A Conversation Between Two Therapists

Bill O'Hanlon is an internationally recognized psychotherapist, author, and workshop leader. As a developer of Solution-Oriented Therapy and a founder of Possibility and Inclusive Therapies, his clinical work is recognized for its collaborative respectful approach to clients. Bill has authored or co-authored 19 books and his work has been featured on Oprah, The Today Show, and in many magazines, including Newsweek. Dr. Prem Anjali, Integral Yoga Magazine editor (and therapist), engages Bill O'Hanlon in a stimulating dialogue. Here is part one of a two-part conversation:

Prem Anjali: I have found that, in some circles, psychotherapy has been viewed as something antithetical to spirituality or faith in God. What are your views on possible common boundaries?

Bill O'Hanlon: There actually has been a traditional hostility, or at least ignorance, of one field to another. In psychotherapy, we have really ignored the spiritual quite a bit. I think that the misunderstandings goes both directions, that we have cartoon images sometimes of one another, or the idea that one approach can take care of everything.

I think that when people come into therapy, they feel stuck and isolated in some area of their life. I had a friend who said, "Psychotherapy can't solve every life problem, obviously, because as the old saying goes, "Life is just one darn thing after another." You can't make life problem-free, but when people come into psychotherapy, life has become the same darn thing over and over again in some area, either in their emotional life or in their behavioral life, in their psychological life, in their relational life.

So, psychotherapy, very simply, helps people get unstuck. There are so many varieties of psychotherapy, but even people that are profoundly spiritual can be stuck in some area. I think that a psychotherapy that has a spiritual orientation and a spiritual bent is a better psychotherapy than one that leaves that orientation out.

Prem Anjali: I've had clients say to me, "Well, I just need to have more faith," or "I just need to let go and let God, and then all my problems will be solved." In a sense, this is of course true, but...

Bill O'Hanlon: There is an old Arab saying, "Trust in God and tie your camel." People can say, "Never go to a doctor. If you just have enough faith, you will never need surgery and you will never need a doctor." I think that faith can do a great deal to heal one physically, but even the most spiritually advanced people sometimes visit doctors, even though they have gone very deeply with their spirituality and may have been very full of faith. There is a time to, actually, lock your car, and there is a time to trust God, and sometimes it is important to lock your car, as well. I think that therapy, for even very deeply developed spiritual people, might be a modality that they can use that could get them unstuck in some area that they are not very spiritual in-perhaps one or two areas in which they go away from their usual spirituality, practices, and resources...