Loyola Chicago trains spiritually sensitive helpers - spirituality in Social Work and Nursing

National Catholic Reporter, Sept 28, 2001 by Rich Heffern

Schools of social work and nursing prepare students to handle spiritual crises

The sacred and the secular were once entirely separate dimensions. A Catholic education traditionally prepared a student to live and flourish in both realms. Yet the course work preparing one for a career in the world was clearly separated in time and space from the daily Mass attendance, devotions or retreats that nourished the spirit.

Lately, however, these divisions have tumbled as dramatically as the Berlin Wall.

In institutions of higher education around the country, religious studies and spirituality in particular are beginning to be interwoven into course work, especially in programs preparing students for the helping professions. Whether it's medicine, nursing, social work or psychology, practitioners out in the trenches notice that the people they reach out to have lives that are deeply intertwined with religion and matters of the spirit. They report that the professional must be prepared to deal with these matters in the people they serve. Also, many notice that their own spiritual development is becoming increasingly important to them, as they encounter challenges and recognize growth in both their work and personal lives.

This message is not lost on the colleges and universities that train those professionals.

At Loyola University in Chicago, training in spirituality and religious studies and personal formation in spirituality have been introduced into the coursework in both the undergraduate and graduate curriculum, in the School of Social Work and in the Neihoff School of Nursing.

A sense of enthusiasm derived from standing on the edge of new horizons pervades these efforts at Loyola.

Spirituality's role

The popular image of a social worker features a professional trained to help his or her clients in the midst of a crisis meet their material and emotional needs. A terminal cancer patient is connected with a hospice. A recently unemployed single mother is directed to agencies that can help her keep food on the table. A young man newly diagnosed with schizophrenia is set up to be monitored for medicine compliance. These situations, frequently encountered in social work, are not only crises of need but usually also a crisis of spirit. One's sense of meaning, of whom one is, of what life is about, are all shaken to the core. The social worker traditionally has not been well prepared to offer help here.

A recent trend in the education of social workers, however, is reversing this, and Catholic schools, such as Loyola University in Chicago, are in the forefront. This trend recognizes that spirituality and religious concerns are inherent in the human condition, so, in whatever setting a social worker is working, these issues will be relevant.

"In social work today we are the great significance of religion and spirituality in people's lives, and, as a school that trains these social workers, we are responding," Jack Wall, associate dean of the School of Social Work at Loyola, told NCR. "Research, too, has been showing how much religion and spirituality correlate with physical and emotional health. Of course, religion can also be a hindrance in people's lives, and we are preparing our students for that as well."

"Social work's cardinal rule is, 'Start where the clients are.' For some clients, religion and spirituality of various kinds are central, for others very peripheral," said Wall. "The bottom line though is that social workers need to be prepared to deal with these concerns in interactions with their clients."

The School of Social Work at Loyola has added a new graduate course, "The Role of Religion and Spirituality in Psychotherapy." Also included in the curriculum is one called "Narrative: Social Justice and Social Work," which focuses on the Jesuit tradition of vocation and social justice as part of service to others.

At Loyola, not only are the social work students trained to deal with clients' spiritual needs, they are immersed in their own spiritual search as well, according to Wall. "Social workers can't be very effective in helping their clients deal with issues of spirituality unless they themselves come to grips with and understand their own spiritual journey," he said.

The department has created opportunities for faculty, students and staff to participate in the Ignatian spiritual exercises, an intensive spiritual experience developed by the founder of the Jesuit order, Ignatius of Loyola, over 400 years ago to assist people in getting in touch with their own spirituality and with the presence of God in their lives. Faculty, staff and students participate together in these exercises. Following this experience, held for the first time last spring at Loyola, two focus groups were conducted to assess the impact of these exercises on individuals' social work practice and teaching. Two faculty members who participated in the exercises reported on the results of this experience at a national social work education conference in Dallas in the spring of 2000.