(A book review by Les
Brunswick)
There is a great interest today in spirituality.
Spiritually oriented books are
best sellers. Many people, looking for larger meanings and a more fulfilling
way of living, see spirituality as vital for growth as well as essential
for dealing with addictions and other serious problems. Some people look
for
spiritual growth in Christianity, Judaism, or Islam, some in eastern religions,
and some take other paths. Many follow spiritual practices such as
meditation.
But while people want a more spiritual life,
often their feelings and behavior can remain trapped in old, frustrating
patterns. For many, the ideal of a more spiritual existence seems an unattainable
goal.
Even those who make good progress often run into blocks to growth that last
for months, even years.
Dr. Elfie Hinterkopf has written a practical book about a highly effective method for promoting spiritual development: Integrating Spirituality in Counseling. Hinterkopf is an experienced psychotherapist who has spent many years studying the process of spiritual growth. She has taught her method to therapists, clergy, spiritual directors, and members of the general public in workshops throughout the United States and around the world.
Hinterkopf uses a method called Experiential
Focusing. Focusing was originally developed by Eugene Gendlin a noted philosopher,
psychologist, and researcher at the University of Chicago.
Focusing taps into natural growth processes and helps clients be more successful
in psychotherapy.
It can also be used as a self-help method. Focusing gives a person access
to a deep level of knowing which leads to inner transformation. Dr. Hinterkopf
has adapted Focusing to help people grow spiritually, and her new book describes
the method in detail to deal with spiritual issues in counseling.
While the book was written for counselors, what she has to say will be useful and inspiring to anyone interested in spirituality.
Focusing has a special advantage for working with spiritual issues because it concentrates on process rather than content. This means that the counselor does not need to agree with the spiritual beliefs of the client. It also means that a person who uses Focusing for spiritual growth can be a follower of any religion or none at all, and can be from any culture.
Dr. Hinterkopf's book is both concentrated and clear, with many vivid examples. She shows how to focus on religious issues as they arise and also how to use people's religious or spiritual orientations to help them deal with psychological issues. Anyone who has dealt with spiritual issues as a counselor or in their own growth will recognize the situations she describes and appreciate the methods she has developed for dealing with them.
Hinterkopf starts by presenting her own story
of her search for spiritual meaning and how she found Focusing. Then she
explains why it is important to deal with spiritual issues in counseling
and why Focusing is helpful for doing this. Hinterkopf uses a model of spiritual
wellness to explain that spiritual growth can be blocked by the person being
either out of touch with feelings or overwhelmed by them, and that Focusing
can help with either of these problems. She then goes on to describe
how Focusing helps the person develop specific spiritual attitudes, such
as giving up trying to control that which one can't control.
In Chapter Two, Hinterkopf's definition of the spiritual experience as involving a transcendent growth process applies to any form of spirituality in any culture. She also explains that the spiritual experience involves "a subtle, bodily feeling with vague meanings that brings new, clearer meanings involving a transcendent growth process."
It is just this process of new meaning unfolding that the Focusing method brings about. This is why the Focusing method is so useful for spiritual growth.
In Chapter Three, Hinterkopf clearly explains her version of the Focusing method as she has developed it over twenty years. She also ties Focusing and felt meaning to Gendlin's theory of Focusing-Oriented Psychotherapy.
Chapter Four discusses key Focusing attitudes, such as being receptive and expectant. In Chapter Five, Hinterkopf covers in detail what to do when feelings are either too distant or too close (too overwhelming) for spiritual growth to occur. Then comes a discussion of how to deal with what she calls the "inner critic." This topic is especially important because for many people religion is experienced at least partly as a series of critical voices.
In Chapter Seven, Hinterkopf presents a six-step version of the Focusing process. The next chapter discusses powerful questions to ask the felt sense, such as, "What does this whole thing need?"
Hinterkopf then turns to working with spiritual process, including Focusing on comfortable or uncomfortable feelings and dealing with blocks to spirituality. This is followed by a chapter on special considerations for counselors, such as learning about the client's religious tradition and spiritual orientation as well as how to decide when to have the client Focus. Also included are questions specifically oriented to spiritual issues.
The eleventh chapter is a transcript of a client being lead through a Focusing session. The book ends with a set of exercises for exploring spirituality.
Hinterkopf has a gift of breaking complex ideas into simple, concrete, understandable steps. As one of Hinterkopf's workshop participants put it, "It is wonderful to have something so tangible to get at something so intangible." The book gives many powerful examples of people using Focusing to work through blocks, to deepen their spirituality, and to make new connections with their spirituality.
Hinterkopf's book is full of practical ideas
and is written in an understandable manner. The book could be used as a
supplement in a course on counseling, pastoral counseling, or spiritual
direction.Focusing helps people gain a bodily, experiential knowing of their
spirituality, rather than just an abstract, intellectual idea of it. It
also unlocks a natural growth process that very few people realize they
have. Hinterkopf's book is extremely valuable because it explains so clearly
how to apply Focusing to an enormously important aspect of living, that
of finding spirituality.
