Refocussing and God Spaces(TM) a holistic counselling theory and practice: An integration of psychology and theology to facilitate encounters with God in and beyond therapy

Refocussing and God Spaces is the theory and practice developed by the author Dr Diane Divett. Influenced by her New Zealand Maori and Irish heritage, coupled with pastoral care experience, she saw the need for a holistic therapy. Accordingly, Refocussing with its ‘seven foci system' was designed to identify and attend to unmet needs in all aspects of people's functioning, in their being, having and doing. This included all dimensions: the transpersonal, interpersonal and intrapersonal. Central and unique to Refocussing is ‘God Spaces', providing a predictable, reliable and repeatable way to encounter God in and beyond therapy. These encounters with the Divine provide a way for people's unmet needs to be healed, resourced or resolved. The rationale being that while psychological process is necessary to identify unmet needs – God Spaces allows careful integration of a theological process to attend to those needs. This satisfies people's faith needs, namely, that the inclusion of God is also essential in any therapeutic process.