What does it mean to be a spiritual therapist?

When looking for research regarding the connection between psychotherapy and spirituality, we find hundreds of general and detailed ways these two practices cross paths. The American Psychological Association states that spirituality should be ethically and competently integrated into the therapy session when relevant to the client. It is my personal belief that it is not possible to leave spirituality out of a therapy session. And further, that using spirituality is always relevant to the client.

Let’s begin with the facts.

The Ancient Greek origin of the word “psycho” means the soul, mind, spirit, or “breath of life”. Is it possible that psychotherapy was always meant to be about working with one’s spirit? 

Furthermore, Webster gives many definitions of the word’s “spirit” and “soul”. Those related to our work as therapists are: “the immaterial essence, animating principle, or actuating cause of an individual life”; “a person’s total self”; and “the inner self which holds personality, thoughts and beliefs”. 

In language and definition, the concepts of psychotherapy and spirituality overlap a great deal.

So, are you a spiritual therapist?

I would argue that there is at least one way all therapists use themes of spirituality to attend to their clients. I would also argue that what some often define as ‘woo woo’ or ‘magic’ is actually a spiritual aspect that every therapist engages with, whether aware of it or not. This aspect is the energy found in the unseen parts of every session, and is the main focus of this blog.

You might be a spiritual therapist if you….

….Encourage your clients to find meaning in the life experiences they share with you 

If there is any Existential or Humanistic theory in your approach with clients, then you are likely already engaging in meaning-making. Finding meaning is also a principle of spirituality.

….Encourage your clients to look inward for their own answers, instead of allowing them to rely on you to give them answers to their life’s questions

This is a Rogerian theory staple. It is also the main difference between religion and spirituality. The former relies on an external organization and dogma; the latter focuses on an individual inner path.

….Use any of the spiritual principles of the 12-step approach as you sit with a client

Honesty, Hope, awareness, integrity, or courage…to name a few. 

….Use any of the spiritual virtues of the mystical study of the Tree of Life

For example, humor, love, discernment, truth, growth, integrity, realization, or self-authority

When comparing the main themes of spiritual philosophies and psychotherapeutic theories, it appears that they are deeply interwoven. 

But what about the other spiritual ways? If we move past using spiritual principles in our sessions, and move onto spiritual experiences in a session, are you still a spiritual therapist? What about intuition, energy, and manifestation? What about the parts of spirituality that many scientists and scholars scoff at?

Do you utilize the unseen parts of the therapeutic experience between you and a client?

If you are currently engaging with the energy of a session, you are not alone. In fact, you are standing with some of the greats. 

Irving Yalom would regularly ask a client, “How are you experiencing the space between us today?” Carl Rogers regarded the space between the client and therapist as a “living, relational field defined by psychological contact, congruence, and empathic presence.” Carl Jung viewed the space between the therapist and client as a “dynamic, interactive field of mutual influence where both psyches actively meet, affect, and transform one another.”

Spirituality includes what happens in the space between the client and therapist. It also includes what happens in the space within the client and their own psyche, and within the therapist and their own. 

My personal definition of the word spiritual is: future science that has yet to be discovered. I see spirituality as being the unseen parts of our existence, both in the outer world and in our individual inner worlds. It is the ‘stuff’ that we have either not yet invented instruments to capture, or not yet evolved our senses enough to capture for ourselves.

What fills that space between us, and within us, is the energy derived from thoughts, emotions, beliefs and physiological changes that happen during therapy hour.

For example, when a person becomes angry, many internal changes take place. There is a flush of the skin, blood rushes to the limbs, heart rate increases, and thoughts can become aggressive in nature, among other changes. As the whole body responds to the emotional change, our internal reaction of anger becomes an external felt energy to others.

Thoughts and Emotions Have Power

In 1972, Candace Pert, a brilliant neuroscientist and pharmacologist, was the first to discover that emotions can be seen under a microscope. In fact, these emotional molecules are not just found in the brain, but are neuropeptides that communicate throughout the whole of the body. She found that emotion is a molecular, full-body experience.

One of Pert’s key discoveries is that our thoughts directly change our body's chemistry. A thought can change the frequency at which these emotional molecules are vibrating. And different emotional molecules have different frequency rates. This means that a thought can change the frequency of one’s internal state. 

These frequencies then determine whether our perception is clear or cloudy. These frequencies literally create rose colored glasses of perception, directly impacting the way we see and interact with the world. The frequency with which we are vibrating impacts our inner world and in the space between us, even if we are unconscious of it.

The therapist’s energy impacts the frequency in the room and the client

In the book, Molecules of Emotion, Pert writes that there is a vibrational resonance between cells. She found in her decades of research that when cells share a similar frequency, they migrate towards each other. They resonate. 

Further, she found that as they come closer in proximity to each other, the resonance strengthens. This not only occurs within the cells of our bodies, but includes the vibrational resonance between people in the world. This is why we feel open to some and closed to others. It is common that the frequency of other people, and how it impacts the frequency of our emotional state, creates a chemical shift within us. This is often happening without our permission or awareness.

When we feel frustrated, whether it is about the session or about something we are bringing into the room, it is possible our clients will likely sense that frustration in their bodies before their mind picks up on it. The energy in the room shifts, and the client may instinctually close, as a result.

The space between cells, and between people, is where spirituality meets physiology… meets emotion… meets psychotherapy. It is in the space between us, which we cannot see with the naked eye, that unconscious and powerful communication happens. It is also where resonance and safety are created. 

A client’s energy impacts the frequency in the room and the therapist  

Have you experienced this unseen influence in your sessions? Maybe there is a tension that arises in the client, and we notice it… sense it in the room. How we greet that tension will impact the person sitting across from you. 

I am not necessarily saying that what you say is the key to offering safety to the client. I am stating that what we think and believe as we say something impacts a client.  And this can feel like a mystical, magical experience. 

If a client is responding with a twinge of fear when confronting an old memory or challenging thought, what they need is to be received by an internal state of loving openness and clear acceptance. Just like Pert’s resonating cells, our frequency of acceptance can create a resonant frequency of self-acceptance in the client.

We impact other humans with our internal state deeper than any words of wisdom we may give. Clients will respond to our resonating truth more than they respond to our mastery of CBT. (Although using both skills at the same time is most effective.) The only requirement for resonance is that we are clear and honest with our intention. That our words are consistent with our inner selves.

We can better offer a personalized and loving response to a client if we have done the deep spiritual work of managing our own energy around our thinking and feeling. 

The question is then: if this unseen energy exchange is already happening within the therapeutic hour without our awareness, what could happen if we intentionally attended to that space?

Our responsibility is to do the spiritual work of finding vibrational resonance within ourselves. Could we be even more effective if we stay attuned to our inner world in a session, so to encourage safety and exploration of a fear-inducing topic for the client? 

Further, what could happen if we could teach clients about that space within themselves, and between themselves and others? Before Candace Pert, this kind of talk might be seen as quackery. However, we know more now. 

There is real evidence that one’s thoughts and emotions can create either a cloud of confusion or a safe container between two people. What happens in the space between us in a therapy session is likely what happens between the client and their world. And working with this space is soul-filled therapeutic work. It is spiritual. 

Attending to the unseen world could be called soul work. Others may call it DBT, EMDR, or IFS. Whatever we name it, I believe recognizing the power your thoughts have on your inner state, and on the inner state of others, makes you a psycho-therapist.

References:

Pert, C. B. (1997). Molecules of emotion: Why you feel the way you feel. Scribner. [1, 2]

Many clients bring faith, meaning-making, or religious trauma into sessions, but most therapist training programs have historically skipped addressing these spiritual matters directly. Christine aims to solve this issue, and give therapists practical, ethical methods for addressing spirituality in therapy. She is co-hosting an upcoming CE focusing on when to use a spiritual approach, how to handle ethical challenges, and support clients through faith deconstruction. It will take place September 11th, 2026, and comes with 2 synchronous CE credits from the Georgia Psychological Association (pending approval). Check it out here.