The current interest in spirituality has intensified the quest to incorporate spirituality in non-sectarian therapy. Spiritual Care and Therapy is a hands-on, up-to-date clinical guide that addresses this concern.
Peter VanKatwyk explores spiritual care, from pastoral traditions to essential psychotherapies, in individual, couple, and family therapy, offering integrative perspectives. Therapy vignettes from multiple perspectives are included, as well as a wealth of diagrams and maps. His unique perspective of different helping relationships is an approach that celebrates diversity and promotes the flexibility of multiple uses of self and their respective styles of care.
Part 1 describes common and pluralistic meanings of spirituality, locating spiritual care both in the ordinary experience of daily life and in professional practice.
Part 2 focuses on the essentials of caring, posed in the three questions of what to know (therapy models), what to say (communication roles) and what to be (uses of self). These three core areas converge in the book’s central framework of the helping style inventory (helping relationships).
Part 3 maps the contexts of care: the person situated in family and society, moving through time in rites of passage that congest when impacted by crisis and loss.
Finally, Part 4 presents the actual process of clinical education, first through a model of supervision and second, through a research methodology designed for the study of spirituality and health care.
Perfect as a text in either education or academic programs, this book will be of interest to all helping professionals who value an integrative and holistic approach to spiritual care and therapy.

Peter L. VanKatwyk has, in the last 25 years, conducted a therapy practice and directed clinical education programs as a supervisor certified by the Canadian Association of Pastoral Practice and the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy. He has also taught and directed the pastoral counseling program at Waterloo Lutheran Seminary, Waterloo, Canada.

Peter L. VanKatwyk's profile page

VanKatwyk's visualization of spiritual care builds on the strengths, not the weaknesses, of the one being cared for. This theme, which runs through this book, is a refreshing and proactive approach to spiritual care....This book contains a wealth of information within a solid theoretical framework....The book is recommended for advanced students in clinical pastoral education and pastoral counselling education, for supervisors and for spiritual care clinicians. It is also instructive for anyone seeking to deepen their own understanding of spirituality and spiritual care in either a personal or a professional context.

Colleen Lashmar, <i>Toronto Journal of Theology</i>, 2004 September

Reading Dr. VanKatwyk's model of supervision is refreshing and humanizing as it goes beyond the current models of supervision which focus on assessment and technical skills....This book is recommended to all students and professionals engaged in providing spiritual care and therapy....A must read.

Augustine Meier, <i>Pastoral Sciences</i>, 2006 October

Students will appreciate VanKatwyk's choice to spend time with definitions and comparisons as they continue facing the learning curve of training....[The tabular material is] welcome to students as they seek to assimilate so many new concepts and practices....Dr. VanKatwyk has forged together a very useful training text for spiritual counselors and their supervisors.

Mark C. Bartel, <i>Journal of Pastoral Care and Counseling</i>, 2005 January