Abstract
Spiritually oriented psychodynamic psychotherapy pays particular attention to the roles that religious and spiritual beliefs, practices, and experiences play in the psychological life of the client. Contemporary psychoanalytic theorists offer multiple approaches to understand the functions of religious experience. Spirituality provides a means to address existential issues and provide a context to form personal meaning. Religious narratives present schemas of relationship and models of experiences salient to mental health, such as hope. God images or other symbolic representations of the transcendent have the power to evoke emotions, which in turn, influence motivation and behavior. While employing theories and techniques derived from psychodynamic psychotherapy, this therapeutic approach encourages the analysis of the functions religion and spirituality serve, while respecting the client's act of believing in faith. Psychotherapists address a client's spirituality by exploring the psychological meaning of such personal commitments and experiences and refrain from entering into discussion of faith claims. Β©2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Clin Psychol: In Session 65:1β11, 2009.