Special Issue "Religions and Psychotherapies"

Guest Editor
Prof. Dr. Klaus Baumann
Caritaswissenschaft und Christliche Sozialarbeit, Theologische Fakultät, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Platz der Universität 3, D-79098 Freiburg, Germany
Website: http://www.caritaswissenschaft.uni-freiburg.de/persons/prof-dr-klaus-baumann-director
E-Mail: klaus.baumann@theol.uni-freiburg.de
Phone: +49 761 203 2110 (secretariat), -2111 (direct)
Fax: +49 761 203 2119
Interests: interdisciplinary dialogue between theology and human sciences, esp. psychology, psychotherapy and psychoanalysis; interdisciplinary anthropology and ethics; religions and their social welfare as well as (social) ethics; theology, history, and spirituality of Caritas; Caritas and christian social work in its ecclesiological, civil and international contexts

Guest Editor
Prof. Dr. Frank-Gerald B. Pajonk
Medical Director, Center for Psychiatric and Psychotherapeutic Care and Rehabilitation, Dr. K. Fontheim's Hospital for Mental Health, Lindenstraße 15, 38704 Liebenburg, Germany
Website: http://www.klinik-dr-fontheim.de
E-Mail: pajonk@klinik-dr-fontheim.de
Phone: +49 (0)5346 81 1150
Fax: +49 (0)5346 81 1152
Interests: spirituality and psychotherapy; religious beliefs in the context of psychiatric disorders; exercise and its influence on the neurobiology of the brain; emergency psychiatry; crisis intervention; schizophrenia; dementia

Dear Colleagues,

This issue is dedicated to reviews, theoretical and clinical original studies on questions regarding the relationship between religions and psychotherapies. It invites scholars, researchers and practitioners to contribute to interdisciplinary dialogues regarding the role of (various) religious attitudes of clients/ patients/ therapists in (various) psychotherapeutic treatments, religious doctrines and interpretations with regard to psychic disorders, psychotherapeutic metapsychologies regarding religions and religious attitudes, religious practices and coping with psychic stress and disorders. It thus includes both general and basic principles/ issues as well as specific questions regarding treatments and methods.

Prof. Dr. Klaus Baumann
Prof. Dr. Frank-Gerald B. Pajonk
Guest Editors

Submission

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are refereed through a peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Religions is an international peer-reviewed Open Access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

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• religiosity of patients and clinicians
• religious values and psychotherapies
• metapsychologies and religions
• abstinence and neutrality in treatment
• religious interpretations of psychic disorders
• religious coping
• psychotherapeutic schools and techniques

Title: Integration of Religion/Spirituality in the Care of patients with Severe Mental Disorders
Author: Mohr Sylvia
Affiliation: Department of Mental Health and Psychiatry, University Hospital of Geneva, Rue du 31 Décembre 36, 1207 Geneva, Switzerland;
E-Mail: Sylvia.Mohr@hcuge.ch
Abstract: Spirituality and religiousness (S/R) are resources for finding meaning and hope in suffering and have been identified as key components of the process of psychological recovery. However, religion may also be associated with psycho-pathology, suffering and non-adherence with psychiatric treatment. Based on a literature review, this paper examines how S/R can be integrated into treatment for patients with serious mental illness. We implemented a pilot “Spirituality and Recovery Group” designed to 1) to help patients to resort to S/R as a mean of recovery; 2) to work on resolving conflicts between S/R and life issues and treatment; and 3) to give information on S/R in the context of psychosis. Preliminary results will be presented.

Title: The Spiritually Focused Assistance (SFA) Programme
Author: Dr. Mohamed Omar Salem
Affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences, United Arab Emirates University, Al Ain, PO Box 17666, UAE; E-Mail: mohamed.salem@uaeu.ac.ae
Abstract: Several spiritual strategies for counselling and psychotherapy have already been proposed. The aim is to use the patients’ religious support system, and helping them to draw on their own spiritual resources. Most therapists use religious and spiritual interventions as part of an eclectic integrative approach that includes mainstream secular therapeutic perspectives and interventions. The benefits of such a spiritually-oriented eclectic integrative approach are to match the characteristic needs of each patient, uniquely enrich the understanding of the patient as a whole, and facilitate the therapeutic change. Types of Spiritual Interventions described are variable, and include:
1] Spiritual Guidance through a religious leader, as a member of the multidisciplinary treatment team.
2] Spiritual Support Groups, aiming to satisfy the patients’ spiritual needs through incorporating the spiritual component into the dynamics of a group therapy setting.
3] Self-help, using religious bibliotherapy, religious diaries, praying, etc...
4] Treatment Package approaches: which are spiritual interventions that are integrated into structured multi-component treatment plans. The classic example is the Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) with religious content proposed by Propst (1992). Later similar models were developed including Rligious CBT (Azhar), spiritually augmented CBT (D’Souza) and the Spiritually Focused Awareness (SFA) Programme (Salem).
The Spiritually Focused Assistance (SFA) Programme:
This programme is a psychotherapeutic protocol to enhance spirituality within a CBT framework, focussing on supporting and activating the healthy religious schema. It relies on the spiritual resources of religious patients, with self help supplement through the homework assignments. Clinically, it can be used among clients who have a wide range of psychological problems including: Stress related conditions, Anxiety Disorders, Depression, Chronic health problems and Personality problems and disorders.
It is usually conducted in 7-20 weekly sessions. Therapy sessions go through stages including selected themes (Stations) designed according to the client’s needs.  These stations are interrelated and the sequence of these stations is flexible and is tailored according to the patient’s needs. Also these stations can be used as templates for the ‘topic of the day’ themes during the course of standard CBT sessions for religious patients (rCBT).  These topics include: Hope, Optimism, Forgiveness, Serenity, Present-time orientation, Gratitude & Appreciation, Afflictions, Acceptance, meaning of life, Pleasure, Intra-personal communication (Self-evaluation), inter-personal communication, and ultra-personal communication (inspirations).
In this paper I shall give a description of this programme.

Title: Suicide in Judaism, with a Special Reference to Modern Israel
Authors: Eliezer Witztum and Daniel Stein
Affiliation: Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel; E-Mail: danil49@netvision.net.il (D.S.)
Abstract: Judaism considers the duty of preserving life as a paramount injunction. Specific injunctions against suicide appear in the Talmud, and thereafter. Nevertheless Jewish tradition emphasizes that one should let himself be killed rather than violate cardinal rules of Jewish law. Mitigating circumstances are found for the 6 deaths by suicide mentioned in the Bible, i.e., to account for one's sins, or in avoiding shameful death. Heroic suicide is praised throughout the Jewish history, from the suicide of Samson and the collective suicide in Masada, to the collective readiness of Jews in Medieval Spain and Second World War Polish ghettos to kill themselves rather than succumb to their enemies.
Suicide rates for Jews are lower than those of Protestants and Catholics. Similarly, suicide rates in Israel are lower in comparison to Europe and North America, although being higher than those of most Moslem countries. This low rate of suicide is found in Jewish Israelis of all ages, including adolescents. One exception is the sharp increase in suicide rate in Israeli males of the ages 18-21, reflecting the influence of serving in the army. The influence of immigration on suicide is reflected in the increase in the rate of suicide and attempted suicide in the late 1980^th-early 1990^th, likely associated with the massive immigration from the former USSR.

Type of Paper: Review
Title: Psychotherapy with Depressed African American Women: Is It Okay To Talk About Their Religious Beliefs?
Authors: Maggie Mengesha and Earlise Ward
Affiliation: University of Wisconsin-Madison, Wisconsin, America; E-Mail: ecward@wisc.edu (E.W.)
Abstract: “First things first, before we even get started, I would just like to tthank the Lord for allowing all of us Black women to come together and learn how to better deal with the depression and other challenges going on in our lives, God knows we need the help.” The statement made by the African American woman above vividly conveys the importance of religious beliefs in the lives of African American women. A growing body of research focusing on African Americans mental health is showing that this group relies heavy on their religious beliefs and practices to cope with mental health issues including depression. Unfortunately, the psychotherapy literature provides little guidance on how to incorporate religion into psychotherapy in an effort to provide culturally sensitive mental health care to African American women. To this end, this literature review examined current mental health research on African American women in an effort to provide recommendations to guide use of religion in psychotherapy for African American women. Recommendations for clinical practice and research are discussed.

Title: Two New Age Healing Modalities in Contemporary Finland
Author: Jim Wilce
Affiliation: Northern Arizona University
Abstract: Like other European countries, contemporary Finland has witnessed an explosion of healing modalities that we might designate “New Age.” Some of these, for example, weave together threads of shamanism, spiritualities bearing some relation to Lutheranism and Orthodoxy, and depth psychotherapy. This paper focuses on two of these healing modalities— 1) a course in neo-Karelian lament (wept song) that combines elements of psychotherapy and spirituality, and 2) a course called “healing ancestral shame and guilt” that combines notions of soul loss and restoration, communication with ancestral spirits, and psychotherapeutically modeled emotion discourse. A primary goal of the paper is to explicate an emerging hybrid concept of “authenticity,” in which disclosing the depths of one’s feelings is supported not only by invoking vaguely Freudian theory but, more interestingly, by construing genuine emotional self-disclosure as a sacred end in itself and a quasi-soteriological contribution to the welfare of (post)modern Finnish society.