The aim of this qualitative research project was to investigate the phenomenon of spirituality within occupation as encountered by six people who have all experienced mental illness. A Heideggerian phenomenological philosophy was utilised as the theoretical background. Data were gathered through in-depth interviews with each participant, which were transcribed verbatim. Data were analysed using a hermeneutic, circular process. Eight themes arose from the investigation. Firstly, the experience of spirituality is diverse and each person has his or her idiosyncratic understanding of what spirituality is. Secondly, spirituality is experienced as a journey that changes across time. The third theme notes that spirituality is vitally important to the study participants, so much so, that participants??? spirituality saved them from suicide and filled their lives with meaning and purpose. The fourth theme is recognition that there are ???spiritual occupations??? that are designed to directly access one???s spirituality. Fifth is that spirituality is a form of being which provides the meaning to purposeful doing and that therefore spirituality can make even ???ordinary??? occupation spiritually meaningful. Theme six is that spirituality is not only important on an individual level, but that social and community dimensions of spirituality are also essential. Theme seven finds that mental illness provided the ???wake-up message??? that ???called??? each participant to a spiritual life. The final theme is that spirituality helps the participants cope with living with mental illness. The thesis concludes that spirituality is an indispensable part of each participant???s life. Spirituality has both irrevocably changed participants??? lives and allowed them find personal meaning in their lives that is life-sustaining and life-enhancing. The findings also reveal that spirituality can be related to occupation both theoretically and practically. Given that spirituality was found to be life-saving and life-sustaining and that it can be conceptualised as an essential dimension of occupation, it is argued that spirituality is an issue of high importance to occupational therapists. However, since some occupational therapists may not feel comfortable or knowledgeable enough to discuss spirituality in practice (Collins, Paul and West-Frasier 2001; McColl 2000) it is noted that this topic area forms an emergent frontier for occupational therapy. As a pioneer area of practice, further research and investigation into this fascinating and mysterious realm is recommended. / thesis (MApSc(OccupationalTherapy))--University of South Australia, 2003.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/284164 |
| Date | January 2003 |
| Creators | Wilding, Clare |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | en-aus |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | copyright under review |
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