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Integrative Body-Mind-Spirit Social Work: An Empirically Based Approach to Assessment and Treatment, is the first book to strongly connect Western therapy with Eastern philosophy and practices, while also providing a comprehensive practice agenda for social work and mental health professionals.  The authors argue that integrative body-mind-spirit social work is indeed a practical therapeutic approach in bringing about tangible changes in clients.  In the excerpt below we look at just one technique and one patient, Rebecca.The authors are highly regarded researchers from both Asia and America.  Mo Yee Lee is a Professor in the College of Social Work at The Ohio State University.  Siu-man Ng is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Social Work and Social Administration and the Associate Director of the Centre on Behavioral Health at the University of Hong Kong.  Pamela Pui Yu Leung is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Social Work and Social Administration at the University of Hong Kong.  Cecilia Lai Wan Chan is a Professor in the Department of Social Work and Social Administration, the Director of the Centre on Behavioral Health, the Associate Director of the HKJC Centre for Suicide Research and Prevention at the University of Hong Kong.

Rebecca was a lady in her thirties.  When she first came to the therapist’s office, she talked with a soft and weak voice and seemed afraid of looking directly at the therapist.  She did not clearly express what she wanted.  She gave the therapist the impression that she was a timid, little girl instead of a woman in her late thirties.  After building rapport, she shared with the therapist that she was thinking about changing careers but was not certain about what she could do.  She hoped the therapist could help her develop self-confidence so that she could take charge of her life.

In the first few sessions, the therapist helped Rebecca to explore and clarify what she wanted.  She wanted to make some changes in her life, but she was afraid of the uncertainty that would go with the change.  She realized that she was stuck because she was used to staying with the familiar and not taking risks.  Rebecca also discovered that she had made herself psychologically dependent on others, her father in particular.  This dependence had developed into a pattern so that she always relied on others to make decisions for her.  Though there was an inner voice calling her to meet a new challenge and attempt a new job, she dared not, as her father did not support the idea.

During the fifth session, the therapist revisited the treatment goal with Rebecca and tried to help her to make a choice for herself regarding her pattern of being dependent on others.  The therapist said, “You told me that your goal is to take charge of your life.  Now you realize that you have developed a pattern of being dependent on others.  What are you going to do with this pattern? Do you want to keep it, or change it?”  Rebeca promptly responded that she did not want to keep the old pattern, but having been used to relying on others for so many years, she felt uncertain of what sh

Mark Singleton teaches at St. John’s College, Santa Fe, New Mexico.  He is the editor, with Jean Bryne, of Yoga in the Modern World: Contemporary Perspectives. In his new book, Yoga Body: The Origins of Modern Posture Practice, he questions commonly held beliefs about the nature and origins of postural yoga and suggests a radically new way of understanding the meaning of yoga as it is practiced by millions of people across the world today.  In the excerpt below, Singleton introduces the reader to Hatha Yoga.

The techniques and philosophical frameworks of the Saiva Tantras form the basis for the teaching of hatha yoga, which flourished from the thirteenth century CE and which entered its decline in the eighteenth…The term hatha means “forceful” or “violent,” but it is also interpreted to indicate the union of the internal sun (ha) and moon (tha), which symbolically indicates the goal of the system…As Mallinson…has noted, the corpus of hatha yoga is not doctrinally whole and does not “belong” to any one single school of Indian thought.  It is nevertheless closely associated with Goraksanãth and his teacher Matsyendranãth, who is credited with founding the Saiva Nãth sampradãya (twelfth century CE?).  In practice, however, there was a high level of orthopractical and organizational fluidity between the Nãths (also called Kãnphata, or “split eared”) and other yoga-practicing groups.  The yoga-practicing tyãgis of the Vaisnava Rãmãnandis, for example, were closer to the Nãths in terms of ritual and religious experience than to their devotionally inclined (rasik) Rãmãandi brethen…; close organizational trade ties obtained between Nãths, Sufi fakirs, and Dasnãmi samnyãsins, and there was a great deal of interchange between these various groups…; and at least until the late 1800s, Nãth yogins recruited novitiates without regard for caste or religion, attracting many Muslim yogins into their fold…This all contributed to a permeability among hatha yoga practicing groups.

The earliest of the well-known texts of hatha yoga is probably Goraksa Sataka (GS), ascribed to Goraksanãtha, followed by Siva Samhitã (SS, fifteenth century CE), Hathayogapradipikã (HYP, fifteenth-sixteenth century), Hatharatnãvali (HR, seventeenth century), Gheranda Samhitã (GhS, seventeenth-eighteenth century CE), and the Jogapradipakã (JP, eighteenth century). As Bouy (1994) has shown, hatha yoga techniques aroused much interest among the followers of Sankara’s advaita vendãnta, and a number of texts from Nãth literature were assimilated wholesale into the corpus of 108 Upanisads compiled in South India during the first half of the eighteenth century.  Mallinson…has demonstrated that the orthodox vedãntin bias of these compilers resulted in the omission of some key aspects of Nãth hatha yoga, such as the practice of khecarimudrã. As we shall see, a similar process of omission occurred during the modern hatha yoga revival.  Since many of the ãsana systems considered in this study purport to derive from, or to be hatha yoga, a brief examination of the main features of its doctrines and practices is in order…

Hatha yoga is concerned with the transmutation of the human body into a vessel immune from mortal decay.  GhS compares the body to an unbaked earthenware pot which must be baked in the fires of yoga to purify it a

James W. Jones is Professor of Religion and Adjunct Professor of Clinical Psychology, at Rutgers University. His book, Blood That Cries Out From the Earth: The Psychology of Religious Terrorism, looks at what makes ordinary people evil. Jones argues that not every adherent of an authoritarian group will turn to violence, and he shows how theories of personality development can explain why certain individuals are easily recruited to perform terrorist acts. In the article below Jones argues that understanding people who turn towards terrorism is the first step to halting their violent acts. Check out Jones’s webpage here.

How much do we really know about terrorism? The short answer is “a lot” and “a very little.” “Terrorism” — as the cliché about one person’s terrorist being another’s freedom fighter suggests — is more often used as an epithet or a bit of propaganda than a category useful for understanding. There is general agreement that terrorism is not an end in itself or a motivation in itself (except perhaps for a few genuinely psychotic individual lone wolves). No movement is only a terrorist movement; its primary character is more likely political, economic, or religious. Terrorism is a tactic, not a basic type of group.

The first step in clarifying this topic of “understanding terrorism” is to become clear about the purpose of our attempts to understand terrorism. Part of the confusion over the understanding of terrorism results from the more basic confusion of not knowing what we want our explanations of terrorism to do for us. Before we undertake to “explain” terrorism, we should be clear as to what we want this “explanation” to accomplish? Many hope that understanding terrorism will help predict future terrorist actions. Others hope that it will help devise effective counter-terrorism strategies. Will a psychological, or political, or military, or religious understanding of religious terrorism aid in those goals?

I know from my work in forensic psychology that predicting violent behavior in any specific case is very, very complicated and very rarely successful. And dramatic acts of violence that change the course of history — the assassination of the Archduke Ferdinand that lit the match on the conflagration of World War I, the taking hostage of the American embassy in the Iranian revolution, the 9/11 attack — are rarely predictable. We can list some of the characteristics of religious groups that turn to violence and terror. I have studied some of the themes common to Muslim, Christian, and Buddhist groups that have turned to terror. We can also outline the steps that individuals and groups often go through in becoming committed to violent actions. The NYPD has done exactly that in a recent study. But I remain skeptical that any model will enable us to predict with any certainty when specific individuals or groups may turn to terrorism. There are warning signs we should be aware of. But these are signs, not determinants or predictors.

As for counter-terrorism, it is an important strategic principal that one should know one’s enemy. We succeeded in containing the expansiveness of the former Soviet Union in part because we had a detailed and nuanced understanding of the Soviet system. Understanding some of what is at stake religiously and spiritually for religious groups that engage in terrorism can help devise ways of countering them. So a religious-psychological understanding of religious terrorists’ motivations can be an important part of the response to them.

In the months following 9/11 I often heard demagogues on the radio say that psychologists (like me) who seek to understand the psychology behind religiously motivated violence simply want to “offer the terrorists therapy.” The idea that one must choose either understanding or action — that one cannot do both — is an idea that itself borders on the pathological and represents the kind of dichotomizing that is itself a part of the terrorist mindset. Such dichotomized thinking, wherever it occurs, is a part of the problem and not part of the solution. I worked for two years in the psychology department at a hardcore, maximum security prison. But I never thought of that as a substitute for just and vigorous law enforcement. Understanding an action in no way means excusing it; explaining an action in no way means condoning it.

There is, however, a deeper issue here. Understanding others (even those who will your destruction) can make them more human. It can break down the demonization of the other that some politicians and policy makers feel is necessary in order to combat terrorists. The demonization of the other is a major weapon in the arsenal of the religiously motivated terrorist. Must we resort to the same tactic – which is so costly psychologically and spiritually – in order to oppose terrorism? Or can we counter religiously motivated terrorists without becoming like them?

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Hello my dears, it has been a while. Things have been a bit of a whirlwind around here, not leaving much time for this little old blog.

I have lots to share when I have a bit more time but couldn't wait to show you this, the cover of my husband's first book Fiendish Deeds:

cover illustration by Nicoletta Ceccoli

Isn't it wonderful? Nicoletta Ceccoli is so talented and has captured the characters of the story perfectly. Fiendish Deeds will be published by McElderry Books Summer 2008. If you are a Facebook member, you can go to Paul's facebook author page and read the first chapter: P.J. Bracegirdle Just scroll down to posted items, and you should see the link there.

Also, if you are in Toronto, an exhibition of Nicoletta Ceccoli's work has just opened at: Magic Pony

I hope everyone is doing well. I still peek in at all of your blogs to keep up with what you are up to. Hopefully I can find some time soon to tell you of my toings and froings!

"Did you say Nicoletta Ceccoli?".... "Yes, I did!"

Butterfly by Nicoletta Ceccoli

I can finally tell you who is illustrating the covers of my husband's chapter book trilogy, The Joy of Spooking. It is the one and only, truly wonderful Nicoletta Ceccoli!

When Paul called out the news from another room, I actually thought he was just teasing me. When I ran through, there it was, in an email from his editor.

We were already huge fans and didn't even know she was being considered for the job. Her work is perfect for the series and we feel grateful and giddy all at the same time. We have seen the design for the book jacket and it is simply stunning. The mood is very eerie and the main character Joy is hauntingly beautiful. Unfortunately, I'm not sure we can show you it this early (the first book is out next Summer), so instead, here are a few more of our favourite images by Nicoletta:

Flora by Nicoletta Ceccoli

Crows by Nicoletta Ceccoli