ECRSH

Symposium S3

Spiritual Care: Practical Aspects


Date:
Chair:
Saturday, May 19, 14:00 - 15:30
Donia Baldacchino
14:00

The Spiritual Ground of Gestalt Therapy

Therese Bugeja
Some people may think that spirituality does not belong to psychotherapy and therapists may only deal with the emotional, behavioural, social, and cognitive aspects of life. While this may be true for some therapists, it is not true for all. Although some therapists know and value the spiritual dimension of life, they may wait for it to emerge from the client and may not initiate the discussion themselves, leaving the impression that it is not part of the process. Yet other therapists will not deal with it at all, or will deal with it insofar as it relates to the client’s overall psychological and social functioning. By the same token, some clients will not bring it up unless the therapist does, thus leaving the impression that it is not part of their life. Nevertheless, spirituality is a valid dimension that needs to be considered by therapists since it may be intricately connected to client’s issues and the reason they come to therapy. For all these reasons, this paper explores the connections between a Gestalt approach and spirituality. A number of concepts which make up this spiritual ground will be explained. I want to emphasize that these concepts are not separable and distinguishable from each other, but they are like faces of the same diamond - each and every one describes one aspect of the complex spiritual ground of Gestalt psychotherapy.

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14:20

Critical Thoughts on the Role of Prayer in Spiritual Care

Kevin Ladd
The practice of prayer is central to the identity of theistic faith traditions. Its multiple dimensions span the wide range of faith-based experiences from the greatest joy to the deepest sorrow. It is natural, then, to think about incorporating prayer into moments of spiritual care. The challenge with this practice is that most spiritual care is unidimensional; it occurs during times of crisis. In other words, prayer is most often invoked as part of spiritual care when strong desires and expectations are coupled with weakened resources for critical thinking and preparation. Under these conditions, the nature of prayer is easily distorted by both caregiver and care receiver. For instance, prayer may be engaged as a “last resort” or as a “tool” for coping. This paper articulates these and other challenges, then offers potential correctives. Among the possibilities suggested for engaging the fullness of prayer include conceptualizing prayer as a visual and embodied state that is not a singular action but rather a lifestyle.

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14:40

Prayer and Pain: The mediating Role of positive Re-Appraisal

Jessie Dezutter

Background: The present study explored the role of prayer as a possible individual factor in pain management. Framed in the transactional theory of stress and coping we tested first, whether prayer was related with pain severity and pain tolerance and second, whether cognitive positive re-appraisal was a mediating mechanism in the association between prayer and pain. We expected that prayer would be related to pain tolerance in reducing the impact of the pain on patient’s daily life, but not necessarily to pain severity. Furthermore, we assume that positive re-appraisal can be an underlying mechanism in this association.

Methods: A cross-sectional questionnaire design was adopted in order to measure demographics, prayer, pain outcomes (i.c. pain severity and pain tolerance), and cognitive positive re-appraisal. Two hundred and two chronic pain (CP) patients, all members of a national patients association, completed the questionnaires.

Results: Correlational analyses showed that prayer was significantly related with pain tolerance, but not with pain severity. Furthermore, mediation analysis revealed that cognitive positive re-appraisal was indeed an underlying mechanism in the relationship between prayer and pain tolerance.

Conclusion: This study affirms the importance to distinguish between pain outcomes and indicates that prayer is especially important for pain tolerance. Further, the findings can be framed within the transactional theory of stress and coping and the results indicate that positive re-appraisal might be an important underlying mechanism in the association between prayer and pain.

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15:00

Discussion

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