy, and global mental health. He is known for work on mind-body problems.

Melissa Elliott Griffith is a clinician and family therapist who worked with the University of Mississippi School of Medicine and as serving on the psychiatry clinical faculty at George Washington University Medical Center.

About Coram Deo

Coram Deo — before the face of God. This blog reflects on Scripture, world events, science, music, psychology, and the human mind — always through the lens of Christian faith. All of life is lived before the face of God.