Pastoral Care of Depression: Helping Clients Heal Their Relationship With God (Haworth Series in Chaplaincy) [Paperback]

Glendon Moriarty (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 20, 2006 | ISBN-10: 0789023830 | ISBN-13: 978-0789023834 | Edition: 1

This book provides the essential tools needed to transform negative God images in depressed clients!

Pastoral Care of Depression: Helping Clients Heal Their Relationship with God is designed to help clergy and mental health professionals understand how depression negatively affects the way people emotionally experience God and how, through therapy, this hurtful God image can be changed into a much more positive one focused on healing.

In the past, the God image (as well as the essential differentiation between God image and God concept) has been explained in dull, analytic terms that are difficult to understand. This book’s jargon-free language and engaging presentation make it an effective learning tool for students and professionals alike. Inside, you’ll find numerous psychological tests, complete with sample test forms, that identify the God image. These are clearly explained and include all the information needed to take, administer, and interpret them.

Pastoral Care of Depression teaches you to use psychodynamic and cognitive interventions to change a client’s God image, including foundational knowledge and clearly presented techniques to implement in the therapeutic relationship. This comprehensive treatment manual arms you with the most comprehensive array of cognitive interventions published to date, with tens of easy-to-follow techniques designed to tap directly into an individual’s subjective experience of God. Two appendixes give you a sample God Image Automatic Thought Record and Treatment Plan form.

Part I: Depression and the God Image examines:

• the nature and development of depression
  
• symptoms of depression specific to religious people
  
• defining a client’s image of God, how it developed, and what it reveals
  
• the relationship between self, depression, and God image, and how God images relate to Christian thought

Part II: Changing the God Image addresses:

• the importance of self-evaluation for therapists and counselors—and how to do it
  
• the nature of the therapeutic relationship
  
• counseling skills that strengthen the therapeutic relationship
  
• how to conduct an God Image Assessment Interview and how to work with what that interview reveals
  
• transference, countertransference, cyclical maladaptive patterns, and internalization in psychodynamic psychotherapy
  
• appropriate, effective psychodynamic interventions
  
• the essentials of cognitive therapy and how it can be utilized to positively affect the God image
  
• treatment planning and case conceptualization
  
• important ethical issues for consideration

With well-designed test and exercise forms and clear instructions on their use and interpretation, Pastoral Care of Depression provides the essential tools needed to work effectively with this important client group. Make it a part of your professional/teaching collection today!

Editorial Reviews

Review

EMINENTLY PRACTICAL. . . . Filled with illustrations and details of intervention techniques. The book has an excellent section on self-administered assessment instruments for God-image--the most comprehensive currently in the literature. It draws on resources across a wide range of psychological theories, is easily applicable to a range of pathologies, and will be useable for therapists with theologies anywhere in the Christian spectrum. The book blends a highly scholarly breadth of knowledge of the literature, excellent documentation, and a readable writing style, making it ACCESSIBLE TO PRACTITIONERS OF ANY EXPERIENCE LEVEL, ranging from the psychoanalytically oriented through Rogerians and Gestaltists to cognitive psychologists. -- Brian W. Grant, PhD, Lois and Dale Bright Professor of Christian Ministries, Christian Theological Seminary, Indianapolis

INSIGHTFUL. . . . AN OUTSTANDING RESOURCE for anyone who wants to understand how psychological factors influence a person's image of God. First, Dr. Moriarty skillfully combines ideas from psychodynamic and cognitive-behavioral traditions to help readers understand how depressive thinking develops. He then integrates the depression material with research and theory on God images, showing with remarkable clarity how childhood hurts and depressive thought patterns can do great damage to people's perceptions of God. In addition to a sound theoretical base, the book provides practical assessment tools and detailed suggestions for correcting unhealthy God images. I found this book to be tremendously helpful in both conceptual and practical terms, and I HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT to scholars and clinicians alike. -- Julie Exline, PhD, Assistant Professor of Psychology, Case Western Reserve University

"EMINENTLY PRACTICAL. . . Filled with illustrations and details of intervention techniques." -- Brian W. Grant, PhD, Lois and Dale Bright Professor of Christian Ministries, Christian Theological Seminary, Indianapolis

"IMPORTANT. . . This is an impressive and comprehensive book which does not oversimplify difficult concepts while remaining accessible." -- Louis Hoffman, PhD, Dean of Faculty, Colorado School of Professional Psychology

"INSIGHTFUL. . . AN OUTSTANDING RESOURCE for anyone who wants to understand how psychological factors influence a person's image of God." -- Julie Exline, PhD, Assistant Professor of Psychology, Case Western Reserve University

IMPORTANT. . . . This is an impressive and comprehensive book which does not oversimplify difficult concepts while remaining accessible. It is ESSENTIAL READING for all therapists and counselors working with religious individuals -- Louis Hoffman, PhD, Dean of Faculty, Colorado School of Professional Psychology --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 266 pages
• Publisher: Routledge; 1 edition (April 20, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0789023830
• ISBN-13: 978-0789023834
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,764,523 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good, especially for its spiritual exercises, July 13, 2006

By 

David M. Pittle "David M. Pittle, Ph.D." (San Rafael, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Pastoral Care of Depression: Helping Clients Heal Their Relationship With God (Haworth Series in Chaplaincy) (Paperback)

Clearly written but with a cant to the conservative Christian faith community. This limits its usefulness. That's too bad because over-all there is much positive about it. Cast in a more "interfaith language," this could have been a much more useful book for those in hospital or other chaplaincy as well as a broader variety of pastorates.

The summary of therapy modalities is very strong, as is the material on images of God. I do have issues. The modality which has consistently had the strongest results especially in treatment of depression, is cognitive behavior therapy. Study after study has demonstrated this. I would have preferred a focus on this modality. I think the focus on psychodynamic modes is a mistake. A quibble is the extensive reference to Aaron Beck's version where CBT is the subject. Historically, it was Albert Ellis' work which was primary. Beck benefited from his university association, but Ellis is the "father". His work was originally called Rational Emotive Therapy and now is known as REBT; B for Behavior. Ellis was the pioneer and while Beck has made useful contributions, his origins are secondary. I find the concept of Irrational and Rational beliefs to be more useful than "automatic negative thoughts." Still, either is better than other options.

The very strongest portions of this book are those in which Moriarty provides both discussion and exercises to help the reader discover the image(s) of God in his/her faith. I wish these were published in workbook form so that I could use them in groups. There is much here that could be paired with Sally McFague's book, "Models of God." This is important material which could also be used in Spiritual Direction.

One final comment. I did wonder who the intended audience could be. There was almost too much information on the pathology of depression and the various methodologies of therapy. I do not believe that most pastors have nearly the skills or insight to actually treat depression and the attempt to do so would likely prolong the depression or create other dysfunction. I think that anyone who is clinically depressed should be treated by a competent psychotherapist, preferably one who can work with the client's own spirituality. The book seems to encourage pastors to do treatment themselves. Seeing a parishioner for 2-3 sessions is appropriate, but if the severity of the depression reaches clinical proportions, the pastor should refer.

A qualified pastoral psychotherapist will bring the learning of both psychology and that of spirituality to bear on the problem. The vetting process to become a Fellow of the American Association of Pastoral Counselors leads to a better and more rigorous therapeutic, spiritual, faith education and training than that of other professional therapy communities. AAPC now has members from several faith communities including several Protestant denominations, Roman Catholic, Buddhists, Jewish, Muslim, Wiccan and other non-Christian faiths as well.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent resource for Christian therapists, October 14, 2007

By 

Harold McFarland (Florida) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Pastoral Care of Depression: Helping Clients Heal Their Relationship With God (Haworth Series in Chaplaincy) (Hardcover)

This book is primarily concerned with how a person's image of God develops and then using that information to examine how current theories of depression interact with this God image. It is the examination of this relationship between depression and a person's image of God that makes this book unique.

Often people are raised to believe in a God who is loving and accepting but their experiences point to a God who rejects them. Or at least that is how they interpret their experiences. This difference between an all loving God in concept and a very different God in the internalized concept of God is a major part of this book. To resolve depression it is essential to change the God image based on subjective, emotional experiences. People who struggle with depression often have a critical and rejecting God image as a result of critical and rejecting parents.

After discussing the above material the author provides an overview of both the psychodynamic theory of depression, and the cognitive theory. He also examines the relationship between depression, guilt, and religious belief. Throughout the book you will find case examples, exercises, suggested forms, questionnaires, and similar tools. There are several exercises on discovering and understanding your God image. That's followed by an excellent section of how the God image develops.

Chapter 5 covers the God image assessment, and the importance of a good assessment in order to understand the client's image of God. To assist with this he includes a 40 question questionnaire and a 28 question true and false questionnaire as well as instructions on how to score them.

Chapters 6 and 7 cover techniques specific to the psychodynamic psychotherapy and cognitive schools of thought. With all this preliminary information in hand Chapter 8 delves into how to develop a workable treatment plan. The author follows sound, well proven therapeutic techniques couched in the religious belief system of Christian theology. Pastoral Care of Depression: Helping Clients Heal Their Relationship with God is highly recommend to all Christian counselors.