- Home
- social science
- A Christian Spirituality and Psychotherapy
A Christian Spirituality and Psychotherapy
A Gay Psychologist's Practice of Clinical Theology
Imprint: Resource Publications
This book describes a method of therapy based upon the Christian spirituality and psychotherapy perspective developed by Dr. Richard York. This clinical theology perspective is a phenomenological approach that integrates spiritual, theological, and psychological concepts and was developed in large part through York's own experience of being relieved of depression and anxiety through interweaving of psychotherapy, prayer and meditation, spiritual direction, and the relationship with his Indwelling Spirit.
Because human beings are the products of relationships, York critiques approaches to psychology premised upon the subject/object epistemology of empirical science that study human behavior. He suggests instead that a relational-ontology research method offers an approach superior to that of standard psychotherapy and uses experience in relationship as the fundamental concept in this clinical theology. Because people are prone to hurt themselves and others, York also argues that standard approaches to psychology need to develop a psychology of sin and evil, including some form of a Higher Power, as essential parts of the spiritual aspect of psychotherapy.
York critiques Christian theologians for developing theology that seldom uses empirical data and that is irrelevant to the process of helping people heal and grow. He criticizes those pastoral ministers who moralize with people instead of listening to them as well as those who preach more about sin and suffering than God's presence and saving grace through the forgiveness of sins.
While he acknowledges that most of his perspective is not new, York does offer a unique contribution to the field of psychotherapy through the concept of the Indwelling Spirit. He describes how the Indwelling Spirit works in psychotherapy and the various techniques to access it. He further argues that his experience as a gay psychologist is an essential aspect of his method because in being healed through his experience with his Indwelling Spirit he was able to define this experience for use in psychotherapy, an insight used by very few straight therapists.
York challenges the notion of how a gay man who worships God regularly, found healing through a relationship with Christ in the Holy Spirit of God, and developed the concept of the Indwelling Spirit for psychotherapy, could be considered "objectively disordered and intrinsically evil" by the Roman Catholic Magisterium. Furthermore, York describes a new principle of moral theology for sexual relationships based on love rather than procreation and suggests seven research hypotheses to study the phenomenon of the Indwelling Spirit and the love that is exhibited in both same-sex and opposite-sex relationships.
Richard H. York is a semi-retired psychologist in private practice in New Bedford, Massachusetts. His journey from being marginalized in seeking the priesthood to finding healing and wholeness in becoming a psychologist led him to develop his Christian spirituality and psychotherapy perspective.
"York appropriately challenges the field of psychotherapy to develop a mature perspective in relationship to spirituality and theology. He suggests that pathology is really "a case of mistaken identity" taken from early authority figures in childhood instead of from our Creator who lovingly affirms us. York combines brilliant personal and professional experience with a profound intuition and spiritual awareness of our grounding in the Indwelling Spirit of divine love."
--Merle R. Jordan, Emeritus Professor of Pastoral Psychology, Boston University School of Theology
"In this book, Dr. York tackles the fundamental truth of relationality: God is Love. Through his own experience and an analysis of the intersections of psychology, theology, and gay identity, York reminds us that to love ourselves is to love God. To sin is to deny our inherent capacity for love and God's redemption."
--Julius Sokenu, Dean of Student Learning, Moorpark College
"Richard York's book is charming and stimulating at the same time. It is an amazing confluence of theological profundity, philosophical rigor, and experiential discernment. I am especially excited that he views the relational self as perhaps the key to this confluence in psychology. Even if you don't agree with his theology or psychology, you will find the book filled with personal and professional insights."
--Brent D. Slife, Professor of Psychology, Brigham Young University
"This book provides an emotionally rich and intellectually interesting overview of the value of spirituality in psychology. The author, drawing from his years of theological training, spiritual direction, therapeutic experiences, and clinical experiences, provides a compelling model for how and why spirituality represents an essential element of the individual that needs to be explicitly managed in the therapeutic context. Although the field of psychology has traditionally avoided spiritual and religious issues, the author argues that the field has indeed developed concepts and issues that are not very different. A greater appreciate for peoples' relational dimensions, especially their relations to transcendent realities, can provide psychological methods and theories with greater clarity of our essential needs and improved validity of the lived human experience. Although I do not always agree with Dr. York's positions, his book does provide a very interesting approach to integrating the theological and psychological sciences. Although he takes a theistic approach, it is one I find to be well balanced and disciplined by his thorough knowledge of both theology and psychology. He is not a proselytizer of any specific religion, and in fact takes the Judeo-Christian tradition to task for its sin-focused approach to describing the human experience. Always the humanist, Dr. York strives to give more depth and balance to the secular models of human functioning pioneered by modern psychology. This book is a must read for anyone who is interested in how religious and spiritual concepts can be integrated into contemporary psychology. Whether you agree or disagree with Dr. York, you will come away from this informative and nuanced work with a new-found appreciation for the many competing and conflicting forces that meet at the intersection of psychology and religion."
--Ralph Piedmont, PhD, Loyola Graduate Center
Related Titles
