Religious or Spiritual Issues

Religious counseling or spiritually sensitive therapy can help with

• Redefining distressing, personal ambiguities such as “What do I believe?”: You may identify as agnostic, and not really know what you believe. Or maybe you have been raised to practice a particular religion until you realize that you might actually identify more with another faith. You may agree with most aspects of your own religion, but find yourself questioning certain elements of its teachings. When you are uncertain as to what you believe, it can create inner-turmoil. Spiritual counseling can help you resolve this inner conflict by empowering you to direct your own journey—without insinuating that a particular spiritual path is right, wrong, or better
• Investigating matters of life purpose: Are you happy with what you do, or has it just become a paycheck? Most of us work to live… and not the other way around. If you hate your job—as most of us will do at some point—do you have something outside of work that infuses meaning into your life? If you are feeling aimless and perpetually unfulfilled, you may become depressed, anxious, or turn to drugs and alcohol as a means for coping. Sometimes, therapy-goers will identify their life’s purpose through the process of exploring their own spirituality. Other times, spirituality can function to silence those nagging thoughts about life’s meaninglessness, for instance, by promoting inner peace through the use of mindfulness and meditation
• Learning how to recruit your belief system to cope with environmental stressors: Do you have a particularly headstrong child, who constantly tests your patience and your limits? Have you recently lost your job? Found yourself engaged in a particularly nasty divorce? Given birth for the first time and feel utterly overwhelmed? Received notification that your biopsy results for cancer came back positive? During trying times of life transition, many people derive comfort through their belief in a higher power. For those of us who don’t subscribe to belief a higher power, elements of spirituality such as yoga and meditation can still be used to help therapy-goers carve out a space of inner calm
• Finding spiritual solace during times of grief: Few things are as difficult in life as losing a loved one. Spirituality can help us to make sense of the senseless, even when we feel like abandoning all hope
• Discovering new outlets for spirituality: Spirituality doesn’t have to be synonymous with “religion”; and in fact, many more people label themselves as “spiritual” instead of “religious”. In acknowledgment of this reality, the Lifeologie Institute offers alternative therapies, such as mindfulness, meditation, and psychotherapeutic yoga, as innovative treatments for depression, anxiety, trauma, eating disorders, etc.
• Understanding how differences in spiritual views can create sources of misunderstanding or disagreement in friendships and relationships: When you and your partner, or you and your best friend, hold conflicting views about spiritual matters it can result in heated arguments that drive a wedge into your relationship. Spiritual counseling can help you articulate your hurt, understand the other person’s perspective, and reach a place of mutual appreciation for each person’s beliefs