Book review: The Road to Joy by Kevin McClone

A chaplain's map for growing in wisdom

(Oregon: Wipf & Stock, 2020)

Like many authors of psychology and self-help books, Dr. Kevin McClone writes as a working psychotherapist and educator.  But his voice brings something new to the genre – prior training and experience as a spiritual care provider.  The difference, while maybe not visible to the lay person, is refreshing and deeply nourishing.

The Road to Joy fills a gap in the popular literature of personal growth, and even meets a need for certain clinicians.  First of all, he is explicit with the term “psychospiritual,” which may be novel to some, but which is a cornerstone among the competencies of chaplaincy.   Spiritual care as a profession is too often obscured in the shadows of psychotherapy and conflated with denominational ministry in a church.  It is neither of those things, although spiritual care practitioners will often confer with professionals in both disciplines: this is the commitment to “whole-person care” in action.  As a relatively young clinical discipline, professional research literature in our field is sorely lacking, while it is virtually invisible to the self-help audience.  This book is a welcome exception.

Similarly, the author’s impressive resume as a hospice chaplain, clinical psychologist and educator, and addictions counsellor, reassures the reader of his experience and credibility in speaking of transformation that leads toward joy – even through, especially through, pain and fear.  But you won’t read this book because it’s professionally competent – you will read it for the same reasons people in pain or confusion, religious and not, open up and come to trust a good chaplain: humane and authentic listening. Connection, “deep unto deep,” as McClone acknowledges.

The Road to Joy is a hybrid self-help guide and personal reflection on navigating life, each of the two modes strengthening the other. The author illuminates the eight-step path he proposes with resources drawn from both psychology and diverse spiritual wisdom traditions; but he also draws from his own life path, through addiction recovery and up to mourning the recent death of his wife of 28 years.

There is no glib or cloying, shallow “positivity” here which can so often doom lesser writers.  Dr. McClone speaks from personal experience, yes, but perhaps more important, he speaks tenderly and bravely about the meaning of our wounds and “weaknesses.” Because he is a trained chaplain and counsellor, he understands their transformational power when we humans, being neither doormat nor drill sergeant, become willing to engage with life as a long journey toward truth and grace.  But he is also a person of faith, and so he experiences his own trials through the lens of spiritual formation, and shares what he learns.  

As a person of faith myself,  in the wake of my own partner’s death I was left with nothing but a ragged trust in the fact that I was alive: a living consciousness, a “proof” of God, as it were, waiting to learn anew why I should exist in the material world. It is not an easy journey. 

I have always been deeply offended by the facile notion that “things happen for a reason,” which is a secular echo of the cruel “God’s will” argument.  Rather, through my process understanding of God, I recognize that deep experiences may be used by us.  Trauma and tragedy are crucibles: they change life and consciousness (as do blessings and joyful discoveries). Inside that crucible, what shape might you take?  What sense of direction might you find, for how violently your life has been upturned? There are many stories of individuals who have suffered greatly, who were changed so much by their suffering that they left a mark on the world.  Some of those, in our news cycle daily, are black marks of rage and destruction; many (less “newsworthy”) became pathways of justice, charity, nourishment and healing.

Kevin McClone’s intention is to give readers the conscious tools to use our ongoing formation – through love and family, through risk and rage – to become more fully ourselves.  Not to become “perfect,” but to become ever more self-accepting, realistic, grateful, and joyful.

In the face of catastrophe, science can often tell us the “how” of our injury, our symptoms, even our recovery.  Spirit moves us to ask the “why” – precisely the point at which a patient might seek out the spiritual care provider, when the doctor and the social worker don’t know what to say.  That's when we chaplains might try to gently reframe the question: not "What did I do to deserve this?" but rather, "What shall I do with this changed universe?" Ultimately, how do I walk this human path without being corrupted by pain? 

McClone understands that this fundamental question applies to the religious as well as the atheist, and to everyone in between.

In practice, it’s important to note, a good chaplain will never share his own trials with you – your own story is the centre and the source for the work to be done.  But Kevin McClone’s book reveals the kinds of wisdom and emotional hygiene (otherwise known as the core competency of “self-awareness”) that fortify his service to our neighbours’ spiritual need.  A great addition to both my professional and personal libraries.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the author and/or publisher through the Speakeasy blogging book review network. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions expressed are my own. #Roadtojoy