Psycho-spiritual Care in Health Care Practice

This is an important book for therapists and anyone engaged in psycho-spiritual care within a health context. The author is head of spiritual and pastoral care at Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust and Director of the Oxford Centre for Spirituality and Well-being. At a time when spirituality represents a quest for meaning and connection, it is important to make space for this within a therapeutic context, all the more so since the approach is holistic. The first part reports on the editor's own research using an autoethnographic approach with an emphasis on liminality, relationality and healing. The second part widens out into contributions from other practitioners, with a number of short responses. The clinical framework is crucial, and is reflected in professional use of language. Fortunately, we are moving away from models pathologising spirituality, but there are nevertheless borderlines involved. The editor advocates what he calls Radical Presence, defined as the integration of contemporary spirituality with practical theological or pastoral insights and an applied model of person-centred counselling and psychotherapy - thus Carl Rogers is an important influence, as is Martin Buber with his key insight distinguishing I-Thou from I-It relationships. All this helps to create a more open, informed and sympathetic clinical space.