1 / 35

Contemplative Spiritual Care

Contemplative Spiritual Care Verbatim. I receive a referral to attend a pt. whom the physician believes to me somatizing. He is at his wits end. I make my way to the pt's room in

neena
Download Presentation

Contemplative Spiritual Care

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

    1. Contemplative Spiritual Care Verbatim Caring for Danielle

    2. Contemplative Spiritual Care Verbatim I receive a referral to attend a pt. whom the physician believes to me somatizing. He is at his wits end. I make my way to the pt’s room in “fear and trembling” as I do not know how I may be able to help her, if at all. I say a prayer to the Spirit before knocking on her door.

    3. C1: Hello Danielle. P1: (She looks at me with eyes wide with panic. Her breathing is rapid; she has the aid of oxygen….The conversation is to the point). C2: Danielle, I’m not sure if I can help you but I know that sometimes if we go into our fear – there is a light in the darkness.

    4. P2: (She nods her head) C3: Okay… I’m going to ask you questions and you can simply answer what ever comes into your mind P3 (She agrees). C4: Before we start, I think it a good idea if we pray to the Spirit to guide us, (pt. is okay with this and a brief prayer follows. I am aware of the risk of faith; a sense of self abandonment).

    5. C5: I begin to ask rapid questions (focusing on the immediacy of patient’s experience). P5: (The pt’s responses encompass the following: P6: …I am afraid to go to sleep P7: …I may not wake up P8:… I may die

    6. C8: (We continue to talk but it is as if this conversation recedes into the background. I become aware of an image arising out the immediacy of my embodied sensation): Danielle, as you are talking, an image of the crossroads has arisen for me; it is as if all your energy is being pulled in the one direction to let go and yet it is as if all of your energy is being pulled in the other direction to remain.

    7. P9: Yes, I’m at the Crossroads! I’m at the Cross roads! (Her eyes are wide with comprehension) Can you tell my husband for me? C9: Of course, (thinking it odd that she would wish me to do this for her. Her spouse and her were childhood sweethearts and enjoyed a strong marriage with good communication skills).

    8. C1: (I met with the spouse, Joseph, in my office one evening. I was aware of my own psychic tiredness that day. I shared with him what had happened with Danielle and that she was at the Crossroads). S1: What do I need to be for her? I have been strong, like a rock…she wanted this from me. What do I do?

    9. C2: (I remember talking and suddenly this inspiration inserted itself in the conversation): Be for her whatever she needs you to be for her. S2: (He repeated), be for her whatever she needs me to be for her.

    10. Upon returning to the unit a few days later I found that the pt. was close to death; her physician and the nursing staff were surprised that she had declined so rapidly. It was as if she had surrendered her will.

    11. I entered her room and all was peaceful inside. Her spouse was seated by her bed. The patient was non-responsive. S3: Hello Zinia. (The spouse appeared peaceful). He then began to share with me the continuation of the process began during the spiritual care encounters):

    12. She asked me, “Did Zinia speak with you?” I told her, yes, that you did. She asked me what did you tell me? I told her that you said she was at the crossroads and she agreed that she was. And then I told her, “I can be for you, Danielle, whatever you need me to be for you.” And then she looked at me and asked, “Can you let me go, please?”

    13. Contemplative Spiritual Care

    14. As Companions to the Dying We also engage Impasse We too can embrace contemplative spiritual postures in the Movement toward Transcendence We also may be gifted with the Experience of Transcendence & Insight in the Experience of Transcendence in service to the patient’s need.

    15. Encountering Impasse I receive a referral to attend a pt. whom the physician believes to me somatizing. He is at his wits end. I do not know how I may be able to help her, if at all.

    16. Encountering Impasse The mind, while full on one level of a lifetime of knowledge, is in total darkness on another, the level of meaning. Fitzgerald, 1986b, p.445.

    17. Movement Toward Transcendence: Kenosis Choosing to empty out Zen Story of the Cup

    18. Movement Toward Transcendence: Kenosis In order to arrive at knowing everything, Desire to know nothing. St. John of the Cross, Ascent of Mount Carmel

    19. Movement Toward Transcendence: Kenosis [Kenosis is]...to empty ourselves…of those convictions and prejudices, hopes and distractions, which usually accompany us and can short-circuit the reflective process. [It means] suspending interpretation and judgment until we have thoroughly heard. Whitehead and Whitehead Method in Ministry 73.

    20. Movement Toward Transcendence: Kenosis Kenosis is a meditative discipline that allows one to attend to the inner movements in oneself and to lay aside what distracts from receptivity of other/Other

    21. Movement Toward Transcendence: Kenosis To adopt a standpoint of Exploration or quest Hoping that one will be able to relate to Reality, as it really is. Killen & DeBeer, The Art of Theological Reflection, 4-11

    22. Movement Toward Transcendence …one must learn to act by not acting and to know by not knowing: to have one desire alone which is not really a desire but a kind of desirelessness, an openness, a habitual freedom in the sense of self-abandonment, a realization that all God asks is ‘that you turn your attention to Him, and then let Him alone.’ Mystics and Zen Masters,138.

    23. Movement Toward Transcendence I say a prayer to the Spirit before knocking on her door… C4: Before we start, I think it a good idea if we pray to the Spirit to guide us, (pt. is okay with this and a brief prayer follows. I am aware of the risk of faith; a sense of self abandonment).

    24. Movement Toward Transcendence Faith To chose to move into the Mystery which is unimaginable, incomprehensible and uncontrollable

    25. Movement Toward Transcendence Hope forfeiting the struggle to press meaning out of loss, becomes a free, trustful commitment to the impossible

    26. Movement Toward Transcendence: Love Our abandonment to [Transcendence] must be to the point of complete detachment from all desire to give [patients] any particular directive or insight as well as from any desire for immediate and tangible solutions to difficulties… Nemeck & Coombs, 86

    27. Movement Toward Transcendence: Love Love prevents us from forcing the loved one into the constraints of our needs …. It continues to serve others, [without the satisfaction or gratification of having helped, resolved, changed, made a difference, fixed]. Constance Fitzgerald

    28. Experience of Transcendence C8: (We continue to talk but it is as if this conversation recedes into the background. I become aware of an image arising out the immediacy of my embodied sensation): Danielle, as you are talking, an image of the crossroads has arisen for me

    29. Experience of Transcendence We read (Lectio) Under the eye of God (Meditatio) Until the heart is touched (Oratio) And leaps to flame (Contemplatio) Thelma Hall, Too Deep for Words, 44.

    30. Experience of Transcendence Said a traveler to one of his disciples, “I have traveled a great distance to listen to the Master, but I find his words quite ordinary.” “Don’t listen to his words. Listen to his message.” “How does one do that?” “Take hold of a sentence that he says. Shake it well till all the words drop off. What is left will set your heart on fire.” Anthony de Mello. Meaning.

    31. The Gift of Insight in the Experience of Transcendence C2: I remember talking and suddenly this inspiration inserted itself in the conversation: Be for her whatever she needs you to be for her.

    32. The Gift of Insight in the Experience of Transcendence S3: And then I told her, “I can be for you, Danielle, whatever you need me to be for you.” And then she looked at me and asked, “Can you let me go, please?”

    33. The Gift of Insight in the Experience of Transcendence …the delusion of separation is dispelled; slowly one consciously realizes and enjoys the essential union that has always been present. Gerald May. The Dark Night of the Soul, 74

    34. The Gift of Insight in the Experience of Transcendence Insight/enlightenment] discernment flows out of Loving-Transcendent interchange with us and subtly impresses itself upon our consciousness. It is like opening our eyes, and there it is. We are awakened to it. Nemeck & Coombs, 93.

    35. The Gift of Insight in the Experience of Transcendence The quality of paradox is at the heart of ‘second order change.’ It implies the unexpected, the alternative, the new vision, is not given on demand but is beyond conscious, rational control. Fitzgerald 2.

    36. This material is for educational use in the promotion of professional practice. Please acknowledge authorship Thank you Š Zinia Pritchard 2010

More Related