Transcript Social Work & Spirituality

Social Work & Spirituality
Marjorie Sokoll, M.Ed. &
Rabbi Karen Landy
JF&CS Jewish Healing Connections
Differences between Spirituality
and Religion
Spirituality
• Universal
• Transcendence beyond oneself
• Awareness of relationship with all of creation,
connectedness to others
• Transcendent questions about purpose, search
for meaning, and hope
• “Inner Journey” is defined by the person
• Holistic quality of being human
• Dangers: Ungrounded, self-involved
Religion
•Particular – a social institution, may have
spiritual leader as authority figure
•Ethical codes and worship practices
•Rules for living a good and moral life
•Cultural and communal
•Provides continuity, wisdom, morals/ethics
•Source of comfort & hope in times of
suffering
•Dangers: rigid, dogmatic, lacks inspiration
Differences and Similarities between
Psychotherapy, Pastoral Counseling, and
Spiritual Direction
Psychotherapy
• Therapist helps client explore obsessions,
compulsions, depression, or fears.
• Therapist helps client gain a stronger
sense of self and adjust to the dynamics of
regular living.
Psychotherapy
• Transference – client projects wounded
feelings from earlier relationships onto the
therapist to work them through in a healing
environment.
• Objective is to resolve problems, at least
in the short term, and achieve a more
healthy integration into society.
Pastoral Counseling
Similarities to Psychotherapy
• Pastoral Counseling also helps people
adjust to life’s challenges, focus on
resolving problems, particularly in the
short run.
• Addresses questions of relationships and
uses transference.
Pastoral Counseling
Differences with Psychotherapy
“While therapy primarily focuses on the individual’s
development, pastoral counseling seeks to
connect the individual to the traditions and
practices of a faith community for wisdom,
celebration, and comfort…psychotherapy seeks
to alleviate the suffering that interferes with
one’s happiness…pastoral counseling also
seeks to allay distress but views suffering as
inherent to our human condition, providing
opportunities to grow in faith, sustain hope, and
find comfort.”
Breitman, Barbara, Jewish Lights, Life Lights
Spiritual Direction
Spiritual Direction is a process to help us
recognize God’s guidance, which is there
if only we are open to it. It is a relationship
through which a guide helps a seeker
discern how the Source of Life might be
calling the seeker to greater meaning and
growth, to help the seeker appreciate the
divine that might underlie the seemingly
coincidental occurrences of life.
Spiritual Direction Questions
• Where is God in your longing? Your
success? Your pain?
• What new realms of spiritual insight are
being revealed through your relationships?
Your work?
• Where might you sense the presence of
the One inherent within the multiple roles
and conflicting demands of your life?
Spiritual Direction Questions
• Who are you now, and who are you being
called to become?
Addison, Howard. (2003). Finding the Help
You Need: Psychotherapy, Pastoral
Counseling, and the Promise of Spiritual
Direction. Vermont: Jewish Lights
Publishing.
Strengths Perspective in
Social Work
“Strengths-based social work means that people
are viewed as whole beings, with inherent
capacities for resilience and creativity. When
they seek help for problems, they are never
reduced to those problems…these inner
strengths and environmental resources need to
be the focus of helping…we focus on the
strengths and resources available by
incorporating spirituality and religion into social
work practice.”
Canda, Edward, Furman, Leola. (1999). Spiritual
Diversity in Social Work Practice: The Heart of
Helping. New York: Free Press.
Text Study
• Hevruta/Dyad Text Study
• Centrality of text study in many traditions
• Sacred Dialogue
• Argue with text, springboard
Forms of Religious Expression
• Behaving – actions, lifecycles, holiday celebrations,
mitzvot (“good deeds”), tzedakah (charity/justice),
chesed (lovingkindness)
• Belonging – connected to community, culture, history
• Believing – faith, meaning-making, theology
• Being – experience of transcendence and being in the
flow of life, life is a blessing
(Based on Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan)
Rabbi Elisa Goldberg, Joan Grossman Center for
Chaplaincy and Healing, JFCS Philadelphia
Therapist’s Spiritual Practice
“The spiritual dimension cannot be ignored,
for it is what makes us human.”
Viktor Frankl
“To heal a person
you must first be a person”
Abraham Joshua Heschel
to the AMA in the 1950’s
Therapist’s Spiritual Practice
“Today, like every other day,
We wake up empty and frightened.
Don’t open the door to the study and
begin reading.
Take down the dulcimer.
Let the beauty we love be what we do.
There are hundreds of ways to kneel and
kiss the ground.” Rumi
Reflection on one’s own
spiritual practice
Brief Assessment Model that Conforms to Joint
Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare
Organizations Assessment Recommendations
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I was wondering if spirituality or religion is important to you?
Are there certain spiritual beliefs and practices that you find
particularly helpful in dealing with problems?
I was also wondering if you attend a church or some other type of
spiritual community?
Are there any spiritual needs or concerns I can help you with?
Hodge, David. (October, 2006). A Template for Spiritual Assessment: A
Review of the JCAHO Requirements and Guidelines for
Implementation. Social Work, 51(4), 317-326.
Spiritual Assessment Questions
Provided by JCAHO
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Who or what provides the patient with strength and hope?
Does the patient use prayer in their life?
How does the patient express their spirituality?
How would the patient describe their philosophy of life?
What type of spiritual/religious support does the patient
desire?
What is the name of the patient’s clergy, ministers, chaplains,
pastor, rabbi?
What does suffering mean to the patient?
What does dying mean to the patient?
What are the patient’s spiritual goals?
Is there a role of church/synagogue in the patient’s life?
Has belief in God been important in the patient’s life?
Spiritual Assessment Questions
12. How does your faith help the patient cope with
illness?
13. How does the patient keep going day after day?
14. What helps the patient get through this health care
experience?
15. How has illness affected the patient and his/her
family?
JCAHO, 2004
Therapist Intervention
Techniques
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Meaningful music, pictures, religious objects
Prayer
Mindful Meditation
Guided Imagery
Breath Work
Intentional Focus on Nature
Journaling
Ritual
Referral
How Prayer May Work
• Prayer may work in that we may have asked God for
something which indeed came about.
• Prayer may work by invoking a greater sense of
God’s presence.
• Prayer may work by way of distraction, momentarily
pulling us out of pain or discomfort into a place of
beauty or transcendence.
• Prayer may work by deeply grounding us as we
focus mindfully on our present moment.
• Prayer may work by quieting and centering the self.
How Prayer May Work
• Prayer may work by connecting us with the
wider Jewish community and with traditions that
may provide additional strength.
• Prayer may work by helping us connect to a
deep level of the self which is already healed
and whole, reminding us of our essential
wholeness.
• Prayer may work in focusing us, the pray-ers, on
the blessings in our lives, enabling our sense of
gratitude to blossom.
Rabbi Amy Eilberg
Spirituality and Religion: Potential
for Healing Potential for Harm
Griffith and Griffith caution that religion and
spirituality can be destructive with clients when it
“violates the relatedness on which spirituality is
based. Spirituality comes into being as one’s
commitment to relatedness – to other people,
the environment, one’s God or the numinous,
one’ s heritage.”
Griffith, J., Griffith, M. (2002). Encountering the sacred in
psychotherapy: How to talk with people about their
spiritual lives. New York: Guilford Press.
Possible Reasons for Referrals
• Spiritual crises due to illness, loss….
• Issues of relationship to God
• Positive transference with clergy
representing the Jewish/Christian
community
• Provide healing with religious tradition they
grew up with
• Address issues of suffering
Referrals to Jewish Healing
Connections
• Kol Isha, Holocaust, CERS, Geriatric
Mental Health & Care Management, CFA,
Disabilities, Adoption
• Provide Prayer & Ritual – Yahrtzeit
(Anniversary of death), holidays, mikveh
(ritual bath) to mark transitions
• End-of-Life, Bereavement
Society for Spirituality and Social Work
http://ssw.asu.edu/spirituality/sssw/
The SSSW is a network of social workers
and other helping professionals
dedicated to spiritually sensitive
practice and education. We seek to
encourage, honor, and nurture the
diverse spiritual paths, resources and
traditions which offer meaning and
support to people, including ourselves.
We recognize the sacred nature of our
healing work.
Society for Spirituality and
Social Work
We are committed to justice and respect
for those of diverse religious and nonreligious spiritual identities. Our
events and materials are designed to
promote research, development of
theory, and dissemination of
innovations and best practices related
to spirituality in our professions. In our
gatherings, we celebrate the values of
dignity, interdependence, compassion,
respect, peace, justice and connection
with the divine.