The Sacred Circle: a conceptual framework for spiritual care in hospice

Hospice care has consistently recognized the need to integrate spiritual care into holistic plans of care for dying patients and their families. Designing and implementing spiritual care interventions can be potentially difficult for hospice practitioners who have not had specific training in theology or pastoral care. Matthew Fox, a theologian, has developed a model of spiritual development that utilizes an ecumenical, ethical framework that can be directly applied to the care of hospice patients and families. This model employs a Sacred Circle approach that begins with an emphasis upon the sense of awe and wonder (the Via Positiva), moves into the next cycle by recognizing problems and negative emotions (the Via Negativa), that then flows into the creative solutions to problems (the Via Creativa), which finally transforms the problem into a new level of understanding (the Via Transformativa).