A Differentiation-Based Approach

FEBRUARY 15, 2017:
Spirituality is a topic that is increasingly studied empirically in psychology with a growing literature on applications to clinical practice. Yet coherent theoretical frameworks for spiritually integrative psychotherapy have been slower to develop and gain empirical support, and theology has remained relatively excluded from the dominant contemporary literatures on psychotherapy. This presentation starts by outlining a relational integration approach to psychology and theology (Brown & Sandage, 2015; Sandage & Brown, 2012, 2015; Sandage & Shults, 2007), emphasizing the actual relational dynamics of interdisciplinary collaboration and ways they parallel the relational challenges of psychotherapy. Sandage and colleagues have developed and empirically tested a model of relational spirituality and transformation drawing on differentiation-based systems and relational development theories (e.g., attachment) along with relational theologies. This model suggests spiri