The Spiritualities of Therapists' Lives

Summary

We situate how the personal spiritual quests of our own lives have influenced our work as family therapists, particularly influencing our chosen theories of change. We provide a definition of and approach to spirituality that centers its ethical, moral, and deeply relational nature, and propose that therapists' own spirituality can be a beneficial resource in the relationships they build and foster with those who consult them. Careful attention is given to how God calls us into relationships with others. Narrative therapy and spirituality are both defined as inherently relationalist practices and ways of being. Drawing on narrative therapy ideas, we describe a four step process we have used to explore therapists' spirituality in supervisory contexts specifically focusing on the relational nature of their work, and illustrate this process by giving supervision dialogues from some of our experiences.

Key Words:

• Spirituality
• family therapy training
• narrative therapy