Spiritual Concerns

At Cherry Hill, most of our faith clients are Christians looking to resource their faith in their problems or to become a better Christian with better mental health. But many of our clients have other faith traditions in which spirituality is important to them. Also, many of our clients are struggling with faith in light of life suffering and unfairness, and they are angry or wonder, “where is God in all this.” Some are processing their anger at their past faith community for ways it did not work for them, or for abuses they felt there.

In all this, there is the reality that faith and spirituality for most people is a basic “given” of their life. It is part of the fabric of reality, and therefore it is naturally part of the world they need to think through as they sort things out. A God who is there needs to be included or dealt with in straightening out your life issues. Therapy, like spirituality, involves intimacy, and the more intimacy, the more spiritual growth. Closeness to God, like closeness to self and others, involves many spiritual dimensions, like love, truth, gratitude and appreciation, forgiveness, charity, justice, mercy and kindness, and valuing of the Beautiful. The arms God uses to hold us may be those of others. Therapy can help keep you open to the love and truth from God and others.

Ways therapy uses and supports faith include:

1. Prayer. Many individuals feel helped when prayer can be part of their time of therapeutic digging. Discussion of prayer and understanding healthy prayer can encourage us to keep moving through times of deep waters.
2. Comforting and Challenging Scriptures. The use of sacred writings and theology can help to provide structure and direction to your work in therapy. Words of comfort and teachings that provoke us to consider facing hard things we wish to avoid can work together to shape our commitment to growth.
3. Practical Theology. Spirituality in all traditions encourage us to be strong, resilient and patient with life’s troubled times of suffering, loss and unresolved pain. For most of us our faith calls us forth to be wise, humble, and solid as we face hard times. Making this practical theology part of the talks in counseling help keep the journey positive and directional.
4. Meaning, Purpose and Philosophy of Life. The Bible talks about people who live by faith values as “salt of the earth.” They have a Truth that provides meaning in their lives, purpose in what they hope to be doing in life, and a philosophy of life that tends to make them bedrock for themselves and other around them. All faith traditions and forms of spirituality look beyond the physical body, the ego and the world systems to broader meanings of life. Therapy benefits from these same “higher callings”.
5. Community. Most spirituality encourages life lived in a community of others pursuing spiritual ideals of faith and love. Counseling also seeks to support loving relationships and mutual commitments in clients as part of the path to wholeness and health. Loving and supporting others is part of the road to happiness. Belonging to a community of caring people provides security and support against anxiety in our society of isolation and alienation.

At Cherry Hill we value clients’ faith and want to provide encouragement to integrate personal faith into the process as much as is comfortable. Even the working out of troubling faith issues can be approached in a respectful and spiritually sensitive way. Faith is one of the resources of the search for self knowledge and acceptance of life.