How does a psychotherapist with a spiritual-Jewish outlook treat people with a different spiritual outlook (and Jewish identity) from his own? Will the differences of worldview interfere with the therapy?
This study presents the unique dialectic used by Israeli-Jewish psychotherapists who integrate spirituality in therapy – between veiling and unveiling their view and their therapeutic approach. The study presents the ways of integrating spirituality in clinical practice, their caution in revealing therapeutic spiritual tools, as well as the therapists’ universalistic and inclusive approach.
This article is one of the outcomes of the research project about spiritual-Jewish psychotherapy in Israel, a groundbreaking study that combined data collection with quantitative and qualitative tools, and surveyed this emerging field that has not yet been explored.
The research project was financed with a competitive budget on behalf of the Templeton Foundation, together with a series of studies about the integration of spirituality in psychotherapy around the world. (For more information about the research project and additional research published as a result of this project – see links below.)
The article was published in Spirituality in Clinical Practice, a journal of the APA (American Psychological Association).
Abstract
This research is the first to investigate the integration of Jewish spirituality in psychotherapy by certified psychotherapists in Israel, a nation marked by diverse cultural sensitivities regarding Jewish identity (e.g., secular, traditional, religious, Orthodox, ultra-Orthodox). In this qualitative study, we conducted in-depth interviews with 15 certified therapists (5 women and 10 men trained in secular qualified academic programs; mean age 51 years old); had varying religious identities, ranging from ultra-Orthodox to secular; and served a broad spectrum of Jewish clients not directly reflecting their own Jewish stance.
Three central themes emerged. First, although the participants identified themselves as integrating Jewish spirituality in their practice, they voiced and practiced caution in unveiling Jewish spirituality aspects during the psychotherapy sessions or even in presenting themselves as doing so. This caution reflected their sensitivity to client needs and the desire to avoid deterring clients who held differing beliefs than theirs. The therapists became more proactive in unveiling Jewish spirituality when a positive therapist-client rapport was established. Second, they coordinated the veiling and unveiling of their Jewish spiritual perspective through three main channels: playing with language, using religious texts without treating them as such, and different kinds of non-religious prayers. Third, the therapists adopted a flexible and universalistic attitude toward spiritual/secular/religious identity and about Jewish spiritual psychotherapy being for everyone, which supported this sophisticated process of veiling and unveiling of Jewish spirituality in their practice.
Language
English
Academic/Non-academic
Academic item
Bibliographical citation
Mayseless, Ofra, & Ruah-Midbar Shapiro, Marianna (2024). Veiling and unveiling: Caution in explicitly integrating Jewish spirituality in psychotherapy in Israel. Spirituality in Clinical Practice. https://doi.org/10.1037/scp0000373.
