Wrestling with Our Inner Angels

Wrestling with Our Inner Angels is Nancy Kehoe’s compelling, intimate, and moving story of how she brought her background as a psychologist and a nun in the Religious of the Sacred Heart to bear in the groups she formed to explore the role of faith and spirituality in their treatment – and in their lives. Through fascinating stories of her own spiritual journey, she gives readers of all backgrounds and interests new insights into the inner lives of the mentally ill and new ways of thinking about the role of spirituality and faith in all our lives.

Foreword ix

Acknowledgments xi

Prologue xv

1 Exploring New Terrain 1

2 Beverly’s Quest 19

3 Creative Spirits 35

4 Buddy, an Unlikely Prophet 53

5 The Role of Ritual 71

6 The Dilemma of Voices 91

7 Wrestling with God 107

Epilogue 129

Appendix Religious History Questionnaire 131

Notes 139

The Author 143

Index 145

The shadow of Freud and his view of religion as illusion still looms over psychotherapy, making it problematic for therapists to engage their clients about a subject that can be of great importance and potential benefit. Because she is both a nun and a clinician, author Kehoe can draw on both her psychological and religious training to approach with insight and sensitivity the role of belief and motivation in the lives of people troubled by mental illness. Neither illusion nor panacea, religious belief helps people organize their lives and make decisions. Kehoe has listened for years to people with illness, and she shares their compelling stories. She also discloses her own wrestling with inner religious promptings and their influence in her own choices. This book will be most helpful to other professionals in the field, but its honesty and humility also make it useful for anyone interested in faith and mental illness, particularly anyone with an emotional stake in the difficulties of mental illness. (June) (Publishers Weekly, May 11, 2009)

"Wrestling With Our Inner Angels is an important book...All concerned with faith, mental health and the journey to wholeness -- whether from a spiritual-religious or a psychological perspective -- will not only enjoy reading this book but be encouraged to reflect more deeply on the author's thesis." (America magazine October 26, 2009)

NANCY KEHOE is a nun in the Society of the Sacred Heart and a distinguished clinician well known for her pioneering work with the mentally ill. She is a clinical instructor in psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at the Cambridge Health Alliance, affiliated with Harvard Medical School. She can be contacted through her website www.expandingconnections.com.

WRESTLING with Our INNER Angels

"For building bridges across the chasm that exists between religion and psychology and for her dutiful service to suffering people both in her practice and in the prose of this rich book, Nancy Kehoe deserves all our gratitude and respect and attention." —Joshua Shenk, author, Lincoln's Melancholy

Wrestling with Our Inner Angels offers Nancy Kehoe's compelling, intimate, and moving story of how she brought her background as a psychologist and a nun to bear in the groups of people with mental illness that explored the role of faith and spirituality in their treatment—and in their lives. Filled with fascinating stories of her own spiritual journey, this book offers new insights into the inner lives of people with mental illness and new ways of thinking about the role of spirituality and faith in all our lives.

Most clinicians who treat the mentally ill would rather not talk about their clients' religious and spiritual beliefs. They are fearful of what might be unleashed or what dangerous tendencies or delusions might be reinforced. In return, clients don't reveal the details of their inner lives because they believe their therapists would see them as sicker, and suspect that their beliefs might be held against them. But as distinguished clinician and Sacred Heart nun Nancy Kehoe found out, respecting spiritual and religious beliefs of those who suffer from mental illness actually opens the way to greater meaning, support, and even healing.