Chaplaincy Today • Volume 23 Number 2 • Autumn/Winter 2007 Medical practitioners and researchers continue to explore the association between spiritual/religious (SR) concerns and illness and medical care. Koenig et al. summarize over 1600 publications that describe this relationship. In a previous publication, we reported the statistically significant web of associations between the personal/pr...

Background: Infertility is an acute life crisis which may last for an indeterminate length of time. In a holistic approach to infertile women’s care, which is believed to assist patients cope better with their experiences, all aspects of holistic care including religious and spiritual needs of individuals should be considered. A literature review revealed that religious and spiritual dimensions...

This dissertation consists of two articles written to address the context of type 2 diabetes care in African American women. In addition, the proposal and required Institutional Review Board (IRB) documentation are included as Appendices. The first article is a review of the existing literature regarding the psychosocial and spiritual aspects of type 2 diabetes management and outcomes in Africa...

OBJECTIVES The purpose of this study was to use a qualitative approach to better understand the importance and efficacy of addressing spiritual issues within an interdisciplinary bone marrow transplant clinic from the perspectives of patients and healthcare providers. SETTING Participants were recruited from the bone marrow transplant clinic of a large urban outpatient cancer care centre in w...

Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer among women that can causes many psychological problems in patients. The aim of this study was to assess the effectiveness of spiritual cognitive-emotional group therapy in the reduction of psychological problems in female patients suffering breast cancer. In this quasi-experimental study, the pretest-posttest design was used. From the hospitals, ...

Susan, was referred to me by her primary care physician for counseling 30 years after her husband was killed instantaneously in an auto accident. The event was frozen in her mind as if it had just occurred. Susan was experiencing anxiety while driving, which was manifested by gripping the steering wheel so tightly her hand and shoulder muscles hurt, panic attacks, visual images of auto accident...