Spirited Practices

Spirituality and the helping professions

Fran Gale, Natalie Bolzan, Dorothy McRae-McMahon

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• Topic: Social Sciences
• eBook ISBN:
  9781000247411
• Subtopic: Social Work
• Index: Social Sciences

Spirituality and religion are fundamental to all human cultures. Yet in the helping professions, whose shared objective is to promote human well being, questions of spirituality have often been avoided.

Now we are increasingly realising that scientific materialism and individuality have failed to meet enduring human needs for meaning and connection. Evidence mounts for the importance of spirituality for prevention and intervention in times of crisis, distress and illness. Many professionals find themselves ill-prepared to respond to the spiritual needs of their clients, and to negotiate encounters with people from unfamiliar faith traditions.

Spirited Practices shows how it is possible for professionals to think critically, and be open to spirituality at the same time. Professionals and teachers from diverse faiths and fields of work, including social work, health, psychology and ministry explain how they have integrated spirituality into their work.

Spirited Practices is inspiring reading for anyone in the helping professions seeking to develop a spiritually aware practice.

'It invites us to look honestly at ourselves and our own practices through learning about those from other professional and faith backgrounds.'

Richard Hugman, Professor of Social Work, University of NSW

'A much needed forum for practitioners from diverse professional and spiritual backgrounds to address the challenges and rewards of spiritually-sensitive practice.'

Leola Dyrud Furman, Associate Professor Emeritus of Social Work, University of North Dakota

Index

abhaya mudra 225

Aboriginal Reconciliation Learning Circles 137, 140

Aboriginals, see Indigenous Australians

abortion, Muslim attitudes to 75

Abraham story 6

abusive relationships 128

acceptance 108–10

Adamson, Darri xv

adolescents, mental health 59–68

Affect Skills Management Training 169

Aitken, Robert 171

Ajahn Brahm 92, 97

Akiva, Rabbi 51, 57

Allah, see also God; Islam

all things derive from 72

burden placed by 128–29

on forgiveness 131

promise to Prophet 76–77

trust in 132

Amichai, Yehudi 3

Amy 59–60

ancestors, knowledge of 138–39

Andrew 167

anger 114–15, 121

Anglicanism 82

arrows of suffering 93–95

ashes, disposal of 194–95

Asperger’s syndrome 64

asylum seekers 16–22

Auschwitz 172

auspiciousness 38

Australia

demographic change 61

values of 4

welfare society 6–7

authority figures 26

Avolokitesvara 175

awareness 203

Ayurvedic medicine 34–36

B...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication Page
• Foreword
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Picture acknowledgments
• About the editors
• About the contributors
• Introduction Spiritually sensitive helping practices
• Disconnection
• Illness/health
• Loss and death
• Violence
• Stigma/discrimination
• Cycle of hopelessness/hope
• Transitions
• Resistance
• Conclusion ‘The end is where we start …’
• Index