Spirituality and Social Care

by Mary Nash

This comprehensive and much-needed resource is for professionals and students in social care, who are required to engage with the spiritual dimension of their therapeutic work with clients. The authors, who include social workers, mental health professionals, religious professionals and academics, show how they have developed ways of applying their own and their clients' spirituality in their practice. They describe their work in an international range of human service contexts * working with grief and loss * community development work * working across cultures * social justice work * social work teaching and learning. The client groups they cover include children, older people, individuals with learning disabilities, and ethnic minority and indigenous groups. Drawing on theological and philosophical ideas from different cultures, this much-needed resource gives guidance on and examples of practice that together enable the reader to explore and develop the role of spiritual awareness in their work. It is an essential resource for all those training or practising in social work, mental health, pastoral care and counselling.

256 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2002

About the author

Mary Josephine Nash Baldwin (born 1947) is an Irish historian living in Barcelona, Catalonia (Spain). She has specialized in the study of the history of women and feminism in Spain.

In 1967, she graduated from the National University of Ireland, and in 1975 she obtained a licentiate in philosophy and letters at the University of Barcelona. She received her doctorate there in 1977 in the specialty of modern history, with the thesis La mujer en las organizaciones políticas de izquierdas en España, 1931–1939. In 1982, she was one of the founders of the Women's Historical Research Center at the University of Barcelona.[3]

In 1984, she won the Emilia Pardo Bazán prize for her work Presencia y protagonismo. Aspectos de la historia de las mujeres. In 1995, the Generalitat de Catalunya awarded her the Creu de Sant Jordi.[4] In 2008 she received the President Macià Working Medal.[5] In 2010 she became a Doctor Honoris Causa at the University of Granada.[6]

She is one of the directors of Arenal, Journal of Women's History [es], has collaborated with UNESCO, and was president of the Spanish Association for Women's History Research (AEIHM) from 1991 to 1997.[7]

She is a Professor of Contemporary History at the University of Barcelona.