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Learn how theology and psychology can work together to provide effective therapy!Shared Grace provides a framework within which mental health professionals and clergy can work together to provide people in need with appropriate psychological services and spiritual interventions. Breaking down the walls between psychology and religion, this guide offers you proven and tried methods and models from the authors'collaborative work. Comprehensive and intelligent, this vital book will help therapists incorporate a spiritual dimension to their sessions and give patients successful and effective services.Shared Grace is also a book about the healing power of love. It is the very personal, intense account of the authors'work to help a woman who suffered from dissociative identity disorder heal from the effects of her childhood abuse. Through this poignant story, you'll find that adding a spiritual dimension into psychotherapy brings increased richness and depth to the therapeutic process. Step-by-step practical suggestions for collaboration between therapist and clergy are included. Issues brought to light in Shared Grace include: transforming damaged and dysfunctional images of God the establishment of support systems within the religious community the use of guided imagery the creation of healthy rituals and ceremoniesShared Grace will help therapists and clergy alike and enable each to obtain the support, education, and training to make interdisciplinary collaboration successful.

Ever since the first edition of Verna Benner Carson's Spiritual Dimensions of Nursing Practice went out of print, second-hand copies have been highly sought after by practitioners in the field and nursing school faculty who appreciated the comprehensive scope of the seminal work on spirituality and health. In this highly anticipated revised edition, Carson and her co-editor, Harold G. Koenig, have thoroughly revised and updated this classic in the field. The revised edition builds on the foundations laid in the first, providing perspectives on new research in the spiritual dimensions of nursing care, applying nursing theory to spiritual care, and addressing the spiritual needs of both nurses and patients. It also examines ethical issues in nursing and the impact of legal decisions on health care issues. Contributors address issues of spiritual development across the entire lifespan—from the spiritual needs and influences of the very young to the elderly, including those facing chronic illnesses or death. The volume takes a similarly broad approach in addressing spiritual issues from a variety of faith backgrounds—including both theistic and pantheistic religious practices, so that nurses can be prepared to meet the needs of patients from various religious traditions. Second to chaplains, nurses are the major providers of spiritual care, and no other book will serve their needs like Spiritual Dimensions of Nursing Practice.

This book includes guidance as well as information and inspiration. There are practical recommendations on how to perform acts of kindness in personal lives and at work, toward friends, colleagues, and family members—even with one's enemies. Suggestions are also offered on ways to encourage others to be kind so they, too, can experience the joy that results.

Turn menopause and midlife into a positive experienceDealing with the Psychological and Spiritual Aspects of Menopause examines the emotional toll of menopause, offering help for the worry, anxiety, stress, and depression women can face during the midlife years. Instead of focusing on estrogen, hormones, and osteoporosis, the book shares up-to-date research findings on the link between spiritual and emotional health. Women from different backgrounds and spiritual traditions will find hope in the healing power of the mind/body/spirit connection as they gain a healthy perspective of the changes taking place and restore balance to their lives.Dealing with the Psychological and Spiritual Aspects of Menopause goes beyond the traditional medical approach to examine ways women can make peace with the changes they face at midlife. This unique book informs, empowers, and enlightens women about the opportunities for personal and spiritual growth during menopause, offering strategies for exercise, meditation, prayer, and counseling. The authors offer a new perspective on menopause that offers hope in the face of the stress, worry, hot flashes, and often-overwhelming responsibilities women face at the midlife. This book demonstrates that women can do more than just make it through menopause. The authors show that menopause can become a positive experience for women as they discover new avenues for finding peace and hope to sustain them through the challenges of mid-lifeand beyond. Dealing with the Psychological and Spiritual Aspects of Menopause examines alternative aspects of menopause, including: dealing with emotional loss on top of physical and psychological changes moods, attitudes, and depression the benefits of counseling and group support exercise as a treatment for anxiety and depression the work experience spiritual issues special challenges of the perimenopausal period and much more! Dealing with the Psychological and Spiritual Aspects of Menopause is a vital resource for physicians, counselors, therapists, and psychologists, and especially for the women they treat.

Help your clients achieve victory over chronic pain and lead more fulfilling lives!This insightful and informative book will help you deliver better pain management services to the people you care for. Incorporating biomedical, surgical, psychological, social, and spiritual perspectives, it provides vital, up-to-date information about how to reduce physical pain and explores techniques for improving people's ability to cope with it. Helpful tables provide easy access to information on medications for pain and managing side effects.Chronic Pain: Biomedical and Spiritual Approaches is filled with resources for the person in pain and for the health or religious professionals working to help them. It gives you very specific suggestions on how to manage chronic pain, including detailed information about medications, alternative therapies, psychological treatments, and spiritual strategies for pain management. The book is completed by two thoughtful appendixes: one examining pain medications and ways to manage their side effects and the other providing scriptural passages that can comfort those in pain.In addition to his experiences treating patients with chronic pain, the author suffers from chronic pain and disability himself. In this very personal book, he explores ways to help people coping with: low back pain fibromyalgia rheumatologic pain headaches the pain of multiple sclerosis other types of chronic unrelenting pain Chronic Pain: Biomedical and Spiritual Approaches can help people in pain and their families by showing them how to lead satisfying, joy-filled lives--whether their pain goes away or not. It is an essential reference book for everyone who works with pain sufferers as well as patients and their families!

An enlightening guide to bringing spirituality into the helping professions! This unique handbook will help you make the journey that will turn spirituality into the touchstone of your practice. For too long, spirituality has been a skeleton in the closet of many practitioners, but now there is a growing movement to integrate the vital beliefs of clients into the healing process. Spirituality in Pastoral Counseling and the Community Helping Professions addresses the core values of the movement, providing you with a step-by-step process you can follow to increase empathy and healing while building on the foundation of spirituality. Each chapter includes penetrating reflection questions to help you better understand your own spiritual perspective and a list of suggested resources to help you learn more. Spirituality in Pastoral Counseling and the Community Helping Professions investigates: the best tools for spiritual assessment how ethnic background influences spirituality the language of the sacred in daily life how people can develop greater empathy integrating spirituality into community the importance of ritual As author Dr. Charles J. Topper says: Spirituality is the integrating core element of human experience. Reading this book, both clients and care providers will learn to explore their own vibrant spirituality, a powerful innate source of strength and healing. Spirituality in Pastoral Counseling and the Community Helping Professions aims to make spirituality more accessible to everyone. Spirituality in Pastoral Counseling and the Community Helping Professions shows how you can take an active approach to integrating spirituality into your profession, helping the people around you see not just their problems but the connections between every facet of their lives. Complete with figures, assessment scales and surveys, and a thoughtful bibliography that points the way to further reading, this book is an important resource for professional growth and spiritual renewal.

Examine a meaningful, integrated, systemic, and pragmatic view of hospital ministry!A Practical Guide to Hospital Ministry: Healing Ways is a comprehensive resource that examines the roles and responsibilities of hospital chaplains. It will help you make a shift toward a knowledge- and skill-based ministry that both incorporates and goes beyond current training approaches. In the words of author McCall, “In today's healthcare and specialized ministry services, education and training must be progressive and thorough. It must include experiences that increase one's expertise in working with individuals, groups, families, consumers, and systems. These services must be integrated into the total structure and resources of hospitals at all levels of mission, philosophy, and program. Furthermore... hospital ministry must strive to be a resource to the wider community and the church.” A Practical Guide to Hospital Ministry is a vital resource for those who want to integrate hospital ministry into organizations whose support and understanding of the discipline are weak or do not exist at all.A Practical Guide to Hospital Ministry provides numerous resources that can be of immediate use to anyone engaged in hospital ministry, including: job descriptions descriptions of various types of hospital ministries scope-of-practice statements sample pastoral care brochures and request forms orientation checklists sample religious preference codes a list of typical counseling problems therapeutic referral and progress forms For administrators, educators, and those seeking to provide spiritual and pastoral resources to hospitalized individuals and their families, A Practical Guide to Hospital Ministry will prove to be an invaluable reference work.

Understand and make use of the connections between health and religion to improve your practice!Research points to a clear link between people's religious beliefs and practices and their health. These developments have ushered in a new era in health care, in which meaning and purpose stand alongside biology as vital factors in health outcomes. Now the gap is closing between medicine and religion, as evidenced by the more than 60 US medical school courses now being given in spirituality, religion, and medicine, including courses at major teaching centers such as Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Brown, Case-Western, and others.Faith, Spirituality, and Medicine: Toward the Making of the Healing Practitioner promotes the integration of spirituality into medical care by exploring the connection between patient health and traditional religious beliefs and practices. This useful guide emphasizes basic, easily understood principles that will help health professionals apply current research findings linking religion, spirituality, and health. Faith, Spirituality, and Medicine does not advocate any particular set of beliefs or evangelize as it helps you integrate spiritual care into the care of patients by showing you how to: take a patient's spiritual history correlate religious beliefs with health beliefs address the individual spiritual needs of your patients choose a course of treatment that is in agreement with the religious belief of the patient incorporate appropriate clergy into treatment plans Faith, Spirituality, and Medicine describes a biopsychosocial-spiritual model that emphasizes the need to view patients not simply as biological creatures, but as physical, psychological, social, and spiritual beings if they are to be effectively treated and healed as whole persons.

Is Religion Good for Your Health? takes you deep into the heart of the ageless debate on the importance of religion and faith to physical and mental health. On the one hand, you will learn about important research findings from cross-sectional, longitudinal, and intervention studies that have demonstrated positive effects of religious belief on both mental and physical health. On the other hand, you will learn how the vast clinical experiences of leading health experts suggest that religion can have negative effects on health. Integral to the book's exploration of the relationship between health and religion are the trends that have occurred in society over the last century. You will learn about significant demographic changes, changes in health and health care, and shifts in values, attitudes, and religious conviction, all of which have direct implications for health care providers, the clergy, the “baby boomers,” and older adults. From Author Harold Koenig, a leading expert on religion and health who has frequently been interviewed by major broadcasting networks such as ABC, National Public Radio, the British Broadcasting Corporation, NBC, CBS, and “Ivanhoe Broadcast News,” you will also learn about: pathological uses of religion the need for cooperation and collaboration between health and religious professionals studies on the relationship of religious beliefs and practice to physical conditions such as blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, and cancer links between religious behavior and depression, anxiety, and drug use the waning of religion's influence in America first-hand accounts from patients who have faced painful and/or life-threatening illnessAs Is Religion Good for Your Health? analyzes the pathological aspects of religion, you will begin to understand how religious beliefs have the capacity to strongly influence people's lives and their health, whether positively or negatively. Health care providers, public policy experts, religious professionals, medical researchers, and medical students will find the book's overview of the issues at stake, particularly the implications for our public health care system, crucial to the advancement of health care practice into the next century.

This important book examines the relationship between religion and mental health throughout the life cycle, with a special emphasis on later life. It asserts that successful aging is possible regardless of physical health or environmental circumstances, and that religious beliefs and behaviors may facilitate successful aging. Aging and God thoroughly examines the effects of religion and mental health on aging and provides a centralized resource of up-to-date references of research in the field. It focuses on recent findings, theoretical issues, and implications for clinical practice and contains ideas for further research. In Aging and God, you'll also find information on project design that can help you develop grant applications and carry out studies.Aging and God is a helpful book for both mental health and religious professionals. It helps mental health specialists better understand the spiritual needs of older adults and the impact that religion can have on facilitating mental health. It also describes how religion can be utilized in clinical practice and integrated into psychotherapeutic approaches to older patients. The book brings religious professionals current knowledge of the major psychological problems that older adults face and how religion can be used to help alleviate these problems.Full of pertinent information, Aging and God addresses theoretical aspects of human development, focusing on cognitive, moral, and religious faith development examines situations and disorders of particular concern to older persons and looks at how religion can be used as a resource applies research findings to the problem of meeting the spiritual and mental health needs of elders with chronic or acute health problems provides an in-depth look at end-of-life issues such as physician-assisted suicideHospital and nursing home chaplains will find this book informative and encouraging, as will gerontologists, hospital administrators, and community clergy faced with increasingly older congregations. It gives mental health professionals new strategies to help improve the later years of older adults, and makes an excellent text for courses on religion, mental health, and aging. Middle-aged and older adults, as well as their families, will also find Aging and God enjoyable and inspiring as they attempt to grapple with the myriad adjustment and coping problems associated with aging.