Working as a spiritual care practitioner to provide care and support to all who require it.The three domains of a person, body, mind, and spirit are strongly connected. If the body is sick, the psychological and spiritual aspects also suffer. Likewise, if someone is suffering from mental illness, both the body and spirit are affected. Helping someone leverage their spiritual resources and capacity can assist in restoring some level of health to both the mind and the body. It also follows that if someone is spiritually sick, both the body and psyche are affected negatively. Often in complex, or acute patients, or if trauma is present there can be spiritual wounds that must be addressed to enable the patient to access this domain of their life to support recovery. Some reading I did while exploring Armed Forces Chaplaincy introduced me to the term ‘Spiritual Readiness’. Spiritual Readiness Domain (FM 7-22) defines spiritual readiness as “the ability to endure and overcome times of stress, hardship, and tragedy by making meaning of life experiences.” This meaning is drawn from the Soldier’s spiritual dimension, which is influenced by their core beliefs, values, motivation, and identity. The armed services of the United States and many other countries have noted a significantly higher tolerance for stress, and more coping mechanisms among personnel with a strong individuated spirituality. For this reason, when working with patients or residents who do not ascribe to any particular faith tradition, I invite them to reflect on what they value, what brings meaning and gets them out of bed in the morning. Whether they have a well-defined spiritual identity or not, they are in a battle with injury, trauma, sickness, and/or declining health. For all intents and purposes, they are soldiers in a fight for their lives. By assisting them to identify what their true power source, they can be batter equipped to find meaning, purpose, and endurance to help them overcome the hardship, grief, and tragedy they are experiencing.The spiritual domain exists alongside the psychological, the most effective way of providing spiritual support and growth, is employing psychotherapeutic modalities like Motivational Interviewing, (MI) Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Narrative Therapy among others. This provides a common space not influenced by any religious affiliation and fosters an understanding of the spiritual forces inside of them. This gives them the self-awareness to experiment, reflect, and discover part of themselves that they may not have been aware of.
Listed skills include Program Management, Maintenance And Repair, Military, Data Analysis, and 46 others.
