Page 205 - Creating Spiritual and Psychological Resilience

174 Creating Spiritual and Psychological Resilence

interest in understanding local religious and spiritual beliefs and poten-
tial cooperation with the local way of working. Emergencies should never
be used to promote outsiders’ religious or spiritual beliefs.” Thus, spiritual
care practitioners have an opportunity to build institutional trust and
integrity with heterodox and religiously other communities by checking
any quid pro quo interaction that could come off as “relief in exchange for
conversion.”
6. In the Indian case of conducting PFA groups out in the open, the physi-
cal boundaries of the group should have been enforced in order to pre-
vent adverse exposure of unwitting listeners (cf. CISD articles by Gist &
Devilly, 2002; Rose et al., 2006; van Emmerik et al., 2002).

In the midst of multiple lists of multiple recommendations here, it is
crucial to remember that our goal is empowering individuals for a sense
of control over their lives and fostering resiliency, which includes help-
ing individuals to enhance functioning and helping communities to iden-
tify and mobilize their natural resources (Hobfoll et al., 2007; Norris &
Alegría, 2006; Solomon, 2003).
Academic and fieldwork support for IPR approaches as outlined above
are increasing. Examples include Transcultural Psychosocial Organization’s
methodology described by Eisenbruch, de Jong, and van de Put (2004, p.
124) integrating “as far as possible traditional, local, and Western healing
methods.” Compared to medically oriented programs, open-minded spiri-
tual care programs may have more liberty or comfort or more access in
applying ethnomedical techniques, such as breathing relaxation, spiritual
formulae, or “self-dialogue through the repetition of a word or verse” (de
Jong, 2002, p. 79). In one of the most authoritative reviews of what empiri-
cally helps in mass trauma, Hobfoll et al. (2007, p. 290) cited multiple arti-
cles in the literature giving support to diverse ethnomedical techniques,
for example: “Yoga also calms individuals and lowers their anxiety when
facing traumatic circumstances, while muscle relaxation and mindful-
ness treatments that help people gain control over their anxiety are being
applied that draw from Asian culture and meditation.”

Conclusion

Two questions came at the beginning of this chapter. First of all, how can
spiritual care be appropriately and safely integrated into psychosocial