Providing Care for Christians Experiencing Spiritual Emergency

Abstract

Ever since the term Spiritual Emergency was coined by Stan and Christian Grof, this phenomenon has mostly been studied within the framework of Eastern religious practices. The mainstream Western Christian religion, largely ignoring mystical experiences, has been unaware of spiritual emergency, leaving the job of helping those persons having these experiences to mental health professionals who may pathologize this experience. This workshop seeks to provide understanding of the needs of Christians in Spiritual Emergency.

Presenter Bio

For over 20 years, Peggy Lesniewicz, MA, PhD, LPCC-S, has worked in the mental health field counseling victims of trauma and abuse, and various mental and emotional disorders. In addition, she has worked at Hospice as a bereavement counselor. Currently Dr. Lesniewicz is an instructor at Bowling Green State University in NW Ohio where she teaches in the Graduate Mental Health & School Counseling Program. At the university she developed and teaches “Integrating Spirituality and Religion into Counseling,” based on the 14 spiritual competencies developed by the Association for Spiritual, Ethical, and Religious Values in Counseling (ASERVIC) and approved by the American Counseling Association (ACA). Over the years, Dr. Lesniewicz has taught workshops on a variety of subjects, including Near-Death Experiences, Death-Bed Phenomena, Ethics and Spirituality, Spiritual Emergency, and various mental health issues. She has a private counseling practice, The Healing Center, in Northwest Ohio. She, along with her business partner Linda Smith, have recently developed a consulting firm called Exploring Spiritual Dimensions, LLC.