Vol.2 Issue: 2 - Spirituality and the Recovery Process

In the field of mental health, practitioners whether psychotherapists, psychiatrists, counsellors or others, have often avoided using spirituality and religion in therapy and preferred instead to confine themselves to secular clinical approaches. A mammoth National (USA) research project entitled "So Help Me God" investigating the relationship between substance abuse, religion and spirituality was released by CASA (Centre for Addictions and Substance Abuse) of Columbia University in November 2001. It revealed that although around 95% of Americans believe in God (compare that to approximately 74%….for Australia in 1991) and about 92% are affiliated to some specific religion; only 40-45% of mental health practitioners reported a belief in God and only 37% of psychiatrists surveyed indicated that they would recommend spiritual intervention, like prayer and spiritual discernment, even if it was scientifically proven that these worked. The same research revealed that even if they knew that religion was important to their client, only 57% of psychiatrists would actually recommend that their client consult with a clergy member. The scenario for the Australian mental health community isn't too far different.

In this article, we at Mary of the Cross Centre want to encourage consideration of the tremendous advantages found in using spirituality and religion as a powerful resource in the process of healing, particularly in the treatment of drug and alcohol problems. It must be stated that while many clients at Mary of the Cross Centre come from a Christian background, there are also those who are Moslem, Buddhist, or New Age in their orientation. That aside there are the agnostics, atheists, those who may have discarded institutional religion but still maintain a sense of the spiritual within themselves, and those who are spiritually confused.

While most of our counsellors derive from a Catholic/Christian background, we nevertheless have a clear policy of respect for other religious traditions. During the natural course of counselling we seek to draw out our client's understanding of how they see themselves in relationship to truth, a higher power, their quest for meaning, their understanding of sin, suffering, etc., in order to use these themes as resources for healing.

The process of healing for someone who is deeply addicted to substances is a very complex one. A significant part of recovery must necessarily include the difficult and often painful process of physical withdrawal. This is especially evident for heavy use of heroin, alcohol, benzodiazepines and even cannabis. The process often requires medical supervision and may include the use of anti-depressants or anti-anxiety medication.

Yet while physical withdrawal is important, it is nevertheless often only a first step. Most substance abuse counsellors will readily agree that for healing to be really effective and lasting, it has to have a holistic approach. This means incorporating life management skills, changing attitudes, managing thoughts and emotions, developing an ethical/moral sense, acquiring hope, finding new purpose and meaning, improving relational skills and increasing self esteem. In fact deficits in any number of these areas is often the cause of a chronically negative emotional sense which the person finds him/herself trapped in. Being unable to find a way out, depression and chronic anxiety often follow. Using substances then becomes a way of self-medicating to temporarily get away from the chronic emotional pain.

Often when we ask severe substance abusers to describe the predominant emotions they have, we frequently hear words like "life is boring, hopeless, empty and meaningless", a sense that life is wasting away, feeling lost, lonely, alienated, in chaos and confusion. It strikes us that many of these feelings are in fact related to spirituality and can be overcome if they manage to develop a healthy sense of religion or spirituality.

Living in a post modern era where traditional institutions like religion are often discarded in favour of a less structured, more individualistic approach towards life, poses both a problem and challenge to mental health practitioners. We would however like to urge a reconsideration in the utilization of religion and spirituality to facilitate the healing process. There are many advantages to be gained in addressing the spiritual in the lives of our clients. In fact it may be that because a healthy sense of spirituality was never fostered in the first place, these problems subsequently happened.

Gerard Koe