Acceptance and Commitment Therapy as a Spiritually Integrated Psychotherapy

This article presents acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) as a spiritually integrated therapeutic modality. ACT is a value‐driven therapy that involves facilitating transcendence of physical, mental, and emotional experience to alleviate human suffering; as such, ACT shares common ground with the domain of spirituality. Approached as a spiritually integrated therapy, ACT can help clients to access spiritual resources and create life meaning as well as aid in the resolution or transformation of spiritual struggles. Given that spiritual struggles, in particular, can have a significant impact on mental health and well‐being, this article provides guidance in how ACT can address such struggles.     

Spiritual and emotional determinants of health

Within our present health care system, there is a growing movement that argues that our perceptions of health and illness are in need of change. This change includes redefining what we mean by health in terms of the whole person—the emotional, social, and spiritual dimensions of our being, as well as the physical. An increasing number of health professionals and social scientists believe our concepts of health and illness must consider all these aspects of life. It is believed that the quality of life may be enhanced by such perceptions of health, which include social and spiritual factors. Using data from the 1985 Akron Area Survey—The Subjective Quality of Life in the Akron Area—this study explores the effects of spiritual well-being and emotional well-being on health satisfaction. Results indicate that emotional and spiritual factors do significantly contribute to the subjective evaluation of health, especially for individuals who are physically limited.An earlier draft of this paper was presented at the joint session of the Association for the Sociology of Religion and the American Sociological Association, August 20, 1986. The author would like to thank Margaret Poloma, Ph.D., The University of Akron, and Mark Tausig, Ph.D., The University of Akron, for their helpful comments.     

Ageing Health Care and the Spiritual Imperative: A View from Scotland

SUMMARY

This paper, given as a keynote presentation at the third international conference on Ageing and Spirituality 2004 in Adelaide, Australia, offers a perspective on ageing that makes central and fundamental the spiritual journey. Ageing is not confined to the old. We are all ageing all the time and whilst the imperative of ego integration (Erikson, 1986, 1982) is more pressing in old age, the march of time makes no exceptions. The paper starts with a consideration of the Scottish context and the current interest in Scotland in spirituality and health. Borrowing from the human developmental ideas of Frankl, Jung, Erikson, and Klein, the paper takes the view that we are all spiritual beings, and we are all trying to be successful, integrated reconciled and mature individuals. Ageing and spirituality is relevant to every individual. Successful ageing is fundamentally concerned with the successful self. The spiritual journey is bound up with the search for meaning. Ageing is part of the task of being human and it involves decline and loss. The spiritual journey–search for meaning–is unique to each one of us. The spiritual journey is made evident in the search for the ultimate destination of giving up self, transcending self. Remembrance and routine are methods by which the ageing and the spiritual journey can be facilitated. A successful ageing, according to this perspective, is therefore one that embraces and self-consciously embarks upon a spiritual journey. To take it further–the spiritual journey is bound up with ageing–and further still–ageing is a spiritual journey (Bianchi, 1984). The primary task of ageing is spiritual development. Spiritual development is helped by an appropriate societal context in which ageing as spiritual journey can flourish. This has implications for health and social care services.     

Spiritual Development and Cultural Context in the Lives of Women Adult Educators for Social Change

This paper reports the results of a qualitative research study where the purpose was to examine the spiritual development of a multicultural group of women adult educators who are teaching for social justice and are motivated to do so because of their spiritual commitments. Findings reveal 4 themes of spiritual development. It may be described as a spiral process of moving beyond and re-membering spiritual values and symbols of the culture of origin, it includes a deepening awareness and honoring of the Lifeforce, it facilitates authentic identity development, and it requires social action.     

中国大陆宁养照顾对癌症末期患者生活质量之影响

宁养工作强调全人的照顾,不但能维持原有的生活方式,而且能提高生活的品质。本研究旨在探讨癌症末期患者在宁养照顾介入后,生活质量的改变。研究分为试验组（n=630）和对照组（n=241）。研究的结果显示癌症末期患者经过宁养介入后,其身、心、灵、社会之生活品质大幅度改善。而对照组患者仅在身体生活质量方面有显著改变。因此对医疗人员、社会大众的临终关怀观念的推广及教育是迫切需要的,立法更是不容忽视的课题,正确的立法才能真正推动宁养工作的发展。     

Emotions are real

It is obvious that emotions are real, but the question is what kind of "real" are they? In this article, I outline a theoretical approach where emotions are a part of social reality. I propose that physical changes (in the face, voice, and body, or neural circuits for behavioral adaptations like freezing, fleeing, or fighting) transform into an emotion when those changes take on psychological functions that they cannot perform by their physical nature alone. This requires socially shared conceptual knowledge that perceivers use to create meaning from these physical changes (as well as the circuitry that supports this meaning making). My claim is that emotions are, at the same time, socially constructed and biologically evident. Only when we understand all the elements that construct emotional episodes, in social, psychological, and biological terms, will we understand the nature of emotion.     

Sacrilege: A Study of Sacred Loss and Desecration and Their Implications for Health and Well-Being in a Community Sample

In this study, we proposed that people understand major life events in terms of spiritual as well as psychological, social, and physical dimensions. Specifically, we examined the possibility that life events that are perceived to be sacred losses or violations of the sacred (i.e., desecrations) have significant implications for the health and well-being of the individual. A total of 117 adults, randomly selected from a community, identified the most negative life event they had experienced in the past two years. They then completed measures of the degree to which they appraised this event as a sacred loss and as a desecration, as well as measures of religious coping, the impact of the event, and four sets of criteria: traumatic impact, physical health, emotional distress, and growth. These hypotheses were largely supported. Sacred loss and desecration were unrelated to physical health. However, they were tied to higher levels, though somewhat differential patterns, of emotional distress. While sacred loss was predictive of intrusive thoughts and depression, desecration was tied to more intrusive thoughts and greater anger. Furthermore, sacred loss was linked to greater posttraumatic growth and positive spiritual change; in contrast, desecration was associated with less posttraumatic growth. The links between the spiritual appraisals and outcomes were partially mediated by positive and negative methods of religious coping. These findings underscore the importance and multidimensionality of the spiritual meanings people attribute to major life stressors.     

Core religious beliefs and providing support to others in late life

A number of studies suggest that people who have strong social support systems at church tend to enjoy better mental and physical health. Yet little is known about the factors that promote strong church-based social support networks. The purpose of this study is to show that key religious beliefs may have something to do with it. A new construct—spiritual connectedness–is introduced for this purpose. Spiritual connectedness refers to an awareness of the bond that exists among all people and the sense of the interdependence among them. Data from a nationwide longitudinal survey of older people in the United States reveal that a strong sense of spiritual connectedness is associated with providing more emotional support and tangible assistance to fellow church members over time. The data further reveal that older people with a strong sense of spiritual connectedness are more likely to pray for others, as well.     

Echoing the emotions of others: empathy is related to how adults and children map emotion onto the body

ABSTRACT

Empathy involves a mapping between the emotions observed in others and those experienced in one’s self. However, effective social functioning also requires an ability to differentiate one’s own emotional state from that of others. Here, we sought to examine the relationship between trait measures of empathy and the self-other distinction during emotional experience in both children and adults. We used a topographical self-report method (emBODY tool) in which participants drew on a silhouette of a human body where they felt an emotional response while watching film and music clips, as well as where they believed the character in the film or performer was feeling an emotion. We then assessed how the degree of overlap between the bodily representation of self versus other emotions related to trait empathy. In adults, the degree of overlap in the body maps was correlated with Perspective Taking. This relationship between cognitive empathy and degree of overlap between self and other was also found with children (8–11 years old), even though children performed worse on the task overall. The results suggest that mapping emotions observed or imagined in other’s bodies onto our own is related to the development of empathy.     

Spiritual Need Four: Opportunities to Be Served and to Share with Others

SUMMARY

Older adults have unique opportunities to be served and to share with others through groups and individual relationships and programs in religious congregations. Where programs and senior centers with public funding can provide only for physical, emotional, and social needs, religious congregations can be more wholistic and provide for the spiritual needs as well. This chapter offers further discussion of planning that will facilitate program development for the whole person.     

Out of the depths

A fundamental approach of theology as practiced within the palliative setting is care for the whole human being, with particular focus on spirituality and the spiritual dimension. Theology and medicine come together in palliative care in which the spiritual aspect is an important component together with the physical, psychological, and social. This article is based on a mixed methods study of spirituality among persons receiving palliative care. Findings revealed the importance of spirituality and its multidimensional elements by which spirituality was perceived as a complex phenomenon relating to religious and non-religious aspects of human life. Theological reflection based on the present findings indicates that a sharp distinction between the concepts of religion and spirituality is not beneficial. It also reveals the significance of the spiritual dimension and that theology has an important role in creating a deeper understanding of this complex part of human existence. Spiritual needs, expressed in various ways, were evident among the participants receiving palliative care. The findings confirm that the theological approach in palliative care, with its focus on the whole human being and emphasis on spirituality and the spiritual dimension, continues to be the hallmark of practicing theology within palliative care.     

Sacramental and spiritual use of hallucinogenic drugs

Arguably, the religious use of hallucinogenic drugs stems from a human search of metaphysical insight rather than from a direct need for cognitive, emotional, social, physical, or sexual improvement. Therefore, the sacramental and spiritual intake of hallucinogenic drugs goes so far beyond other biopsychosocial functions that it deserves its own category in the drug instrumentalization list.     

Social,Religious and Spiritual Capital and Physical/Emotional Functioning in a National Sample of African Americans

Spiritual and religious capital are forms of the broader construct of social capital. The present study, using probability‐based sampling methods, surveyed a national sample of African American adults to examine the relative contributions of spiritual and religious capital to their physical and emotional functioning. Analyses were conducted to determine if these constructs made a unique contribution above and beyond general social capital. African American men and women (N = 803) were interviewed by telephone. Hierarchical linear regressions revealed that, across the full sample, although social capital was a positive predictor of physical and emotional functioning (p < .05 and p < .001), neither religious nor spiritual capital made an additional contribution to these outcomes. However, the relationships among these variables differed for men and women. Among men, social capital predicted positive emotional functioning (p < .001) but not physical functioning; spiritual and religious capital made no additional contribution to either outcome variable. Among women, social capital predicted positive emotional functioning (p < .01) but not physical functioning. However, religious capital did make a significant additional contribution to the prediction of emotional functioning (ΔR², p < .01). Dividing the sample into different age groups did not produce any different findings from those found with the sample as a whole. Findings are discussed in terms of implications for church‐ and faith‐based health promotion interventions aimed at health disparities reduction. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The ethical potential of sound in public space: Migrant pan flute music and its potential to create moments of conviviality in a ‘failed’ public square

In this paper we examine the notion that music in public space could be understood in terms of ethical potential, where new sensibilities for thinking, feeling, seeing and being with others might be imagined and practiced. We do this by considering how musical performances by migrants impact on inclusive forms of place (re-)making, affective enactments of public space and emotional accounts of belonging and ‘the other’. The paper draws on an ethnographic exploration of South American pan flute musicians, performing music at Sergels torg, a central square in Stockholm, Sweden. Through fieldwork with a combination of qualitative techniques, including observation, interviews and sensory methods such as photography, video and recorded ‘sound walks’ we trace the affective aspects of encounters with busking and the impact of music on place. We highlight the ethical potential of music in the experience of urban moments and its capacity to reconfigure space. We find that encounters with sound can produce new spaces of conviviality and inclusion; it can soothe, animate and soften urban spaces. However, a positive encounter with difference through sound depends on a favourable social, physical and temporal context, and because busking serves to make marginalised voices heard (both literally and metaphorically), it can be experienced as troubling for precisely this reason. Thus, we need to take into account the full complexity of the dynamics between sound and place, in considering this relationship as a novel window to the ethical potential of the urban encounter.     

Interweaving social and manipulative development in early infancy: Some direction for infant caregiving

Early infancy has been neglected not having the best opportunities to promote social motor and cognitive development. The maturational concept considering young infants as passive beings provide a misguided view of the developmental process. The human infant is an active being from the very beginning of life. In the social and physical world, they can, by observing and imitating, perform complex actions involving different motor behaviours. In the present review we argue that imitation and manipulative actions are integrated in Expressive Action System (Reed, 1996) where baby-caregiver social interaction is the link between the use and exploration of objects in the world. We present evidence that neonatal imitation and manipulation activities are connected and thus, we propose stimulation practices based in seminal experimental designs where infants should be positioned in favourable postures to observe others acting in the world. This will have an impact on the way that early infants understand the social world and the chain of actions possible in this environment.     

Awe,tragedy and the human condition

This article, reporting on research in progress on the nature of tragedy, falls into three sections. The first explores the concept of awe and relates it to contemporary thinking about spiritual education. The second identifies tragedy as an artistic form that evokes awe in response to the vision of the human condition that it presents. The theories of Aristotle and Nietzsche are examined in support of this view of tragedy. The third section looks at ways that tragedy can be taught in the classroom that allow space for students' emotional responses.     

Children’s spirituality and inclusion: strengthening a child’s spirit with community,resilience and joy

The vision of inclusion speaks to the minds, hearts and spirits of children with disabilities. A meaningful inclusive atmosphere exists when children with and without disabilities are physically engaged and interact with one another as a community in a variety of activities. Spirituality for children with disabilities within an inclusive early childhood classroom requires an education that is intellectual, emotional, social, moral and spiritual. In this type of environment, children with disabilities and peers can flourish in a warm and welcoming community. This paper contributes to the literature and asserts the importance of the ‘forgotten’ dimension of early childhood special education. Learning strategies to inform teachers and parents for establishing an inclusive welcoming classroom for children with disabilities are offered by exploring a spiritual curriculum emphasising holistic education with peers through strengths-based projects, small group work and peer-mediated interventions for supporting the interests of each child and developing the capacity to develop resilience and joy.     

Spirituality and Support: A Descriptive Analysis of Online Social Support for Depression

This study examined supportive messages in spiritual and non-spiritual online support groups for depression. Both social support and religiosity have been associated with reduced depressive symptomology. Proportions of three types of support (i.e., informational, emotional, and network) were considered; messages were further delineated as being either religious or non-religious in nature. Messages (N = 2,674) from two Christian and two unaffiliated online groups were analyzed. Results indicated that Christian groups communicated more informational support and General groups communicated more network support. Christian groups communicated more religious messages. This and future research is valuable to practitioners and clergy aiding depressed individuals and to the literature on social support and religion.