Is Contemplative Prayer more efficacious in treatment of mental disordered than Behavioral Therapy

[Robert_Sock]

Ask just about any clinician about the potential power of meditation, and most will give a very favorable response; however, prayer is a taboo subject in psychology, and very few clinicians would include it in the treatment.

I’m just one person, but Contemplative Prayer (e.g., The Cloud of Unknowing) has had a very favorable effect on my mental health.

 

[brigid12]

I’ve wondered the same thing myself. A Catholic therapist would be the only one that would give you a straight answer I bet. It sure makes a difference to my day (that and the rosary).

 

[myway]

According to neurology when we pray a hormone called dopamine increases in our brains.

 

[Exiled_Child]

Ask just about any clinician about the potential power of meditation, and most will give a very favorable response; however, prayer is a taboo subject in psychology, and very few clinicians would include it in the treatment.

I’m just one person, but Contemplative Prayer (e.g., The Cloud of Unknowing) has had a very favorable effect on my mental health.

It has a very favorable impact on me as well, Robert, but I think it might actually be best to try and not analyze it too much. I only say that because I suspect it’s the reason some forms of prayer are more or less off limits for discussion. When we start speaking of “divine therapy” we’re kind of skirting a grey zone, it seems to me. I didn’t personally have much luck with behavioral therapy, which I pursued for a few years with a therapist. I also experimented with a Reichian therapsist for a couple years and that, I think, did help. It loosened me up a bit. Prayer and confession and fasting are all I pursue now, and I’m sure that’s not going to ever change. It feels right to me. I wish I was more clear on what language and terminology this subject could best be discussed.

 

[TK421]

Ask just about any clinician about the potential power of meditation, and most will give a very favorable response; however, prayer is a taboo subject in psychology, and very few clinicians would include it in the treatment.

I’m just one person, but Contemplative Prayer (e.g., The Cloud of Unknowing) has had a very favorable effect on my mental health.

This is one area that the West has actually ceded ground on: prayer was a more taboo subject in psychology in the 60s and 70s, but these days it’s more widely accepted as highly beneficial for mental distress, namely because they pretty much have no choice but to accept that (clinical psychologists make up among the highest number of atheists, compared to molecular biologists or chemists, which have a higher ratio of theists). Even for an atheist psychologist, it’s clear that prayer and the act of belief for a person can be highly therapeutic.

 

[iohannes13]

Prayer is not taboo in psychology. Where did you hear that? Therapists encourage you to find an anchor for lack of a better word. The anchor is something that gives you strength, peace of mind, etc. If your religion and prayer are an anchor for you, the therapists will encourage you to participate in it and pursue it.

While it has been mentioned above that prayer and meditation releases hormones that make you feel better, the underlying issues will remain and will continue to resurface if not treated with the help of a professional. For instance, if you have schema/life traps such as fear of abandonment, feelings of worthlessness, failure, unrelenting standards, co-dependence, etc., prayer will not help you solve these issues. These type of issues will continue to plague your life if they go untreated. There are different methods of treatments. Some methods work better some people than they do for others. It’s no different than medicines. There are several different medications for the same disease because some meds work for some people but not for others. I believe that Cognitive/Schema therapy is very effective. But it might not work for everyone. Now combine a working therapy with prayer if that works for you and you have a winning combination.

I must be foresaken because prayer does nothing for me (feel good wise). I’ve had better results with meditation but I can never stay awake meditating so that’s a fail. As stupid as this sounds, a half hour watching the three stooges does make me feel good. Laughter is also good for releasing those feel good hormones.

 

[franklinstower]

Contemplative prayer and self examination have been profoundly powerful for me. I had very severe emotional and mental disorders when I began the practice of spending two or three hours a day in prayer under the direction of a spiritual adviser. It was not long before I started entering into contemplative states-- especially spiritual sleep.

After a few years of being introduced to joy and love through Gods power I realized that many of my underlying deep seated emotional disorders were still present and that I was afraid to feel them and face them. One day while sitting in the park I found the sincerity to give God permission to begin healing those issues. Soon after that a strange healing began to take place in my life.

I had been abused, neglected traumatized and made to feel like I was crazy when I was not by both of my parents, this had left me with deep emotional wounds and mental confusion. After that prayer I began to feel Gods power shining in me in a way that seemed to intensify the feeling of all of those old wounds. This “purification” went on for a couple of years during which *I had no idea what was happening or even if it was a good thing except *that I had a monk telling me that it was certainly God healing me.

After the end of those two years of having waves of purification happen to me it ended. The first thing I noticed is that I could be around my father and feel only a very divine sort of love for him. I never felt afraid, shaky, or angry in his presence again after that. * I had no idea what was being healed while the purification was happening.
*
I am presently as normal as any human being would be who was raised well. My basic feeling within is a deep feeling of security and comfort and a feeling of safety. God did heal my issues and it was very much more effective for me than therapy had been which I had tried for a significant period of time before getting a spiritual director.

I have been lucky enough to help many other people walk through this kind of purification and it has been as successful for them as for me. There have been a few who have attempted to go to God for this kind of deep healing where it has not been successful but in every case they were unwilling to walk through the feelings of purification, avoided it, and that was why it did not work.

 

[lifeandhope]

I am a Catholic psychotherapist. I would not say that contemplative prayer is an efficacious treatment at all in an of itself. It is, for my clients, something that I very strongly support and recommend, but prayer itself is not a treatment. Regarding behavior therapy, there are very few true behaviorists around these days, as mental health issues require a more complex approach than pure behaviorism can offer. Of course it depends on the exact nature of the client’s problem, but in using depressive and anxiety disorders as examples, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is one of the more efficacious treatment approaches. Personally, I integrate Dialectical Behavioral Therapy and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy skills and theory with traditional CBT with good results. As part of that theoretical framework, I would likely have a client, especially a Catholic client, to utilize something like journaling and/or prayer practice as a ‘skill’ or ‘tool’. Any treatment, to be effective, requires deliberate and consistent work by the client. A therapist can have the best treatment recommendations to offer, but unless a client is willing to work at it, nothing will come of the treatment.

For a personal example of this, I have a cancer disease and have struggled with my life being threatened on a continual basis, with fear of the unknown, with both anticipated as well as current pain from my brain and spinal cord tumors, with PTSD from extreme and traumatic treatments for pancreatic cancer and watching my Dad die from the disease. I actively and deliberately use CBT, DBT, and ACT theory and practice, but adjunctive to that I utilize prayer deliberately to aid in coping with my illness. I should note that prayer is always part of my life as a spiritual practice and in using it as a mental health aid I not only experience benefits from prayer, but it has indeed supported and enhanced my faith in general. Just today I was undergoing treatment that was scary and painful, and to manage the fear and anxiety I prayed and meditated on the Our Father, Hail Mary, and my own desperate cry of ‘Oh God please help me’. I was able to manage (not get rid of) the anxiety and get through the treatment. I have found in these situations that it is focused prayer that helps me to, minute by minute, get through intense pain and fear like no other treatment or skill has been able to do. But this may not work in other situations or for other clients; all of therapy is finding what works for each person, helping the client to accumulate skills and tools to manage mental health problems so that they have an arsenal to pull from as the need arises. Regarding prayer specifically though, I believe that whether or not it has any efficacy in alleviating mental health symptoms it most assuredly MUST be a part of every Catholic’s life of practice and faith.

 

[lifeandhope]

Regarding what I just posted: I realize that my stating that prayer itself is not a treatment may raise some hackles. However, as a registered therapist I am bound by professional ethics and practice which requires that I use treatment that has been proven empirically to be effective. If I were a lay counselor then I would not be under the profession’s ethical guidelines, which exist to ensure that clients get the best possible outcome when seeking treatment. So whereas studies have determined the value of prayer practices in treating mental illness, prayer as the treatment alone and of itself has no such findings except perhaps anecdotal.

 

[Vic_Taltrees_UK]

In addition it depends BOTH on the cognitive skills, style, developments etc of the client / would be believer AND the content of the contemplations / “behavioural” element envisaged.

Solid, interactive instruction with people that are living the Gospel already can be more contemplative and impacting on new learned ways of living than anything, avoiding both empty-headedness and loss of concentration.

Furthermore we mustn’t forget there are no easy definitions of “effective”. We may be able to tell after a while or after a lifetime. We may not “get over” our trauma in a lifetime but in God’s eyes that may be a success compared to what might otherwise have been.

God has used simple medications and supplements at the same time, in my experience. Not to mention providential events.

 

[Mystical_Seeker]

My short answer to the subject question is yes, it can be.

Contemplative prayer was a critical element of my own healing, although there were many other factors including recently some work with a psychologist by Skype who has figured out how to cut through the ineffective stuff that is being sold as “therapy” today and get right to the point of destroying the false self’s illusions, which is one of the primary advantages that contemplative prayer can bring.

One problem with “psychotherapy” is that it is often misdirected and “fixing” the false self rather than “denying it” like Jesus told us.

So from my own experience I can say that it played a bigger role in helping me out of a severe psychosis than psychotherapy – that the doctors told me I would never recover from btw – at least until a few months ago with this Skype guy who has really helped me to drive home all what I’d learned. He himself avoided religion at first because so many of his clients are confused by toxic religion (including Catholics) but in our first session he used “forgive them for they know not what they do” as an example of being “grounded in truth,” and since then he has opened up and even commented on Facebook posts where I quote from the Bible.

All of that said, I can’t take any piece out of the puzzle and know what the whole would have looked like. But one thing for sure, until I heard of “resting in God” and the “Dark Night” and the “false self” – a lot of the psychotherapy aimed at coping skills and feeling better were basically hot air.

 

[Mystical_Seeker]

In addition it depends BOTH on the cognitive skills, style, developments etc of the client / would be believer AND the content of the contemplations / “behavioural” element envisaged.

Solid, interactive instruction with people that are living the Gospel already can be more contemplative and impacting on new learned ways of living than anything, avoiding both empty-headedness and loss of concentration.

I agree that it is much about interactions.

That said, what do you mean by “avoiding both empty-headedness and loss of concentration”? If that is how you see “contemplative prayer” than I’m concerned that someone has misinformed you as to the nature of contemplative prayer or its effects. Are you suggesting that contemplative prayer makes one’s cognitive skills in social interactions less effective due to “empty-headedness and loss of concentration”? If so, then whatever you have seen under the guise of “contemplative prayer” was more likely some personal concoction of practices that a spiritually “blind” person set up to try to lead other blind people.

God has used simple medications and supplements at the same time, in my experience. Not to mention providential events.

Amen! That’s why I believe Jesus said our paths would be narrow – they are each custom-designed and executed via the Holy Spirit. The “wide path” is good for socialization and learning the basics of faith, but one has to be ready to see and heed the signs when called to something new.

 

[Robert_Sock]

Regarding what I just posted: I realize that my stating that prayer itself is not a treatment may raise some hackles. However, as a registered therapist I am bound by professional ethics and practice which requires that I use treatment that has been proven empirically to be effective. If I were a lay counselor then I would not be under the profession’s ethical guidelines, which exist to ensure that clients get the best possible outcome when seeking treatment. So whereas studies have determined the value of prayer practices in treating mental illness, prayer as the treatment alone and of itself has no such findings except perhaps anecdotal.

This is what I meant when I said prayer is taboo in psychology.

 

[Robert_Sock]

According to neurology when we pray a hormone called dopamine increases in our brains.

I would expect that endorphin plays a critical role.

 

[Vic_Taltrees_UK]

That said, what do you mean by “avoiding both empty-headedness and loss of concentration”? If that is how you see “contemplative prayer” than I’m concerned that someone has misinformed you as to the nature of contemplative prayer or its effects. Are you suggesting that contemplative prayer makes one’s cognitive skills in social interactions less effective due to “empty-headedness and loss of concentration”? If so, then whatever you have seen under the guise of “contemplative prayer” was more likely some personal concoction of practices that a spiritually “blind” person set up to try to lead other blind people.

…

Loss of concentration first. To some people in some circumstances a set of “behavioural” instructions might appear too complicated to follow exactly or memorise.

It might also in some circumstances smack of manipulativeness. At best behavioural therapy might actually be a form of wholesome instruction.

Next empty-headedness. You are spot on, I had the misfortune over a lengthy period to be impacted by many of those concoctions!

Incidentally I prefer to use a usual level of lighting and be free of background “music” but that’s just me. I think that it is worshipful to acknowledge God as provider by interceding out loud so we can give others faith to know a person or thing has been interceded for and that God has got it in the “pipeline”.

In my own history I was struggling for many years with undiagnosed learning differences, and that was depressing. Following healing prayers at a gospel camp I was given information to understand all about these!

 

[Vic_Taltrees_UK]

franklinstower, I am glad to read your account. Presumably it is some things within your tradition that have helped this?

 

[DBT]

Contemplative prayer and self examination have been profoundly powerful for me. I had very severe emotional and mental disorders when I began the practice of spending two or three hours a day in prayer under the direction of a spiritual adviser. It was not long before I started entering into contemplative states-- especially spiritual sleep.

After a few years of being introduced to joy and love through Gods power I realized that many of my underlying deep seated emotional disorders were still present and that I was afraid to feel them and face them. One day while sitting in the park I found the sincerity to give God permission to begin healing those issues. Soon after that a strange healing began to take place in my life.

I had been abused, neglected traumatized and made to feel like I was crazy when I was not by both of my parents, this had left me with deep emotional wounds and mental confusion. After that prayer I began to feel Gods power shining in me in a way that seemed to intensify the feeling of all of those old wounds. This “purification” went on for a couple of years during which *I had no idea what was happening or even if it was a good thing except *that I had a monk telling me that it was certainly God healing me.

After the end of those two years of having waves of purification happen to me it ended. The first thing I noticed is that I could be around my father and feel only a very divine sort of love for him. I never felt afraid, shaky, or angry in his presence again after that. * I had no idea what was being healed while the purification was happening.
*
I am presently as normal as any human being would be who was raised well. My basic feeling within is a deep feeling of security and comfort and a feeling of safety. God did heal my issues and it was very much more effective for me than therapy had been which I had tried for a significant period of time before getting a spiritual director.

I have been lucky enough to help many other people walk through this kind of purification and it has been as successful for them as for me. There have been a few who have attempted to go to God for this kind of deep healing where it has not been successful but in every case they were unwilling to walk through the feelings of purification, avoided it, and that was why it did not work.

This is a very wonderful and articulate expression of “how” contemplative prayer can bring healing. We know God’s handiwork by unknowing as evidenced by the fact that clarity only comes through hindsight … rarely if ever during the time of purification itself. The process is often slow and gradual, perhaps spanning a period of years. Then, one day, we find our troubles are simply gone … lost in the fog of memory. Often this is triggered by a profound act of abandonment similar to what you describe. Now all we know is deep and lasting peace accompanied by a new way of “seeing.” The Divine Love you describe. This is the proof and fruit. I have known such a reality very similar to yours.

However, I believe this type of healing is not one that we can necessarily bring about (at least in its entirety) through what is commonly called acquired contemplation. No doubt that way of prayer has soothing and calming effects as other posters rightly have described … but it’s at a more surface level, imo. The type of deep down curing and eradication of profound spiritual and psychological wounds is God’s gift through contemplation in its infused forms … as evidenced by your reference to “spiritual sleep.” This sleep is “where” we experience St. John of the Cross’ “loving inflow of God” … where grace floods our soul and brings about the type of healing you describe. And, more generally speaking, it is the “where” and “how” God transforms our tendency to vice into the way of virtue.

God heals and transforms through infused prayer … we cooperate and aid His efforts through active prayer methods like meditation, recollection and acquired contemplation.

Dave

 

[DBT]

Sorry, double post.

 

[Robert_Sock]

When will those in psychology learn that all mental illness (non-organic) involves one’s spirituality? Ironic that psychology by definition is the study of the soul “psyche.” I felt insulted when I read an article on how we need to become more educated and know that children are sexual beings! Children are spiritual beings, not sexual beings! Not that I believe that children are somehow asexual, but that the focus needs to be on spirituality. My own prediction is that the world will become much more spiritual after we finally put an end to the crazy “sexual revolution” that the world is undergoing.

 

[franklinstower]

franklinstower, I am glad to read your account. Presumably it is some things within your tradition that have helped this?

Absolutely. Read DBT’s post as it is confirming of what I said.

Really what helped the most is to have a spiritual director that had been through similar purifications and could recognize them and not try to fix them. During that period there were lots of issues for me- one is that everyone except the monk was trying to fix the cure God was giving me. The feeling of darkness, the feeling of being separate from God. the amplified and intense awareness of my sin and issues-- * all of these were the symptoms of God healing me *but anyone else I spoke with would try to address these symptoms of healing as issues to be fixed.

I can name a number of things that helped along the way but it was truly Gods power that healed me. There is so much to say but there are two things I would mention that God placed in me that helped above all else. I am not saying these are qualities I have, I am saying that God would shine these qualities in me and they more than anything else created the healing. The first quality I began to notice after a good long while of feeling only my issues amplified was “Holy Sorrow” I found a way to be deeply sorrowful for my own sin, for the pain in my life, and for the pain in the world that was “holy” that was not depression or sadness as the world would have it. This sorrow was different- it was deeply God filled and it became my very close friend after a couple of years in that purification. It gave me the ability to repent in a way that was far deeper and more honest than anything I had ever known before.

The second quality of the two was humility, but not a humility like I had known before, this like the holy sorrow, was a participation in Gods humility, Christs humility. Sometimes it would get so deep and it would feel like I was sinking down out of self until it would get so deep that I would find myself underneath my pain. Humility is the great healer of pain I have discovered. It takes away our need to be someone, or to define ourselves in comparison with others, it allows us to be comfortable with being nobody. If the mind or someone in the world steps in to accuse us of being a sinner, or incompetent, or not enough, humility can answer honestly “who cares, that’s why I need Jesus” and humility can say that statement sincerely and find great peace in it. I think it is a piece of the poverty of spirit that Jesus taught about in the Beatitudes.

To this day humility and holy sorrow are my surest foundation for growing spiritually, the monk I go see says “Hug the ground.” It is really important to know that none of this can be fabricated or created, it all comes about when God decides to bring it about but that is unlikely to happen if the person is not truly devoted to prayer and growing in union with God.