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Hardcover Wrestling with Our Inner Angels: Faith, Mental Illness, and the Journey to Wholeness Book

ISBN: 0470455411

ISBN13: 9780470455418

Wrestling with Our Inner Angels: Faith, Mental Illness, and the Journey to Wholeness

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Format: Hardcover

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Book Overview

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...

Customer Reviews

5 ratings

God is Everywhere

Every now and again you come across a book that speaks to you in a new way. Nancy Kehoe's book, "Wrestling With Out Inner Angels" is just such a book. It is an easy read although the subject matter is anything but. Nancy allows us to see those who suffer from mental illness in a new way - as spiritual beings. It provides us with insights into the "thinkings" that occur in one who is mentally ill and calls forth a deep compassion for them.I was especially touched by the personal struggles experienced that Nancy shared with the reader.

An Inspiring Contribution

I cried, began to float, said "wow" and "aha," wondered, was angered, dismayed and finally --- encouraged. This book is a barrier-busting contribution from a compassionate caregiver who has given her life to this work. I always find it fascinating that just when we think we have everything figured out, along comes an author who exposes our ignorance - shining light on and giving voice to an issue that we have relegated to the silence of the shadows. As another author has recently said, "When we reach the end of the bookshelf, it's time to write another book." As Kehoe demonstrates, the "end of the bookshelf" is simply an illusion, just as many of our attitudes, perceptions and knowledge about the relationship between faith, mental illness and a journey to wholeness. Nancy Kehoe is a nun and a clinician whose work is well known with the mentally ill. She is also a clinical instructor in psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at the Cambridge Health Alliance - an affiliate of Harvard Medical School. The stories of Kehoe's work with her patients is written in such a way that the reality - "patients are people" whose faith dimension in their lives (beliefs, history, values, practices, doubts, fears and experiences) is fundamental to the approach to their wellness. The history of mental health professionals, clinical psychology and psychiatry is one where patients have been fearful of even broaching the subject of sharing the faith dimension of their lives. Some professional caregivers have even stigmatized those who do as evidencing signs of even deeper and more complex "illness" than originally diagnosed. Thus, there has been a two-sided taboo about broaching this subject, let alone developing clinical approaches to explore it. As Kehoe writes, "Many who suffer from mental illness live with a personally defined "dual diagnosis: "mentally ill" and "sinner"; They have two "disorders." --- Conversely, mental health professionals deal with the illness of the clients but not with their sense of sin."(p.88). Whether one accepts the Judeo-Christian concept of "sin" or not, the universal human experience of guilt, shame, fear, having wronged another or self, coupled with the yearning for forgiveness, peace, acceptance, understanding and confession are paramount to the journey toward wholeness --- as this book clearly points out. Kehoe's work in this arena illuminates the terribly valuable essence of the following: "I have rethought the value of religious traditions. When they truly serve us, they take us out of ourselves and link us to something transcendent, fostering a new sense that we are part of a larger whole." (p.87). It is my hope that this book with provide the essential "permission" to explore and incorporate the methods that Kehoe freely shares with us. In a world that seems to be rather smug about our current state of intellectual prowess, and, in too many cases, "comfortable" about our worldview or what we think we know, Kehoe's book p

A mind- and heart-expanding book

Rarely do clinicians write with such compassion and generosity of spirit about people with mental illness. Dr. Kehoe not only listens with compassion and an open mind, but also tells her story with an unflinching honesty. This book, I hope, will enable more clinicians, pastoral counselors, caregivers and ordinary people to listen with more care to those with mental illness. It will, I also hope, open the hearts and minds of psychologists and psychiatrists to pay sympathetic attention to the religious dimension of their clients' lives. A wonderful book. William A. Barry, S.J., Ph.D.

A Humanizing Look at Those Living with Mental Illness

Anyone working with the homeless or the mentally ill will find in this book a compassionate yet realistic lens through which to better understand both the suffering and the human potential of this often invisible population. Dr. Kehoe uses her own spiritual journey to find remarkable common ground with the mentally ill clients who choose to gather to talk about their understanding of God and the role of spirituality in their lives. While their stories are unusual and sometimes unbearably sad, their insights are profound and universal.

A Must Read for Clinicians

I really enjoyed reading this book. It was easy to read and focused on difficult but very relevant issues. The accounting of Buddy left me very moved and teary. The distinction made between types of voices that some mentally ill people hear was very helpful. Clearly the discussion of faith, religion or spirituality belongs in any therapeutic setting for those interested. I feel that Dr Kehoe offers some useful guidelines to start that process.
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