I Need Both Spiritual Direction and Therapy (you likely do too)

As far back as I can remember, I have on occasion been very aware of the divine presence. I just knew God existed. And, because I was raised by two scientists (an oceanographer father and an anatomy lab technician mother), I’ve always been attracted to the intersection of faith and science. For a variety of reasons, I focus on the advantages of mutual connection between true religion and psychology.

Clinical psychology is rational, based on verifiable scientific evidence, and deeply informed by advances in neurology, biochemistry, and neuropsychiatry. Psychological interventions help millions of people overcome trauma, cope with tragic circumstances, mitigate mental illnesses, surmount depression and anxiety, heal relationships, and live healthy lives. Not taking advantage of its wisdom is self-defeating and imprudent.

People need therapy. Religious people are no exception. I’m no exception. I’ve experienced profound losses, deep bereavement, depression, crippling anxiety, panic attacks, and debilitating guilt and shame. Psychotherapy lifts me out of the slough of despond and enables me to be more authentic and whole.

Many of us have long seen the advantage of a religious-psychology collaboration. Pastors need to learn from the psychological disciplines how to care for the hurting people in their midst. Psychotherapists need to learn from deeply spiritual people how to connect clients with ultimate reality.

True religion, as opposed to religiosity, is spiritual, mystical, and links us with an eternal transcendence unreachable with the rational mind. God is far too big to be comprehended by our finite minds.

In the rationalistic American culture that arose out of the Enlightenment, we tend to disregard the mysterious, the ineffable, the eternal, and the profound. Even when we become aware of the yearning within to touch the heart of God, if we turn to organized religion in America, we will often be disappointed.

Look at its contemporary manifestations.

·      The prosperity gospel conflates exploitive capitalism, greed, and self-indulgence with following a Lord who had no place to lay his head and identified with the poor and marginalized.

·      Many progressive churches have faded into anemic social clubs made up of nice people wringing their hands over social injustice.

·      The mega-church growth movement homogenizes marketing techniques and creates a shallow consumerist religion.

·      Christian nationalism is shot through with exceptionalism and pride, embraces jingoism, and imagines that God favors “us” and opposed to “them.”

·      Conservative Catholicism and white[1] evangelicalism elevate so-called natural law over scripture and are more interested in fighting culture wars than caring for those Jesus called the least of his siblings.

·      White fundamentalism venerates Mars[2], perpetuates a racialized culture, and honors a god that looks nothing like the Jesus of the New Testament.

·      The Pentecostal “army of God” of the New Apostolic Reformation has substituted “prophecy” for biblical literacy and been instrumental in giving us the most corrupt authoritarian regime in history.

It is no wonder that these institutions are hemorrhaging members.

What is needed is a faith that combines the deep, mysterious, incomprehensible love of God, authentic connectedness with the Divine Spirit, experience of both kataphatic[3] and apophatic[4] prayer, reverent and serious understanding of scripture, and authentic discipleship. We need, in the words of Dallas Willard, to be with Jesus, learning from Jesus, how to be like Jesus.

This is the task of spiritual direction. We all need it. Clinical therapists need spiritual direction to be of maximum benefit. Spiritual direction can teach psychology how to connect with the Ultimate. Seminaries benefit from having clinical psychologists teach clergy how to counsel. Graduate schools of psychology would greatly benefit from inviting ordained spiritual directors to teach therapists how to pray and understand the grand narrative of scripture.

On a personal level, many of us are currently experiencing the multifaceted advantages of having both a spiritual director and a therapist.

[1] There is no such thing as a “white race.” That is a construct invented to justify chattel slavery. There is only one race – human.

[2] The god of war

[3] Kataphatic: κατά (kata - according to) and φάσις (phasis - statement, proposition), using words, like creeds, petitions, and praise to connect with God.

[4] Apophatic: ἀπό (apo - away from) + φάσις (phasis - statement, proposition), prayer that recognizes that ultimately God is ineffable, incomprehensible, beyond words; stillness, silence, listening to God, resulting in intuitive union with God.