Integrating Spirit and Psyche Using Women's Narratives in Psychotherapy

In this extraordinary collection, the voices of women's experience ring out loud and true! The power of narrative in therapy for women is undeniable. Used well, other women's narratives can help us to understand and rewrite our own. Here, women bare their souls, reflecting on self-enhancement and growth, on discrediting negative family scripts, on seeing through demeaning cultural messages, on living in the modern world, on their wildness, wisdom, spirituality, and a great deal more! Each chapter includes questions for reflection to help readers incorporate these narratives into their own lives. From the author: “This book began with the women's groups I facilitate. Some themes arose many times: I feel bad about myself; I can't speak up at times; I don't feel like I have any rights; I feel stupid; I feel like I am bad. But as therapy progressed, new narratives were expressed: I do have a voice; I am knowledgeable; I like being who I am; and I can work through this conflict. “As a writer and therapist, I have taken a stance about ideas that are presented in sessions with clients and that exist in their culture. This book elaborates on those ideas and offers readers an opportunity to think about them in their own lives. Women can rewrite their lives as they become aware of their stories.” Some of the narratives that you'll find in Integrating Spirit and Psyche: Using Women's Narratives in Psychotherapy explore: women as second-class citizens putting the self in context women's spirituality in its many forms anger as it relates to gender societal pressure on women to bear terrible burdens in silence ways that various cultures have demeaned women-infanticide, foot binding, genital mutilation, dowry deaths, etc. societal messages that encourage feelings of helplessness, shame, anger, and inhibition in women ways to resolve conflicts, take credit where it’s due, and express ourselves mind-body connections women to look to for inspiration--Virginia Woolf, Marie Curie, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Margaret Thatcher, and many more aging and wisdom women's spiritual practices--meditation, T'ai Chi, Chakra Awareness, practices from the Judeo-Christian traditions, and more!

Preface Acknowledgments Part I: Enhancing the Self Chapter 1. First- or Second-Class Citizen? Women Who Do Not Have Children Dominant Culture Legal Protection Financial Compensation and Success Reflection Questions Chapter 2. Self in Context Self-Esteem and Spirituality Growth and Development Research Practical Ways to Promote Growth of the Self Reflection Questions Chapter 3. Ancient and Ancestral Women Greek Goddess Athena Family Systems Changing Place of Women Reflection of Questions Chapter 4. Women's Spirituality Definitions of Spirituality Constrictions of the Past Reconstruction of Equality Needed in Spirituality Reflection Questions Part II: Discrediting Negative Family Scripts Chapter 5. Men Are the Smart Ones History Theory and Gender My Story Clinical Themes Knowing, Power, and Sexuality Reflection Questions Chapter 6. She Is Ill Pathology and Women Dance/Movement Chinese Family Messages to Women Illnesses Resulting from a Lack of Voice Anger and Gender Reflection Questions Chapter 7. Be Sacrificial and Silent Two Standards Secrets Reflection Questions Part III: Seeing Through Demeaning Cultural Messages Chapter 8. You Are Nobody Girls Are Not Valued Infanticide Foot Binding Genital Mutilation Dowry Deaths Violence Against Women Reflection Questions Chapter 9. You Are Helpless Harassment Black-and-Blue Narratives Killings—Personal Story Rape Reflection Questions Chapter 10. You Should Feel Shame and Inhibition Advertising Shame The Need to Recognize Outstanding Women Fears of Failure Spirituality and Addiction Reflection Questions Chapter 11. You Are Not Allowed to Express Anger Healthy Expressions of Anger Grief and Loss Optimal Family Health Clinical Application Reflection Questions Chapter 12. You Are the Keeper of Secrets Effects of Secret Keeping on Families What to Consider in Opening a Secret Clinical Cases Effects of Revealing Secrets and Institutional Secret Keeping Reflection Questions Part IV: New Narratives Chapter 13. I Am Knowing First Poet U. S. Congresswoman for Twenty-Four Years Modern Role Models Women and Knowledge Women Have Strength Reflection Questions Chapter 14. I Have a Voice Oppression Leadership Narratives Reflection Questions Chapter 15. I Have a Divine Herstory Jewish Mystic of the Holocaust German Artist Depicting the Evils of War Quaker Mystic and Author Catholic Lay Mystic and Expressing Feminine Spirituality Mystic and Doctor of the Church Solidarity and Martyrdom with the Oppressed Reflection Questions Chapter 16. I Can Take Credit Personal Narrative Clinical Narrative Imaging Self-Confidence Women Who Break Barriers Blessing Mentoring Reflection Questions Chapter 17. I Can Resolve Conflict Untangling the Past from the Present Honest Expression of Your Thoughts and Feelings and Their Clarification Model for Communication Boundaries Action Plan Reflection Questions Part V: Wild Women Stories Chapter 18. Women Who Soar Marie Curie Virginia Woolf Wilma Rudolph Sarah Chang Artemisia Gentileschi Margaret Thatcher Jenny Thompson Sheryl Swoopes Jackie Joyner-Kersee Gail Devers Martha Pituch Caryl Simon Lillian Weger Jacqueline Cochran Reflection Questions Chapter 19. Be True to Yourself China's Myth: Mulan Herstory Current Narratives Clinical Narrative Reflection Questions Chapter 20. Surviving