Moral Injury After Abortion delves deeply into the psychospiritual responses that some women experience when an abortive act conflicts with their moral beliefs and values. The book is grounded in a qualitative, phenomenological study that examined the lived experiences of thirty Christian women after abortion. The study participants’ voices are woven throughout the book in a way that offers the reader a narrative understanding of their experiences and a thick description of the psychospiritual impact of moral injury after abortion. The book provides mental health scholars and professionals with strategies for assessing for moral injury experiences among women post-abortion as well as a guide for addressing the spiritual and psychological impact of post-abortive moral injury.

Moral Injury After Abortion delves deeply into the psychospiritual responses that some women experience when an abortive act conflicts with their moral beliefs and values. The book is grounded in a qualitative, phenomenological study that examined the lived experiences of thirty Christian women after abortion. The study participants' voices are woven throughout the book in a way that offers the reader a narrative understanding of their experiences and a thick description of the psychospiritual impact of moral injury after abortion. The book provides mental health scholars and professionals with strategies for assessing for moral injury experiences among women post-abortion as well as a guide for addressing the spiritual and psychological impact of post-abortive moral injury.

What are the roles, functions, and identities of pastoral counselors today? What paradigms shape their understandings of the needs of others? How can pastoral counselors serve the needs of diverse individuals in both religious and secular environments? This foundational text reflects the continued and unfolding work of pastoral counseling in both clinical and traditional ministry settings. It addresses key issues in the history, current practices, and future directions in pastoral counseling and its place among allied helping professions. Written to incorporate current changes in the roles of pastoral counselors and models of training beyond the traditional seminary, the book builds on themes of pastoral counseling as a distinct way of being in the world, understanding client concerns and experiences, and intervening to promote the health and growth of clients. The text provides a foundational overview of the roles and functions of the modern pastoral counselor. It discusses spiritual perspectives on the issues that bring individuals to seek counseling and integrates them with the perspectives of allied mental health professions. The tools and methods pastoral counselors can employ for spiritual assessment are presented, and the book describes common spiritual and theological themes-both implicit and explicit--that arise in pastoral counseling. Included are chapters examining Christian, Jewish, Islamic, Native American, and Buddhist approaches to counseling as well as counseling individuals with diverse sexual identifies. The book reflects the increasing need for pastoral counselors to serve effectively in a multicultural society, including service to individuals who are not affiliated with a specific religious denomination. The book also considers the emerging realities of distance counseling and integrated health care systems as current issues in the field. Key Features: Presents a contemporary approach to how pastoral counselors function as mental health professionals and spiritual leaders Serves as a state-of-the-art foundational text for pastoral counseling education Describes assessments and interventions that are shared with allied mental health professionals and those that are unique to pastoral counseling Provides an ecumenical and interfaith approach for a multicultural society, including individuals with diverse sexual identities Addresses counseling with individuals who don't affiliate with a specific faith tradition

Women Leaving Prison examines the oft-ignored experiences of female returning citizens, our returning sisters, who face numerous individual and systemic barriers as they return to life beyond bars. In the age of mass incarceration, with 700,000 inmates leaving prison each year, spiritual and religious support during reentry is a crucial component of prison ministry. Women Leaving Prison describes women's pathways to prison, their spiritual and religious experiences inside, and then utilizes interpretative phenomenological analysis, a qualitative research method, to uncover the spiritual and religious beliefs and practices of returning sisters. The findings from the qualitative study then ground the book's call for a revised prison ministry praxis, entitled Project Sister Connect, that details how churches, as well as concerned citizens and people of faith, can welcome and care for returning sisters. Project Sister Connect offers a model for facilitating female returning citizens' successful reentry via communal and individual spiritual care and support and by working toward the eradication of structural injustices.