Psychosis can seem to involve the loss of access to any kind of spiritual reassurance, while at other times it may appear as a preoccupation with spiritual themes, or taking what seem to be extreme or bizarre spiritual perspectives. In response professionals frequently ignore the spiritual dimension and frame everything as a struggle with an illness, but that approach can create barriers to forming a common understanding and to accessing and supporting opportunities for development along what might be seen as a spiritual dimension.
What might work better? How can professionals bring an awareness of this spiritual dimension and a willingness to talk about and work with it into treatment, without making mistakes such as romanticizing psychotic experiences, promoting specific beliefs or dogmas, or causing other kinds of harm? In the talk below, I explore possible answers to those tricky questions.
Spirituality is a route to recovery frequently cited by service users, yet usually marginalized within treatment. When professionals are instead willing to engage with people’s deepest concerns in an open minded way, balance may become more possible and new opportunities for recovery may emerge.
If you want to get deeper into this topic, I offer a 6 hour online course on Spiritual Issues within Treatment for Psychosis and Bipolar. You also might want to check out a list of resources for exploring more about that topic, at this link.
Also, note that the talk above was given for the Early Psychosis Virtual Summit put on by the Tennessee Association of Mental Health Organizations (TAMHO). You can access the recordings for other talks given at that event at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWThhKstuRWB8po1n74vIad7tXeMxcK2n
