Where Science Meets Soul: Psychology + Spirituality
The Elemental Health Blog
Trauma. The nervous system. Identity. Relationships. Meaning. Psychology. Spirituality. And the messy work of being human.
I generally like to think of myself as a scientifically minded person. That used to be a lot more black-and-white than it is today.
I also grew up Catholic. I attended Catholic school from kindergarten through 12th grade, which meant taking theology courses throughout my education. While I’m not a practicing Catholic today, there are things I learned in those classrooms that have stayed with me.
One in particular:
Science and religion go together.
I remember learning that science can help us understand how things happen, while religion and spirituality often wrestle with questions of why: meaning, purpose, existence, and our relationship to something larger than ourselves.
That idea stuck with me, even as my own beliefs evolved.
Maybe that’s part of why I’ve never been satisfied with the idea that understanding ourselves has to happen through only one lens.
So, to kick things off, I’d like to share a little of my psychology and spirituality journey with you.
Around the pandemic, while other people were baking sourdough bread (who am I kidding? So was I), I was also asking a lot of existential questions.
And buying crystals online.
I really liked that each crystal had a meaning, and there was something appealing about the idea of keeping those meanings close to me. A little physical reminder of an intention, an idea, or something I wanted to cultivate in my life.
Then I discovered tarot cards.
My tool.
I dove in.
I wanted to know everything: their history, their symbolism, the different ways people used them, and how they might accompany my own healing journey.
I took classes. I read books. I practiced. A lot.
And eventually, because I am still very much the person who needs to research the hell out of something, I had another question:
Wait. Do therapists use these in their practice?
Because I could see so much potential for healing work.
Not necessarily for predicting the future, but for reflection. Storytelling. Symbolism. Meaning-making. Exploring different perspectives. Giving language or imagery to something that can be difficult to put into words.
Turns out, I wasn’t the only therapist wondering about this.
I found other clinicians doing thoughtful, ethical work at the intersection of tarot and psychology. I found mentors, including Dreya Blume and Jessika Fruchter, among others. I sought consultation. I attended workshops and trainings. I read everything I could get my hands on.
I mean, I really resonated with these cards.
And somewhere along the way, the question became much bigger than tarot.
Maybe it doesn’t have to be either/or
I started thinking more deeply about spirituality itself.
About intuition.
Ritual.
Symbolism.
Nature.
Awe and wonder.
Meaning.
The things human beings have turned toward for thousands of years when trying to understand ourselves and our place in the world.
And that lesson from all those years ago started to make sense to me in a different way.
Science and religion go together.
My spirituality looks different today than the Catholicism I grew up with. But the underlying idea still resonates with me: our scientific understanding of the world doesn’t have to exist separately from our search for meaning.
Science and spirituality.
Evidence and intuition.
Psychology and meaning.
There can be room for both.
That question, and that curiosity, have shaped a lot of what I’ve done since.
And now, as of January 2026, I’m proud to be the owner of both Elemental Health, LLC, my private psychotherapy practice, and Mind Music Tarot, LLC, my professional intuitive tarot practice.
They are intentionally separate businesses, with different purposes and important professional boundaries.
But I don’t think it’s an accident that I created both.
They grew from the same curiosity:
What helps us understand ourselves more deeply?
So...what does any of this have to do with therapy?
Quite a bit, actually.
Therapy has given us incredible frameworks for understanding human beings.
We can talk about trauma responses, attachment, nervous-system activation, cognition, behavior, memory, emotional regulation, relationships, substance use, and the ways our environments and experiences shape us.
I love that stuff.
I want to know why we do what we do.
I want to understand what happens in our brains and bodies when we’ve experienced trauma. I want to know which therapeutic approaches have evidence behind them. I want my clinical work to be thoughtful, ethical, and grounded.
And.
Human beings are also meaning-making creatures.
We tell stories. We make art. We create rituals. We gather in community. We spend time in nature. We make music. We pray. We meditate. We stare at the ocean. We pull cards. We look at the stars.
We ask questions that don’t always have answers that can be measured.
Who am I?
What matters to me?
What do I believe?
What makes me feel alive?
What kind of life do I want to create?
Who am I becoming?
Science can tell us an enormous amount about being human.
I just don’t think it has to tell us everything.
What I mean when I say “soul”
For me, soul is the part of us that feels most essentially us.
You might call it your authentic self. Your core self. Spirit. Soul.
Or you might not feel the need to call it anything at all.
You don’t need to share a particular spiritual or religious belief to explore the ideas I’m talking about here.
When I use the word soul, I’m making room for the parts of being human that don’t always fit neatly into clinical language: identity, meaning, intuition, creativity, connection, spirituality, awe, wonder, and the experience of feeling deeply at home in yourself.
I believe there is an authentic self underneath the roles we play and the ways we’ve learned to protect ourselves.
Sometimes life makes that self harder to hear.
We adapt.
We survive.
We become who we think we need to be.
We learn to achieve, please, avoid, control, disconnect, overthink, stay busy, take care of everyone else, or make ourselves smaller.
Not because there is something inherently wrong with us.
Because humans adapt.
Sometimes those adaptations help us tremendously.
And sometimes, eventually, they start getting in the way.
Healing, to me, can involve getting curious about what is truly ours and what we learned along the way because it helped us feel safe, loved, accepted, connected, or in control.
What do I actually want?
What matters to me?
What feels true?
What makes me feel alive?
Who am I when I’m not trying to be who I think I need to be?
That’s where things get really interesting to me.
Where science meets soul
And that’s what I want this space to be about.
Not proving spirituality with science.
Not abandoning evidence in favor of intuition.
And definitely not pretending I have all the answers.
I want to explore what happens at the intersection.
The nervous system and meaning.
Trauma and identity.
Evidence and intuition.
Coping and authenticity.
Relationships with others and the relationship we have with ourselves.
Psychology and the questions psychology can’t always answer for us.
Science and soul.
We’ll talk about trauma. The nervous system. Somatic work. Relationships. Boundaries. Perfectionism. Self-trust. Substance use and recovery. Grief. Spirituality. Meaning. Creativity. Nature. Therapy itself.
And probably some things I haven’t thought of yet.
Because humans are complicated.
Healing is rarely a straight line.
And I think there’s a lot worth exploring in the space between what we can explain and what we simply experience.
Welcome to Where Science Meets Soul.
A place to be curious about what we’ve learned to do to survive, what helps us heal, what gives our lives meaning, and who we are underneath all of it.
Trauma. The nervous system. Identity. Relationships. Meaning. Spirituality. And the messy work of being human.
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About the Author
Where Science Meets Soul is written by Kristina “Krissy” Barry, LPC, LPCS, AADC, owner of Elemental Health, LLC. Elemental Health provides integrative psychotherapy for adults in the Charleston/North Charleston area and via telehealth throughout South Carolina.
A Note About Mind Music Tarot
Krissy is also the owner of Mind Music Tarot, LLC, a separate business offering professional intuitive tarot readings, sound meditation, ritual, and spiritual education. Mind Music Tarot and Elemental Health operate independently, with distinct services, purposes, and professional boundaries.
To protect the therapeutic relationship and avoid dual relationships, current and former Elemental Health therapy clients are not eligible to book services through Mind Music Tarot.
Disclaimer
Where Science Meets Soul is intended for educational and informational purposes only. Although Krissy is a licensed mental health professional, content shared through this blog, the Elemental Health website, or Elemental Health social media is not therapy, does not establish a therapist-client relationship, and is not a substitute for individualized mental health care.
I love everything about this! Now I’m chewing on adaptions that serve and those that get in the way- evidence and intuition. Thank you!