Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the Degree of Masters in the subject of Psychology, Faculty of Arts at the University of Zululand, 2007. / This study identifies a new paradigm for working with body, mind and spirit that facilitates psychotherapeutic processes. It uses both the verbal and non¬verbal components of human experience. It transforms life's challenges into an empowering, transformational and healing process, allowing opportunities for unfolding our true potential. Philophonetics is a modality of counselling, psychotherapy and coaching. It is a phenomenological approach to human experiences that facilitate the client in a process of active exploration, self discovery and empowerment to become more conscious in their own knowing and way of being in the world. It accepts awareness through the living body as a way of knowing through sensation, movement and gesture, visualization of internal dynamics and the resonance of sound therapy. The skills learnt in the sessions can be practiced and integrated by the client and used for self-management and self-care between sessions and after therapy is completed. The present study has shown how effective philophonetics can be and it is evident that this modality cuts across cultures. The findings of the present study are in keeping with international literature which confirms that philophonetics unlike other therapeutic modalities, it does not rely heavily on the verbal mode but employs about 80% of the nonverbal phase.

This doctoral study explores social workers’ shared understandings of spirituality as lived experience in their personal lives and professional practice. It examines Canadian social workers’ shared conceptualizations of spirituality as lived experience, what it entails, its role and purpose (why), and how it informs professional practice. Data collection involved three steps: a national publicity led to 24 completed self-screening questionnaires (SSQ); 14 in-depth interviews conducted through constructivist grounded theory’s theoretical sampling and; the preliminary findings were validated by the 24 SSQ participants. This study generated two key findings. The central concepts category of the conceptual schema of spirituality as lived experience emerged as Transcendent Life Energy (TLE) as Unconditional Love (UL) in Transformative Relationships (TR) With Self (WS) in Support of Wellbeing (SW)- i.e. TLE-UL-TR-WS-SW. Second, the conceptual schema analyzed through Self as body-mind-emotions-spirit-social (B-M-E-S-S) being—the social work practitioners—illuminated that spirituality as lived experience is about inherent, interconnected, transformative relationships that involve individuation as a life-long process that support healing, development of personal values, growth, and wellbeing in participants’ lives, their clients’ and social life. These findings unveiled interrelated discoveries of significance in social work practice. The wellbeing of Self is inherently interconnected with practitioners’ professional practice, their clients’ and others’ wellbeing. This confirmation is consistent with the concerns about the use of Self in countertransference and religion/culture. However, the personal values that participants developed through the conceptual schema were consistent with human rights and social work values; they included: respect for inherent dignity and worth of persons, self-determination, personal and professional integrity, do no harm, and social justice. Participants’ process of developing personal values exposed a distinction between beliefs and values acquired through socialization and those developed through the conceptual schema. These findings illuminate the function of social work as catalyst for transformative relationships and clarify the role of individuation as directly related to wellbeing, in the midst of cultural and embodied hegemony. Furthermore, the findings illuminate how, why, and what spirituality as lived experience entails and; highlight the multidisciplinary nature of social work practice and theory as inherently interconnected, encompassing human, natural, and social sciences. / October 2016