Therapy that takes spirituality, religion, and transpersonal experience seriously — without imposing them or explaining them away.
Spiritually Integrated Therapy
There is therapy where spirituality is treated as outside the room, and there is therapy where spirituality is so much in the room that it functions as religious counseling. This page describes a third thing: psychotherapy that is willing to work with whatever a client brings — religious, agnostic, secular, deconstructing, or marked by experiences that do not fit a single tradition — and to take that material seriously as part of the clinical work rather than as something to be set aside or solved.
Norman Klaunig, MA, LPC, NCC | Texas LPC #89856 | Trained in transpersonal counseling | Member, Academic and Research Committee, International Association for Near-Death Studies (IANDS) | Member, Spiritual and Religious Values Committee, ASERVIC | Published in Journal of Near-Death Studies
At a glance
Specialization: Near-death experiences (NDEs), spiritually transformative experiences (STEs), spiritual emergence and emergency, terminal lucidity and end-of-life phenomena, religious trauma, faith transitions, spiritual integration
Relevant training and orientation: Transpersonal counseling; trauma-informed; EMDR-trained; IADC®-trained for grief
Professional service: Academic and Research Committee, International Association for Near-Death Studies (IANDS); Spiritual and Religious Values Committee, ASERVIC
Publications and Presentations: Journal of Near-Death Studies; near-death experiences and terminal lucidity (IANDS Conferences)
My position: I work with clients of any faith, no faith, those who have left a faith, those in transition, and those marked by experiences they do not yet have language for. I do not push toward or away from any belief.
Therapist: Norman Klaunig, MA, LPC, NCC
License: Texas LPC #89856
Office: 1528 W Contour Dr, Suite 102, San Antonio, TX 78212
Service area: Online statewide in Texas; in person in San Antonio
Languages: English, German
Insurance accepted: BCBS, Curative, United Healthcare, Medicare (traditional Medicare and Medicare Advantage plans from BCBS and United Healthcare)
What spiritually integrated therapy is
Spiritually integrated therapy is psychotherapy that allows a client’s spirituality, religious history, or transpersonal experience to be part of the clinical work rather than bracketed off from it. It is not religious counseling, pastoral counseling, or proselytizing. The therapist’s task is to make room for whatever the client brings — devout, deconstructing, secular, agnostic, or marked by experiences that do not fit any tradition — and to work with it as part of meaning, identity, and healing. Spiritually integrated therapy is grounded in psychology and is offered alongside (not in place of) the client’s own spiritual or religious resources.
The work follows the client’s framework, not the therapist’s. If your tradition matters to you, it matters in the room. If you have left a tradition, that leaving and what it means belongs in the room. If you have had experiences that don’t fit anywhere, they have a place. If spirituality is not part of your life and you would prefer it stay that way, that is welcome too. The point is that you do not have to leave any of yourself outside.
What this work is for
The work I do most often in this area falls into several categories. Each is taken seriously and treated as real.
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A near-death experience is a profound, often life-altering event that usually occurs during a medical crisis, accident, or other close brush with death. NDEs commonly include reported features such as a sense of separation from the body, encounters with non-ordinary environments or presences, a panoramic life review, and an altered relationship to time, fear, and meaning afterward. In clinical work, these experiences are taken seriously and integrated rather than explained away or pathologized. People who have had NDEs frequently report that previous therapists could not hold the experience, dismissed it, or pathologized it. That is not what happens here. NDEs are an important part of my research interests.
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A broader category that includes mystical states, awakening experiences, such as kundalini or deep meditation experiences, encounters that do not fit standard categories, and other non-ordinary events that change how a person understands themselves and the world. STEs often share with NDEs the experience of having had something profound that the surrounding world has no clear vocabulary for. Therapy is one place where that vocabulary can develop.
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Spiritual emergence describes a period of intense psychospiritual transformation. Spiritual emergency is the more acute, destabilizing form of the same process — where the experience is overwhelming, disorienting, or difficult to integrate without help. The clinical work involves grounding, integration, attention to the body and nervous system, and finding what the experience is asking of the life that continues. I bring transpersonal training to this work and treat it as a real clinical territory rather than a fringe one.
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Terminal lucidity refers to the unusual phenomena that sometimes occur near death — moments of unexpected clarity in people with advanced dementia, certain deathbed experiences, and other end-of-life events that fall outside standard clinical models. End-of-life experiences also include what dying people report seeing, encountering, or moving toward, and what families and accompaniers observe in those moments. This is also an area of my research, and it is welcome here. People who have accompanied a dying loved one through such experiences often have nowhere to bring them. They have a place here.
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Harm sustained inside religious environments, communities, leaders, or teachings — and the long work of leaving, changing, or remaining inside a tradition while addressing harm. For a fuller treatment, see religious trauma therapy. The grief of leaving a faith is real grief, and it often goes unacknowledged; this is part of the cross-link to grief counseling.
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The work of bringing spiritual experiences, however unusual, into a coherent and livable life. Many people who have had transformative experiences arrive at therapy not in the middle of the experience itself but years later, when the question becomes how to keep building a life that takes the experience seriously without being consumed by it. This is integration work, and it is some of the most rewarding I do.
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The questions that arise with serious diagnosis, life review, anticipatory grief, and the work of dying or accompanying someone who is dying. These often have a spiritual dimension, whether or not the person involved would describe themselves as religious. See also existential therapy, grief counseling, and caregiver therapy.
How spiritually integrated therapy is different from religious counseling
Religious or pastoral counseling is typically offered from within a tradition and uses the resources of that tradition — scripture, prayer, theology, faith community — as part of the care. It can be valuable, and it has its place. Spiritually integrated therapy, as I practice it, is psychotherapy. It is grounded in psychological and clinical training, follows trauma-informed and depth-oriented principles, and does not require any particular belief on your part. The two answer different questions and can complement each other; many of my clients also have a pastor, spiritual director, or community of practice. The therapy room does something different.
I am also distinct from Christian counseling, Catholic counseling, or any tradition-specific care. I work with clients across a wide range of religious, spiritual, agnostic, and secular orientations — including traditions that the broader culture often dismisses or sensationalizes. The framework is psychological. The content is whatever you bring.
How this work proceeds
The work begins where you are. We make room for what you bring — whatever it is — without me explaining it away or attempting to recruit it for a particular framework. Where the experiences you are bringing are not generally understood by the surrounding culture, we work in the language that fits the experience itself rather than translating it into the nearest pathology.
The clinical principles are the principles of good psychotherapy: stabilization where stabilization is needed, attention to the body and the nervous system, careful work with whatever trauma or grief may be present, and patient attention to what the experience is asking of the life that continues. Specific modalities — EMDR, parts work, somatic regulation, existential, and meaning-focused approaches — are used as the work asks for them.
I bring transpersonal counseling training, ongoing academic involvement in the field through the IANDS Academic and Research Committee, membership in the ASERVIC Spiritual and Religious Values Committee, and publications in the Journal of Near-Death Studies. The theoretical frame that holds this work for me is Ken Wilber’s Integral Theory, which gives me a developmental and multi-perspectival way to understand spiritual experience without reducing it. This is not a peripheral interest. It is a core part of my territory.
Approaches I draw from in this work
Transpersonal counseling
Integral framework (Ken Wilber’s Integral Theory)
Existential and meaning-centered therapy
Depth-oriented psychotherapy
Trauma-informed care, including EMDR for trauma layered into spiritual material
IADC® Therapy where the work involves grief
IFS-inspired parts work and narrative approaches
Mindfulness-based approaches and somatic awareness
Psychoeducation about NDEs, STEs, spiritual emergence, and related phenomena
Integration work for clients who have had transformative experiences
For the broader theoretical frame within which these methods are deployed, see Depth-Oriented Therapy.
What this work can change
Spiritually integrated therapy can change:
The isolation of having had experiences that previous helpers could not hold
The pathologization that often follows non-ordinary experiences
The integration of an experience into a coherent and livable life
The grief and identity work of leaving, changing, or remaining inside a religious tradition while addressing harm
The capacity to live with experiences that do not have to be solved to be true
The relationship between spirituality and the rest of your psychological life
Get in touch
Together, let’s discover the meaning of your life and find clarity about your path.
Click the link above to choose a day and time for a free, confidential consultation or schedule a session.
FAQs
Frequently asked questions about spiritually integrated therapy
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No. Many of my clients are agnostic, secular, or have actively left religious frameworks. The point of spiritually integrated therapy is that the spiritual or non-spiritual material — whatever it is — gets a place in the room rather than being treated as off-topic. If you have had transpersonal experiences and are not religious, those experiences are welcome here without anyone insisting they mean what they would mean inside a religious framework.
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No. My approach is to follow what you bring, not to recruit you for anything. I work with clients across a wide range of religious, spiritual, agnostic, and secular orientations, and the work is psychotherapy, not religious instruction. My training, professional service, and research are in the psychology of these experiences. If a tradition matters to you, we work with it on your terms. If it does not, that is also welcome.
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Yes. NDEs are welcomed here, not pathologized. People who have had NDEs frequently report that finding a clinician who takes the experience seriously is its own form of relief. I have researched NDEs and serve on the Academic and Research Committee of IANDS, the international professional and academic association for this field. The experience belongs in the room as it actually was, not as someone else has insisted on translating it.
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In therapy, I provide a safe, non-judgmental space for you to process and integrate your spiritual experiences. We'll work together to untangle confusing thoughts and emotions and find healthy ways to incorporate these experiences into your life.
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Yes. Spiritual emergence — and at its more intense end, spiritual emergency — can feel overwhelming, destabilizing, or impossible to share with anyone who hasn't been there. Together, we'll work on grounding, integration, and finding the meaning and direction that the experience is asking of you. I bring transpersonal training and ongoing involvement in the field to this work.
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Yes, in our work together, I can help you work through feelings of betrayal, anger, and disillusionment. You'll learn to trust your own instincts and build self-awareness, allowing you to make decisions that align with your values.
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Absolutely. In our sessions, I will help you process these difficult emotions and develop coping strategies. You'll learn to set healthy boundaries and communicate your needs, leading to improved relationships and self-esteem.
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Through our work together, I can help you rediscover your sense of purpose and meaning. You'll clarify what truly matters to you and identify authentic goals to work towards, helping you build a fulfilling life aligned with your values.
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In our therapeutic relationship, I foster a non-judgmental and confidential space where you can freely express your thoughts and feelings. I am here to support and empower you on your unique healing journey, regardless of your spiritual beliefs.
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The duration of our work together will vary depending on your unique needs and goals. Some people find relief in a few sessions, while others may benefit from longer-term support. We'll collaborate to develop a personalized treatment plan and regularly assess your progress along the way.
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I have training in transpersonal counseling — a more neutral term for experiences that go beyond the rational mind. Transpersonal counseling acknowledges the existence of a soul or spiritual dimension and works to integrate it with therapy for the mind. I have published research on near-death experiences and terminal lucidity in the Journal of Near-Death Studies, serve on the Academic and Research Committee of the International Association for Near-Death Studies (IANDS), and am a member of the Spiritual and Religious Values Committee of ASERVIC. I have been on my own path of self-exploration for many years and bring perspective and life experience to this work.
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These are welcome here. Transpersonal experiences come in many forms, and many people have had them without anyone safe to talk to. We can explore what the experience meant to you, how it has shaped your life, and how to integrate it.
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Understand. Heal. Grow.
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Understand. Heal. Grow. —