Effie Mitskopoulos, founder of Soul Body Healer, is a Master’s level Social Worker, Holistic Psychotherapist, co-author, and speaker. She integrates Western interventions with hypnosis, mindfulness, yoga, and energy work, specializing in helping women overcome mental health challenges, empowering them to heal and create meaningful lives.
In today’s busy world, healing from mental health challenges like anxiety, depression, and trauma can feel like a long and arduous journey. Many spend years in traditional therapy, often feeling stuck or making slow progress. But what if there was a way to heal faster and ensure the results last longer? In my practice (and personally), I've witnessed the profound impact of integrating a client's spirituality into the healing process. Not only do clients often experience faster recovery, but they also enjoy lasting well-being. This powerful combination offers profound and lasting transformations, addressing the mind, body, and spirit as a whole. This approach is not just beneficial for clients, but it's also a powerful tool for fellow psychotherapists looking to enhance the effectiveness of their practice.
What is spirituality?
Spirituality refers to a sense of connection to something greater than oneself. It involves the exploration of life’s deeper meaning, purpose, and connection with the universe, a higher power, or nature. Unlike religion, which often has organized practices and beliefs, spirituality is more individual and personal. It can be rooted in religious traditions, but it can also be secular, focusing on inner peace, self-awareness, and personal growth.
Common elements of spirituality
Meaning and Purpose: A search for meaning beyond material life, such as finding one's purpose, how one's unique gifts help those around them, or understanding the nature of existence.
Connection: A feeling of inter-connectedness with the Universe, Nature, Humanity, or a Divine Entity/God/Spirit.
Transcendence: Going beyond ordinary, everyday reality, and experiencing energy within and around. This can be experienced through practices like meditation, prayer, contemplation, ceremony, yoga, Qigong, Reiki and other practices.
Compassion and Altruism: Spiritual growth and inner joy occur through caring deeply for the suffering of others and helping for its own sake.
What is spiritually integrated psychotherapy?
People innately seek meaning in their lives, making spirituality a key to optimal mental health. Integrating spirituality in psychotherapy involves incorporating a client's spiritual beliefs and practices into the therapeutic process. This can include discussing spiritual themes and exploring how clients' spiritual beliefs impact their thoughts, behaviours, and emotions. When the client examines their morals and values and behaves in line with them, they ameliorate much distress.
Clients are encouraged to use spiritual practices that resonate with them. As a psychotherapist (RSW) trained in hypnosis, meditation, Reiki, various types of yoga, and spiritual coaching techniques, I facilitate such practices in the session if they resonate with the client. This is to encourage the client to have their own experience of energy, enhance energy flow and healing, and realize that they are more than just a physical being. While psychotherapy traditionally focuses on mental and emotional well-being, spirituality addresses the existential questions and beliefs that give life deeper meaning. It promotes healing by helping individuals connect to their inner selves and a grand perspective.
How spiritual practices enhance healing
Integrating spirituality into therapy empowers clients by helping them recognize their healing potential and that they are supported and connected to a greater whole. Traditional psychotherapy is effective, but adding spiritual practices deepens transformation.
Addressing root causes, not just symptoms
While traditional therapies address symptoms, spiritual practices focus on uncovering and healing the root causes of mental health challenges. This deeper self-reflection leads to lasting change. Tools like hypnosis access the subconscious, releasing deep-seated issues, and making way for rapid change. Practices like breath work, yoga, and energetic modalities like Reiki enhance the flow of energy, improving both physical and mental well-being by supporting systems like the nervous, immune, and glandular systems. Balance to the body and mind is restored, creating a sense of inner peace and vitality. Mindfulness, especially when combined with traditional therapy, has proven effective in managing anxiety and preventing depression relapses. This combination accelerates progress and sustains healing over time.
From survivor to creator
Spiritual integration shifts the mindset from surviving to consciously creating. Rather than reacting to life’s challenges, clients learn to intentionally create their experience, unlocking emotional resilience and strength. They are guided toward manifesting the life they desire while letting go of old, limiting beliefs, behaviours, and emotional states. Clients feel supported and trust in a grand design, which in turn brings comfort and eases anxiety. They experience that they are in control of their life and healing when their intention is spiritually aligned.
Scientific evidence supporting spiritually integrated psychotherapy
Research supports the idea that when spiritual practices are included in therapy, clients experience deeper emotional healing and longer-lasting results. For instance, research published in Psychotherapy (2022) demonstrated that clients who felt their spiritual concerns were addressed showed improved recovery rates and better mental health outcomes. Moreover, a study featured in Spirituality in Clinical Practice (2023), found that addressing spiritual struggles significantly reduced symptom severity over time. A comprehensive meta-analysis in Religion and Spirituality (2011) reviewed 46 studies and concluded that clients in spiritually integrated therapies improved more on psychological and spiritual measures compared to those in secular treatments. This strongly suggests that spiritually integrated therapy supports both quicker recovery and long-term well-being.
Mindfulness-based interventions are rooted in the Buddhist practice of intentional, non-judgmental awareness of the present moment and secularized concepts of wisdom, meditation, and ethical awareness. There have been thousands of research studies on Mindfulness-based interventions since the late 1970s suggesting the reduction of anxiety, depression, emotional distress and somatic conditions like chronic pain, irritable bowel syndrome and others. Even 75% of general practitioners surveyed in the United Kingdom said that mindfulness is beneficial for mental health (Frontiers in Psychology, 2013). A study in Frontiers in Psychology (2013) discussed how mindfulness-based practices not only provide immediate relief but also have long-term benefits without side effects because it addresses the root causes of distress in the mind and body. They propose that it (1) changes perception to increase tolerance and acceptance, (2) reduces fear responses due to exposure, (3) increases self-awareness that improves psycho-social coping skills, (4) increases relaxation by reducing autonomic arousal, and (5) modifies the immune and neuroendocrine system.
Research on Reiki (Journal of Evidence-Based Complementary Alternative Medicine, 2017) has also highlighted its benefits, showing that energy healing reduces stress and promotes healing and relaxation by activating the parasympathetic system, which in turn helps manage anxiety, depression and other chronic conditions.
The Cleveland Clinic notes the beneficial studies of hypnosis on mental health issues and that it works by accessing the subconscious to shift negative core beliefs, emotions and perceptions, which accelerates mental health recovery.
Practical ways to incorporate spirituality in your healing journey (As client & clinician)
Start small: Introduce mindfulness into your daily life
If you're new to spirituality, start with small practices such as mindfulness or meditation. You can begin by practising mindful breathing for just three minutes a day to ground yourself and bring awareness to your thoughts and emotions in a non-judgmental way. I used to take mindful moments many times during the day, for example, while brushing my teeth, doing chores, walking, and riding the bus – every moment adds up! You could also go to a yoga class at your local studio. Yoga is mindfulness in movement.
Explore energy work: Consider Reiki or Kundalini yoga
Energy healing methods like Reiki or Kundalini yoga can open new pathways of healing. You offer yourself the experience of feeling energy move within you. These practices release trapped emotions, balance your energy systems, and deepen your connection to your inner self. Find a qualified practitioner who can guide you through these transformative experiences. Engaging in these two practices has been quite transformative for me. I learned to feel the energy within me, and have had transcendental experiences that have viscerally shown me that I am an energy being.
Combine spirituality with therapy
If you’re already in therapy, talk to your therapist about incorporating spiritual elements. Many therapists, particularly holistic psychotherapists, offer an integrated approach, blending traditional therapy with spiritual reflections and practices.
Note for therapists incorporating spirituality
If incorporating spirituality in your practice is important to you then it is very beneficial to have your own practice. This way you can come from a place of wisdom. Never impose your spirituality or experiences on your clients, allow them to tell you what they believe and encourage them to have their own experiences.
Why spirituality matters in therapy
Spirituality provides clients with a sense of purpose, hope, and connection. These elements are crucial in fostering resilience and effective coping strategies. By addressing the mind, body, and spirit, this approach ensures that healing goes beyond surface-level symptoms and creates profound, life-altering transformations. By acknowledging and incorporating clients' spiritual beliefs into their treatment plans, therapists can offer a more personalized and holistic approach. This not only respects clients' values but also utilizes their spiritual resources to enhance their healing journey.
A call to action
For clients
If you are seeking a more comprehensive and personalized approach to mental health care, consider integrating spirituality into your therapy. This method has been shown to provide faster and more enduring recovery. Reach out to schedule a session and explore how spirituality-integrated therapy can benefit you.
For fellow psychotherapists
If you are interested in learning how to incorporate spirituality into your practice, I am here to help. By integrating spiritual elements into psychotherapy, you can offer your clients more holistic and effective treatment. Contact me for guidance and resources on enhancing your therapeutic approach.
Contact Effie at here.
Read more from Effie Mitskopoulos
Effie Mitskopoulos, Social Worker Psychotherapist and Coach
Effie Mitskopoulos, founder of Soul Body Healer, is a Master’s level Social Worker and Holistic Psychotherapist, co-author, and speaker dedicated to transforming lives. Her commitment to helping others stems from her own healing journey, where she recognized that powerful healing occurs on all levels – mind, body, and soul. She integrates Western interventions with holistic practices of hypnosis, mindfulness, yoga, and energy work. Effie specializes in helping women overcome stress, depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, chronic pain, addiction, and trauma. With a unique blend of expertise and compassion, she guides individuals toward happier, more meaningful lives.
