In-person therapy in Columbia MO | Online therapy across the U.S.
Spiritually Integrated Therapy
Bring your faith into the healing process
Do you wish you could find a therapist who’d help you heal without having to set aside your spirituality? Is it important to have a therapist who’s sensitive to the spiritual parts of your life?
Your faith is connected to the rest of your life; you shouldn’t have to leave it at the door. Maybe your spirituality is tied to your emotional or mental health. Your beliefs help you make important decisions, or you’d like to make them a more central part of your life. Maybe your relationship with your religious group, spirituality, or beliefs is complicated and you need to work with a therapist who can sit with it all without passing judgment or telling you what to do.
Let’s be honest: Most therapists don’t know what to do with their clients’ religious or spiritual identities. This isn’t anything about them, it’s their training. Most just aren’t comfortable working with their clients’ beliefs, faith, or spiritual experiences.
You were open about spiritual concerns and needed a confidential, non-religious place to process them. But your therapist didn’t know what to do with them, and just sent you to a local religious leader
Maybe your faith was related to other issues you brought to therapy. But it was ignored, dismissed or overlooked. Therapy felt unfinished
Here’s how it can affect you:
Maybe you have a complicated relationship with your faith community and need to be seen and heard without someone telling you to “have more faith”
Maybe another therapist talked about your beliefs and spirituality, but you felt they judged your beliefs or community or tried to convince you to leave religion instead of supporting you the way you needed
You don’t know where you can have a frank, empathic conversation with someone who understands and honors the nuances of your faith, beliefs, and religious community
You need a therapist who can sit with the beliefs, questions, doubts, and struggles, and honor the spiritual part of you. But you have no idea where to get that kind of help. You tried before. It didn’t work.
That’s why I’m here.
Spiritually Integrated Therapy lets you bring your whole self to therapy, not just parts.
You’re not just your emotions, thoughts, or relationships. You’re not just your spirituality, either. All parts of you are valid, important, and can help you heal. In Spiritually Integrated Therapy, we work all parts of your identity that feel important. You bring as many parts as you want, and we work with all of it.
Through Spiritually Integrated Therapy, you can:
Heal deep psychological and emotional experiences without needing to set aside your spirituality
Appreciate that you are a multi-faceted human being; you are not one thing, one emotion, one experience, or one piece of yourself. You’re all of them.
Maximize your spirituality’s power in your life to boost your mental health and learn evidence-based psychological strategies to create the healing you deserve
Develop a different, healthier relationship with your spiritual identity
Feel confident in the path you choose, whether or not that includes a religious or spiritual component
And I help you through the process. I tailor each step to your unique needs, circumstances, and beliefs. I meet you with sensitivity, curiosity, and respect. I commit to seeing the world through your eyes without imposing my views or beliefs. I’m not scared away by tough questions, embarrassing confessions, conflicting identities, or personal questions about my own faith journey.
Spiritually Integrated Therapy IS:
Designed to honor and integrate your whole self, including your spirituality, emotions, relationships
A place that can hold space for all your beliefs, experiences, complexity, identities, and pain
Where we wrestle with tough questions and painful experiences without leaving your beliefs at the door
Where you’re in charge of how much and what kind of spiritual integration happens, not me
Where it’s okay to struggle with what your experiences, beliefs, and complexities mean for you, your relationships, and your future
Spiritually Integrated Therapy ISN’T:
Where I endorse a particular spiritual or religious system, agenda, or worldview
Where I try to convert you to a type of religion or spirituality
Only for people from a particular faith tradition or religious group
Spiritual advising (no, I’m not a spiritual guide)
Bible or religious therapy
Where I push for a particular outcome, like staying in a church, leaving a religious group, maintaining a spiritual life, or anything else
Frequently Asked Questions
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Great question! Spiritually integrated therapy is really just therapy that honors the spiritual part of your life and works with them alongside the other parts. How this looks always depends on what you need, where you’re at, and what previous experiences you have. How much do you want your spirituality and beliefs to be a part of the work you do? Is it important to you to bring in those pieces as you work through other problems? Do you want to learn how to maximize your faith’s power in your life? Do you need to process tough existential questions or a faith crisis? Do you need information about spiritual abuse and its common effects on people? Would you benefit from having someone who’s comfortable sharing parts of their own spiritual journey to help you process yours? However you answered those questions, here’s the deal: You decide how integrated things get. I meet you there and do everything I can to help you heal.
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Short answer: no. Longer answer: Heck no. Spiritually integrated therapy looks different for each person. Some people benefit the most from reading verses and figuring out how to apply them to their life and aid their healing. Some people need someone they can process tough spiritual questions with. Some folks need a therapist who can listen to painful stories about religious and spiritual abuse, respond non-judgmentally, and help them figure out how to proceed. Others just want someone who can listen to their spiritual concerns without offering advice. I don’t assume to know what you need the moment you walk in the door. I specialize in knowing how to work with religious or spiritual folks from any number of backgrounds with different experiences and healing needs. I approach this work from a sensitive, holistic, and respectful perspective. You bring it in. I work to understand what you’re looking for, and we follow that.
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Nope! I’ve worked with hundreds of people from so many different spiritual backgrounds. I’ve helped Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, Christian, Pagan, Wiccan, Agnostic, and Atheist clients heal from their problems and tailored the work to each of them, with all their beliefs, experiences, and religious affiliations. Many of these diverse people have told me how healing it is to have someone with this depth of experience and knowledge of different cultures, faith traditions, and experiences. I’m not an expert in all traditions or belief systems. I’m also not afraid to ask questions when I don’t understand or am not familiar with something. My job is to help, understand, and support you. I also go out of my way outside of sessions to learn more on my own so I can understand and work with you more effectively. Sometimes this is attending services, speaking with religious leaders about beliefs and cultural norms, and consulting with people I trust to treat your concerns with as much sacredness as I do.
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I’m so glad you asked that. Yes! I work with many LGBTQ+ individuals on many different concerns, including religious and spiritual ones. A lot of queer folks benefit from having someone who can hold the space they need in order to process their spiritual identities and experiences, especially as they intersect with other areas of their lives, without telling them they should just leave religion altogether or try and encourage them one way or the other. My job is to sit, listen, care, and help you heal. There’s no agenda about whether you should maintain a spiritual connection or community, believe in God, or anything else. I’m here for you, not the other way around.
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Click below! The first step is to set up a free 20-minute consultation call where I can get a better idea of your concerns, give you an idea of what it’s like to work with me, and answer any initial questions you have. Once we know it’s a good fit, I send you some paperwork and we set a time to start meeting! I’m excited to hear from you!