Why Spirituality Matters in Psychology: Addressing the Whole Person

You might be wondering, why is a psychologist spending so much time talking about meditation and this non-dual worldview and all of this stuff that sounds distinctly spiritual in nature?

Well, I'm not a preacher, and I'm not trying to sell a particular ideology or dogma. But I think it's useful to note that the word psychology literally comes from the Greek for the study of spirit, the study of soul, or the study of breath. So until a couple of hundred years ago, that was always the domain of psychology, this world that includes spirituality. But I'm not really merely relying on etymology here. The human experience for the vast majority of humans includes some component or something that can be described as spirituality, whether they're part of a religion or would call themselves spiritual or not, the vast majority of the eight billion of us have at least a piece of our lives that could be called spiritual.

I'm an integral psychologist, and "integral" means whole. An integral psychologist deals with the whole person. So frankly, it's my belief that if spirituality is at least on the table, then I have a chance of addressing my clients wholeness the entirety of their being. But if I leave that off the table and it's not a subject of conversation, then how can I claim to be addressing the whole person?

I can't and I won't, so I am unashamedly going to open myself up to spiritual conversations while never trying to convert anybody to anything. It's just worth talking about, just like any other issue that a human being faces: their work, their relationship, or their physical health.

Spirituality is at least worth talking about.

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