Pastoral Psychology最新文献

Stress resilience is the ability to bounce back from stress. Religious vocal chanting has been known to have a positive effect on stress. This study explored the impact of Taizé prayer as a religious vocal chanting on stress reduction and stress resilience improvement. A nonrandomized controlled trial was conducted. Thirty-six Christian university students in Indonesia were recruited and included in the intervention and control groups without randomization. Subjects in the intervention group performed 30-min Taizé prayer for 28 days. The stress level was examined using the Perceived Stress Scale, and stress resilience was examined using the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale-25. Differences within groups were analyzed using a paired t-test, while differences between groups were analyzed using an independent t-test. The intervention group showed a significant improvement in stress resilience (p < 0.01), while the control group did not experience any change (p = 0.80). Further, the stress scores decreased in the intervention group (p = 0.03), whereas no significant change was observed in the control group (p = 0.22). Changes in stress resilience were significantly higher in the intervention group than in the control group (p = 0.01), while changes in stress scores did not differ significantly between the two groups (p = 0.33). Taizé prayer might have positive effects on stress and stress resilience in young adulthood.

A pastoral counseling approach is proposed in this article. The methodology investigates the relationships between religiosity, spirituality, and existential psychology in order to develop a praxis that supports subjective experiences with a sacred reference while also promoting favorable mental health and quality of life conditions. This methodological framework implies ethical counseling, which involves assisting people with religious subjectivation in coping with their everyday life conflicts to reestablish a sense of continuity in a psychosocial context.

This study provides an account of leaving a context of perceived spiritual abuse within some Pentecostal fellowships in Norway. We discuss how our 16 informants discovered the need for change and sought support to navigate challenging departure processes characterized by emotional strain. Three empirical themes emerged: (1) God’s will, as conveyed by leaders, evoked shame, (2) there were various sources of help in leaving a context of perceived spiritual abuse, and (3) the acknowledgment of vulnerability provided space for new images of God. Throughout the leaving process, many informants underwent a profound shift in their perceptions of God, marked by a heightened awareness of their vulnerability. This transformation encompassed a deep-seated desire to embrace their humanity and to accept the relevance of their thoughts and feelings. Acknowledging their own vulnerability allowed them to have more humanized images of God. Our analysis employs Kenneth Pargament’s notion of orienting systems and his theory of religious coping to elucidate how their images of God changed. The process led to a perceived sense of freedom from spiritual abuse. We understand the informants’ experiences of leaving the church and affiliated organizations as instances of deconversion through what empirically emerged as “deprogramming” processes in our material. Deprogramming involves disentangling individuals from what they perceived was conveyed and thus “programmed” by spiritual leaders. Deprogramming processes emerged as a new exploration of images of God, shame, power, and human vulnerability.

Artistic expressions provide visual stimulation and information, promote cultural awareness, and evoke thoughts and feelings. A very interesting component of artistic expression is the ability of the art form to produce a state of well-being in both the artist and the observer. This article (1) investigates the connection of my art to a specific purpose and fulfillment, (2) explains how artistic expressions can promote well-being through neurostimulation, (3) provides an example of how artistic expressions can assist in productivity, (4) expounds on the ability of artistic expressions to elicit cultural awareness, and (5) presents reflections on my paintings and their possible influence on an observer. The article reenforces the concept that artistic expressions extend beyond surface observation and stimulation and can penetrate the inner being and spirit of the artist and the observer, thereby affecting thoughts, feelings, perceptions, and well-being. Artistic expressions are forms of communication that can connect individuals across geographical boundaries, cultures, and time.

Ye, the artist formerly known as Kanye West, admitted to, and then retracted, a personal diagnosis of bipolar disorder. He may be the most polarizing figure in popular culture, a prophet abandoned by his disciples. The author views his myriad of iconoclastic and controversial actions alongside the American public’s response to those actions through the lens of Kendrick Lamar’s seminal work To Pimp a Butterfly. America’s response to Ye’s incessant antagonism is examined through the dimensions of defiance, depression, anger, revenge, and, most importantly, duality as illuminated through Lamar’s album. An exploration is pursued between the interplay of America’s response to Ye’s behaviors, the relevance of mental instability, and leveraging Ye as an illustration of the broader assumptions made in response to any given individual’s personal mental health struggles.

COVID-19 presented a difficult environment for care workers, including clergy, as they sought to address human needs within an often-contentious culture. Unique tasks heightened counseling responsibilities, and management of strained relationships introduced new or enhanced stressors into their jobs. Care worker stressors can lead to compassion fatigue. This study aimed to examine clergy’s unique tasks and stressors during COVID-19 to ascertain causal paths toward compassion fatigue. The results of the structural equation analysis demonstrated role and occupational stressors fully mediated the path from tasks to compassion fatigue. The indication was that it was not administrative tasks (e.g., accommodating health measures, adapting the delivery of ministry) nor care tasks (e.g., providing support and counseling to family and patients of COVID-19 victims) that directly caused compassion fatigue; rather, it was the criticism, conflict, and relationship stressors encountered during the ministry that led to compassion fatigue. Implications and recommendations for clergy and administrative development to mitigate and manage role stress and clergy occupational distress are presented. Overall, the study provides insight into the mechanisms by which clergy job demands during COVID-19 led to compassion fatigue, pointing to stressors as the key mediating factors.

The author argues that the Broadway musical Hadestown sheds light on liberation as a goal and process of spiritual care. Sharp reflects on parenting in conversation with her own experiences of encountering systemic deception with a chronically ill child in medical crisis. She reflects on postcolonializing pastoral care in conversation with Howard Thurman’s theory of liberation from deception, fear, and hatred. Sharp contemplates an iterative creative process in conversation with Hadestown songwriter Anaïs Mitchell. Intertwining reflections on parenting, postcolonializing, and processes of creativity, Sharp casts liberative healing as an ongoing integrative spiral rather than a linear progression from ill to well and from trapped to freed. In sum, this paper connects Hadestown and healing, linking the personal with the professional, weaving parenting into a vocation of partnering in postcolonializing.

This study examined the effectiveness of a spiritual/religious intervention on religious coping and eudaimonic psychological well-being in breast cancer survivors. A quasi-experimental design with pre- and post-tests and a control group was used to study 60 Iranian breast cancer patients. The 14-item Brief RCOPE and the Ryff’s 6-Dimensional Psychological Well-Being Scales were administered at baseline and follow-up. An analysis of covariance revealed that spiritual/religious intervention was effective in increasing positive religious coping and reducing negative religious coping but not in increasing psychological well-being. Implications of the findings for the healthcare of women with breast cancer are discussed.

In this article, I discuss Edvard Munch’s iconic artwork, The Scream, as a contemplation on the voicelessness of intense suffering and the power of lament. I first recall a clinical case in the hospital setting where a patient was lamenting but lacked compassionate witnesses to understand her lament. I then discuss Munch’s iterative process for creating The Scream and explore questions that this masterpiece evokes. Painted in 1893, the work resonates with its viewers, powerfully representing human anguish, anxiety, and existential dread. I review Munch’s biography and upbringing, suggesting that Munch’s painting is his own attempt at having the viewer witness his own lament—a witness he did not have in his childhood. After reflecting on The Scream and Munch’s upbringing, I discuss theologian John Swinton’s work on lament. He asserts that lament is a faithful response to suffering and can restore the sufferer’s faith and relationship with God. I assert that a similar framework, such as asking patients to speak their own illness narrative, should be further explored as an important part of modern holistic medical care.

With ever-increasing demands placed upon active priests in the United States, insight into protecting their mental health may help strengthen vocational resilience for individual priests. The purpose of this study was to examine the association of individual variables, workplace characteristics, and physical activity participation with occupational distress levels among Catholic priests. A 22-question survey consisting of a demographic questionnaire, the Clergy Occupational Distress Index, and the International Physical Activity Questionnaire was employed to collect individual variables, workplace characteristics, physical activity participation, and occupational distress levels of Catholic priests from the Eastern seaboard of the United States. Regression analyses showed that the number of years ordained (β = −.24, p < .01) and number of priests residing together (β = −.11, p = .05) were negatively associated with occupational distress levels. Collectively, these demographic, workplace, and physical activity variables accounted for about 10% of the variances in priest participant occupational distress scores. Findings suggest that novice priests may be more susceptible to occupational distress than veteran priests and that those living in multi-priest households tend to show lower levels of occupational distress. (Arch)dioceses may find the results of the current study useful for planning housing situations for priests or to better help novice priests meet the demands of their vocation.