The Spiritual Approach to Systemic Family Therapies

Abstract

The concept of spirituality has started being included in therapy settings due to the new paradigms showing developments in the world of psychology in the late 20th century and in the 21st century. When examining the literature, many articles and books are seen to have been published related to the topic, and most of the studies have been carried out abroad. These performed studies have contributed new concepts and information to the literature by revealing how the concept of spirituality can be integrated with family therapies. This study has been prepared for the purposes of drawing the attention of researchers who conduct studies in Turkey based on systemic family therapy and of specialists who plan therapy sessions based the relevant theory to the topic and to provide the literature with a topic that finds no examples in the literature of Turkey. How the concept of spirituality can be used in harmony with the systemic family therapy approach and what the techniques of the spirituality-based systemic family therapy are have been prepared by being based on the many studies that have been published abroad. Before beginning the study, theoretical information and basic concepts primarily about systemic family therapies are provided, and then it moves on to spirituality-oriented systemic family therapy by briefly mentioning the concept of spirituality. How the concept of spirituality can be applied to systemic family therapy and the points and ethical situations to which counselors need to pay attention are also mentioned. Lastly, sample cases are shared by providing information about the techniques of using religious stories and spiritual dialogue, these techniques being used in spirituality-oriented systemic family therapies.

Keywords

• systemic family therapy
• spirituality
• family counseling
• religious stories usage
• spiritual dialogue