Are You Spiritual?
If you are, you may be tempted to think therapy and spirituality are at odds. After all, many of us have heard of therapy nightmares where the prescribed treatment is “have more faith.”
Yet, we simply cannot trace all mental health struggles back to incorrect belief, suggesting that therapy will help us “believe better” and therefore make us “feel better”.
Consider a traumatic event on the news this week and the PTSD/anxiety/depression the person is now feeling, perhaps it is seeing a family living in a war-torn country. Faith may play a role in their recovery, but a lack of faith is not the cause of their symptoms. The presence of faith does not negate the need for therapeutic techniques.
This does not mean we must remove our faith from therapy. Perhaps there is an incorrect belief about God or themselves, resulting from trauma that impacts your spiritual life. In this case, identifying and challenging these beliefs would certainly have an impact on your spiritual walk.
Life throws some things our way that will be greatly helped by your relationship with God and the care of your community, but some of these things also require the additional specialty of a trained therapist.
Please fight the urge to view your need for therapy as a weakness or as a detour in your spiritual walk. Rather, view it as yet another step towards health and maturity. View it as a tool in your arsenal as you fight for an even stronger love for God.
Are you spiritual? Perhaps therapy is a part of your spiritual journey.
Consider asking your therapist how you can incorporate your faith tradition into your sessions.