What Do I Say?: Talking with Patients about Spirituality

by Elizabeth Johnston-Taylor

Health care professionals, clergy, chaplains, social workers, and others who counsel people in medical crisis often find themselves faced with deeply painful Why is this happening to me? Am I dying? Why should I live? I'm just a burden to others.Here is a workbook that suggests healing verbal responses to such expressions of spiritual pain. The author, an internationally recognized expert in spiritual caregiving, points out that wanting to help is one motivation for learning these skills, but there are also evidence-based helping patients express their innermost feelings promotes spiritual healing; spiritual health is related to physical and emotional health; spiritual coping helps patients accept and deal with their illness; and patients tend to want their health care professionals to know about their spirituality.Lessons, tips, and exercises teach how to listen effectively, with guidelines for detecting and understanding the spiritual needs embedded in patients' conversations. Suggestions are provided for verbal responses to patients who express spiritual distress, including tips for building rapport, using self-disclosure, and praying with patients. A FAQ section deals with frequently asked questions and miscellaneous information, such •What do I do when a patient talks on and on and I have to leave?•How do I answer a "why" question?•What do I say to a patient who believes a miracle will happen to cure them?•What if I'm not religious? How can I talk about it?By practicing and using these healing techniques, Taylor explains, healthcare professionals will be able to provide patients responses to their questions that allow them to become intellectually, emotionally, and physically aware of their spirituality so they can experience life more fully.

167 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 1, 2007

Reviews

[Luke Hillier · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was the first assigned text in my CPE unit, essentially functioning as an introductory primer on pastoral care in a medical setting. Interestingly, the book is written to health care professionals rather than chaplains, and the latter only receive fleeting mention. Still, I think it offers a helpful distillation of general caring principles and a summary of the concept of being a "wounded healer." The emphasis on listening and resisting our impulses to fix, save, advise, or change course are key. I was especially challenged by her acknowledgement that constant questions, even open-ended ones, function as a way of maintaining control of the conversation and cutting off the other's agency and self-realization. As someone who instinctively relies heavily on questions in my intuitive caring, this was a helpful corrective. I did find the macro-skills to be somewhat contradictory to the micro-skills, especially the ones that are more authoritative. There was a bit of whiplash focusing so much on prioritizing receptivity and neutrality only to get to that chapter's encouragements around practices like actively reframing for patients. But overall, definitely a helpful tool and one that offers some valuable tools to build off of.

[Ari · Rating 3 out of 5]

CPE reading: Chaplains are incorrect audience. This book is written for nurses, doctors, and other health care professionals who may come into contact with spiritual questions from patients. Book is important for the intended audience, but very superficial for Chaplain interns. Chaplains: recommend it to co-workers and medical team, then read something else for your own knowledge.

[Rick Lee Lee James · Rating 5 out of 5]

practical practice

Health care providers and pastors will benefit greatly from this book. It is unethical to force one’s beliefs on another person but this book provides a number of practices to help chaplains and HCPs know how to be present for a patient in assessing their spiritual pain. Powerful insights and practices.

[Tiffany Sartain · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book offers little good advice, with lots of pat answers and ill-advised responses to the suffering of others. We used it as a text for my CPE (Clinical Pastoral Education) program and it was laughable. Please do not respond to someone who has recently lost his or her sight by saying "At least your other sense will be sharpened," as this book recommends. Sadly, that typifies the advice in this book.