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Heart and soul: providing spiritual care in family medicine

Frederic Craigie

Abstract


The framework of “spirituality” and spiritual care offers a practical way of embodying many of the values of person-centered medicine. Spiritual care involves a personal arena that focuses on the groundedness, healing intention and presence of clinicians, a clinical arena that focuses on helping patients to cultivate connections with that which is “vital and sacred” in their lives and an organizational arena that focuses on mission, community and leadership qualities of organizational culture and “soul.” The complementary processes of transcendence (letting go of uncontrollable life experiences) and purpose (living in faithfulness to personal values) together create a context for people’s wellness, growth and healing. Healthcare clinicians can introduce some of these ideas and begin some of these conversations with patients, working in collaboration with specialist spiritual and behavioral health caregivers to carry forward this work in greater depth.

Keywords


Medicine, primary care, purpose, spirituality, transcendence

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References


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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5750/ejpch.v2i2.720

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