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.
Leonardi, Jeff: - Jeff Leonardi is a retired Anglican priest who was for 17 years Bishop's Adviser for Pastoral Care and Counselling in the Lichfield Diocese of the Church of England. He has been a qualified Person-centred Counsellor for the past forty years, and has a PhD in the spirituality of Person-centred Counselling in relation to Christian spirituality, and the implications for Christian ministry and pastoral practice. He is currently an Honorary Research Fellow of the Religious Experience Research Centre at the University of Wales Trinity St David at Lam-peter, undertaking a joint research project into relational spirituality with Professor Bettina Schmidt. He has chapters in J. Moore and C. Purton (eds.) 2006 Spirituality and Counselling: Experiential and Theoretical Perspectives, PCCS Books, Ross on Wye; and C. Lago and D. Charura (eds.) 2016 The Person-Centred Counselling and Psychotherapy Handbook: Origins, Developments and Current Applications, Open University Press, Maidenhead. He is the editor of The Human Being Fully Alive: Writings in Celebration of Brian Thorne, 2010, PCCS Books, Ross on Wye. John Reader was Senior Research Fellow of the William Temple Foundation and Senior Tutor for the Christian and Rural Environmental Studies Course hosted by Ripon College, Cuddesdon. He published 6 solo books and co-edited or with chapters in a further 16. Recent publications include A Philosophy of Christian Materialism (co-written with Baker and James) Theology and New Materialism (Palgrave Radical Theologies series) and Postdigital Theologies: Technology, Belief and Practice (co-edited with Savin-Baden). John died suddenly in October 2023.
Reader, John: - Jeff Leonardi is a retired Anglican priest who was for 17 years Bishop's Adviser for Pastoral Care and Counselling in the Lichfield Diocese of the Church of England. He has been a qualified Person-centred Counsellor for the past forty years, and has a PhD in the spirituality of Person-centred Counselling in relation to Christian spirituality, and the implications for Christian ministry and pastoral practice. He is currently an Honorary Research Fellow of the Religious Experience Research Centre at the University of Wales Trinity St David at Lam-peter, undertaking a joint research project into relational spirituality with Professor Bettina Schmidt. He has chapters in J. Moore and C. Purton (eds.) 2006 Spirituality and Counselling: Experiential and Theoretical Perspectives, PCCS Books, Ross on Wye; and C. Lago and D. Charura (eds.) 2016 The Person-Centred Counselling and Psychotherapy Handbook: Origins, Developments and Current Applications, Open University Press, Maidenhead. He is the editor of The Human Being Fully Alive: Writings in Celebration of Brian Thorne, 2010, PCCS Books, Ross on Wye. John Reader was Senior Research Fellow of the William Temple Foundation and Senior Tutor for the Christian and Rural Environmental Studies Course hosted by Ripon College, Cuddesdon. He published 6 solo books and co-edited or with chapters in a further 16. Recent publications include A Philosophy of Christian Materialism (co-written with Baker and James) Theology and New Materialism (Palgrave Radical Theologies series) and Postdigital Theologies: Technology, Belief and Practice (co-edited with Savin-Baden). John died suddenly in October 2023.
