The Book

Using Spirituality in Psychotherapy: A Heart Led Approach to Clinical Practice

This book is written to support clinicians or therapists to use Heart Led Psychotherapy with their clients. It provides a valuable alternative to traditional forms of psychotherapy by placing an emphasis on purpose and meaning. It also teaches clinicians or therapists how to incorporate a spiritual perspective within their working practice using a BioPsychoSocialSpiritual approach to treating psychological distress and HLP can also be integrated with different psychotherapies.

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Book

Illustrated by case studies to highlight key points, and including a range of practical resource exercises and strategies, this engaging book will have wide appeal to therapists and clinicians from a variety of backgrounds. Whilst written with the clinician or therapist in mind, the principles and ideas, exercises and meditations in HLP can be used by anyone regardless of whether they are a clinician, therapist, client or just someone wanting to evolve on their spiritual journey.

“This is an excellent book introducing a new spiritually informed Heart Led Psychotherapy which integrates solid trauma healing with a spiritual based perspective of soul awareness and life lessons. Alexandra Dent explains the evolving role of the therapist as a guide into the deeper wounds of the heart and soul with a clear step-by-step protocol which is used as part of a BioPsychoSocialSpiritual model to understanding life challenges and traumas. In particular, she illustrates how Heart Led Psychotherapy can be used in conjunction with EMDR, enabling multi-dimensional healing. A must read for therapists and clients alike interested in the expanding context of psychotherapy.”
Irene R. Siegel, Ph.D., LCSW; Approved EMDR Consultant; Author of The Sacred Path of the Therapist: Modern Healing, Ancient Wisdom, and Client Transformation.
“Alexandra Dent presents a fascinating new approach to therapy which includes a spiritual element which conventional approaches tend to overlook. Her book argues passionately and lucidly that true healing has to integrate a spiritual dimension.”
Steve Taylor PhD, author of The Leap and Spiritual Science, Chair of the Transpersonal Psychology Section of the BPS
“The blend of clinical psychology uniquely with spirituality is what Alexandra is bringing forth in her book. Without spirit, there is no Science. It is time for the world to see the truth. You are not just this human form. You are spirit within manifested in human form to share experiences upon the earth in love. Therefore, the pains and fears you feel need be addressed to release through someone open, and willing to lend that helping hand to you clinically and spiritually with no judgement on either end.Thank you Alexandra for sharing openly in your book, and may you set the tone for others in your line of work. In Honour & Respect”
Keleena Malnar, Quantum Energy Healer, Wayshower of Ascension, www.keleenamalnar.com

“Heart Led Psychotherapy (HLP) helps clients go beyond the limitations of their ego into the greener pastures of their heart and soul. This model recognises a broader perspective of life in that life is always presenting opportunities and challenges to help us connect more deeply to our authentic core.Life will inevitably present lessons that are there to help us grow. All challenging experiences, relationships, or traumas are opportunities to experience these lessons. Also, choices made from the heart lead to better outcomes than choices made from the head or ego. Sometimes such choices will require a releasing of the old and a leap of faith into the new. Making such a choice will always lead to a more authentic life. Alexandra’s inclusion of the spiritual dimension in the HLP model is probably a much welcome breath of fresh air for any therapist wishing to include the spiritual dimension in their therapeutic work.”
Steve Nobel, author, spiritual coach and creator of The Soul Matrix healing system.

MINDFULNESS and MEDITATION EXERCISES

Mindfulness has a significant role in HLP. In her book, Alexandra details how many of us spend most of our time in the ‘Thought Bubble’, creating our own horror movies by churning over the numerous thoughts that bombard us in life. She details how to start living a mindful life and discusses the difference between informal and formal aspects of mindfulness. For many starting on this journey, the best approach is to start with an informal practice which doesn’t take any extra time and involves learning to connect to everything you can see, hear, smell, touch, taste etc. in the present moment; learning to be fully present in the here and now.

Formal mindfulness does take a bit of extra time in the day to go within and learn to notice and learn to embrace and accept whatever is found using meditation. Meditation is nothing wackier than learning how to sit with and embrace whatever you notice within. You don’t have to be Buddhist or sit in a certain position to meditate although adopting a healthy posture and finding a quiet space to meditate can really help. Meditation can be particularly challenging for many who begin on the mindfulness journey so mastering informal mindfulness is probably the best way to begin.

Alexandra is planning to upload more meditations onto You Tube so please feel free to subscribe so that you can have access to these when they go live.

Mindful breathing

The breath is always within us whilst we are alive. Learning to connect to the movement of the breath into and out of our bodies is an amazing and powerful way of bringing ourselves back into the moment. We can use mindful breathing wherever we are and whatever situation we find ourselves in, whether at home, work or school, or when we are out somewhere.

Alexandra has a simple meditation exercise on how to practice mindful breathing on You Tube. When we use the mindful breathing throughout the day, the intention is to stay mindfully awake. However, if you are struggling with sleep: either dropping off to sleep or finding yourself waking up in the night and being plagued by thoughts, using mindful breathing at night time is a really effective way of bringing your awareness back to your breath and it is ok to have the intention of falling back to sleep.

The New Extended Light Stream

This is a gentle yet very effective resource to use to find inner calm and peace. It is a visualisation exercise that is divided into 4 parts.

• Mindful breathing.
• Light stream where you are guided to imagine a healing light filling their body.
• Grounding techniques where you imagine roots from their body, like roots from an oak tree entering the ground below.
• Protection, where you imagine yourself surrounded by a protective bubble or shield that only lets the positive thoughts and energy enter within.

Heartful Meditation

The Heartful Meditation exercise has five optional stages where a few phrases are held in mind whilst being connected to the heart area. The heart area may represent your source of unconditional love, compassion and your truth. The phrases in Heartful Meditation are:

May I be open to giving and receiving love,

may I be free from suffering and pain,

may I live a life of grace and compassion.

In the first stage, you are asked to connect to your heart area and bring to mind the above phrases whilst thinking of yourself. The second is repeating the phrases whilst thinking of a close person who has shown you unconditional love. The third stage is repeating the phrases whilst thinking of a neutral person (someone you may see at the supermarket or when out walking, but that they do not have any personal connection with you) and the fourth stage is repeating the phrases whilst thinking of someone who has caused you discomfort or suffering. Finally, the phrases are repeated and can be extended as far as your mind will allow to include all living beings, creatures and life on the planet and universe.

Soulful Meditation

Soulful Meditation is similar to the Heartful Meditation but this time connecting at a soul level. This may be a particular place in the body, all over, or just an awareness of the presence of the higher sense, a sense of ‘knowing’ or ‘intuition’ at a soul level.

It is important not to force anything to happen, just connect with whatever comes up at a soul level. This can be further extended to connecting to a higher source, whether it is the Divine Source, God, your own personal team of guides, teachers, helpers and angels. It is important to make sure the intention is set to only ask for support and guidance that comes from a loving, positive source which is for your highest good.

As with the Heartful Meditation, there are five optional stages and when connecting to the soul the following phrases are held in mind before dropping them into the soul:

May I live an authentic, heart and soulful life,

may I live a life of ease and grace,

may I be the best version of myself that I can be.

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