About The Presentation

When your client or client family seems to be in their own personal hell, there may be an opportunity to save them — from their own embedded theology. Psychology and theology are distinct ways of assessing well-being, evaluating a personal or family narrative, understanding a person’s world-view and perceiving developmental issues. Some therapy issues may be spiritual crises with psychosocial symptoms and conventional counseling may be palliative and not therapeutic. At these times a pastoral or spiritual vantage can be helpful in making a difference.

The presenter will weave the theories of Antoin Boisin, Michael Monnett, Kenneth Pargament, Carl Jung, Henri Nouwen, Thich Nhat Hanh, Thomas Merton, Pema Chödrön, Alastair Campbell, and others with chaplain / therapy case studies to demonstrate methods for identifying spiritual issues and working through these crises. Spiritual metaphors, principles and assessment instruments will be offered. Links and references for further study will be provided.

About the Presenter

Richard Charles Williams, LCSW, Board Certified Chaplain, has  been a social worker and chaplain in nursing homes in the Denver and Boulder area. This has included a responsibility for interventions in the locked behavioral or mental health units in these facilities working with residents of all ages. These residents are motivated to meet the challenges of their mental illness or personality disorders so that they may find a way out of the locked unit and into a less restrictive environment. Helping residents meet these challenges has taken all the skills that Rich has at his disposal including psycho-therapeutic interventions, behavior modification, life coaching and spirituality. Rich is also the principal of NP-it, LLC a consulting firm specializing in the treatment of the mentally ill, the aged, and the otherwise poor in spirit.

Additional Resources