ID: 3249 - View Book Page - Edit In OJS

Wellbeing can be described in purely secular terms, but a spiritual perspective on Wellbeing adds considerable depth and scope, distinguishing it from superficial or momentary happiness. Wellbeing in spiritual terms reaches out beyond the individual towards relationship which can embrace both interpersonal relationships and relationship with the natural world. In order to accommodate the spiritual dimension we offer the term ‘Well-becoming’, with a focus on the past and the present as they develop into the future, and thus generate an evolutionary perspective. We suggest that in our times the scientific paradigm itself needs to expand and evolve in order to embrace the subjective/emotional and intuitive/spiritual modes of awareness. Otherwise we are left isolated, with all that matters most, humanly, on one side, and the scientific/technological perspective divorced from humane values on the other, and threatening to dominate. Nowhere is this more evident than in the environmental crisis where human beings enact upon the planet and ourselves the adverse results of a progressive alienation from our physical and spiritual natures, and thereby from our relationship with the natural world. We look to psychotherapeutic understandings and eco-social interventions into wellbeing and well-becoming to lead us forward from this tragic predicament. The book benefits greatly by including rich cross-cultural comparisons from a Brazilian context.

Published: Jun 1, 2025

Book Contributors

• Editor - Jeff Leonardi ([email protected] - jleonardi) 'University of Wales Trinity St David'
• Editor - John Reader ([email protected] - drjohnreader) 'William Temple Foundation'
• Author - Anthony Rose ([email protected] - arose) 'The Biosynergy Institute'
• Author - Robert Fruehwirth ([email protected] - rfruewirth) 'Rector, North Carolina'
• Author - Becky Seale ([email protected] - bseale3060) 'Coleg Sir Gar, South Wales'
• Author - William West ([email protected] - wwest) 'University of Chester'
• Author - Marta Helena de Freitas ([email protected] - mdefreitas) 'Catholic University of Brasilia'
• Author - Hannah Yakovah Armbrust ([email protected] - harmbrust) 'Psychotherapist'
• Author - Marianne Rankin ([email protected] - mrankin2051) 'Alister Hardy Trust'
• Author - Bettina E. Schmidt ([email protected] - bettinaschmidt) 'University of Wales Trinity St David'
• Author - Pierre Yves Lenik ([email protected] - pylenik) 'Film Composer'

---

Section	Chapter	Authors
Prelims
	Preface	Jeff Leonardi
Introduction
	Introduction	Jeff Leonardi
Setting the Scene
	1. Knowing and Un-knowing: Extending the Spectrum of Meaning to Include what Really Matters	Jeff Leonardi
	2. Reconnecting with Nature and Spiritual Experience	John Reader
How Spirituality Deepens Our Understanding
	3. Spiritual Experiences of Interconnectedness	Marianne Rankin
	4. Julian of Norwich and Spiritual Depth: Spiritual Experience and Relational Intimacy	Robert Fruehwirth
	5. Beloved on the Earth: A Buddhist and Person-centred Approach to the Ecological Crisis	Becky Seale
	6. Spiritual Experience and Counselling	William West
Bringing the Human Being into Relationship with the Environment
	7. How it is Going the Marriage of Heaven and Earth? Spirituality, Wellbeing and Environment in Brazil	Marta Helena de Freitas, Pierre Yves Lenik
	8. La Pachamama’s Soul: Understanding Ecospirituality Through Archetypal Intersubjectivity	Hannah Yakovah Armbrust
	9. Wellbeing is the Feeling of Being “one with the world and my surroundings”: Reflection about the Environmental Dimension of Wellbeing in Brazil	Bettina Schmidt
	10. Creative Biosynergy and the Person-Centered Psychology of Global Spiritual Well- Becoming	Anthony Rose