Spiritual practices such as yoga and meditation are very popular in Western societies. Such practices have a variety of health-promoting mental and physical effects. Under certain circumstances, however, they can sometimes lead to unusual and stressful experiences or even crises that require professional support and assistance. Problems and crises of this kind have been discussed in the literature under the term spiritual crisis, among others.

Cooperation with the S.E.N.

In Germany, the association S.E.N. Deutschland e.V. was founded in 1993, a “network for spiritual development and crisis support”, which people who are experiencing a spiritual crisis and are looking for advice and therapeutic support can turn to. In an initial pilot phase in 2021, a new telephone counseling service was set up at IGPP under the direction of Dr. Liane Hofmann and in cooperation with the “Netzwerk spirituelle Entwicklung und Krisenbegleitung” (S.E.N. e. V., Germany). People who feel that they are experiencing a spiritual crisis can now receive initial information and support.

Following on from this, a new advisory focus on “Spiritual and meditation-induced crises” was established at IGPP at the beginning of 2022.

New Consulting Focus on IGPP

In 2017, Dr. Liane Hofmann was the first editor and co-author of the anthology “Spiritualität und spirituelle Krisen. Handbook on Theory, Research and Practice”, Dr. Liane Hofmann laid a theoretical foundation on the topic of therapy and counselling for spiritual and meditation-induced crises. Together with Dr. Ulrich Ott, who conducts research into the negative side effects of meditation, the first phase of the project involved the development of essential theoretical, practice-oriented, therapeutic-counselling and empirical foundations on the subject of “spiritual and meditation-induced crises”.

In a further step, the new counseling service established in 2022 should promote the transfer of the knowledge gained in this way into counseling practice, with the aim of contributing to an improvement in the care offered to those affected.

Objectives

• Support people seeking advice so that they can better understand and categorize their experiences and problems,
• show them ways in which they can better deal with the associated burdens,
• provide them with references to relevant sources of information and literature,
• if necessary, provide them with competent companions in their immediate vicinity.

• Network for Spiritual Development and Crisis Support (S.E.N. e.V., Germany)
• Benediktushof, Seminar- und Tagungszentrum GmbH
• ZEBRA-BW, Central Counseling Center for Weltanschauungsfragen Baden-Württemberg

Accompanying Research

In order to improve the scientific basis for understanding spiritual and meditation-induced crises, the counseling work is flanked by ongoing accompanying research. For example, questionnaires or interviews can be used as part of the counseling work. The data and insights gained in this way can also be fed back into the counseling process in order to provide those seeking advice with explanations for their experiences.

Research into the possible dangers of meditation and other psychospiritual practices and scientifically sound information and advice for those affected in the sense of mental health are among the statutory objectives of IGPP.

The work of the counseling focus was reported on in numerous presentations and interviews.