Querencia

Chaplains serve in hospitals, hospice, prisons, on police and fire-fighting units, in the military, in businesses, and even in the Maine Warden Service. Chaplains come from all denominations, or no denomination, and go through rigorous theological and pastoral training at master’s or PhD levels, as well as at least 1200 hours of clinical pastoral education.

 

Chaplains are trained in working with

• grief

• loss

• illness

• crisis intervention

• group dynamics and processes

• addiction

• end-of-life planning

• ethical decision making

• reflective listening

• theological issues

• meaning making

• and other comparable areas

 

Chaplains are neither psychologists nor social workers, but they may have received training in those areas. Chaplains typically serve on interdisciplinary teams to benefit their clients or patients. Their work is called “spiritual care.”

 

The World Health Organization defined the four dimensions of well-being as physical, social, mental, and spiritual health:

 

The spiritual dimension “is not material in nature, but belongs to the realm of ideas, beliefs, values, and ethics that have arisen in the minds and conscience of human beings, particularly ennobling ideas.” Illnesses, such as addiction, can cause spiritual struggle or spiritual distress, “a state of suffering related to the impaired ability to experience meaning in life through connections with self, others, the world, or a superior being.”

 

Chaplains help people to find wholeness within, without attempting to deliberately “fix” or “cure.” Chaplains ask questions like:

 

• What is important in your life?

• Where are your significant relationships?

• What values are most important to you?

• What gives you strength in challenging times?

• What is disrupting access to these resources right now?

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What do I do?

• Help people find themselves and strengths they may have forgotten

• Help people get honest with themselves and to cut through denial

• Help people look forward

• Listen, reflectively and actively (in about 95% of each encounter)

• Question assumptions

• Affirm strengths

• Teach meditation and centering prayer

• Train clients in breathing methods to encourage relaxation

• Offer and coach writing, journaling prompts

• Teach gratitude practices in order to increase positive feelings

• Teach forgiveness practices in order to decrease resentments

• When appropriate, integrate Buddhist principles around addiction recovery (the Four Nobel Truths: addiction is suffering; addiction comes from repetitive craving, there’s a way out; and this way includes taking steps in service, reflection, better communication, awareness, effort, making body-mind connections, creating intentions, and developing ethical conduct)

• Use principles of mindfulness and social awareness gleaned through Fleet Maull’s “Pathways to Freedom” training

• Use Recovery Coach training to help clients become forward-looking

• Work with teams of professionals in group support sessions

• Work with families of patients to help them navigate the challenges of having a family member in distress

• Draw on the experience of having been in 12 Step groups to assist clients in understanding the concept of a “higher power,”

• Encourage clients to recognize their basic goodness

• Create a listening, open, safe space, without judgment, in which a patient or client can come to his/her own healing

• Be present to someone’s suffering without trying to push it away

• Work with developing responses to dealing with traumatic events