Date of Award

1997

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

Counseling

First Advisor

Pamela Nickels

Second Advisor

John K. Thekkedam

Third Advisor

Peter A. Carich

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between spirituality and counseling in holistic health . Forty clients and forty therapists, both male and female, from varying economic and educational backgrounds completed a one- page self-report attitudinal survey regarding the place of religion and spirituality in their life and therapeutic sessions. Each ranked issues such as forgiveness, prayer, healing in relationships, grief, death, and afterlife as to the frequency with which they arose in therapy . Participants who returned surveys on site or by mail from Missouri and Illinois were volunteers who attended Joseph Zinker ' s Gestalt therapy annual workshop , Edward Harris' Gestalt group therapist's training, John Thekkedam's workshop at the St. Louis Behavioral Medicine on the integration of spirituality and psychology from an East/West perspective , Life Crisis, and from Biobehavioral Health Institute. Survey results using chi-square analysis and correlation with an alpha significance level of .05 indicated a relationship existed between the variables . The literature review and survey results supported the alternative hypothesis.

Comments

Copyright 1997, Mary Ann Kniess.

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