This study presents an in-depth case study of eight sessions of spiritually integrated psychotherapy with a 20-year-old woman recovering from an Eating Disorder. The inclusion and utility of session-to-session outcome data as well as systematic follow up data in conjunction with in-depth qualitative interviews are shown. The therapist and client's perspectives are highlighted over the course of treatment. Three clinical areas of focus (renewing identity, reducing self-contempt, and fostering hope) are extracted from the qualitative interviews and the therapeutic process of weaving them together is highlighted. The Tau-U and SMA single case study statistical analyses are used to highlight clinical gains and maintenance.

My ongoing series of assemblages are an expression my modern mythology through the juxtaposition of esoteric symbols and my collection of beloved action figures. Though myth is founded in partial truths and allegories, it has the unique capability to speak about our relationships to one another and the universe. My artwork conceives of anime, comics, and videos games as part of our contemporary mythology. Inspired by a fusion of pop culture and spirituality, I also draw on the magical properties attributed to flowers, gemstones and other materials to create shrines, altars, and other objects. Juxtaposing these properties, found in my research of esotericism and mythology, with action figures establishes symbolic connections that act as an interface to the spiritual symbolism explored in each piece. The collision of masking tape, shoe polish, flowers; gemstones and repurposed objects result in re-contextualizations of characters from popular culture. My practice suggests new possibilities for cultural symbolism reflective of my own unique experiences and values and as an active expression of creative freedom in our experiences of the divine. My assemblages re-examine traditional categorizations in art and culture, such as sacred and profane and high and low, while attempting to demystify the veil that separates the experiential from the transcendent.

The purpose of this study is to examine the role of spirituality in the social work practice and social worker’s perspective on it. This project focuses on spirituality in social work and the role that it plays in a social workers practice. The data collected for this research project consists of qualitative data in which the researcher conducted one-on-one interviews of eight different clinical professionals in the social work field. The study employed a purposive sampling by recruiting LCSW’s, MSW’s, ASW’s, and other clinical professionals in the Northern California area. The average years of experience amongst the participants was 19.375 years. Each participant has a broad range of experience from individual clinical one-on-one counseling, working with groups, and supervision.

Spirituality has been associated with wholeness, inner peace, and key elements of well-being or quality of life. Spirituality support is particularly important for patients with chronic illness and patients who view spirituality as a way of coping with suffering. Evidence-based education is lacking in schools of nursing and in places of nursing employment on spirituality interventions that nurses can use to improve patient quality of life. The purpose of this project was to determine whether an educational intervention would increase knowledge of spiritual care in a small sample of clinic nurses (n = 37). This project used Watson's caring theory, which is an explanatory, middle-range theory focused on human caring. Watson's caring theory supports the relationship between spirituality and quality of life in patients with a chronic illness. Staff nurses completed the Spirituality Care Competence Scale as a pretest evaluation of spirituality knowledge. Spirituality training, which included evidence-based handouts, articles, and assessments, was followed by a second completion of the Spirituality Care Competence Scale as a posttest evaluation of the training effectiveness. The pretest to posttest knowledge of spiritual care significantly increased (p < .0001) on the 10 questions as measured by a t test statistic. These findings may contribute to social change by guiding training strategies to meet organizational goals for increased nurses' knowledge of and skills in spiritual care delivery for chronically ill patients. Nurses will have increased competency to provide patients with quality holistic care that includes support of spirituality.

Significant interpersonal offenses have considerable consequences for the victim, and these sequelae can be both negative and positive. Spiritual transformation and forgiveness are two processes that may follow a significant interpersonal offense. Spiritual transformation, which includes both spiritual gain and spiritual decline, is an important experience for many individuals following a highly stressful event. Likewise, forgiveness is one way that individuals may cope with the negative effects of being the victim of an interpersonal offense. Both spiritual transformation and forgiveness are related to physical and mental health. Given the prevalence of interpersonal offenses, the mental health link, and the personal importance of religion and spirituality to many individuals, it is imperative to understand these processes. However, the extant literature offers very little about the relationship between spiritual transformation and forgiveness. The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of forgiveness in experiencing spiritual transformation following significant interpersonal offenses. Participants were 146 individuals that had been "significantly wronged" by another person. Participants provided information on demographic variables, religious and spiritual importance, event-related distress, forgiveness, and spiritual transformation. Descriptive data are presented as well as correlates of spiritual transformation. Results showed that spiritual growth was positively related to religious and spiritual importance but not forgiveness variables. Event-related distress and avoidance, one component of unforgiveness, were positively related to spiritual decline. Regression analyses revealed that forgiveness did not uniquely account for a significant amount of the variance in spiritual growth after controlling for demographic variables, religious and spiritual importance, and event-related distress. Rather, religious and spiritual importance accounted for a significant amount of variance in spiritual growth. Forgiveness uniquely predicted spiritual decline after accounting for demographic variables, religious and spiritual importance, and event-related distress. This study suggests a complex relationship between spiritual transformation and forgiveness. Results are discussed within the context of implications for clinicians and researchers alike.

This study arose out of a search for a suitable scale to measure religion and spirituality. The literature suggests that religion and spirituality are potentially powerful explanatory variables in health and social research, but there do not appear to be any instruments that are generally accepted as measures of an individual's religious or spiritual characteristics. While a lack of consensus in such a complex area is probably to be expected, it is the lack of accepted measures or instruments that drives this study. The literature review describes the historical influence of religion on public health practices, and the most recently reported associations between religion and both physical and mental health. This establishes religion as a potentially useful construct to include in any health study. However, the reported association between religion and health is often unclear, and the measures used differ widely between studies. This study goes beyond the health context and explores the reasons why existing methods have not resulted in broadly accepted measures of religion and spirituality.

Spirit of Learning in a general sense is an exploration of the inextricable link between learning, individual personal development and potential. This thesis emphasises the personal/spiritual development of the educator, including the author, within an enhanced, holistic learning context, which is called 'integrated accelerative learning'. The inquiry examines the way individual educators and 'life-long learners' develop their inner selves, by exploring some of their relevant attitudes, values and significant life experiences. The accelerative learning approach is based on a philosophy which includes an expanded view and maximisation of human potential. It incorporates the knowledge of individual learning styles, 'multiple intelligences' and emphasises the development of effective life-long learning strategies. Throughout the thesis the use of the term 'spiritual development' is intended to be interchangeable with 'personal development' and is based on the author's view that the essential self is a spiritual being.An 'educator of integrated acclerative learning'is described as one who is aware of, and to some degree, consciously utilises elements of the paraconscious (beyond the usual conscious level), in order to enhance the teaching/learning process and promote personal development within the learner. The author's thesis is that educators need to examine the essence of themselves behind innovative methods used. The belief is that there is a need to nourish, sustain and grow in accordance with the positive and transformative nature of the philosophy espoused and the methods used. Within the area of personal/spiritual development, many themes have emerged, including the changing role and attitudes of the educator from teacher to facilitator. The theme of integration is a particularly strong one and includes the concept of congruency, encouraging the development of all aspects of ourselves and integrating one's personal and professional lives. In general,the writer has discovered that most of the smaller themes can be identified under three major umbrella themes. These are integration, awareness and human potential, the development and expansion of which can be seen as promoting a sense of interconnectedness and the development of spirituality in general / Masters Thesis

This thesis focuses on the conceptualisation and expression of spiritual intelligence among ?traditional? Christians, and pursuers of New Age and popular individualistic spirituality. A secondary focus is the association between these and subjective well-being. A series of four studies - three quantitative and one qualitative -were conducted, and three new instruments were developed: the Spiritual and Religious Dimensions Scale (a measure of spiritual orientation), the Spiritual Intelligence Scale, and the Personal Well-being Index. Using these instruments and semi-structured interview questions, the identification of unique patterns in the conceptualisation and expression of religion/spirituality and spiritual intelligence by traditional Christians and followers of New Age/individualistic spirituality was made possible. Different patterns of association with various aspects of well-being among the two forms of spiritual intelligence were also identified. / thesis (PhD)--University of South Australia, 2004.

This research is a story about the author’s Murri family. It is about rebirthing the author’s identity, history and culture, and concerns the history and consequences that colonisation has rendered on her family. The story divulges the secrets and problems from the past that continue to affect the author and her family today. Aboriginal history concerns each and every person in Australia. Non-indigenous people need to understand that Aborigines’ spirits belong to this land, that they are a part of it. They need to understand what colonisation has done to Aboriginal families. It is only through understanding and accepting the history of what has happened to thousands of Murri families that their identities and place within their environment can become reality in the minds of non-Aboriginal people. Because a written discourse is alien to the Aboriginal culture and to the author’s psyche, she has rebirthed her family’s stories in both visual and oral language, and combined this with the written. The author’s art is a healing vehicle through which she and her family reconnect with their culture. It is connected with the author’s identity, her heritage. She has created images/objects that reflect what she has discovered of herself and her family. Her creations are imbued with all that is natural, her palette is the land and its produce, thus reconnecting herself with her heritage, the land – mother earth. / Master of Science (Hons) Social Ecology

In my thesis I argue that the return of the religious in contemporary culture has been in two forms the rise of so-called fundamentalisms in the established faiths-Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, even Buddhist-and the rise of a New Age style spirituality that draws from aspects of those faiths even as it produces something distinctively different. I argue that this shift both produces post-modern media culture, and is itself always-already mediated through the realm of the fictional. Secular and profane are always entangled within one another, a constant and pervasive media presence that modulates the way that contemporary subjects experience themselves and their relationship to the spiritual. I use popular culture as an entry point, an entry point that can presume neither belief nor unbelief in its audiences, showing that it is “unreal” texts such as Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, The Matrix and so on that we find religious symbols and ideas refracted through a postmodernist sensibility, with little regard for the demands of “real world” epistemology. I argue that it is in this interplay between traditional religions and New Age-ised spirituality in popular culture that the sacred truly finds itself in postmodernity.