Alexandra M. Hepburn - The Interplay of Psychology and Spirituality: A Resource for Counselors and Psychotherapists

Praise for

The Interplay of Psychology and Spirituality

This volume is a lovely introduction to some of the most important issues in transpersonal psychology. It brings a unique lens to view some of them, in particular the Enneagram and Jungs typology, and is an accessible approach to whoever wants to explore this area.

BRANT CORTRIGHT, PhD, author of Psychotherapy and Spirit, Integral Psychology and The Neurogenesis Diet and Lifestyle

Practicing psychotherapeutic training doesnt teach spiritual literacy. This readable volume fills that gap. It is, first, an intelligent guide to a series of the most advanced and rich theoretical frameworks for understanding the interplay of psychology and spirituality. And it applies those distinctions by guiding the reader through a far-reaching survey of the nature and varying expressions of spiritual experience, as well as their relationships to various neuroses and psychopathologies.

TERRY PATTEN, author of A New Republic of the Heart, co-author of Integral Life Practice

This book is written in an inclusive way that serves as an invitation to a dialogue: First within oneself about the nature of spirituality and ones own beliefs and practices. Second, to step back and see how such beliefs and practices are present in everyone at some level as part of the human existential condition. For the therapist, this book serves as an ice breaker for exploration about a clients experience of their spiritual strengths and any spiritual problems or crises.

DAVID LUKOFF, PhD, Professor Emeritus of Psychology, Sofia University Founder, Spiritual Competency Resource Center

Dr. Alexandra Hepburn has woven a beautiful tapestry that integrates the value of the Enneagram, an ancient key to unraveling the wounded ego and inspiring our integration of our highest virtues, along with very practical interventions that will serve all clinicians and clients alike. We must explore the depths in order to discover the heights and embody this wisdom into our everyday living.

DIANE POOLE HELLER, PhD, author of Healing your Attachment Wounds; The Power of Attachment; Crash Course: A Self-Healing Guide to Auto Accident Trauma and Recovery, creator of the DARe training programs for therapists (Dynamic Attachment Repatterning experience)

Interplay is a gift that keeps on giving. Alexandra Hepburn has filled this book with treasure upon treasure, some youll use now, some youll come back for later. Her capacity for interweaving psychological and spiritual ways of seeing and beingfor helping them play togetheris remarkable. This is a work of wisdom.

RUSSELL SILER JONES, ThD, LPCS, author of Spirit in Session: Working with Your Clients Spirituality (and Your Own) in Psychotherapy

Hepburn artistically and expertly interweaves spiritual development, self/other knowledge of the Enneagram, and spiritual intelligence. The result is both words and the melody of the beautiful dance between mental health and spirituality. This is a must-read for all psychotherapists interested in the spiritual journey, both their own and that of the clients they serve.

CRAIG S. CASHWELL, PhD, author, with J. Scott Young, of Integrating Spirituality and Religion into Counseling: A Guide to Competent Practice

By wisely and skillfully deploying the Enneagram system of personality, perhaps the most powerful psycho-spiritual tool available today that addresses this integration, Hepburn clarifies the way these two approaches may be usefully combined and advances the ability of therapists everywhere to do deeper work with clients in a more effective way.

BEATRICE CHESTNUT, PhD, MA, author of The Complete Enneagram: 27 Paths to Greater Self-Knowledge and The 9 Types of Leadership: Mastering the Art of People in the 21st-Century Workplace

Copyright 2019 Alexandra M. Hepburn

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, digital scanning, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, please address She Writes Press.

Published 2019

Printed in the United States of America

ISBN: 978-1-63152-650-3 pbk

ISBN: 978-1-63152-651-0 ebk

Library of Congress Control Number: 2019940673

For information, address:

She Writes Press

1569 Solano Ave #546

Berkeley, CA 94707

She Writes Press is a division of SparkPoint Studio, LLC.

Cover and interior design by Tabitha Lahr

All company and/or product names may be trade names, logos, trademarks, and/or registered trademarks and are the property of their respective owners.

Names and identifying characteristics have been changed to protect the privacy of certain individuals.

Images of The Enneagram and The Enneagram Triads, from The Enneagram Institute, copyright 2005. All rights reserved. Used with permission.

Table excerpted from SQ21: The Twenty-One Skills of Spiritual Intelligence, by Cindy Wigglesworth, 2014. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission of Conscious Pursuits, Inc.

Figure of The Spiral of Development in Consciousness and Culture. Steve McIntosh, from Integral Consciousness and the Evolution of Culture, 2007. Used with permission.

Interplay: The way in which two or more things have an effect on each other.

Oxford Living Dictionaries

Interplay synonyms: interaction, give-and-take, reciprocity, meshing.

Collinsdictionary.com/thesaurus

A woman in her mid-thirties has experienced her second miscarriage. She grieves these losses and wonders if God is punishing her for something. A retired man remembers that in his twenties he was searching for spiritual connection but forgot this over the years; he wants to reconnect with some kind of deeper meaning before his life runs out. After her children have grown and left home, a woman finds time to practice meditation and participate in spiritual retreats, but finds that old wounds and patterns keep clamoring for attention. A forty-year-old man is struggling to keep his marriage alive; his wifes religious faith has become increasingly important to her, but he does not share her devotion or church commitment. He agrees that this affects their connection as well as their approach to parenting, but is wary because of his experience growing up in a strict religious sect.

Not so long ago the responsibility of listening to and providing support and guidance for these personal stories of grief, loneliness, confusion, fear, or meaninglessness fell to religious leaders and spiritual teachers. Today this responsibility falls more and more often to counselors and psychotherapists. Perhaps those of us in the helping professions could use some of the wisdom offered by religious leaders, as well as some modern spiritual perspectives, in order to respond more fully to a wide range of human experience. I believe this is our invitation and our challenge.