religious & spiritual distress
“Spiritual struggles are an essential part of the personal journeys of the world’s religious exemplars. In the Hebrew Bible, complaint with God co-mingles with communion with God. In the New Testament, we listen to Jesus’ final anguished plea and expression of abandonment on the cross: ‘My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?’ (Matthew 27:46). Within Islam, we hear of the struggles of the Prophet Muhammed to establish a new religion against the backdrop of the ruling elite of Mecca and the larger polytheistic culture. Within Buddhism…before [Siddhartha Gautama] becomes the Buddha…he is confronted by the demon Mara who presents him with the greatest worldly temptations.
These moving accounts of turmoil set the stage for the profoundly inspirational insights and transformations that follow.”
Kenneth Pargament & Julie ExlineFor millennia, spirituality and religion have provided us with depth, meaning and community. Yet, not even the greatest spiritual role models have been exempted from experiencing spiritual distress. Like them, you may have felt misunderstood or discriminated against due to your religious background, hurt by your spiritual community, conflicted by questions of ultimate meaning, or punished or abandoned by God.
If this is your case, you may find yourself in a confusing and isolating middle space. One where long-held assumptions about the sacred shatter, yet alternate frameworks fail to truly make sense.
While psychotherapy cannot speak for the divine or give answers to life’s ultimate questions, it can offer you shelter and refuge as you wrestle with your beliefs, process spiritual pain, and reorient yourself towards the transcendent—whether within or outside of organized religion.
No matter how desolate or empty you may feel, you can let this struggle be a passage. You can come out the other side with a sturdier foundation, a deeper sense of connection, and a renewed appreciation for Life.
To discover if this is something we can work towards together…