LE3 .A278 2011

2011

Sumarah, John

Acadia University

Master of Education

Masters

Counselling

Education

In confusing the separation of church and state with the triumph of science and reason over religion and faith, the modern secular project has produced a pressured situation where religious values and beliefs are perceived to be inappropriate and inadequate resources for addressing problems in the public sphere. Using autoethnographic accounts, as well as current events and recent research from a variety of disciplines, this work will express the need for a revised secularity —a post secular era— in which faith and belief are not exempted from public ‘places’ but rather, where there is discursive ‘space’ for both religious and nonreligious options to be freely sought. While there is every indication in research and in popular opinion that such change is needed, there is little being written or said about the practices that might make such change possible. The theory and practice of narrative therapy will be presented as not only therapeutically significant in addressing religion and spirituality in counselling but also politically influential in its contribution to a post‐secular manner of engagement. The therapeutic process and relationship in narrative therapy are built on practices that reveal the implicit influence of societal discourses upon the lives of people seeking help with their problems. Religion and spirituality can be seen as both constraining of, and a potential resource toward, a more preferred experience of life.

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https://scholar.acadiau.ca/islandora/object/theses:198