Spirituality And Social Work

Why? First, religious affiliation may or may not hold great significance for the person, and identification with a religion alone is notan indicator of the depth of involvement. Second, belief, practice, and involvement can be quite varied, even among adherents of thesame spiritual tradition or among members of the same family, kinship group, or faith community – even if they all self-identify asBaptist, Muslim or Wiccan. Third, some people feel connected to multiple spiritual perspectives simultaneously, such as combiningJudaism and Buddhism or traditional indigenous spiritual beliefs with Christianity. And finally, the meaning of religious or spiritualaffiliation may change across the life span; a person may feel more or less connected to a spiritual tradition at different points in his/her life. It is important to understand the range of spiritual influence (both religious and nonreligious) that may contribute to anyone’slife story at any particular time (Sheridan, 1999).SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENTCanda & Furman (1999) write that” there are two major ways to thinking about human development.” First, when we think ofspirituality as an aspect of the person that strives for a sense of meaning and purpose, our attention focuses on the way peopledevelop meaning. This can be through immersion in spiritual groups and belief systems and through questioning of meaning systems;prompted by personal doubts and life challenges, such as crises. Second, when we think of spirituality as the wholeness of whatit is to be human, our attention focuses on how people develop toward a sense of integration and integrity between all aspects ofthemselves (bio-psycho-social-spiritual) and in relation with other beings and the universe. For those who believe in a transcendent ordivine ultimate reality, this actualization of wholeness is seen as an accomplishment of communion, between oneself, others and thedivine.Spiritual development may be understood in relation to everyday life, including the ordinary events and circumstances of our personallives and our professional work with clients. Of course, there may be an occasion of a powerful insight or breakthrough. Some viewthese sudden insights or epiphanies and refer to them as quantum change. It is believed that these experiences cause rapid anddramatic transformation in ordinary lives. Like spirituality, just when you think you have encircled it with a neat line, it escapes yourboundaries. This much seems clear: quantum change is a vivid, surprising, benevolent and enduring personal transformation.SPIRITUAL EMERGENCE THROUGH THE LIFE CYCLESpiritual emergence occurs in the context of our growth through the life cycle, from birth to death, and possibly beyond. This sectionwill draw on three life cycle theories that shed light on the relation of spiritual emergence and the life cycle—Erik Erikson’s (1962,1963, 1968, 1969, 1982) psychosocial development theory, James Fowler’s (1981, 1984, 1996) cognitive-structural faith developmenttheory, and Ken Wilber’s (1995, 1996) transpersonal spectrum model of development.Most social workers are familiar with Erik Erikson’s theory of development but probably not as it relates to spiritual development.This theory is based on the epigenetic perspective, which views development as a process of psychosocial responses to age-relatedchanges. An example would be an adolescent is expected to be dealing with spiritual challenges pertaining to reevaluation of familybased religious beliefs and practices. Also, as a society that marks significant life cycle transition points, such as birth, marriage,childbirth, retirement, and death, it is expected that people will have a heightened sense of preoccupation with existential issues ofmeaning and purpose, as well as practical behavioral responses, determined by spiritual and religious reference groups, such as rituals.When a person experiences a lack of guidance from spiritual support systems at important life cycle transition points, the person willhave greater difficulty meeting the challenge. However, when a person has a large reservoir of internal strengths (Erikson calls themvirtues) and skills using spiritual support systems, then we can expect greater resilience in confronting crisis, including spirituality.Erikson suggests that people in later adulthood (after age fifty) review their lives with greater interest and concern as the facts ofmortality and physical decline becomes more evident. He believed that people have a heightened sense of spiritual concern at thisstage,because there is greater urgency to establish a sense of one’s life that has been worthwhile and meaningful. Questions aboutdeath and the possibility of an after-life existence increase.Fowler is a Christian theologian and developmental theorist who built on the structural-cognitive perspective of Piaget and Kohlbergin addition to psychosocial theory. Fowler’s theory focuses on the formation and transformation of faith throughout the life cycle.By faith, Fowler meant “the pattern of our relatedness to self, others, and our world in light of our relatedness to ultimacy” (Fowler,1996). Ultimacy refers to that which a person gives a sense of first importance in orienting his/her life with fundamental values,beliefs, and meanings. Just as we have defined spirituality, faith may take religious or nonreligious forms.Fowler portrayed ideal faith development as a progression from childhood conformity to expectations of belief and behavior set byfamily and society with relatively simplistic and concrete images of God or other spiritual realities, through adolescent questioningand formation of a more personally tailored faith; to critically reflective, flexible and even inclusive forms of faith. Fowler describeda mature faith stance as one that upholds one’s own particular beliefs and practices at the same time as being able to empathize andcooperate with people who have other faith commitments.4FOCUS CE COURSE Spirituality and Social WorkOriginally printed December 2010

Over time, people refine and change their contents of faith, both within stages and by moving to a more advanced stage of faith.Sudden crisis events can involve rather sudden conversions. These can involve what transpersonalists call peak or pit experiences,including spiritual emergencies. Given Fowler’s Christian perspective, he suggested that conversion may sometimes result from anunpredictable revelation of God’s grace and intentions for us to reform our lives (Fowler, 1996).Like Fowler, Wilber draws heavily on the cognitive-structural theories of development. But unlike Fowler, his spiritual assumptionsare more influenced by Vedantic Hinduism and Buddhism than Christianity (Wilbur 1980, 1993, 1995, 1996). He based thistranspersonal theory on the belief that human development is a process of evolution with the goal that each person, and eventually thehuman species as a whole, should attain unitary consciousness.Wilbur’s full spectrum of consciousness has three major components:Basic Structures – are deep and inherent levels of consciousness, that, once they emerge during development, tend to remain inexistence throughout the life of the individual.Transitional Structures – are temporary or stage specific perspectives or world views. Here he uses the metaphor of a ladder. Thebasic structures are the rungs, as people move from one rung to another they have a different world view.Self system – refers to the person as they climb the ladder of spiritual development. The self-system mediates the basic andtransitional structures. This model is not linear and holds regressions.At each point, the self goes through a fulcrum, or switch point in its development. Wilbur lists types of pathology at each level, healso states that we must take into account “the standard cautions and qualifications (of) no pure cases, the influence of culturalinfluences, genetic predispositions, genetic and traumatic arrests, and blended cases” (Wilbur, 1996).Wilbur is most interested in the trans-egoic levels of development, which some people achieve in a stable manner during adulthood.He does not separate adulthood into age-linked stages of ego development. Wilbur refers to his model as holarchy, an ordering ofincreasingly comprehensive wholes. One might portray each stage in a circle that encompasses the earlier stage in smaller ones. Inother words, at each stage, the person’s consciousness is able to incorporate more aspects of reality.When spiritual emergence is very rapid and dramatic, it can become a crisis, or spiritual emergency. People who are in such a crisiscan be bombarded with inner experiences that abruptly challenge their old beliefs and ways of existing. Their relationship with realityshifts very rapidly. Suddenly they feel uncomfortable and it is difficult to meet the demands of everyday life. They can be out of touchwith the external reality. Physically they may experience forceful energies and tremors (Grof, 1989).TRANSPERSONAL THEORIES OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENTThe idea that spirituality is an important dimension of human behavior is not a new one in social work or in other helping professions.Sigmund Freud (1928) asserted that all spiritual and religious beliefs were projections of unconscious wishes, or illusions, and manyother early behavioral science theorists viewed the role of spirituality differently.A student of Freud’s, Carl Jung, differed from his former teacher in regard to the topic of spirituality. Jung’s (1933) theory ofpersonality includes physical, mental, and spiritual selves, which all strive for unity and wholeness within the person. Jung proposedthat the evolution of consciousness and the struggle to find a spiritual outlook on life were the primary developmental tasks in midlife.If successfully accomplished, the result was individuation, which he defined as “the moment when the finite mind realizes it is rootedin the infinite” (Keutzer, 1982).Robert Assagioli (1965, 1973), also emphasized the spiritual dimension in an approach known as psychosynthesis. His view of thehuman psyche includes the constructs of “higher consciousness” or “superconscious” as a source of creativity and spirituality. InAggagioli’s view, some psychological disturbances are best understood as crises of spiritual awakening rather than symptoms ofpsychopathology. In such cases, it is the responsibility of the therapist to facilitate the client’s exploration of spiritual possibilitieswhile dealing with such awakenings. As “Assagioli defined it, “spiritual” refers not only to experiences traditionally consideredreligious but to all states of awareness, all human functions and activities which have as their common denominator the possession ofvalues higher than average.Another major contributor to early formations on spirituality and human behavior was Abraham Maslow, the founding father ofhumanistic psychology. Maslow’s early work in spiritual formation brought forth an idea that implied that spiritual development startsonly after all these so-called lower needs are satisfied. Maslow’s point was that when a person’s energy and attention are preoccupiedwith survival needs, it is natural that there will be less time and energy available for artistic and mystical pursuits. In his later work,Maslow described spirituality as innate and a key element in human nature (Maslow, 1971). In his study of optimumly functioningpeople, he characterized people at the top of his hierarchy as ‘transcendent self-actualizers.” Near the end of his life, he began to think5FOCUS CE COURSE Spirituality and Social WorkOriginally printed December 2010

of a more expansive understanding of human behavior “a still higher fourth psychology, transpersonal, trans-human, centered in thecosmos, rather than human needs and interests, going beyond humanness, identity, self-actualization, and the like” (Wittne, 1987).Au-Deane Cowley (1993, 1996) describes the evolution of forces within psychology. There are four major therapeutic approaches thathave emerged over the past century, each developed in response to our understanding of human behavior and human needs.First Force therapies are based on dynamic theories of human behavior. The prime concern is dealing with repression and resolvinginstinctual conflicts by developing insight.1. Second Force therapies evolved from behavioral theories. These focus on learned habits and seek to remove symptoms throughprocesses of direct learning.2. Third Force therapies are rooted in experiential/humanistic/existential theories. They help the person deal with existentialdespair and seek the actualization of the person’s potential through techniques grounded in immediate experiences.3. Fourth Force therapies based on transpersonal theories specifically target the spiritual dimension. They focus on helping theperson let go of ego attachments – external identifications with the mind and body – and transcend the self through variousspiritually based practices (Cowley, 1996).The Fourth Force builds upon the previous three forces and incorporates existing knowledge concerning human behavior within itsframework. What separates the transpersonal approach from other theoretical orientations is the premise that some states of humanconsciousness and potential go beyond our traditional views of health and normalcy. These states specifically address the spiritualdimension of human existence (Crowley and Derezotes, 1994).The term transpersonal means “beyond” or “through” the persona or mask. When applied to theories of human behavior,transpersonal means going beyond identity rooted in the individual body or ego to include spiritual experience or higher levels ofconsciousness.THE ROLE OF SPIRITUALITY IN SOCIAL WORKInterest in spirituality within the social work profession has progressed through three broad stages (Canda, 1997; Canda & Furman,1999).Stage 1 – Sectarian origins (began with the colonial period and lasted through the early 20th century). Early human services andinstitutions were primarily influenced by Judeo-Christian worldviews on charity, communal responsibility, and justice. This periodwitnessed competing explanations of human behavior, an emphasis on distinguishing between moral blame and merit (e.g. the worthyand unworthy poor) versus a focus on social reform and social justice (e.g. Jewish communal service and the settlement housemovement) (Fayri, 1988, Lowenberg, 1998; Popple and Leighninger, 1990).Stage 2 – Professionalization and secularization (1920s through 1970s). Social work began to distance itself from its earlysectarian roots. As the larger society shifted and began to replace moral explanations of human problems to a view of scientific,rational understanding, the social work profession began to rely more on libertarian morality, secular humanism, and empiricism asthe foundation for its ethics, values and practice approaches (Imre, 1984; Siporin, 1986). “Religion and spirituality were increasinglyviewed, at best, as unnecessary and irrelevant, and, at worst, as illogical and pathological” (Russel, 1998).Stage 3 – Resurgence of interest in spirituality (beginning in the 1980’s and continuing through the present) (Canda, 1997; Russel,1998). Indicators of this new phase within the profession include a marked increase in the numbers of publications and presentationson the topic, the development of a national Society of Spirituality and Social Work, and the reintroduction of references to religionand spirituality in the Council on Social Work Education’s 1994 Curriculum Policy Statement and 2000 Education Policy andAccreditation Standards after an absence of more than 20 years.Into the 1990s there was a focus on diversity issues in many of the social sciences. The 1994 revision of the Diagnostic and StatisticalManual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) included a new category for religious and spiritual problems such as loss of faith, problemswith religious conversion, or questioning religious values. The impetus for the consideration of a new diagnostic category camefrom a proposal from the Spiritual Emergence Network, which had concerns regarding how the field of mental health pathologizedreligious and spiritual problems. Individuals often experience distress as a result of questioning their faith. Although these symptomscan mimic a psychiatric disorder, these reactions are “normal.”Specific to the field of social work, consideration of spirituality and religion gained attention. During the 1990s the “strengthperspective” was becoming more popular, with its emphasis on acknowledging patients’ worth, attributes, strengths and potential.Social workers began to embrace their role in helping patients enhance their capabilities and was a move away from a pathologybased model.6FOCUS CE COURSE Spirituality and Social WorkOriginally printed December 2010

Although the inclusion of spirituality is still somewhat controversial, the discussion has shifted from whether the topic should beincluded to how to integrate spirituality within the profession in an ethical and spiritually sensitive manner (Canda & Furman, 1999;Sheridan, 2002). This trend toward reexamination and reintegration of spirituality within the profession reflects similar developmentswithin the larger culture (Gallum & Lindsay, 1999).Current studies show how the inclusion of spirituality in the profession is being addressed. Those that focus on social workpractitioners have generally shown attitudes that were favorable toward the role of spirituality in practice and an understanding ofthe importance of spirituality in the lives of clients (Sheridan, 2000, Sheridan & Bullis, 1992). Studies also report that the majority ofsocial work educators as well as students favor the inclusion of some content on religion and spirituality in the curriculum. This maybe either through electives, required courses, or infusion of material into existing courses. Practitioners and students are already usingsome spirituality sensitive intervention techniques with clients. These may be gathering information on client’s religious or spiritualbackgrounds, using religious or spiritual language or concepts, recommending spiritual or religious programs, discussing religiousbeliefs and praying for or with clients (Mattison, Jayaratne, & Croxton, 2000; Sheridan, 2000).Two of the most important rationales for including content on spirituality within social work education are the important role that itplays in both human diversity and the overall human experience.Religious and spiritual beliefs and practices are part of multicultural diversity. Social workers should have knowledge and skillsin this area in order to be able to work effectively with diverse client groups. (90% of educators “strongly agree/agree” with thisstatement, and 93% of students “strongly agree/agree”.) There is another dimension of human existence beyond the bio-psychosocialframework that can be used to understand human behavior. Social work education should expand this framework to inc

2 FOCUS CE COURSE Spirituality and Social Work Originally printed December 2010 DEFINITIONS Spiritual / Spirituality Spirituality is an aspect of religious traditions, and also of existential value systems. Elkins (1988) gives this definition: “Spirituality, which comes from the Latin, spiritus, meaning breath of life,” is a