Exploring the role of spirituality in couple and family relationships, this successful text and practitioner guide illustrates ways to tap spiritual resources for coping, healing, and resilience. Leading experts in family therapy and pastoral care discuss how faith beliefs and practices can foster personal and relational well-being, how religious conflicts or a spiritual void can contribute to distress, and what therapists can gain from reflecting on their own spiritual journeys. The volume is rich with insights for working with multi-faith and culturally diverse clients.

About the Author

Froma Walsh, MSW, PhD, is the Mose and Sylvia Firestone Professor Emerita in the Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice and the Department of Psychiatry, Pritzker School of Medicine, University of Chicago. She is also Co-Founder and Co-Director of the Chicago Center for Family Health. Dr. Walsh is an internationally respected clinical scholar and a foremost authority on family resilience. Integrating developmental, relational, sociocultural, and spiritual perspectives, her resilience-oriented systemic approach with individuals, couples, and families fosters healing and positive adaptation. She is past editor of the Journal of Marital and Family Therapy and past president of the American Family Therapy Academy. Dr. Walsh is the recipient of many honors for distinguished contributions to theory, research, and practice, including the Presidential Citation from the American Psychological Association and awards from the American Family Therapy Academy, the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, the American Orthopsychiatric Association, and the Society for Pastoral Counseling Research. She is a frequent speaker and consultant internationally, and her books have been translated into many languages.

Reviews

"The rewards of this volume are multifaceted: inspiration for the clinician's own personal and spiritual pilgrimage; awareness of the many facets, expressions, and nuances of spirituality; and guidance on how spirituality can be acknowledged and mobilized as a resource for marital and family growth and healing. It is a key required text for my course on spirituality and clinical praxis, and has richly contributed to my own practice, my teaching, and the personal and professional development of my students."--Rand Michael, DMin, Graduate Department of Counseling and Marriage and Family Therapy Program, George Fox University

"Distinguished practitioner Froma Walsh and her contributing authors affirm the fundamental place of spirituality in individual, couple, and family therapy. Topics include therapeutic applications related to grieving, forgiveness, and meditation, as well as approaches to working with special populations, such as immigrants and refugees. The book assists therapists to recognize, assess, and appreciate their own and their clients' spirituality so that spirituality can become a constructive aspect of therapy. Theoretically grounded yet practical, this is essential reading for students and established professionals alike."--Martin W. Rovers, PhD, Faculty of Human Sciences, St. Paul University, Ottawa, Canada

"This volume documents a remarkable transformation in family therapists' regard for spirituality. It urges clinicians to follow streams of spiritual experience through family belief systems, rituals, and communities, in order to appreciate the rich therapeutic possibilities that spirituality provides. Capturing the diversity of contemporary families, the contributors provide an array of approaches for helping people cope assertively with losses, injustices, and adversities in their lives."--James L. Griffith, MD, Department of Psychiatry, The George Washington University Medical Center

"Featuring brand-new and updated material, this superb revision of Walsh's groundbreaking text gives voice to the powerful and often ignored spiritual dimension of human experience. The volume offers a rich, multilayered exploration of spirituality and relational well-being. Highly accessible and beautifully written, it is filled with case examples, author reflections, and information that therapists need to develop greater spiritual self-awareness and professional effectiveness. A 'must read' for social workers and psychotherapists, and for graduate students in mental health, family studies, and pastoral counseling."--Marsha Pravder Mirkin, PhD, Department of Psychology, Lasell College; Women's Studies Research Center, Brandeis University

"A vital contribution to the growing literature on spirituality and psychotherapy. This excellent volume reminds us that spirituality is, at its heart, all about relationships. The contributors skillfully demonstrate how practitioners from every discipline can weave a sensitivity to the spiritual dimension into their work with families from diverse religious backgrounds who are facing life's most profound problems. Through moving personal accounts, the volume also invites therapists to examine the place of spirituality in their own lives. I highly recommend this updated second edition."--Kenneth I. Pargament, PhD, Department of Psychology (Emeritus), Bowling Green State University

- Throughout twenty engaging chapters, the authors explore a wide range of spiritual and religious viewpoints towards aspects of family life, including loss, resilience, and the idea of healing. Following this they consider implications for therapeutic practice, with many contributors sharing extensive and highly practical aspects of their individual approaches....Throughout the book, Walsh and her contributors share their thoughts and practices in a way that suggests real depth in exploring spiritual resources, stemming from many years of reflecting on their practice and developing creative but well-thought-out therapeutic positions and approaches....Walsh's language and approach to spirituality is creative and at times poetic, harnessing the fleeting essence of spirituality with imagination. Her courage to express her compassionate and open attitude to life and human behavior is what makes this book enriching and engaging well beyond its educative potential. This volume offers those readers with a limited knowledge of religious diversity a good grounding in attitudes towards life's challenges and resilience from a vast amount of different faith perspectives. --Journal of Family Therapy, 3/25/2010ff Adds to the discussion of the positive influences of faith beliefs and practices on healing, well-being, longevity, physical, emotional, and interpersonal problems. This sourcebook fills a crucial void in the literature by validating and normalizing for practitioners the importance of providing psychological and emotional space for the experience of spirituality to occur within ourselves and the families we work with. --Family Journal, 1/3/2010ff"I have used this book in a graduate family therapy class, beginning with its earlier edition, and it continually draws very favorable discussion and response. The chapters demonstrate an ecumenical, interfaith sensitivity and together call the reader to do their 'own spiritual-religious work'....This is an engaging, thought-provoking text that is well-suited for the secular and pastoral clinician. It is an excellent accompaniment to standard family therapy texts in the classroom context."--Journal for the Study of Marriage and Spirituality, 1/1/2013

Book Information
ISBN 9781606239087
Author Froma Walsh
Format Paperback
Page Count 412
Imprint Guilford Publications
Publisher Guilford Publications
Weight(grams) 600g