Consider the spiritual elements that I pointed out from research on spirituality and health in the previous parts of this series. They were: meaning, gratitude, peace, confidence, sense of identity, and acceptance.

The somatic (body mind) approaches to psychotherapy, including EMDR, tend to “unlock” these experiences in ways that are very personal to the individual. Generally, people refer to this sensation of de-stressing and expanding awareness as a spiritual experience. They feel that their greater ease in expressing their higher values is a spiritual achievement. The subjective sense of energy work that can be used in creating the positive “state shift” that I mentioned in the last article can also feel very spiritual. Read more →

Is there Energy in Psychology?

I was conducting debriefing after a workplace suicide. The problems ran far deeper than a single suicide, because it turned out to be symptomatic of a drug culture that pervaded the workplace. A bald-headed man came in and said he was afraid because he had a heart condition. He was stocky, and his round head and face were very red. After about one minute of so-called energy psychology, his color was restored to normal, he was no longer afraid, and we were able to talk about more than his acute reaction to workplace stress. Read more →

In this article, we’ll look at some active ingredients of spirituality that are supported by research. Since they turned out to be God-optional, I’ll call this SIN (spiritually integrative neurology).

Active vs. Passive: Locus of Control in Spirituality

To understand spirituality and health, we must recognize the difference between active and passive spiritual attitudes. Locus of control has been known to be an important factor in health for a long time. Read more →

These articles are going to cover a lot of ground very fast. Hold onto your hat.

Shocking news from the research trenches: It is not enough to just assess patients’ health-related quality of life (HRQL). It is not enough to tell patients the results of the assessment. It is not even enough to discuss the problems that the assessment reveals! (Rosenbloom, S. K., Victorson, D. E., Hahn, E. A., Peterman, A. H., Cella, D., 2007).

Who could have predicted that? Anybody. Read more →