The Discipline for doing spiritual care: variations on a theme

Area of Science:

• Pastoral Care and Psychology
• Addiction Treatment Modalities
• Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE)

Background:

• The Discipline offers a framework for understanding spiritual and psychological well-being.
• Effective pastoral assessment is crucial for both direct care and professional training.
• Previous literature lacks detailed accounts of adapting The Discipline's core concepts for addiction recovery and CPE.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe the integration of The Discipline into direct patient care for individuals with addiction.
• To present the adaptation of The Discipline's Profile (Concepts of Holy, Meaning, Hope, and Community) for use in a recovery setting.
• To illustrate the utility of this adapted Profile in educating CPE interns on pastoral assessment.

Main Methods:

• Adaptation of the Profile (Concepts of Holy, Meaning, Hope, and Community) from The Discipline.
• Application of the adapted Profile in direct care with addicted individuals at a Recovery Center.
• Utilizing the adapted Profile as a pedagogical tool for CPE interns to learn pastoral assessment skills.

Main Results:

• The adapted Profile proved effective in structuring interventions and understanding the experiences of addicted persons.
• CPE interns demonstrated enhanced skills in pastoral assessment after engaging with the Profile.
• The Discipline's concepts provided a valuable lens for both therapeutic work and educational purposes.

Conclusions:

• The Discipline, particularly its core concepts, can be effectively adapted for addiction recovery care.
• The adapted Profile serves as a practical and insightful tool for training pastoral care professionals.
• This approach enhances the quality of both direct care and the educational milieu in pastoral assessment.