If you’ve tried counseling before, gotten nowhere, and feel nothing out there works, let me introduce you to something different called Spiritual Psychology. I had gone through many different types of counseling, as well as seminars and lectures, to improve myself, but when I studied this approach in school, I was amazed with the results. Since 2001, I have used Spiritual Psychology at the country’s first mental health urgent care center, saw over 7,000 people there (who were all in crisis), and had amazing results. In school, my panic attacks vanished, and in no time, I was able to go on airplanes, ride in elevators, and go to movie theaters and concerts because I had such inner peace. What makes Spiritual Psychology so different is that it takes into account your physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual levels. If you focused only on one of these levels, you’d risk being out of balance. What are each of these levels? Well, that is the subject of this article.

I moved up to the Pacific Northwest to open my own residential treatment facility in 2013. Not the 12 Steps, but a program that focused only on treating problems at their core. If, for example, you suffered trauma at 5 years old, all efforts were taken to interact with the 5-year-old part of you that went through the difficulty with love and attention. The model of Spiritual Psychology is: “When love is applied to hurt, we heal.” There isn’t a day that goes by that this model isn’t enacted in groups and one-on-one sessions at our facility. To us, “love heals.”

Spiritual Psychology borrows from many of the top psychological approaches in use today. If it is used, most likely we use it, but with a twist. We add love into the mix and make it a priority to check in with the part of a person that originally got hurt. This core method of psychology is new to the industry, and what we’ve seen provides amazing results.

Longevity. Isn’t that what you are searching for? Let me warn you that changing old habits takes ongoing effort, but it can get easier and easier the more you do it. Now, the type of effort is very important. Let’s take a deeper look at what needs to be done:

Spiritual Psychology looks at issues in four ways – physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. When all of these are in balance, we are in balance.

Physical: Physically, we have a body, and to improve our body, we need to provide it with optimum care. Our society is well versed in caring for the body physically through diet, exercise, supplements, dental care, doctor care, and avoiding cigarettes, alcohol, and other items that can cause injury. Add the Behavioral approach – basically, doing the proper behavior over and over again can, psychologically speaking, bring you success. This is what the 12 Steps of AA are founded on. Ninety meetings in 90 days is one of their methods. Bottom line: rewarded behavior is often repeated. For example, toning the body and repeating your efforts over and over again will show marked improvements. If you do this only one time, the improvement may show up initially, but in the long term, it won’t do much. A good thing to practice would be praising yourself each time you engage in the proper diet, exercise, and other beneficial items.

Mental: Our mind is so powerful, and if we learn to harness it properly, we can move mountains. If you have been focusing on what you don’t want, you will create it. “If you think you can, if you think you cannot, you’re right.” — Henry Ford.

On the mental level, we try to get people to focus on what they do want through intention setting and affirmations. “My intention is to have a great day” is much better than “I don’t want to have a bad day.” In this example, the mind doesn’t hear the word “don’t” and only focuses on having a bad day. We help train people to focus on what they do want, and it is surprising what starts to show up in a person’s life – something good.

Affirmations are statements that are repeated a minimum of 100 times daily. If you are chronically negative, then a positive statement that is constantly repeated will flood the mind with that desire and break up the old wiring, thus reconfiguring it for something better. Affirmations work just as well. To create an affirmation, choose three items you would like to have more of in your life and place “I am” in front of them. For example: “I am a loving, happy, and positive person.” The more you say it, the more it comes to life. Check it out. I used to dread talking to people because I knew they were judging me. So, with affirmation in hand, I would think my affirmation while being with a person, feel much better about myself, and my social anxiety faded. The saying is, “Our relationships are a reflection of how we are with ourselves.”

Emotional: The strength of our programs is working on the emotional level. What are emotions? They are feelings. How do you feel about yourself? Do you like yourself? Do you feel that others are better? Do you think the world would be a better place without you? You would be surprised by how many people hate themselves, sabotage success, and are constantly critical, but there is hope when you are kind to yourself. “The real issue is how you relate to yourself.”

How can we learn to love ourselves? Bottom line: everything in our life stems from this question. Are we willing to love ourselves? Emotionally speaking, it all has to do with you. The first step is to sit down and have an honest talk with yourself. A great tool is called Opposite Hand Writing, where, on paper, you talk to the wounded part of you that is younger. Ride an emotion back in time. When did that emotion start? Some have good feelings and track them back to a wonderful time. Most have a traumatic past, and talking to that core wounded part of you can be difficult at first.

Have your dominant hand represent the current you, and allow your opposite hand to represent the younger you, and on paper, have a conversation. What does the younger you want to tell you, and what do you want to tell your younger self? This isn’t a time to blame or have harsh words. You’ve done enough of this already. Now is the time to be gentle with yourself. Now is the time to listen to the part of you you have covered up and hidden from yourself and the world, and heal. Let this part tell you what it wants and follow through on the requests. “I need a hug,” for example. Then wrap your arms around yourself and give yourself a hug. “When love is applied to hurt, we heal.”

Spiritually: How are you with God? With death? With your life purpose? For people who have no spiritual beliefs, life can seem like a death sentence and create tremendous anxiety. This was my core issue until I faced it head-on. An existential crisis is the belief that there is no God and only nothingness when we die. Spiritual Psychology believes we are spiritual beings having a human experience. If we have issues that repeat themselves over and over again, these are of main importance because after we process through them, we grow at the level of the soul. In fact, our school, the University of Santa Monica, called itself “Soul-Centered Education.”

Putting this all together is what Spiritual Psychology is all about. There is hope, and we have seen miraculous changes in people because, for the first time, they understood they had the power within themselves to heal and learned the elements in the programs we provide here with which to do so.

We encourage you to read our reviews, many of which were not solicited. Once you go through a transformation, it is natural to want to share it with as many people as possible. There is hope for you once you learn the proper tools, surround yourself with love, and allow others to support you.