Pagan Therapy and Counseling for a Pagan World

Amazon has a knack for rubbing me the wrong way with their book-buying suggestions that they send to me via email based upon past purchases. Mary Greer, for those of you who don’t know, is a well-known Tarot writer.

( We could have a whole other discussion on whether or not Tarot should be a tool used in Pagan Therapy. I enjoy it on the side, but don’t use it professionally myself, preferring instead to stick closer to what I learned in graduate school.)
Anyway, here’s Amazon’s email — anyone else see a problem with this?

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Dear Amazon.com Customer,

We’ve noticed that customers who have purchased or rated books by Mary Greer have also purchased Devil-Worship in France (Large Print Edition): or The Question of Lucifer by Arthur Edward Waite. For this reason, you might like to know that Devil-Worship in France (Large Print Edition): or The Question of Lucifer is now available. You can order yours for just $14.99 by following the link below.

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I’m doing a lunchtime talk this coming Friday to other Baltimore-area mental health professionals on the topic “Understanding and Counseling Neo-Pagan and Wiccan Clients”.

What would you like me to tell them??

Feel free to still respond even after the event — I’ll be doing more of these talks from time to time.

Thanks.

It’s not well-defined yet. Yet it’s very much needed. Several threads are coming together in the creation of this blog as I grapple with what Pagan Therapy is. The two common themes seem to be educating the mental health profession at large, and the creation of Pagan pastoral/spiritual counseling systems.

Education of the Mental Health Profession

Respectful Ordinary Treatment: The first thing Pagan Therapy might be is simply respectful treatment by ordinary counselors and psychiatrists. I had one client who claimed her antipsychotic medication was increased, with no conversation, simply upon her mentioning that she “talked with the Goddess”. I have another client who is very happy with his psychiatrist, yet on his psychiatric evaluation under Family and Social History the doctor has written “he gave up church, is involved in a Wicken [sic.] ‘coven’”. I have to wonder how lack of respect and knowledge effects the treatment of countless Pagan clients in little ways that we may never even know about.

Informed Ordinary Treatment: Beyond simple respect is the idea of informed treatment. Informed treatment implies that a change for the better in treatment occurs as the mental health professional knows more about the client’s beliefs and background. For example, I wonder how many trauma experts know just how wonderful the guided meditation, astral journeying, shielding, and other techniques taught in Pagan training programs can be for trauma survivors? I wonder how many therapists treating anxiety know just how similar a Wiccan “ground and center” meditation is to standard relaxation exercises for anxiety reduction? Even if ordinary mental health professionals don’t believe in the principles of Pagan religions and spirituality, they certainly can be made to see the therapeutic value of the techniques involved.

Creation of Pagan Pastoral/Spiritual Counseling Systems

Pagan Pastoral/Spiritual Counseling: There is a large and well-developed literature on Christian pastoral counseling. It is quite diverse – ranging from biblical counseling all the way to licensed psychological counseling that is sensitive to Christian norms. This is the exciting new frontier for me. How shall the counseling profession develop Pagan spiritual counseling techniques? How will they be different than normal therapeutic techniques? I can see Pagan techniques being very similar to the norm, such as in prescribing “ground and center” regimes as for relaxation. But what happens when Pagan beliefs conflict with professional beliefs? What if a Pagan psychotherapist has religious beliefs in possession for example? Divination? Perhaps there will be Pagan spiritual counseling techniques for professional licensed counselors and other techniques reserved to unlicensed clergy with some counseling training.