Page 120 - Creating Spiritual and Psychological Resilience

The Psychospiritual Impact of Disaster 89

Building Constructive Social Support

Mental health professionals and clergy can provide opportunities for spir-
itual support through both formal group counseling and group activities
that provide fertile ground for social support. Mental health professionals
providing crisis counseling should listen to concerns about the spiritual
meanings of the disaster and make appropriate referrals to clergy or chap-
laincy as needed. Clergy can be trained to collaborate with mental health
professionals to address negative religious coping and religious strain.
It is important to restore opportunities for the community of faith to
assemble to begin seeking spiritual meaning in the disaster. This may
require finding alternative sites for worship. Clergy can assist the com-
munity of faith in emerging from disaster by maintaining an intact rela-
tionship with the Deity through worship services, public memorials, and
prayer groups. Clergy can model healthy approaches to using prayer to ask
for assistance with the work before the community and for acceptance of
the responsibility to recover and the changes this demands in the commu-
nity of faith. Clergy and mental health professionals may choose to collabo-
rate in leading small groups to allow members of the community to provide
spiritual support to one another and to actively engage in prayer coping.
In communities stressed by disaster, there is an abundance of increased
interpersonal conflict. Survivors of disaster may need assistance with the
process of forgiveness, including forgiving the Deity or others involved in
the disaster (including government and nongovernment organizations),
forgiving themselves for failing to live up to their own expectations, and
forgiving one another as conflicts arise. Individuals may need help in
accepting their limitations as well as others’ limitations.
Many spiritually committed individuals see practicing forgiveness as a
serious injunction and manifestation of their faith. It is not unusual to find
individuals who become distressed about their inability to forgive auto-
matically. When clergy and mental health professionals define forgiveness
as a process, rather than an event, the experience of negative emotions
is no longer a reason for self-condemnation. The book Don’t Forgive Too
Soon (Linn, Linn, Linn, 1997) may be a useful resource for individuals
who become distressed about their ability to forgive the Deity, the situ-
ation, others, or themselves in the wake of disaster. It may be reassuring
to these believers that anger and distress are normal, that they will not
resolve without time and effort, and that forgiveness can be defined as
maintaining honorable behavior rather than as resolution of distress.