The Humanistic Approach to Chaplaincy

One aspect that has really caught my attention during the last six months is a concept that has been popularized by Henri Nouwen. The wounded healer is the affirmation that all humans are wounded yet we find healing through the same wounds that make us vulnerable with each other. Henri Nouwen sums up the role of the priest, pastor, imam, rabbi, pendant etc. beautifully connecting the role to the wounded healer:

The Christian leader, minister or priest, is not one who reveals God to the people-who gives something to those who have nothing-but one who helps those who are searching to discover reality as the source of their existence. In this sense we can say that the Christian leader leads humans to confession, in the classic sense of the word: to the basic affirmation that humans are human and God is God, and that without God, humans cannot be called human. The Wounded Healer, Page 43.

The Humanistic approach to providing care was made popular following World War 2 by Carl Rogers. Carl Rogers was an influential American psychologist and was one of the main founders of the humanistic approach (client-centered care) in the medical field. This approach seeks to understand human personalities and human relationships in order to provide counseling, psychotherapy and education to all. Rogers was found to be the 6th most eminent psychologist of the 20th century and second, among clinicians, only to Sigmund Freud. The overall understanding of the humanistic approach can be summed up in the following manner: 

"Before every session, I take a moment to remember my humanity, there is no experience that this man or women has that I cannot share with them, no fear that I cannot understand, no suffering that I cannot care about, because I too am human. No matter how deep there wound, they do not need to be ashamed in front of me. I too am vulnerable. And because of this, I am enough. Whatever their story, they no longer need to be alone with it. This is what will allow there healing to begin". Carl Rogers. 

The broken human being is the paradigm into which healing can begin. If the chaplain or any medical care provider begins to understand their own brokenness and see that it can be used as a way to heal others then this is the starting point in which everyone can be restored in that image and likeness that God intended us to be fashioned in. One aspect of the humanistic approach deals with the development of personality. The last step to be achieved in the personality development is the "rich and full life". Carl Rogers summarizes this in the following way:  

"This process of the good life is not, I am convinced, a life for the faint-hearted. It involves the stretching and growing of becoming more and more of one's potentialities. It involves the courage to be. It means launching oneself fully into the stream of life". Carl Rogers, 1961.

Becoming a human being is a process that consists of struggles and pains. The humanistic approach speaks to this struggle and challenges us to open ourselves and become vulnerable so that we can seek healing from those who are integrated in our lives. If we cannot open up as human beings then we cannot begin to understand the struggles and the pains that our patients and loved ones go through. Becoming human involves the process of being, living and opening up ourselves to pain and sorrow. Once we open ourselves we can start to heal and become healers for everyone.  

Spiritual and Religious Care: The Role of the Chaplain

“Compassion is not a relationship between the healer and the wounded. It's a relationship between equals. Only when we know our own darkness well can we be present with the darkness of others. Compassion becomes real when we recognize our shared humanity.” Pema Chodron

This post has been long overdue. It sadness me when people approach me and tell me that I should give up my profession as a chaplain and pursue teaching instead. This shows me how uninformed people are about chaplaincy and what it is that a chaplain does within the medical system. I hope to use this post to dispel any of those misconceptions people might have and I hope if anyone has any questions to ask because no question is ever a bad one.

Chaplains usually belong to a team (department) called spiritual and religious care. We are an integral part of the healthcare team, providing spiritual care to patients, families, and staff of all faith backgrounds 24/7, throughout the hospital. The role of the chaplain is to relate to patients, family, staff or other partners-in-care, as a whole person (seeking to reach the individual from a holistic perspective), with a particular focus on the spiritual or religious needs. Spiritual care affirms the inherent dignity and value of all persons, and respects different spiritual perspectives and practices-which may, or may not be rooted in a religious tradition. A wildly misunderstood point is that we only care for those who have a particular faith which is simply not true. We provide to care to all even those who express that they are an atheist or agnostic or pagan.

Spiritual care professionals (or chaplains) are first and foremost healthcare providers. We are part of the healthcare team and are no different from doctors, nurses, social workers or any other allied health profession involved with the care of the patient. So the next natural question people ask is what do you do? What do you say or give a patient?

Some of the "things" chaplains do, and I will provide some points as to what we do or what we can offer for the care of the patient, family or staff. We help people to rediscover meaning and significance in times of illness, crisis, and loss. We provide mindful and heart-felt listening. We help by assisting in identify and access inner resources for coping. We help by providing end-of-life bereavement support. We help by providing the space and time for mediation support in situations of conflict. We help by facilitating connections between patients, families or staff and spiritual leaders from diverse religious communities. We help by leading and facilitating ceremonies, rites of passage, religious rituals, meditation and prayer catering to the specific religious or faith tradition the patient belongs to. The list can go on but what is important in all of this is the attention to the human being at a time when he or she might think all hope is lost. We provide that support for the patient and family during difficult times.

Now I will mention a few points on what I AM NOT! I am not an ordained priest. Chaplains do not have to be ordained in order to be a chaplain. This is a misconception that sometimes I see from the medical team when they make a joke about me not having a white collar or white hair. Anyone with the training and passion for caring for patients can be a chaplain. Many times I get people telling me that "I am too young and wasting my life in this line of work". That is simply not true at all. You can be ordained and be a chaplain but it is not a requirement. If anyone is contemplating chaplaincy you can be reassured you do not have to be ordained in any way shape or form. Being an ordained minister is one type of ministry and chaplaincy is another form of ministry.

Lastly, why does it matter? It matters for many reasons. Firstly, staff feels directly and indirectly supported by the presences of a chaplain on the unit which helps reduce compassion fatigue. Spiritual care enhances patient connection with community support. Studies have shown that spiritual well-being is linked to their overall quality of life. Spiritual care can support increased health and shorten recovery periods. Religion and spirituality of any kind are often cited as major sources of support and coping. Also, many patients in acute care want to receive spiritual care and support from the little as listening to patients to providing prayer support to making a referral for a patient who needs access to community resources (IE. clergy to take confessions or give communion). These sample reasons and much more is why chaplains are needed in the medical system for the care of the patient, family members, and staff members. I hope this has helped clear the air to all my friends who have asked me about chaplaincy and the type of "things" we do for patients. If you want more information or have any questions feel free to ask! I leave you with this video when I was a student at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre:

Being the Wounded Healer

Within the last 5 months I've had many people ask me, "Bavly what exactly do you do at a Hospital and what is a Chaplain"? It is a loaded question and I don't think there is a direct answer. Depending on who asks I give an answer based on the person standing in front of me. But for everyone who does ask I always say, "I am a wounded healer providing spiritual care to those who are also wounded".

In my "profession" we must recognize that we are broken humans seeking to help others on their journey of healing which begins in suffering. Each person is different and each patient has a story. My starting point is diving into that story to see how the experiences of that person have shaped there understandings and realities around them. It's not easy talking to people and it's not easy when we have to deal with heavy things that come our way. Chaplains deal with a lot of human suffering and we must accept our suffering and the suffering of other humans as the starting point to wholeness and healing. In his classic work, "The Wounded Healer", Fr. Henri Nouwen says that we must make the individual realize that they are first and foremost a human being who is loved:

The Christian leader, minister or priest, is not one who reveals God to the people-who gives something to those who have nothing-but one who helps those who are searching to discover reality as the source of their existence. In this sense we can say that the Christian leader leads humans to confession, in the classic sense of the word: to the basic affirmation that humans are human and God is God, and that without God, humans cannot be called human. The Wounded Healer, Page 43.  

In finding our humanity in others we begin to see God in all. When an atheist asks me how do I understand death, or when a patient asks if dying because I am in pain is a sin, or when a patient is refusing medical care because they are DNR, I do not look just at the surface "issue", but I dig deeper and ask why are you afraid of death? Why do you think it's a sin? And why did you choose to have a DNR? Being a Chaplain can take on many roles and we have to embrace that as we offer spiritual care. Sometimes we do not have to talk at all, other times we are a 3rd party providing help to the extended family and sometimes we are the only ones at the bedside of a patient because they have no family and no one to be with them. What matters the most, and this is echoing the thoughts of Fr. Henri Nouwen, no matter what happens there is someone out there who loves you not because of who you are and what you accomplished but because you are a human being created in the image and likeness of your creator! 

"So what do I do at the hospital"? I still do not know how to answer such a question. However, my starting point rests in seeing the human being who is love and wants to be loved. If the message of the gospel is not about love we have forgotten how to be a human being. We have forgotten how to see our brothers and sisters as human beings. If the person in front of us becomes nothing more than a "person I must physically cure of his or her sickness" then our system has collapsed and we have forgotten how to look at each other as a human being. Being in that room and in the presence of the human is what I do at the hospital! Being a wounded human being approaching the bedside is my starting point. Shaping my beliefs on seeing the human being first is what I am slowly starting to understand being a chaplain in the hospital.