Psychotherapy, in order to survive, must shift from curing to caring. The pathological model is giving way to the growth model. Finding wholeness in our confusion requires imagination and transcendence. Healing requires more than self-knowledge and awareness. Only through experiencing oneself, in a struggle of mutual acceptance, are the blocks to the life force removed. The book is about being fully alive. It leads to the thinking of the most profound psychotherapy into the next century. Existentialism is the framework by which the author addresses our deepest life needs. It alone gives meaning to our experience. A seasoned and thoughtful clinician, the author furnishes rich techniques and approaches toward a new understanding of patients' life dilemmas. His solid and dramatic case material shows how he keeps himself and his patients deeply engaged in experiencing life in abundance. This nourishing book will lead both therapist and client away from burnout into deeper lives of optimism, freshness and creativity.

Crisis grips the American Catholic community. Church professionals abandon it in record numbers while many who remain grapple with low morale, overwork, and compensatory addictions. Schools either close or laypeople staff them. Parishes consolidate, bereft of pastors and communicants. The people itself lies fragmented, a landscape of polarized groups, a kaleidoscope of political partisans more than gatherings of the faithful. Its future hangs in the balance. Current leaders fixate on two plans. In one they march steadfastly into the past, pursuing the illusion of a remnant group of the righteous armored by uniformity, a sorry substitute for a religious community. In another they resolutely protect the status quo. Before the eyes of an incredulous people they are transforming the church into a museum of religious artifacts, a fitting destination for inquisitive tourists, occasional visitors, and the uninvolved. The author offers a third alternative. incisive comments of Tocqueville about religion in a democracy, and the theology of Vatican II, he challenges bishops to forsake their status as minor lords in a medieval monarchy and, instead, to embrace a servant leadership within the People of God.

Raised in a Catholic family in the Pacific Northwest, author Robert Willis learned to obey two judges: his father, a county superior court judge, and God. He joined the Jesuits, hoping to please both.

The 1960s revolution tested his unthinking obedience to authorities-paternal, religious, and political-as the immorality of the Vietnam War troubled his conscience and the Second Vatican Council challenged his position in the modern world. When his efforts to stop the war led him to Vietnam, he knew he had to break the chains that bound him to the past.

Willis's path took him to the nascent human potential movement in California. Experiencing its healing power, he joined Carl Rogers and colleagues at the Center for Studies of the Person in La Jolla while simultaneously pursuing a doctorate in psychology at San Diego's United States International University.

In his teaching and practice of psychotherapy, Willis emphasized the crucial importance of the healing relationship. In its depths, he felt the presence of the Spirit of God.

In his personal life, together with a woman who touches his soul, he meets the God of love. The chains, at last, lie broken.

Psychotherapy, in order to survive, must shift from curing to caring. The pathological model is giving way to the growth model. Finding wholeness in our confusion requires imagination and transcendence. Healing requires more than self-knowledge and awareness. Only through experiencing oneself, in a struggle of mutual acceptance, are the blocks to the life force removed. The book is about being fully alive. It leads to the thinking of the most profound psychotherapy into the next century. Existentialism is the framework by which the author addresses our deepest life needs. It alone gives meaning to our experience. A seasoned and thoughtful clinician, the author furnishes rich techniques and approaches toward a new understanding of patients' life dilemmas. His solid and dramatic case material shows how he keeps himself and his patients deeply engaged in experiencing life in abundance. This nourishing book will lead both therapist and client away from burnout into deeper lives of optimism, freshness and creativity.