Positive Spirituality in Health Care

Wholeness for Clinicians, Patients, and

Health Care Organizations

Positive Spirituality in Health Care

Nine Practical Approaches to Pursuing

Wholeness for Clinicians, Patients, and

Health Care Organizations

Frederic C. Craigie, Jr., PhD

Maine-Dartmouth Family Medicine Residency, Dartmouth Medical School,

and Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine,

University of Arizona College of Medicine

M i l l C i t y P r e s s

M i n n e a p o l i s , M N

Copyright © 2010 by Frederic C. Craigie, Jr., PhD.

Mill City Press, Inc. 212 3rd Avenue North, Suite 290 Minneapolis, MN 55401 612.455.2294 www.millcitypublishing.com

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author.

ISBN – 978-1-936107-48-3 ISBN – 1-936107-48-1

Cover Design by Wes Moore Typeset by James Arneson

Cover art © 2008 Caren Loebel-Fried www.carenloebelfried.com

Printed in the United States of America

To Heather, Matthew, and Tom Craigie. The spirit and commitments of your lives inspire me

and make the world a better place.

Index of Strategies……………………………………………….. xi

Acknowledgments………………………………………………. xiii

Foreword………………………………………………………….. xvii

Introduction…………………………………………………………. 1

The Context

1. Perspectives on Spirituality……………………………… 17

• Defining spirituality • So what, then, is spirituality? • Dimensions of spirituality • Suffering

2. Why Spirituality Matters………………………………… 53

• Spirituality is intimately related to health, wholeness, and well-being

• Spirituality mediates choices in health behaviors • Spirituality often frames the ways that people

cope with adversity and pursue the journey toward wellness/wholeness

• Spirituality is important because people want to be known in this way by their caregivers

Contents

3. Who Provides Spiritual Care?…………………………. 85 • Patient and clinician perspectives on spiritual care • Contributions to spiritual care by providers

of health and wellness care

4. Three Arenas of Spiritual Care……………………….. 97 • The personal arena • The clinical arena • The organizational arena • Three interlocking pieces

Nine Practical Approaches to Bringing Positive Spirituality into Health

and Wellness Care

Personal: Connections with What Matters to You

5. Stay connected with your purpose………………….. 123 • Spiritual aliveness • Aliveness and purpose • Staying connected with purpose

6. The moments of your life: Cultivate qualities of character…………………………………………………..145 • Positive Psychology • Discovering qualities of character • Working with qualities of character

7. Ground yourself in healing intention and presence….. 163 • Intention and presence • Cultivating intention and presence

Clinical: Connections with What Matters to Your Patients

8. Pick one or two areas to inquire about people’s spirituality……………………………………….. 189

• Two types of spiritual inquiry • Practical clinical approaches to spiritual inquiry • When in the course of human events

9. Partner with patients in pursuing what they care about……………………………………………………. 217

• A template for collaborative spiritual care conversations • Goals: What matters to you and where do you want to go? • Approaches: How are you going to get there? • Next steps

10. Be attuned to recurring themes of transcendence and valued directions……………………………………. .263

• Transcendence and valued directions • Spiritual care toward transcendence and valued directions • Approaches to transcendence • Encouraging patients in valued directions

Organizational: Connecting with the Shared Energy of People Working Together

11. Honor organizational mission and values………… 313

• Mission and values • Developing an understanding of mission and values • Mission and values as part of organizational life • Organizational specialists

12. Cultivate community………………………………………331 • Community in health care organizations • Positive qualities of community in health care

organizations • Cultivating community

13. Exercise empowering leadership……………………… 347

• Leadership and spiritual care • Windows on health care leadership: Voices of clinicians • Qualities of spirited health care leadership • Becoming a leader

Afterword………………………………………………………… 370

Appendix I: A Dozen of Fred’s Favorite Spirituality and Health Websites………………………… 372

Appendix II: A Fiddler’s Dozen of Fred’s Favorite Books on Spirituality and Health Care………………… 376

About the Author……………………………………………… 381

Index……………………………………………………………….. 383

Index of Strategies

1: Find your personal statements 136 2: Write your own origin story 137 3: Create a statement of personal mission 141 4: Describe your own approach to present awareness 143 5: Identify your own signature strengths of character 156 6: Nurture your own character 161 7: Be well 177 8: Pursue a practice of re-focusing and renewal during the day 179 9: Create a personal affirmation 181 10: Use conversational templates for spiritual inquiry 198 11: Identify conversation-openers 206 12: Adapt spiritual inquiry to the circumstances where

you see people 214 13: Get patients talking about what they care about 237 14: Elicit patients’ wisdom and competence 250 15: Express your own wisdom in some new ways 255 16: Collaborate with patients in defining next steps 259 17: Experiment with one or two approaches to transcendence 301 18: Invite patients to define key role values 305 19: Talk about the mission 323 20: Keep talking and develop a wider view of mission

and values 327 21: Define positive qualities of workplace community 340 22: Choose some next steps in building goodness in your

workplace community, and bring a colleague into the conversation 345

23: Be guided by your own evolving definition of leadership for spiritual care 363

24: Pick one or two points of growth for yourself as a leader with soul 367

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