To believe or not to believe? That’s the question we’re asking in this blog post (after being prompted by a reader’s email). After years of questions, searching, studying, and rigorous intellectual and emotional examination, we arrived at a position of profound belief in God.  So that is where we are coming from.

To us personally, the pinnacle of general spiritual development is belief in a God who wants something from us and one of the most important pieces of what He wants from us is to help others. (A parent loves those who love his children).  Even though this belief motivates us in our work, this motivation has mostly been internal—we don’t usually advertise it.  These blog posts in the God in Therapy series are a chance to talk with readers, professionals, and others about how this all fits into therapy, if it does at all.

For some, belief changes and morphs and moves up and down, forward and back. When people are in pain, especially from with mental illness or addiction, it is easy to vacillate in spirituality. The trials of suffering, especially emotional suffering, cause one to be overwhelmed, forgetting the revealed good in their lives. Sometimes, though not always, as people weather emotional storms or other dramatic happenings in their lives, the spirituality goes from level to level to level. Emotions can overwhelm the intellect or vice versa.

Is truth evidenced by a faith that rides the waves of stormy emotions yet remains strong? Perhaps. One thing that most of the people we have spoken with about this series agree on, including many Therapy Soup readers (and a couple of the interviewees in the series): To believe or not to believe? That is the ultimate question.

Look for more God in Therapy (the whole series is here)—honest (warts and all), interviews, coming soon.

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From Psych Central's website:
God and Addiction, Yes. God and Mental Illness, No? Poll. | Therapy Soup (November 9, 2010)

    Last reviewed: 18 Jun 2010