Exploring spirituality in feminist practices -emerging

knowledge for social work

Author:
Coholic, Diana
Publication Date:
2001
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https://doi.org/10.26190/unsworks/19988
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EXPLORING SPIRITUALITY IN FEMINIST PRACTICES -
EMERGING KNOWLEDGE FOR SOCIAL WORK

DIANA COHOLIC

A thesis submitted in fulfillment

of the requirements for the Degree of
Doctor of Philosophy

School of Social Work, University of New South Wales

August, 2001
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT xi

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xiii

INTRODUCTION xvi

CHAPTER ONE – SPIRITUALITY AND SOCIAL WORK 1

INTRODUCTION 1

CONCEPTUALIZATIONS OF SPIRITUALITY AND RELIGION, ISSUES

OF DIVERSITY AND THE SECULAR NATURE OF SOCIAL WORK 2
Conceptualizations of Spirituality 2
Conceptualizations of Religion 5
Valuing Diversity 6
The Secularization and Professionalization of Social Work 8
Values and the Professionalization of Social Work 10
Anti-religious Sentiment in Social Work 12

RATIONALES FOR THE INCLUSION OF SPIRITUALITY IN SOCIAL

WORK 15
Issues in Social Work Processes 16
Spirituality and Coping 17
A Holistic Approach 18
Effectiveness of Spiritually Influenced Practice 18
The Need for Knowledge and Research 19

SPIRITUALLY INFLUENCED PRACTICES 21

Altered Conceptualizations of Helping Processes and Human
Nature 22
Social Justice Activities 23
Prayer and Meditation 23
Making Meaning 24
Addictions and Self-Help Groups 24
Intuition 25
Two Examples of Practice Model Development 26

CONCLUSION 29
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CHAPTER TWO – FEMINIST SOCIAL WORK APPROACHES AND

FEMINIST SPIRITUALITIES 32

INTRODUCTION 32

FEMINIST SOCIAL WORK THEORY AND PRACTICES 33

Background and Overview 33
Principles and Assumptio ns Informing Feminist Social Work 35
Values in Feminist Social Work Approaches 37
Diversity and Inclusivity 38
Men and Feminism 39

SPIRITUALITY AND FEMINIST SOCIAL WORK – FEMINIST

SPIRITUALITIES 42
Feminism and Spirituality 42
Feminist Spiritualities 44
Spiritual Influences in Feminist Practices 46

THE DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIAL WORK KNOWLEDGE – CURRENT

INFLUENCES 50
Brief Overview of the Development of Knowledge 50
The Art of Social Work Practice 52
Shared Social Work Practices, Values and Knowledge 55
Future Directions 57

CONCLUSION 59

CHAPTER THREE – THE RESEARCH PROCESS 62

INTRODUCTION 62

EPISTEMOLOGY OF THE RESEARCH STUDY 63

Qualitative Methods 63
Feminist Methods and Principles 64
Grounded Theory Methods 66

THE RESEARCH DESIGN 68

Research Questions 68
The Use of Semi-Structured Interviews 70
Sampling Method and Sample Size 72
Sample Description 75
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IMPLEMENTATION OF THE RESEARCH 78

The Interview Process 78
Researcher Bias 80

THE RESEARCH ANALYSIS 82

A Grounded Theory Analysis 82
The Development and Organization of Practice Principles 84
Focus Groups – Action Research 86
Implementation of the Focus Groups 87
Analysis of the Focus Group Processes 88

CONCLUSION 90

CHAPTER FOUR – SPIRITUALITY AND FEMINIST SOCIAL WORK

APPROACHES 92

INTRODUCTION 92

SPIRITUALITY AND RELIGION 94

Conceptualizations of Spirituality and Religion 94
Personal and Professional Values – Affiliations with Religion 96
Personal and Professional Values – Non-affiliations with
Religion 98
Anti-fundamentalist Values 100

FEMINIST SOCIAL WORK PERSPECTIVES AND SPIRITUALITY 103

Conceptualizations of Feminist Social Work Approaches 103
Convergences Between Feminist Social Work and Spirituality 106
A Holistic Practic e Approach 108
The Future of Feminist Social Work Perspectives 112

SPIRITUALITY – A MARGINALIZED KNOWLEDGE 114

The Secular Nature of Social Work and the Marginalization of
Spirituality 114
Personal Values and Practice Experie nce 117
Personal Values and the Lack of Spiritual Knowledge 119

CONCLUSION 121
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CHAPTER FIVE – THE PROCESSES OF SPIRITUAL

EXPLORATION AND DEVELOPMENT 123

INTRODUCTION 123

SPIRITUALITY AS A DEVELOPING PROCESS 124

The Process of the Development of Spirituality 125
A Reflective and Questioning Perspective 127
The Struggle of Spiritual Development 128
Transformative Experiences and Spirituality 130
The Influence of Family and Culture on Spiritual Development 133
The Influence of Spiritual/Religious Traditio ns on Spiritual
Development 135
The Importance of Frie nds in Spiritual Development 136

SPIRITUALITY – THE ESSENCE OF HUMAN EXISTENCE 139

Having Spiritualit y and Being a Spirit 139
Women, Men and Spirituality 142

CONCLUSION 146

CHAPTER SIX – THE INTERFACE OF SPIRITUALITY AND

PRACTICE – PRACTICE METHODS AND RELATIONSHIPS 148

INTRODUCTION 148

THE INFLUENCES OF PERSONAL SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT,

SOCIAL WORK CONTEXTS AND CLIENT POPULATIONS ON
INCORPORATIONS OF SPIRITUALITY INTO PRACTICE 149
Personal Spiritual Processes 149
Social Work Contexts – Factors that Promote the Inclusio n of
Spirituality 151
Social Work Contexts – Factors that Impede the Inclusion of
Spirituality 154

SPIRITUALLY INFLUENCED PRACTICES 157

Language and Spirituality 157
Language and Spirituality – Transparency of Practice 160
Making Meaning 162
Fostering Connections 165
The Social Worker – Client Relationship 167
Self-love and Wholeness 170
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Additional Spiritually Influenced Practices 172

CONCLUSION 175

CHAPTER SEVEN – THE DEVELOPMENT OF PRACTICE

PRINCIPLES 178

INTRODUCTION 178

THE NEED FOR KNOWLEDGE DEVELOPMENT IN SPIRITUALITY

AND SOCIAL WORK 179
The Need for Spiritual Knowledge 179
The Development of Feminist Social Work Knowledge 180

DEVELOPMENT OF THE PRACTICE PRINCIPLES 181

Understandings of Spirituality, Basic Philosophy and Values 182
Spirituality and Religio n 183
Convergences in Values 184
Marginalized Knowledge 185
The Process of Spiritual Development and Beliefs about the
Spiritual Essence of Human Existence 187
The Process of Spiritual Development 187
Spirituality as the Essence of Human Life 188
Spiritually Influenced Practice Processes and Relationships 189
The Influence of Spiritual Development, Social Work Contexts
And Client Populations on Spiritually Influenced Practices 190
Language and Spirituality 191
Making Meaning Processes 192
Fostering Connections 193
The Social Worker and Client Relatio nship 194
Fostering Experiences of Self-love and Wholeness 195

CONCLUSION 196

CHAPTER EIGHT – FOCUS GROUP ANALYSIS OF THE PRACTICE

PRINCIPLES 198

INTRODUCTION 198

SHIFTING SPIRITUALITY OUT OF THE MARGINS 201

Issues Concerning the Marginalized Nature of Spirituality 202
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The Role of the Practice Principles in Legitimizing Spirituality 204

The Role of Research Processes in Shifting Marginalized
Knowledge 206

CONTEXTUALIZING THE PRACTICE PRINCIPLES 209

The Feminist Nature of the Practice Princip les 209
Recognizing the Feminist Nature of the Practice Principles 211
Valuing Diversity 213
The Shared Nature of Social Work Values, Knowledge and
Practice 215
The Need for Ongoing Development of the Practice Principles 218

EMPHASIS ON SOCIAL JUSTICE AND STRUGGLE IN THE

PRACTICE PRINCIPLES 221
Emphasis on Social Change 221
Processes of Struggle 223
Practice Principles for Spirituality and Social Work 225

CONCLUSION 227

CHAPTER NINE – CONCLUSION 229

INTRODUCTION 229

PERSONAL SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT, PRACTICE WISDOM,

PRACTICE EFFECTIVENESS AND THE RELEVANCE OF THE
PRACTICE PRINCIPLES 233
Personal Spiritual Development and Exploration 233
Practice Wisdom 236
The Effectiveness and Meaningfulness of Holistic Practices 238

FUTURE RESEARCH DIRECTIONS 241

Practice Effectiveness 242
Facilitating the Exploration of Spirituality and Curriculum
Development 243
The Scope of Spiritually Influenced Practices 244

BIBLIOGRAPHY 247

APPENDIX I – DOHERTY’S THREE DOMAINS OF LANGUAGE

AND MEANING MODEL 264
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APPENDIX II – INTERVIEW GUIDE AND QUESTIONS 265

APPENDIX III – PARTICIPANT INFORMATION STATEMENT 268

APPENDIX IV – TABLE 4.1 – RESEARCH PARTICIPANTS’

CONCEPTUALIZATIONS OF SPIRITUALITY 270

APPENDIX V – TABLE 4.2 – RESEARCH PARTICIPANTS’

CONCEPTUALIZATIONS OF FEMINIST SOCIAL WORK 271

APPENDIX VI – TABLE 6.1 – FACTORS THAT PROMOTE THE

INCLUSION OF SPIRITUALITY IN PRACTICE 272

APPENDIX VII – TABLE 6.2 – FACTORS THAT IMPEDE THE

INCLUSION OF SPIRITUALITY IN PRACTICE 273

APPENDIX VIII – TABLE 6.3 – SPIRITUALLY INFLUENCED

PRACTICES 274

APPENDIX IX – PRELIMINARY DEVELOPMENT OF THE

PRACTICE PRINCIPLES 275

APPENDIX X – PRACTICE PRINCIPLES FOR SOCIAL WORK AND

SPIRITUALITY – REVISED WITH WRITTEN FEEDBACK 276

APPENDIX XI – PRACTICE PRINCIPLES FOR SOCIAL WORK AND

SPIRITUALITY – FINAL VERSION 277
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LIST OF TABLES

Table Page

4.1 Research Participants’ Conceptualizations of Spirituality 270

4.2 Research Participants’ Conceptualizations of Feminist

Social Work 271

6.1 Factors that Promote the Inclusion of Spirituality in Practice 272

6.2 Factors that Impede the Inclusion of Spirituality in Practice 273

6.3 Spiritually Influenced Practices 274

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ABSTRACT

This research study investigates self-identified feminist social workers’

conceptualizations of spiritualit y, how spirituality influences their practices,
and their ideas about the effects of spiritually influenced practice. There is
increasing interest in exploring and considering spirituality across social work
approaches, accompanied by a strong demand for empirical research and the
development of knowledge in this area. The past few years in particular have
witnessed an expanding social work literature that discusses the
incorporation of spirituality into practice. In this thesis spirit uality refers to a
complex construct that can be deeply personal and/or communal, and that
can encompass a sense of connection with something bigger that transcends
ordinary life experience. In order to examine spirituality in the context of
feminist social work practice, the goals of this study needed to be
exploratory and demanded the use of a qualitative methodology.
In-depth individual interviews were conducted with twenty experienced
direct practice social workers. Grounded theory analysis of the interview data
uncovered surprising and significant convergences amongst research
participants’ beliefs, values and practices. These unexpected commonalities
invited a further analysis of the data that produced a set of practice
principles. These practice principles reflected the participants’ understandings
of spirituality and basic values, their ideas about processes of spiritual
development and beliefs about the spiritual essence of human life, and their
spirit ually influenced practice methods and relationships. The process of
developing practice principles included further data collection through the
written feedback of participants and the use of three focus groups. This
second round of data collection and analysis extended and refined the
practice principles. The practic e principles are particularly relevant for social
work because they are based in the participants’ collective practice wisdom
and represent an important step towards helping to legitimize spiritual
 xii

knowledge. The practice principles also have important implicatio ns for social
work practice, education and research in that they can promote discussions
about spirit uality, guide practice, provide a base for the future development
of spirit ually influenced models and frameworks, and direct curriculum
development.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I moved from Canada to Australia in order to pursue my doctoral

studies and many people have asked me why I chose to come to Australia.
The short answer is that it felt like the right thing to do. It was not an easy
decision to move but it was a necessary life and academic adventure – an
experience that has been both challenging and enriching beyond words. My
family and friends have assisted me in many ways with my travels back and
forth across the Pacific Ocean, and have been crucial in helping me to stay
connected to them over these past three years. I am indebted to many
people in both Canada and Australia for making this experience a wonderful
one. I am blessed in that not only do I have extraordinary family and friends,
but I have also worked with many dynamic and insightful colleagues,
students and clients in both countrie s who helped to prepare me for, and
sustained me, during this doctoral process. In particular, my experience at
the University of New South Wales School of Social Work has been wonderful
and many of the staff were especially supportive and helpful. While everyone
deserves my thanks, I would like to specifically acknowle dge the following
people.
First, the engaging and thoughtful research participants who gave so
willingly of their time and shared with me their hig hly personal and
professional thoughts, experiences and values. My exceptional co-
supervisors, Dr. Jan Breckenridge and Carmel Flaskas who provided me with
excellent guidance and supervision throughout this process, helped me to
fully develo p my abilities and supported me in my somewhat unorthodox
research topic. I thank them especially for working so tirelessly during the
last few months, thereby helping me keep to my deadline for submission. My
wonderful parents Bozica and Joe Coholic who always supported my
decisions even if they didn’t agree with them, and never faltered in their
beliefs in my abilities. My very generous sister Dr. Andrea Coholic who
 xiv

financially supported me during this process and encouraged my decision to

move. My good friend Robert Walker who helped me with mundane but very
essential tasks such as printing, and who was especially important in making
my life in Australia enjoyable. And my remarkable and insightful friends -
Leigh MacEwan who provided me with constant praise and encouragement,
and Judith Duncan whose wisdom and emotional support was always
appreciated and helpful.
 xv

If we believe in any religion, that’s good. But even without a religious belief,
we can still manage. In some cases, we can manage even better. But that’s
our own individual right; if we wish to believe, good! If not, it’s all right. But
then there’s another level of spirituality. That is what I call basic spirituality –
basic human qualities of goodness, kindness, compassion, caring. Whether
we are believers or non-believers, this kind of spirituality is essential. I
personally consider this second level of spirituality to be more important than
the first, because no matter how wonderful a particular religion may be, it
will still only be accepted by a limit ed number of human beings, only a
portion of humanity. But as long as we are human beings, as long as we are
members of the human family, all of us need these basic spiritual values.
Without these, human existence remains hard, very dry. As a result, none of
us can be a happy person, our whole family will suffer, and then, eventually,
socie ty will be more troubled. So it becomes clear that cultivating these kinds
of basic spiritual values becomes crucial.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama
 xvi

INTRODUCTION

Some years ago I received a card from one of my clients with the
following inscription, “I thank you for the very professional guidance which
has challenged me constantly. I can see a spiritual future whic h has been
inspired by our sessions”. We had talked about her spiritual beliefs brie fly in
relation to her fear of death, but I was somewhat surprised by her words and
I reflected on our work together. I wondered how this spiritual inspiratio n
had come about for her. I was not entirely sure I understood or could have
articulated how our sessions had inspired a vision of a spiritual future. I also
wondered about possible reactions from my colleagues had I shown them
the card. Admittedly, I was concerned about negative responses and I feared
that they might consider me unprofessional, imposing my own agenda and
interests onto clients. I felt isolated with my ideas and thoughts as I
identified very few colleagues with whom I could have discussed the spiritual
aspects of my feminist social work practice.
However, at the same time and particularly in the past few years, I
have increasingly worked with clients who came to sessions with spiritual
books, initiating discussions about spirituality and grappling with issues that I
would identify as spiritual such as the meaning of life, death, abuse and
other forms of suffering. I wasn’t sure if this was a reflection of my own life
experience in which I felt a stronger need to explore spirituality and spiritual
influences in practice, or if it reflected a growing interest in spirituality within
socie ty in general. Perhaps it was a combination of the two as there did
appear to be a burgeoning market for spiritually oriented books such as The
Tao of Pooh (Hoff, 1982) and The Celestine Prophecy (Redfield, 1994), to
name just two example s. Equally, alternative and/or spiritually influenced
healing techniques such as therapeutic touch, acupuncture and
aromatherapy are increasingly evident in practice.
 xvii

The importance of spirituality has been noted throughout the 20 th

century by well-known humanistic psychologists Abraham Maslow and Carl
Rogers and by existential theorists Viktor Frankl and Erich Fromm. However,
spirit uality has been largely ignored by mainstream social work.1 As social
work developed into a recognized profession, it disassociated it self from its
roots in religious charity work. In order to claim professional status, value
neutrality was advocated in practice and in research both within social work
and in other helping professions. Thus, the association of spirituality with
personal values and religious viewpoints impeded its serious consideration
and excluded it from social work practice and knowledge development. While
many social workers now recognize that practice and research are not value-
free, the notion that a professional practice should be separated from
personal values still holds weight and affects the marginalization of certain
knowledge such as spirituality. However, feminist social work perspectives
have recognized the interplay between personal and professional values and
practices, as have other anti-oppression approaches such as radical social
work (Fook, 1993).
Given this growing interest in spirituality in my own life, in the lives of
people I worked with and in broader society, I wondered if other feminist
social workers were also interested in spirituality and used it in their work.
How and where (if anywhere) did they talk about a spiritually influenced
practice? Did they identify spirituality as part of their practice and if so, what
were the effects of spiritually influenced work? It was these questions and
experiences that provided the impetus for my doctoral study and led to the
thesis topic , which explo res self-identified feminist social workers’
conceptualizations of spirituality and the influences (or not) of these

In this thesis “social work ” is based on a Western and more particularly , an English
1

speak ing understanding of social work processes.

 xviii

understandings in their social work. Eventually the following exploratory

research questio ns emerged from these preliminary questions and
experiences. What are self-identified feminist social workers’ ideas about
spirit uality and what informs their personal understandings of spiritualit y? In
what ways (if any) does spirituality influence their practices and do they
identify methods or techniques that are spiritually influenced? What are their
perceptions about the effects and/or implications of spiritually influenced
practices? These were the questions that guided this research inquiry in its
aim to explore spirituality in feminist social work practices. Accordingly, it
was important to conceptualize both spirit uality and religion into working
definitions in order to clarify the interests of this study to potential research
participants.
It is not necessarily an easy or straightforward process to encapsulate
into words the meaning of concepts such as spirituality. The language that is
used to discuss spirituality and related issues can be confusing. Words like
spirit uality, spirit ual dimension, spirit, soul, higher power, inner self,
Universe, God and Goddesses can evoke a myriad of personal meanings. In
other situations, language has difficulty expressing the intended meaning of
the communication or is unable to fully encompass it. For example , how does
one accurately describ e in words the feelings of oneness or deep
connections? These experiences are highly personal and they are often felt
on an emotional level rather than expressed in words.
Additionally, the reality that most of us have been socialized and
educated to depend on our rational minds and positivist scientific processes
interferes with our ability to write and speak about these experiences. We
lack language to fully describe what these experie nces feel like or perhaps
words cannot entirely capture some experiences. Given these complexities in
language it is important to identify the meaning of words that are used and
to recognize that spirituality addresses experiential facets of life and work
 xix

experience. Consequently, embracing and utilizing research methods that

can facilitate the exploration of concepts that are based in lived experie nces
(phenomenological experiences) will foster our understanding and ability to
discuss these constructs.
Spirituality and religion are understood differently in this study
although they certainly overlap and influence one other. Except in general
terms I am not the one who should define spirituality. It is important that
these conceptualizations emerge from participants’ experiences and ideas, as
this is one of the research questions to be explored. However, it was also
important to present working definitions to potential participants so decisions
could be made about their participation in this study. These preliminary
definitions are derived from the literature. Edward Canda’s (1986) research
in which he develops a conceptualization of spirituality for social work is
particularly helpful and provides an excellent starting point.
Derezotes (1995) and Canda (1986) contend that spirit uality can be
diffic ult to define because its meanings are individualistic and varied. By its
very nature spirituality is eclectic and although spirituality can be expressed
in religion as well as in culture and philosophy, it transcends ideologies and
institutions. In this thesis, spirit uality refers to a complex construct that can
be deeply personal and communal, and that can encompass a sense of
connection with something bigger that transcends ordinary life experience
(something bigger is necessarily self-defined). Also, spiritual dimension and
spirit uality are used interchangeably in order to be inclusive of participants’
beliefs, but it is recognized that for some people these terms may encompass
different meanings.
Religion on the other hand, can be described as a construction of
institutionalized worship that is dependent on a notion of God and that is
based on doctrine or a system of organized beliefs and behaviours, usually
 xx

shared by people.2 Religion can be a means of spiritual expression and

experience and can act as a source of spirituality for some people (Bullis,
1996; Carroll, 1998). The theoretical work that conceptualizes spirituality and
religion for social work is examined in Chapters One and Two.
Whereas spirituality remains marginalized within social work, feminist
social work perspectives are examples of marginalized knowledge and
practice approaches that have gone on to become more fully incorporated
within mainstream social work, particularly as values and practice
approaches are shared across social work frameworks. In this thesis, feminist
social work refers to the amalgam of feminist theory and values, and social
work practices that began to appear in the social work lit erature during the
1980’s. While there is no unitary approach to the application of a feminist
social work perspective, practice principles and assumptions are shared.
These include an emphasis on diversity, the analysis of gender and
maintaining egalit arian client relationships. Feminist social workers include
their values in their practices and consciously use values to motivate and
evaluate actions (as do other approaches such as structural and radical social
work).
The develo pment of practice models and theory for a feminist social
work approach helped to shift this knowledge into more mainstream social
work discourse by recognizing this knowledge and presenting it in a written
form that could be utilized and consid ered. One of the first empirical studies
to construct practice assumptions for feminist social work was conducted by
Mary Bricker-Jenkins (1989) whose doctoral research develo ped a
comprehensive feminist social work practice model in the form of ten
propositions and assumptions. The development of models and theory for
marginalized knowledge is significant in that this process assists other

The social work literature is biased towards the Western world’s monotheistic notions of
2

God and does not often discuss or refer to poly theistic v iews of God(s) or Godheads.
 xxi

practitioners to reflect on their practice, validates and refines ideas and

practices, and helps to shift attitudes. Some feminist social workers such as
Van Den Bergh (1995) and Bricker-Jenkins (1989) also identify spirituality as
an important emerging component in a feminist social work practice,
although they are not the only social workers to do so.
Indeed, spirituality is increasingly being considered within social work
in general. The past few years in particular have witnessed an expanding
social work literature that discusses spiritually influenced practices such as
working with women and ritual (Bewley, 1995), and with specific cultural
communitie s (Falicov, 1999). There are repeated calls for research that
examines the efficacy of spiritually influenced practices and that begins to
build knowledge in the area (Russel, 1998; Bullis, 1996). However, currently
much of the literature is based on personal reflections and accounts, case
studies and survey research and consequently, spirituality remains a
marginalized knowledge within social work that is not yet considered valid
knowledge for practice.
Given the growing interest in spirituality and the lack of empirical
research in the area, there is strong demand for in-depth research that
explores spiritualit y in practice. This is clearly evident in the literature and I
have also personally experienced it at the presentations I have delivered on
this topic. It appears that many social workers are searching for contexts and
colleagues that will promote discussions about spirituality and practice.
However, it is also difficult to accurately gauge what proportion of social
workers are interested in exploring spirituality and perhaps a signific ant
number are even anti-spirit uality.
In fact, there is social work literature that could be characterized as
anti-religion. For instance, arguments have been made against the inclusion
of religion in social work and many social workers worry about inflexible
doctrines, rigid ritualism and the damaging effects of religion. Social workers
 xxii

are concerned with the separation of Church and State, fear that one
viewpoint will dominate all others, and worry about the impositio n of
personal values. On the other hand, there does not appear to be a body of
work that could be described as anti-spirit uality in the terms described in this
thesis. 3 The body of social work literature that is reviewed in this study
addresses spirituality and spiritual issues in social work. For the most part,
this literature distinguishes between religion and spirit uality and uses a
generic spiritual language to discuss practice issues such as the use of ritual,
intuition, relationship and helping people to make meaning of life
experiences - aspects of practice that are akin to what is called the art of
social work.
Social work practice extends beyond direct work with individuals,
couples and families into macro levels of practice with groups and
organizations such as cultural communities, oppressed populations, policy
makers and governments. While this study aims to examine spirituality in
social work practic e more generally, it should be noted that the use of “social
work” in this thesis refers to more micro levels of work with individuals,
couples, families and smaller groups, and is based on a Westernized
understanding of social work processes. Although some of the research
participants were engaged in community work and projects, and they all
discussed a commitment to social change activities, on a day-to-day basis a
majority of the participants engaged in micro levels of social work practice.
As a result , discussions about social work are generally oriented towards
micro level direct practice work.
While there is increasing interest in spirituality within feminist/non-
feminist social work approaches, spirit uality remains marginalized knowledge
and there is a significant lack of empirical research in the area. This research

It should be noted that the anti-religion literature is not particularly relev ant for this study
3

because this research study explores the use of spirituality in feminist social work practices.
 xxiii

study constitutes a timely project in an emerging field of study.

Consequently, the research questions demand the choice of an exploratory
qualitative grounded theory research methodology, which is also consistent
with my own epistemolo gical perspectives. The work of this research study
began with in-depth interviews with self-identified feminist social workers
that uncovered unexpected convergences in values, beliefs and practices.
These convergences, and also a closer consideration of the need for
knowledge in this area, led to the exploration of the similarities and
differences in responses regarding spirituality, which raised further questions
concerning the possibilit y of the emergence of practice ideas or principles.
Further grounded theory analysis of the emergent data encouraged the
development of a set of practice principles for spirituality and social work.
These preliminary practice principles were then refined using participant
feedback, first by way of written feedback and then through the use of focus
groups. The following chapters tell the story of how these striking
convergences in particip ants’ responses allowed the development of new
knowledge for social work in the form of practice principles.
The sequence of the chapters reflects the research process and the
development of the practice principles. Chapters One and Two provide the
theoretical context for the research exploration that follows. Chapter One
begins the story by providing an overview and analysis of spirituality within
social work. Various rationales for the inclusio n of spirituality are examined
and spiritual influences in social work practice are identified. Chapter Two
discusses feminist social work approaches as they provide a practice and
theoretical context for this study. The shift of feminist social work
perspectives from a marginalized knowle dge and practice into more
mainstream social work discourse is used as an example to illustrate how
spirit uality may also be moved from the margins. Chapter Three then
discusses in detail the research design and process, and the selection of a
qualitative grounded theory methodology.
 xxiv

What were the significant convergences that emerged through this

research? Chapters Four, Five and Six present an analysis of the themes and
categories from the data analysis. Chapter Four discusses categories that
encompass the participants’ understandings of spirituality, basic philosophy
and values. Their beliefs regarding the similarities between feminist, social
work and spiritual values are also examined. Chapter Five analyzes
categories that address the participants’ experiences of spiritual development
and their id eas about the spirit ual essence of human existence. Chapter Six
then discusses the participants’ views of how spirituality influences practice
processes and relationships. The effects of personal spiritual growth, social
work contexts and client characteristics on spiritual influences in practice are
discussed, and spiritual influences in the participants’ practices are identified.
Further grounded theory analysis of the convergent categories
presented in Chapters Four, Five and Six led to the develo pment of practice
principles. Chapter Seven revie ws the need for the creation of models and
theory in spirituality and social work, and presents the preliminary
development work of the practice principles. Chapter Eight presents the final
layer of analysis from three focus groups regarding the practice principles as
a whole and the idea of practice principles in general, and presents the final
version of the practice principles. Both the practice principles and making
room for spiritual discussion are identified as important in help ing to shift
marginalized knowledge into more mainstream discourse. Finally, Chapter
Nine presents the implic ations for social work practice and education that
arise as a result of the development of new knowledge in the form of
practice principles. This chapter also offers an overall analysis of the work of
this thesis and makes recommendations for future research directions.
Witkin (1999, p.7), in an editorial entitle d Constructing Our Future,
argues that social workers believe that it is important for those who are
silenced (for whatever reason) to have a voice and that marginalized people
in society have a perspective that is valuable for the rest of us to hear. I
 xxv

would add that marginalized knowledges, voices and practices within social
work itself also deserve to be heard and considered. Thus begins the
consideration and exploration of spirit uality in social work practice.
 1

CHAPTER ONE
SPIRITUALITY AND SOCIAL WORK

Introduction
Despite the increasing interest in spirituality describ ed in the previous
chapter, the literature at this point reflects a neoteric field of study and
practice. There is a dearth of empirical research that investigates practice
implications, intervention methods, techniques and guidelines. Currently,
much of the literature is based on personal stories, experiences and
reflections, case studies, and research such as surveys that argue for the
relevance and effectiveness of spiritually influenced practice and that identify
the need for further research and theory building.
To acknowledge the newness and the limits of the current literature is
not a criticism of it, or of the type of knowledge it represents, particularly as
practice wisdom and personal knowledge are highly relevant in explorations
of spirituality. In fact, this overview reflects the state of development in this
area, illustrates the nature of spiritual knowledge, and sets the context for
the discussion that follows. Three broad areas are examined in this chapter:
conceptualizations of spirituality and religion in social work and the
importance of diversity, rationales for the inclusio n of spirituality in social
work, and spiritually influenced practices and examples of practice models.
These three areas provide a comprehensive overview of the social work and
spirit uality literature and reflect the themes most evident in the literature.
This chapter’s analysis focuses squarely on the social work literature.
Although this literature represents a new field of study, it represents both the
context and base of a range of issues that are pertinent to this research
study. While the Introduction provided definitions of spirituality and religion
for use in this thesis, this chapter begins by mapping more fully how these
concepts are discussed in the literature.
 2

CONCEPTUALIZATIONS OF SPIRITUALITY AND RELIGION, ISSUES

OF DIVERSITY AND THE SECULAR NATURE OF SOCIAL WORK

Conceptualizations of spirituality
Several social work authors have attempted to conceptualize
spirit uality for social work. Canda (1988a) was one of the first to focus his
attention on developing a definition of spirituality for social work. His doctoral
research (Canda, 1986) was designed to converge insights from diverse
perspectives on the connection between religion, spirituality and social work
in order to develop a comprehensive conceptualization of spirituality that is
relevant to the fundamental mission and performance of social work. He
began by studying the key ideas of five different spiritual and religious
perspectives identified in the literature.1 While he found a great diversity of
beliefs within these perspectives, he also found similarities of fundamental
values. For instance, each perspective upholds the inherent dignity of people
and encourages loving and just relations between people, the non-human
world and Ultimate Realit y (however that is defined). Canda (1988a) believes
that while the doctrinal distinctions between the perspectives deserve
respect, there are common themes that underlie these distinctions and he
bases his conceptualization of spirituality on these common themes.
Similarly, Wolin (1999) emphasizes the commonality of values found
across different religious perspectives and also stresses the importance of
these similarities. He describes a seminar that was focused on the subject of
healing and resilience from three different religious perspectives (Buddhism,
Christianity and Judaism). He argues that despite being accustomed to
thinking of religion as divisive, points of commonality emerged during the
seminar that focused on insights about resilience. He was surprised that the
three talks converged so powerfully on this point but at the same time that

See Canda (1988a, p.33) for a summary of the k ey ideas in each of the fiv e perspectiv es
1

that were identified; Zen Buddhism, Christianity , Existentialism, Judaism and Shamanism.
 3

they were so sharply distinguished from one another. He concludes that the
uniform respect for people’s resilience demonstrated across these religions is
far more essential than their distinctions, and that the shared belief that
there is a way through the traumas in people’s lives is a welcome contrast to
the prevale nt concern with people’s vulnerability and psychological damage.
Canda’s (1988a, pp.42-43) conceptualization of spirit uality is one of
the most thorough and as such could be criticized for its complexity, for
definitions that incorporate so many facets of spiritualit y that it could be
alleged that they become almost meaningless. On the other hand, the
definition’s all encompassing nature is inclusive of a variety of people’s
experiences, embraces a diversity of beliefs and experiences, and reflects the
complexity of spirituality. For instance, he argues that spirituality refers to
the total process of human life and development encompassing biological,
mental, spiritual and social aspects. His conceptualization also includes the
following points summarized below. Spirituality as a universal aspect of
human nature and experience is expressed through atheistic and theistic
belief systems. The spiritual aspect of the total process of human life refers
to the experience of the quality of sacredness and meaningfulness found in
self, other people, the non-human world and Ultimate Reality.2 This quality of
sacredness is associated for many with a dimension of reality that exceeds
the ordinary limits of human understanding and description. Spiritualit y is a
process that involves reflection and manifests in concrete ways for people
and the central dynamic is the search for a sense of meaning and purpose
that develops in the context of interdependent relationships. As this
summary illustrates, Canda’s (1986) work encompasses many facets of
spirit uality. As a result, most of the other research presented in the literature
converges at some level with his description of spirituality, although some
differences in emphasis and language exist. For example, Joseph (1988)

“Ultimate Reality ” is ak in to a sense of something bigger, which is necessarily self-defined.

2
 4

emphasizes that spirituality seeks to transcend the self and relate to the
Ultimate. Derezotes (1995) adds that spirituality is also a person’s ability to
understand, accept and utilize other’s religiosity, and that the spiritual
process involves the person moving towards higher states of connectiveness,
well being, consciousness and/or meaning. Other interpretations of
spirit uality stress the interconnectedness of all things and emphasize social
justice. For example, Perry and Rolland (1999) argue that social justic e
activism is an integral and essential expression of spirituality and that it
should not be considered separate from spirituality. In their view, social
justice activism is the fruition of spirituality. Similarly, Harries (1998) is
particularly interested in spirituality as connectedness and a concern for
others and believes that we need to be socially responsib le.3
Summarizing the literature, Carroll (1998) argues that
conceptualizations of spirituality fit into one of two categories, spirituality-as-
essence or spirituality-as-one-dimension. Spirituality-as-essence definitions
describe a spirituality that represents fundamental human nature and an
essence that motivates people towards self-development and self-
transformation. Spirituality-as-one-dimension stresses a relationship wit h the
Transcendent and manifests in a commitment towards other people and a
recognition of the interconnectedness of all things. However, Carroll (1998)
further contends that these two categories are not meant to be dichotomous
and most importantly, spirituality is best understood as both essence and a
key dimension of human nature.
Doherty (1999) points out that consistently across the family therapy
literature spirituality is defined differently from religion.4 Definitions of

These emphases on connection and social responsibility are particularly ev ident in feminist
3

understandings of spirituality which are examined in the following chapter.

The family therapy literature has strong link s with social work as many family therapists are
4

educated as social work ers and receive their training in schools of social work. I hav e
included some material from this literature because it fits so closely with the social work
literature under discussion.
 5

religion are discussed next, along with examples of slippage in the literature
between the two terms, spirituality and religion.

Conceptualizations of religion
Religion is generally understood as a system of organized beliefs,
rituals, behaviours and social functions, usually shared by people in an
institutionalized setting involving a denominational identity (Carroll, 1998;
Foster-Massie, 1998; Bullis, 1996; Derezotes, 1995). Walker (1998) believes
that formalized religion comes with its own set of rules of practice that are
not always applied or used, whereas spirituality is an integration of body and
spirit , and connectedness to land, creatures and all the elements. Walsh
(1999a) suggests that religions provide standards and prescrip tions for
individual virtue and family life that are grounded in core beliefs. Particular
ideas and practices are often considered to be right or true and go
unquestioned, and congregational affiliation provides social and health
benefits as well as support in times of crisis. Many people think of spirituality
as basically personal and religion as inherently social (Carroll, 1998),
although others would not agree with this dichotomy as is evidenced by the
earlier viewpoints that link social justice and spirituality, which can result in
spirit ual expression that is communal and community oriented.
As the Introduction notes, although there appears to be general
consensus in the literature that spirituality and religion are understood
differently, they do overlap and influence each other. Consequently, religion
can be a means of spiritual expression and experience for some people, and
some authors do use the terms interchangeably. For example, Loewenberg
(1988, p.ix) believes that “for many if not most Americans, the spiritual
dimension means religion.” On the other hand, Elkins, Hedstrom, Hughes,
Leaf & Saunders (1988) argue that although historically in the West religion
and spirituality have gone hand in hand, this is changing as traditional
religion fails to meet the spiritual needs of many people. They believe there
 6

are a growing number of people who are pursuing alternative spiritual paths
in a quest for a life of depth and meaning.
There are other examples in the social work literature (see Hickson &
Phelps, 1998), where slippage occurs between the two terms which can
create confusion. Derezotes (1995) sums up the situation by noting that the
concepts of spirituality and religion are often poorly defined in the literature
and are often used synonymously. However, distinguishing between
conceptualizations of spirituality and religio n appears to be important in
social work for three reasons: definitions of spirituality converge with social
work values; secularization and professionalization processes shifted social
work away from its religious roots; and anti-religious sentiment is evident
within social work. These issues are now examined.

Valuing diversity
Descriptions of spiritualit y in the literature converge with social work
values, particularly in relation to the current emphasis on diversity.
Spirituality is viewed as relevant for all people whereas religion is not
because spirituality is understood as encompassing highly personal
relationships and is a universal aspect of human existence and experie nce.
As Anderson (1999) states, because spirituality is not linked to dogma it can
not be limited to a particular religious tradition. Also, because it’s about
authentic living as well as meaning making, it is a highly personal reality.
Canda (1998, p.105) points out that the question that needs asking is how
can spirituality be addressed, not only from particular sectarian belief
systems but also from a perspective that honours and embraces spiritual
diversity.
Valuing diversity is currently a focus not only in social work but in
other helping professions as well. For instance, Walsh (1999b) writ ing from a
family therapy perspective cautions us to not judge diverse faith orientations
as inferior when they differ from predominant Euro-Christian standards. She
 7

argues that because society is becoming more diverse, therapists will have
more contact with different faiths, so consequently, spiritual pluralism must
be fostered. Particularly when practitioners represent the dominant cultural
group they must be cautious and remain open to differences, and seek to
understand the meaning and function of different spiritualities in clients’ lives
(Walsh, 1999a).
This current emphasis on diversity came about in part because people
who were marginalized demanded a voice within mainstream social work
discourse and practice. Perspectives such as feminist social work and other
anti-oppression approaches demanded that social work be more inclusive
and aware of diverse issues.5 Indeed, there are potential negative
consequences when diversity is not recognized and valued. As Mangan
Harding (1997) advocates, it is in the tensions of diversity that the fullness of
each being enriches the community. Social work’s commitment to social
justice, its belief in the inherent dignity of people , and its client-centered
focus fits with definitions of spirituality that are inclusive of the vastness of
people’s life experiences. As Canda (1988a) notes, sectarian attempts to
assert the importance of spirituality hinge on particular belie fs that are
unacceptable to the profession as a whole. Thus, in general, discussions
about spirituality and the incorporation of spirituality rather than religion
appear more suitable and palatable for social workers.
Canda (1998) also suggests that one of the themes that needs to
guide future innovation in spirituality and social work is human diversity. He
argues that at a minimum social workers need to be educated to respect and
increase their knowledge of spiritual diversity, and that this needs to go
beyond a mere tolerance to an appreciation and proactive ecumenism,
interreligious dialogue and universal spiritual awareness. He believes that a
transcultural spirituality addresses our true nature which involves a common-

The issues of marginalized k nowledge and an emphasis on div ersity will be further analyzed
5

in the following chapter.

 8

heartedness with others and that diversity enhances the personal

development of all involved, a viewpoint that reflects Mangan Harding’s
(1997) perspective mentioned earlier. But, as Canda (1998) notes, this is a
sophisticated form of spirituality. His suggestion is to mentor students for
spirit ual discernment, deep personal introspection, and active dialogue and
cooperation across spiritual perspectives. While his viewpoint could be
considered contentious and difficult to implement, particularly given the
current state of knowledge in the area and the marginalized nature of
spirit uality, the emphasis on diversity is important. The second factor that is
involved in the desire to distinguish between religion and spirituality concerns
the secular nature of social work, which is more comprehensively covered in
the ensuing discussion.

The secularization and professionalization of social work

In order to explicate why the social work profession has largely
ignored spirituality and religion, many authors point to the secularization and
professionalization processes that social work underwent in its professional
evolution. Russel (1998), Loewenberg (1988) and Marty (1980) note that the
origins of most modern social servic es can be traced back to organized
religion. Although the scope and extent of welfare services provided by
religious organizations varied at different times and in different regions of the
world, whatever services existed were until the early to mid-20 th century
under the auspices of religious authorities. Kilpatrick and Holland (1990)
agree and note that dealing with human need apart from religious motives is
actually a recent historical development.
Two things should be noted in relation to social work’s religio us roots.
First, Ressler (1998) writing from an American context, notes that the
religious community has maintained a consistent involvement in the delivery
of social services, even though in the past 60 years there has been a major
shift to the public sector, and second, that the secularization and
 9

professionalization of social work was resisted strongly by some. As Marty

(1980) explains, some religious social services responded cooperatively to
the challenge presented by the new profession of social work but more
resistant religions engaged in an almost Darwinian struggle. He states that
currently secular and religious services tend to work apart out of a lack of
interest or in some cases hostility.
A number of historical developments led to the separation of social
work and religious organizations. These include the emergence of a nation
state, industrialization, the Protestant Reformation, the rise of scientism and
positivism, and the conviction that human need could be met in a rational
fashion (Drover, 1998; Loewenberg, 1988). The early 20 th century
encouraged the development of a more systemic base of knowledge for
practice (Kilpatrick & Holland, 1990). As Drover (1998) explains, in the
1920’s the founders of the profession believed that a new dawn of rational
intervention and scientific discourse would right the wrongs of society.
Similarly, Russel (1998) points out that social work went through
secularization and professionalization because it emulated psychiatry and its
medical model, and embraced a scientific worldvie w. In order to gain the
recognition accorded to other professions, social work moved away from a
primary identification with any partic ular religious tradition and embraced
values of democratic pluralism emphasizing broad inclusion rather than
sectarian differences (Clark, 1994).
Additionally, Holmes (1994) argues that spirituality and psychotherapy
have been kept separate out of a sense of professionalism. He wonders if the
belief in professionalism leads to a rejectio n of issues such as spirituality
because of a fear of losing status as an objective, rational and scientific
clinic ian. As Lloyd (1997) notes, spiritual constructs defy scientific definition
and therefore are viewed as having no part to play in professionalism. Early
(1998) believes that although spiritual and religious issues emerge in
 10

practice, they are often avoided in an effort to maintain these “professional”

boundaries.
The influences of professionalism on the marginalization of spirituality
are evident in Russel’s (1998) paper, which reviews graduate course
offerings in spirituality. He found that teaching staff reported that one of the
biggest challenges they faced in developing a spirituality course was
overcoming colleague’s resistance and skepticism. This resistance stemmed
from fear that one viewpoint would be presented and that the materialwould
be considered fuzzy, unprofessional and inappropriate for graduate
education. Similarly, Dudley and Helfgott (1990) found that the greatest
concern teaching staff had was about the separation of church and state,
and that one view would dominate others. Walsh (1999a) adds that when
she became interested in edit ing a book on spirituality and family therapy,
academic colleagues told her it was a good thing she already had tenure,
others looked appalled, and still others worrie d that she might have gone “off
the deep end” into some fringe group. Professionalization and secularization
processes particularly affected the role of values in social work. However, the
role of values and their strong connection to spirituality are also important.

Values and the professionalization of social work

The positivist tradition that went hand in hand wit h the processes of
professionalization and secularization encouraged the separatio n of values
and knowledge development. Loewenberg (1988) points out that value
neutrality has become a cardinal value of all occupational groups that claim
professional status. As he explains, the professional expectation that
personal values be separated from practice arose in reaction to paternalistic
moralism which was characteristic of early charity workers. Drover (1998)
adds that in order to divorce itself from this moralism, social work
emphasized the importance of scientific diagnoses.
 11

It is a widely accepted principle that a social worker must be value

neutral (Loewenberg, 1988), but this principle refers to personal values, not
professional values. As Hickson and Phelps (1998) note, it is generally still
agreed that practitioners should not impose their value system on clients,
and many social workers express concern about imposing personal values
(Roberts, 1999; Cornett, 1992). At the same time, it is common wit hin social
work to stress the important position professional values hold (Loewenberg &
Dolgoff, 1992), and it is widely accepted in social work that research and
practice are not neutral or value-free. As Weick (1999) argues, what social
work knows comes from a value perspective, in particular, social work’s
moral commitments and its social perspective and that this in combination
with practice wisdom forms the unique character of social work. Wells Imre
(1984) adds that social work can not separate knowledge and values. The
focus on professional values has particular repercussions for spiritually
influenced knowle dge and practice, as spirituality is generally associated with
personal values. This affiliation reinforces beliefs that spirituality does not
belong in a professio nal practice that is supposed to be devoid of the
expression of personal values.
The exclusion of analysis regarding the impact personal values have
on social work is demonstrated within many introductory social work texts.
These texts generally stress the importance of professional values for
practice. If personal values are discussed it is usually wit h regards to how
well these personal values converge with social work’s professional values.
For example, Compton and Galaway (1989) focus on what they identify as
the two essential value premises underlying social work practice; a belief in
the uniqueness and the inherent dignity of people and a belief in client self-
determination. Bloom (1990) stresses professional eth ics and values only
when presenting four ethical theories that can guide social workers in conflict
resolution. Wirtz Macht and Quam (1986) do briefly examine the impact of
personal values, but in relation to how these values converge with a social
 12

work perspective. They state that an integral part of professional education is

to socialize students into the values of the professio n. However, professional
values are not often identified as spiritual or feminist, which reinforces the
marginalizatio n of these knowledges.
Although the separation between personal values and professional
social work might have been necessary in the beginning of the profession’s
development, increasingly social workers are recognizing that personal
values impact on practice and research. Indeed, for some practitioners such
as feminist social workers, an integration and expression of both professional
and personal values is important.
The third issue that addresses the need to distinguish between
spirit uality and religion concerns the connections between spirituality and
religion, and how spirituality’s association with religion contributes in part to
the controversy surrounding its inclusion into social work (Dudley & Helfgott,
1990). The Introduction id entified the existence of an anti-religion literature
in social work. A brief overview of this literature is offered here as a way of
exploring it s relationship to the marginalization of spirituality.

Anti-religious sentiment in social work

Loewenberg’s (1988) viewpoint is that there is a vast amount of
misunderstanding and mistrust concerning religion and it s place in
professional practice. He states that social workers note the damaging
effects of religion and are particularly worried about rigid ritualism and
inflexible doctrines that characterize many fundamentalist groups, even
though religion has positive aspects. Similarly, Amato-von Hemert (1994)
explains that social workers who refuse to support rigid, undeveloped, self-
righteous or self-destructive religiosity are correct but that denying all
religious dimensions is unethical and le ads to inadequate service.
Alternatively, Clark (1994) argues that religion should not be part of
the social work curriculum. He states that social work should not join the
 13

bitter battles that America’s religious denominations conduct in church and

then take into the larger culture. He believes that since social work values
self-determination, it should not risk the imposition of moral codes and gag
rules that churches impose on themselves and others, and that social work
must resist contemporary reactionary efforts to recast complex social
problems as the result of moral and spiritual failures of people. However, this
stance is a monolithic vie w of religion and fails to account for traditions that
do not fit into this description, for example, liberation theology.
Krill (1990) found amongst his social work students that many were
outspoken about criticisms and rejection of institutionalized religion, yet a
vast majority of students affirmed a personal faith in spirit uality that tended
to be anti-institution, more grounded in Eastern and nature religions such as
Buddhism, and talked about in Jungian and feminist terms. He adds that
typic al criticisms of religion include that people use it as a way to feel good
and are preoccupied with heaven and their own salvation at the expense of a
suffering world, that people are taken by their own righteousness and use
this to judge others, and that it has been co-opted by political groups to
support individualism and capitalism. However, some people’s spiritual
perspectives may lead to the same complaints. A dichotomy that poses
religion as bad and spirituality as good does not accurately reflect the
complexity or diversity of people’s experiences.
This discussion appears to indicate that social workers are primarily
concerned about more fundamentalist attit udes and behaviours that leave
little room for diversity in beliefs and experiences. As Reed (1998) indicates,
there is a level of injustice present for adults who have been raised in a
fundamentalist religion and who perceive the world outside of their particular
religion as dangerous and to be viewed with mistrust. She adds that it is not
necessarily the case that women share equal roles with men within
fundamentalist religions and that autonomy, critical thinking and independent
 14

decision-making are not encouraged. These types of values certainly clash

with social work emphases on equality and self-determination.
Similarly, as Elkins et al (1988) contend, a humanistic approach to
spirit uality is not an anti-religious stance and is at variance only with a
narrow religious view that would claim a monopoly on spirituality and that
refuses to recognize its universal nature. They argue that in order to study
spirit uality as a valid enterprise, it must be removed from the religious arena
as a humanistic understanding of spirituality places it within the borders of
psychologic al science. However, as Canda (1988, p.30) points out, in order
to avoid the problems of sectarian bias it seems that social work has “thrown
out the baby of spirituality with the bath water of sectarianism.”
This section of the chapter has discussed conceptualizations of
spirit uality and religion in the social work literature. There appears to be
general consensus that spirit uality and religion are defined differently,
although they are also connected. Overall, spirituality is understood as a
universal aspect of human life that encompasses experiences that transcend
the self and relate to something bigger (however that is defined). Spirit uality
also refers to experiences of making meaning, reflection, connectedness,
social activism and an expansion of consciousness. Religion is defined as a
system of organized beliefs, rit uals and behaviours shared by people with a
denominational identity.
Three factors seem to be important regarding the need to distinguish
between spirituality and religion. The domain of spiritualit y appears broader
and more in line with social work values, whereas religion is not viewed as
relevant for all people. Also, the secularization and professionalizatio n of
social work shifted social services to the public sector and led to a
dependence on positivist science that encouraged the separation of values
from research and practice. This separation influences the marginalization of
spirit uality, as spirituality is strongly linked wit h personal values. But
increasingly, social workers recognize that research and practice are value-
 15

laden and that personal values impact on social work processes. In

particular, anti-oppression approaches such as feminist social work integrate
both professional and personal values. Finally, the connection of spirituality
with religion has also affected the marginalization of spiritual knowledge and
practice. However, anti-religious sentiment appears to be expressed primarily
towards fundamentalist beliefs. Social workers are concerned about inflexible
and rigid belief systems, and that one viewpoint will dominate all others.
While some social workers argue for the inclusion of non-fundamentalist
religion in social work, there is a more substantial literature that explores the
need to incorporate spirituality in social work.

RATIONALES FOR THE INCLUSION OF SPIRITUALITY

IN SOCIAL WORK

Some social workers use the religious roots of the profession to justify
a return to religious and spiritual influences in social work. For example,
Kilpatrick and Holland (1990) believe that social work should build on its
herit age by transforming its roots and traditions to give present spiritual
meaning to values of love, justice and community. But as the previous
discussion illustrates, it is unlikely that most social workers would support a
return to religiously based and oriented practice due to secularization and
professionalization processes, current ideas and beliefs about spirituality, and
the emphasis of social work values such as diversity. Moreover, the literature
suggests other rationales for an inclusion of spirituality into social work,
whic h are summarized in the following discussion. These include issues
raised by clients and clients’ cultures, coping resources, social work’s helping
approach, the efficacy of spiritual interventions, and the need for knowledge
building in the area. Much of this literature is based on practice wisdom and
case examples. As was noted earlie r, this knowledge is valuable in that
 16

practitioner beliefs and experiences are examined, but the literature’s current
over-reliance on sole practit ioner attitudes also points to the need for
broader research that explores many perspectives of social workers and
clients alike.

Issues in social work processes

One line of argument in the literature suggests that the issues clients
bring to social workers are spiritual in nature and that spirituality underlies
many of the problems that are confronted in practice. For example, conflicts
in values, search for direction, meaning, integration and faith are identified
as spiritual matters (Roberts, 1999; Holland, 1990). Other authors note that
clients express interest in, and often identify, spiritual problems or goals
(Walsh, 1999b; Russel, 1998). Hickson and Phelps (1998) state that
spirit uality is a sig nificant influence on human behaviour and Early (1998)
believes it is unavoidable in practice. Pearlman and Saakvitne (1995) note
that trauma work continuously calls into question issues of meaning, while
Wright (1999) adds that the experie nce of suffering from illness often
becomes transposed to one of spirituality as the family tries to understand
their suffering and distress.
Death and dying is often identified in the literature as an experience
that is strongly linked with discussions about spirituality. Studies indicate that
people who have a strong degree of overall spiritual awareness and a
comforting personal perspective on death tend to experience less
psychosocial distress (Smit h, Stefanek, Joseph, Verdieck, Zabora & Fetting,
1993). Llo yd (1997) points out that death is an experience that raises
questions of a broadly spiritual and existential nature for every person and
that a secularized approach may miss the point for many people, and may be
deeply offensive. Irizarry (1992) advocates that every human being
regardless of age encounters the limitations of human explanations and
understanding concerning the mystery of death.
 17

The culture of some clients is also recognized as connected to

spirit uality. Spirituality is an integral component of life and must be
addressed when working with many cultures such as Afric an Americans,
immigrant families, Latinos, Jews and Indigenous peoples (Boyd-Franklin &
Walker Lockwood, 1999; Tolliver, 1997; Kasee, 1995). For example, Jackson
(1995) explains that spirituality is the cornerstone of Afrocentric activity and
that spirituality is part of everything and can not be separated out. Berthold
(1989) cautions us that what is normal in one culture may not be considered
so in another, which emphasizes the importance of accepting and
understanding clie nts’ diverse forms of spiritual expression.

Spirituality and coping

Sermabeikian (1994) identifies spirituality as an important coping
resource. Hagon (1998) similarly found that survivors of abuse named
spirit uality as help ing them through the healing process and that spiritual
beliefs gave them a reason to keep living. Tangenberg (2000) notes that
spirit uality is a powerful part of life for women with HIV and provides security
and comfort in managing their illness. Furthermore, spirituality altered the
way these women valued life and generated a desire to live with new values
and behaviours. Other literature argues that spirituality provides hope and a
capacity for faith, joy, love, wonder, acceptance, creativity and gratitude
(Pearlman & Saakvitne, 1995; Kilpatrick & Holland, 1990).
Additionally, a practitioner’s own spirituality is important to consider
both as a coping resource and as an influence on practice. Pearlman and
Saakvitne (1995) describe how trauma work can vicariously traumatize the
therapist and create what they identify as spiritual damage. Thus, for
therapists working with trauma, spirituality is often an integral part of life
and an important coping mechanism (Hagon, 1998). Canda (1988b) points
out that a practitioner’s spirituality influences their motivations, helping
styles, techniques and selection of theory. Consequently, Canda (1988a)
 18

believes that personal cultivation of spirituality is crucial preparation for the

application of knowledge and skills in practice.

A holistic approach
Carroll (1998) and Canda (1988a) emphasize the need to address
spirit uality because social work strives towards a holistic understanding of
the person-in-environment. As Carroll (1998) explains, to address the
spirit uality of clients is not to practice religion but to affirm the wholeness of
their being, which reflects an emphasis on an inclusive spirituality. When
spirit uality is denie d, the fulfillment of people ’s potential for wholeness, their
right to fully express their experience and creative transformatio n are all
restricted (Russel, 1998; Walker, 1998). Canda (1998) argues that most
discussions regarding the person-in-environment concept ignore the spirit ual
and transpersonal realms, and that environment is usually conceived of in a
narrow sense as social environment. Accordingly, he believes that social work
needs to revise this concept in a dramatic way. In addition, Anderson (1999)
and Kilpatrick and Holland (1990) believe that spirituality helps to understand
behaviour in terms of the interconnectedness of life systems and that this
understanding can help to form a commitment to social justice activities.

Effectiveness of spiritually influenced practice

A growing literature discusses the efficacy of spiritually influenced
interventions such as meditation, prayer and ritual (Russel, 1998; Bewley,
1995). Guthrie (1995) argues that approaches that empower women
physically as well as mentally and spiritually, may be more effective in
producing personal and social change than cognitive strategies alone. Powers
(1995) found that exposure to feminist spirituality literature and classroom
experiences led to great changes in students’ lives. She explains that seldom
does she see change happen so deeply and so quickly even with clients, and
reports that changes in students’ self-esteem amaze her. However, it is
 19

unclear how or why these dramatic changes materialize, or if they endure

long after the classroom experience ends. Clearly there is a strong demand
for empirical research that explores the effectiveness of spiritually influenced
processes, which would expand and deepen our understanding of how and
why and if these spiritually influenced practices work.

The need for knowledge and research

Russel (1998) points out that research in spirituality and social work
practice is in its infancy and has primarily focused on attitudes and practices
of social workers. Research is needed to examine the influence of spirituality
in practice and on the efficacy of interventions as was mentioned above.
Bullis (1996) adds that there is a strong need for language and practice
methods designed to incorporate spirituality into theory. Amato-von Hemert
(1994) argues that it is not in the profession’s best interests for practitio ners
to use their personal religious and spiritual experiences as the knowledge
base and standard for making clinical judgments and policy decisions. This
view reiterates the concerns social workers have regarding the imposition of
personal values onto clients, and indicates the importance of building
professional knowledge, which can assist in guiding assessments,
interventions and other social work processes, and encourages professional
credibility and accountability.
Others stress that social workers are ill prepared to attend to
spirit uality, which reflects the marginalized nature of spiritual knowledge and
the newness of this area of study and practice. Ressler (1998) believes that
social workers need to be taught how to include spirituality and religious
issues in assessments and interventio ns, and that professional wisdom and
guidelines need to be developed concerning topics such as when is it
appropriate to use religious language and to raise spirituality issues, and how
to avoid spiritual abuse. However, it is yet to be determined how this
facilitation of learning about spirituality can productively occur. Russel (1998)
 20

and Derezotes (1995) suggest that social work education should include
models of spiritual development, how to assess functional and dysfunctional
beliefs and experiences, exposure to diversity in beliefs and practices, the
role of sectarian agencies, and assessment and intervention skills.
This discussion has summarized the various rationales contained in
the literature concerning the incorporation of spirituality into practice. These
rationales are varied and address practice, research, pedagogical, and
epistemological factors such as the issues clients’ bring to practice, the
potential of spirit uality as a coping resource and the efficacy of spiritually
influenced practices. Also identified is the importance of research and
knowledge building. While much of the research in this area is at a beginning
stage of development, at the same time promising results are presented
about the potential positive effects that spiritually influenced social work may
hold for clients, students and practitioners. The incorporation of spirituality
may also encourage social work itself to broaden its perspective becoming
more holistic in the process.
Although spirituality is not yet a legitimized knowle dge in social work
and there is a great need for knowledge development in the area, as the
above discussion illustrates some social workers are already utilizing what
they identify as spiritually influenced practices and claiming effective results.
It appears that increasingly more social workers are attempting to
incorporate spirituality in their practices. As Goldstein and Noonan (1999)
summarize in a review of the recent proliferation of social work practice
models, an emerging framework for practice includes more spiritually
oriented approaches. Moreover, a review of the literature indicates that some
practice applications and a small number of spiritually influenced models
have been developed. Two such models are Schwartz’s (1999) Internal
Family Systems model, and Doherty’s (1999) Three Domains of Language
and Meaning model. The discussion of these two models which complements
the analysis in this chapter occurs in the family therapy literature, but they
 21

are included as examples in the ensuing discussion given the newness of this
area. Given the reality that practitioners are already incorporating spirituality
in practice and that discussions in the literature about spiritually influenced
practices constitute a substantial portion of the overall literature in this area,
this chapter would not be complete without an examination of some of these
examples of practices influenced by spirituality.

SPIRITUALLY INFLUENCED PRACTICES

Overall, the literature discusses spiritually influenced social work

practices in a generic and inclusive manner, which reflects the secular nature
and values of social work, and the conceptualizations of spirituality described
earlier such as diverse experiences of sacredness. 6 For some practitio ners,
spirit uality influences the helping process by altering the understanding of
helping processes, while for others spirituality shapes ideas, beliefs and
values about human nature and people. In addition, the literature also
discusses more specific practices that are influenced by spirituality. These
practices such as prayer and meditation are not frameworks or practice
models as such, as they do not necessarily guide other practitioners,
although they do contribute to the preliminary development of practice
knowledge by illustrating how certain spiritually influenced processes can be
helpful. In fact, the frameworks and practice models that have been
developed in this area are sparse.7 Thus, it is relevant to acknowledge
models that begin to develop theory in the area and that have been

See (Canda, 1988b) for a description of how different faith orientations influence helping
6

processes.
It should be noted that Peck (1987) and Fowler (1981) hav e dev eloped stage models of
7

spiritual/faith dev elopment. These stage models are not practice models but are potentially
useful for assessment and interv ention. Because these models were dev eloped at a time
when k nowledge was especially sparse, they are often referred to in the literature.
 22

identified as useful in the literature, particularly given the reality that social
workers are already incorporating spirituality into practice.

Altered conceptualizations of helping processes and human nature

For some practitioners a spiritually influenced practice alters an
understanding of the helping process so that this process is described as a
spirit ual one and beliefs about people also shift. For example, Walsh (1999a)
points out that the very essence of the therapeutic relationship and
meaningful change is ult imately spiritual in nature because it fosters personal
transformation, wholeness and relational connection with others. Weingarten
(1999, p.254) describes the elements of a spiritual practice as listening
without your own agenda, opening the self to sorrow, finding connection in
loss, attending to the present, resting within uncertainties, accepting fear,
believing that there is always something that can be sustaining, and relating
intimately and collaboratively. And as Hickson and Phelps (1998) summarize,
a spiritual orientation encourages beliefs that there is a spiritual reality, that
spirit ual experiences make a difference in clients’ lives, and that therapists
are open about values. Similarly, Barrett (1999) believes that healing from
trauma is a quest for spirituality that reflects a deep need for meaning and
value.
Beliefs regarding human nature are also shifted when spirituality
influences practic e. For example, Tolliver (1997) describes the use of a
psychospiritual approach within the Black American community. His practice
principles reflect a perception of human beings and values that are
intertwined with spirituality. For example, people must be viewed as whole
and comple te, they must be treated with respect as they have an inherent
dignity, there is more to a person than can be known psychologically, the
therapist approaches the work knowing that both she and the client are
constantly developing, and clients often come to the work not knowing about
spirit uality. Thus, one of the first tasks is to help a person find hope and the
 23

shared Black American culture. Similarly, Canda (1998) believes that a

spirit ually sensitive relatio nship recognizes the inherent dignity and worth of
every client regardless of beliefs and behaviours, and that this kind of
practice gives deepened meaning to empathy.
While spirit uality influences views about practice and human nature,
there are also more specific practices that have been identified as spiritually
influenced. These include using social justice activities, prayer and
meditation, making meaning processes, resources outside of the helping
relationship, addic tion services, and intuition.

Social justice activities

According to Perry and Rolland (1999), spiritual well being and social
justice are inextricably tied. These authors outline several therapeutic
benefits of social justice activism such as hope, empowerment and healing,
and they recommend that therapists and clients participate in social justice
activities both as an expression of spirituality and as an intervention that can
be enhancing for healing in and amongst people and communities. For
instance, liberatio n from oppressive social structures is just as critic al as
liberation from intrapsychic constraints, and therapists should foster justice-
seeking connections and community for clients, between therapists and
clients/community, and amongst professional colleagues. Similarly, Canda
(1998) adds that a spiritually sensitive understanding of human fulfillment
links personal growth, social justice and ecojustice, and that theories and
practice strategies need to go beyond a goal of egoistic self-actualization to a
goal of mutual benefit for all.

Prayer and meditation

Prayer is a technique that is used with or on the behalf of clients.
Wright (1999) states that she has on occasio n independently adopted the
practice of praying for clients she works with. She believes that in praying for
 24

her clients, she perhaps heightens connection with them and her investment
in their recovery and well being. Prayer is generally associated with religion
but the processes in prayer such as communicating with the Transcendent
are similar to these that can occur in meditative processes. For instance,
Carroll (1998) identifies meditation and guided imagery processes as useful
and argues that these methods access realms beyond the personal, and
facilitate healing of unresolved issues in some cases almost simultaneously.
It would be interesting and useful to know more about how this healing
occurs “almost simultaneously” and if client characteristics contribute to this
change.

Making meaning
The process of making meaning is described as a spiritual one
(Sermabeikian, 1994). In fact, Hartman’s (1996, p.189) doctoral research
posits the process of finding meaning in crisis as the link between spirituality
and social work practice. Similarly, Anderson (1999) states that spirituality is
the experience of making meaning informed by a relationship with the
Transcendent in life. He believes that counselling goals include helping
people to know their story in order to reframe it . Therapy from a spiritual
perspective aims to help people fashion narratives that weave together
human and Divine realities, enabling people to hear their own stories retold
with clarity and new possibility, transforming their lives in the process.

Addictions and self-help groups

Spirituality influences addiction treatment in twelve-step approaches
that use the symbol of a higher power to develop internal resources
(Sermabeikian, 1994). Kasee (1995) describes Native spirituality as a self-
esteem building tool for Indigenous women in recovery from substance use.
She argues against the appropriation of Indigenous culture and points out
 25

how the prevalent commercialization of Indian spirituality denigrates these

recaptured sources of dignity and pride.
Other self-help groups based on twelve -step models also discuss
spirit uality and are sometimes used in conjunction with social work services.
Helping people connect with spiritual and/or religious resources outside of a
helping relationship is identified as useful. Aponte (1999) discusses a case
example of a woman who because of her renewed church involvement,
altered her self-perception. He believes that therapy had a critical place in
change but that the impetus for the depth of change came from life outside
therapy. In other words, therapy in addition to spiritual/religious involvement
contributed to change that might not have been as dramatic with therapy
alone.

Intuition
Intuition is identified as part of a spiritual practice. Oaks (1998)
believes that we need to listen to ourselves and drop all efforts at problem
solving in order to thoroughly join with the client, trusting that whatever
emerges will be helpful. He adds that we often know far more than we think
we do and can tune into this knowledge. Canda (1998) also writes about
intuition and belie ves that a spiritually sensitive relationship encourages an
intuitive connection with another that leads to sensing the person’s inner
feelings and gaining insight into the right response at a particular moment.
He stresses that social work education needs to pay more attentio n to
helping social workers enhance their capacity for empathy and intuition.
Luoma (1998) concurs that intuition can become a critical tool in the process
of accessing more of the self, in order to provide a more comprehensive
helping approach.
The practic es described above illustrate how spirituality can influence
both personal processes and communal activities. A spiritually influenced
practice can encourage social change and work for the common good, and
 26

can shape personal processes such as making sense of life experiences.

Spirituality can also influence a practit ioner to become more attuned to their
inner sense of trust and knowledge (intuition), and can broaden practice by
fostering connections to community resources. Schwartz’s (1999) model
focuses on accessing an internal realm to facilitate healing and is akin to the
use of meditation and guided imagery discussed above. This model along
with Doherty’s (1999) model will now be discussed in greater detail.

Two examples of practice model development

Schwartz (1999) develo ped the Internal Family Systems model from
his own practice wisdom and experiences. In this model people are helped to
separate from parts of themselves that are experie ncing intense feelings so
that they can be viewed by “the Self”, which is an observing place of
compassion and understanding (Holmes, 1994), and the inner state of a
person analogous to and conceptualized as the soul (Schwartz, 1999, p.230).
Schwartz (1999) argues that as his clients connect to their Selves they have
experiences that could only be classed as spirit ual, for example, they are
able to let go of pain, feel warm energy flow through their bodies,
experience feelings of bliss and rapture, sense that their lives have meaning,
and sometimes receive messages about what they are here to do. He
believes that to produce lasting harmony, traumatized parts of the person
must be helped to unload the feelings and beliefs (burdens) they
accumulated from past events. In order for these parts to unburden and
transform, the person’s Self must fully witness the story of how a part
received its burden. In applying this model, Holmes (1994) admits that he
does not fully know how to understand the experiences clients have either
but that clients seem to connect to a place in themselves where they can
retell the story of life’s traumas in a manner that allows them to heal.
Somehow they are able to locate an image in themselves that activates a
 27

deep and compassionate state from whic h they are able to find both
guidance and wisdom.
The use of this model rests on beliefs that people have within
themselves wisdom and abilitie s to heal, which in itself is a positive vie w of
human potential. Some of the ideas encompassed in this model also
converge with viewpoints presented in other helping approaches. For
example, the belie f that people can heal themselves fits with a feminist social
work perspective that clients are the experts of their own experiences. It is
also interesting to note that the Self in Schwartz’s model is similar to the role
of an inner self helper or inner spiritual helper found in many people with
dissociative identity disorder, in which helpful parts of a person are used to
assist in healing the entire personality system (Hagon, 1998). The
descriptions of the processes in Schwartz’s model appear promising in terms
of reported effectiveness and potential to empower clients. However, further
investigation is required to facilitate an understanding of how these
processes work, what clients they are effective with, and if the effects are
lasting. Another model that may be helpful is Doherty’s Three Domains of
Language and Meaning model, which focuses on the use of clinical, moral
and spiritual language.
Doherty (1999) presents a model for utilizing clinical, moral and
spiritual language in an integrated way in therapy. He describes how the
three domains of language and meaning in therapy can overlap but how they
should also remain separate because the clinical world of mental health, the
moral realm of obligations, and the spirit ual realm of transcendent meaning
have different modes of language and knowledge generation, epistemologies
and traditions. The three domains are illustrated in Appendix I (Doherty,
1999, p.185). As Doherty (1999) notes, without knowledge of a client’s
spirit ual beliefs and preferred language, a therapist should avoid introducing
terms in the spiritual-only domain and should be wary about exposing their
own spiritual beliefs without establishing that the client shares them in some
 28

way or wishes to hear about them. He contends that to tell a depressed

person that you know God loves her is more than a statement of faith in that
it asks for agreement and appropriation by the client and could be a misuse
of power. Social workers are concerned with issues of oppressio n and
Doherty’s viewpoint relates to the earlier discussion about divorcing personal
values from professional practice. However, there is a difference between
imposing values onto clients and recognizing how personal values influence
practices. Alternatively as Doherty (1999, p.187) argues, if a therapist does
not know a client’s spirit ual beliefs, spiritual issues can be broached through
the language of overlap areas. For example, using terms like suffering
instead of pain resonate across clinical and spiritual domains in an
appropriate way that can enrich the therapeutic conversation.
Given the difficulties surrounding spiritual language that were
mentioned in the Introduction, this model is useful in that it helps to clarify
the delineations between spiritual, clinical and moral language, and provides
a guide for using language that is appropriate for a client’s perspective. This
model may also be helpful in understanding spiritually influenced practices.
For example, suffering and connectedness can be related to the spiritually
influenced helping processes of making meaning and social change activities.
According to Doherty’s model, these terms belong in the overlap area of the
clinic al/spiritual domain, which converges with their description as helping
processes shaped by spirituality. Models such as Doherty’s that begin to
organize spiritual language are particularly useful given the current stage of
development in this area.
This final section of the chapter has discussed spiritually influenced
practices. While spirituality can shape understandings of the help ing process
and human nature, more specific practices were also identifie d as being
influenced by spirituality. The descriptions of spiritually influenced processes
address a variety of issues on both personal and broader levels of change.
However, it should be noted that all of these practices and processes can be
 29

understood without spiritualit y. For example, social justice and making

meaning do not have to be influenced by spirituality to be effective. The
influence of spirituality appears to shift the ways in which these processes
are defined, explained and understood. So, while meditation can be
described as a process of deep relaxation, spirituality alters this explanation
so that it becomes a process to access Transcendent realms, which also
affects practice goals. For example, in spiritually influenced medit ation
Transcendent realms are accessed in order to facilitate healing. Also,
descriptions of these processes as spiritually influenced are associated with
increased practice effectiveness and meaningfulness. While these accounts
are promising for both clients and practit ioners, research is required to
explore these claims of efficacy and to enrich our understanding of how
these processes actually work.

Conclusion
This chapter has provided an overview and analysis of the discussions
of spirituality within social work. Within the literature, spirituality is generally
presented as a personal and communal universal aspect of human
experience that can be expressed through atheistic and theistic belief
systems, and which refers to experiences of sacredness, reflection and
making meaning. These understandings reflect social work values such as a
commitment to social justice, self-determination, and an inclusive approach
to the diversity of people’s experiences. In general, spirituality is
differentiated from religion and three factors were discussed that elucidate
the need for this distinction within social work, although spirituality and
religion can be connected.
Spirituality is a broader concept that better reflects social work values,
as spirituality is deemed applicable to all people. Also, the secularization and
professionalization of social work led to a separation from religious
perspectives and personal values. Thus, the association of spirituality with
 30

personal values and religion has hampered its acceptance within social work.
However, increasingly more social workers are expressing interests in
exploring the role of personal values and spiritualit y in practice.
This growing interest in spirituality is reflected in the literature, which
presents various rationales for the inclusion of spirituality. Spirituality is
identified as an important coping resource, as a crucial factor that requires
exploration within some client populations, and as a factor that strengthens
the efficacy of some help ing approaches. Some practitioners have also begun
to id entify specific spiritually influenced practices such as making meaning,
prayer and meditation, and intuition. The descriptions of spiritually influenced
processes are promising but further research is needed to explore these
practices and to enrich our understanding of how they work.
Given the relative infancy of this field of study and the reality that
practitioners are already incorporating spirituality into practice, there is a
strong need for research that explores the inclusion of spirituality in social
work practice. Much of the literature that is discussed in this chapter is
gleaned from survey research, case studie s, and personal reflections on
practice, which are useful, valuable and contribute to the growing knowledge
in this area, but even more empirical research is required that explores in-
depth the influence of spirituality in practice beyond the perspective of sole
practitioners. Investigating a group of practitio ners’ views concerning
spirit ual influences in their practices has the potential to enrich and expand
our understanding of spiritual influences in practice by considering,
comparing and contrasting various beliefs and practices.
Feminist social work perspectives are one social work approach that
has identified spirituality as an important emerging component. A feminist
social work perspective provides a practice and theoretical context for this
study and this approach is analyzed in the follo wing chapter that also
explores feminist spiritualities and the current context of social work
knowledge. Thus, the next chapter completes the exploration of one
 31

theoretical and practice context for this study, and sets the stage for the
research questions and inquiry that follow.
 32

CHAPTER TWO
FEMINIST SOCIAL WORK APPROACHES
AND FEMINIST SPIRITUALITIES

Introduction
The previous chapter contextualized and described the discussions
about spirituality within general social work practice, research and theory.
This chapter provides an analysis of feminist spiritualities and feminist social
work approaches, and the commonalities between them. There are many
similarities of values and practices between feminist social work approaches
and feminist spiritualities. In fact, some feminist social workers encourage an
exploration of spirituality as an important emerging component of a feminist
social work approach. Consequently, both feminist social work perspectives
and feminist spirit ualities are presented in this chapter that has as its focus
feminist values and practices.
This chapter progresses from the specific exploratio n of feminist social
work approaches to a broader examination of the nature of current social
work knowledge. The chapter begins with an overview of feminist socialwork
approaches and describes their development and philosophies, values and
practices, as feminist social work perspectives provide a practice and
theoretical context for this research study. Descriptions of feminist
spirit ualities and feminist spiritual practices as described in the literature are
also examined, noting the overlap between feminist and non-feminist
spirit ually influenced practices. A brief analysis of social work knowledge is
then presented given that both feminist social work and spirituality may be
identified as marginalized knowledges within social work. This analysis is
warranted in order to locate feminist and spirituality knowledges and
practices within the broader social work context.
 33

FEMINIST SOCIAL WORK THEORY AND PRACTICES

Background and Overview

Particularly during the 1980’s, feminist social work theoretical and
practice approaches began to appear in the social work literature with
feminist social workers writing about the benefits, and necessity, of
combining feminist theory and social work practice. It is important to note
that there is no unitary approach to the application of a feminist social work
perspective, although there are practice principles and assumptions that are
shared by feminist social workers. Feminist social work approaches evolved
from efforts to integrate feminist theories and values with conventional
approaches to social work practice (Bric ker-Jenkins, 1991). The theoretical
base of feminist social work has been identified by various authors from
North America, the Unit ed Kingdom and Australia (see for example Bricker-
Jenkins, 1989; Dominelli & McLeod, 1989; Hanmer & Statham 1988;
Marchant & Wearing, 1986; Valentich, 1986). The women’s movement
emerged differently in each of these countries in response to specific
circumstances and accordingly feminist social work practice is context
dependent. However, there is consistent and similar discussio n amongst
feminist social workers across these contexts concerning core issues, values
and practice principles, which is evident in the literature.
Feminism is complex and discussio ns about feminism and the
women’s movement(s) can be enigmatic due to a lack of clarity concerning
the meaning of these terms (Rowbotham, 1992). Smith (1986) notes that it
is impossible to conceptualize feminism in a monolithic way. Indeed,
feminists can be categorized according to different ideological positio ns such
as Liberal, Marxist, Radic al, Socialist and Poststructural feminism, however,
within a modernist or emancipation framework all feminists share a desire to
end the oppressio n of women (Sands & Nuccio, 1992; Nes & Iadicola, 1989;
Marchant & Wearing, 1986). Wearing (1986, p.33) argues that “each
 34

perspective has a contribution to make but none has all the answers.” The
meaning of feminism in this thesis is based on the collective analysis by
these perspectives of the subordinatio n of women in contemporary Western
industrial capitalist societies, which arose from the second wave of feminism
in the 1960’s. Importantly, feminism is understood within the contexts and
expressio ns of feminist social work.8
Lundy (1993) notes that feminist social work consists of the
complementary elements of feminist theory and therapy, and social work
values and principles, which when combined produce an explicit clinical
framework for practice. Bricker-Jenkins (1991) argues that a feminist social
work approach goes beyond a non-sexist or women’s issues approach to
practice, because it links the personal and politic al dimensions of human
experience and is rooted in liberation movements. It is an evolving and
collective endeavor by people who share a worldview, just like the women’s
movement itself.
Mary Bricker-Jenkins’ doctoral research (1989) was one of the first
comprehensive empirical studies to examine the core characteristics and
dimensions of an emerging feminist social work practice. She based her
research on a pilot study that found certain identifiable emphases marked a
common bond amongst feminist social workers. Her work developed a
practice model in the form of ten proposit ions and assumptions, and this
model emerged by questioning the core characteristics and dimensions of a
feminist social work practice. The ten propositions and assumptions had the
capacity to inform the work of practitioners and constituted a foundation of
an emergent practice system. 9 The propositions and assumptions include
among others, the assumptions that all feminist practice is explicitly political

The reader is referred to Breck enridge (1996) for an in-depth analy sis and rev iew of
8

women’s mov ement(s) and to A damson, Brisk in and McPhail (1988) for specific discussion
about the Canadian women’s mov ement(s).
A complete list of the propositions and assumptions can be located in Bricker-Jenkins
9

(1994, p.20).
 35

in intent and is pro-woman, that diversity is a source of strength and health,

and that reality is a mult idimensional process.
In the case of Bricker-Jenkins’ research, the lit erature confirmed her
perception that an identifiable, practit ioner-developed model of practice was
emerging and that it was applied in conventional and alternative settings
with a varie ty of client populations. By recognizing and building on emerging
feminist social work knowledge found in the literature, as well as
practitioners’ personal knowledges and practice wisdoms, she formulated and
presented a model of practice that up until that time had primarily
constituted marginalized knowledge and practice. Her research is prominent
in this thesis as it identifies spirituality as an important emerging component
of holistic social work feminist practices, and there are many similarities
between feminist and spiritual knowledge and practices that are discussed
later in this chapter.
Karen Sandell’s (1993) doctoral research explored the meaning of
feminist social work to those who practiced it. At that time, Sandell stated
that the knowledge of what feminist social workers do in practice was
limited, although feminist social work was gaining a set of characteristics and
developing a body of literature that discussed practice principles and
techniques. She concurs that there is no one way to practice feminist social
work, but that feminist social workers have more similarities than differences.
Sandell (1993) reports that while there are definite differences amongst
feminist social workers, these differences in practice approaches are
influenced more by personal values than by theoretical orientation. The
principles and assumptions shared by feminist social workers are examined
next.

Principles and assumptions informing feminist social work

Dominelli and McLeod (1989) note that one of the most basic
principles informing feminist social work is the belief that we are all equal
 36

irrespective of our gender. Other shared assumptions are that feminist social
work involves working collaboratively with clients, examining gender
socialization and gender stereotypes, and maintaining egalit arian client
relationships (Lundy, 1993). These assumptions may be shared by other
social work approaches such as radical casework (Fook, 1993).
Dominelli (1998, p.920) describes the general principles that inform
feminist social work practice as the integration of theory and practice,
listening to women’s voices and valuing their skills/knowledges, examining
the connections between women’s private lives and the public sphere,
considering the interdependence between people and provid ing for the
welfare of all people, responding to women’s needs in the context of their
roles as nurturers, and seeking to end inequality. But as she points out, the
guiding principles of feminist social work should be made context-specific in
order to be inclusive of diversit y in experiences and viewpoints. This point is
further analyzed in the following sections.
Similarly, Bricker-Jenkins (1991) discusses assumptions about human
beings and their environments that are most significant in shaping feminist
practice. I have summarized her discussion into the following points. The
inherent purpose of life is self-actualization, which is a collective endeavor.
People should be allowed to develop to their fullest potential but society fails
to meet everyone’s needs. Thus, conditions need to be created that will
facilitate this process for people. Society has institutionalized systems of
oppression that have resulted in specific injuries to women, but concern is
held about all ideologies of domination. People are inherently healthy and do
what they need to do to survive. Finally, a different worldview is held from
that in ascendancy that includes believing in the connectedness of all things,
and that reality is an unfolding and multidimensional process, diversity
should be valued, pain has a political dimension, and women have unique
histories that need to be discovered.
 37

Clearly, feminist social work approaches are informed by shared

principles and values, as are other social work perspectives. The previous
chapter discussed how secularization led to a separation of personal values
from social work practice and research. It was also mentioned that feminist
social workers consciously use both personal and professional values in their
work. The importance of values for feminist social work approaches is
discussed next.

Values in feminist social work approaches

The initial calls for bringing together social work and feminism were
supported in part by the commonalities between social work and feminist
values and philosophies. Collins (1986) argues that in many ways social work
values are feminist in nature. For example, the social work perspective of
person in environment mirrors a feminist philosophy that the personal is
political. Collins (1986) also believes that social work must make its feminist
nature visible and valued if it aims to achieve goals such as social justice.
Sandell’s (1993) position is that feminism encompasses values that are
sympathetic, if not identical, to social work. Her viewpoint illustrates that for
some feminist social workers there is strong accord between feminist and
social work values.
Van Den Bergh and Cooper (1986) contend that social work is
supposed to share many of the fundamental concerns of feminism, such as
an interest in human dignity and the right to self-determination, and that
both are theoretically committed to improving the quality of life for all
people. Bricker-Jenkins (1994) points out that feminist social workers use
methods from the vast repertoire of social work modalit ies that converge
with a feminist social work theoretical perspective. She adds that feminist
social workers do work in mainstream settings with the same client needs
and issues as conventio nal practitioners, but that feminist social workers
 38

bring a set of assumptio ns and analyses that result in a politicized agenda

(Bricker-Jenkins, 1991).
Smit h’s (1986) argument for the inclusion of women’s studies courses
in social work education demonstrates that feminists incorporate their values
into practic e and pedagogy. Similarly, Bricker-Jenkins and Hooyman (1986)
explain that although all social work practice embodies values, few
practitioners make their values explicit and consciously examine their
practice against their values. However, feminists use values consciously to
motivate and evaluate actions. This is not unlike some other social work
approaches, such as structural and radical social work that also integrate
values with practice. More recent discussion within the feminist social work
literature stresses the importance of values like diversity and inclusivity,
whic h mirrors the emphasis on diversity in social work in general.

Diversity and inclusivity

It should be noted that especially in the 1970’s and early 1980’s,
feminism in general was criticized for espousing a mostly white, middle-class,
and homogeneous point of vie w. Women of colour, poor women, lesbians
and others pointed out how feminist theories did not include their
experiences of oppression that differed from the mainstream (Agnew, 1993).
As Ochshorn and Cole (1995) note, the 1980’s saw a move towards an
emphasis on differences as well as commonalties.
The need to make feminist social work practice assumptions and
values context specific, and the importance of being open to diversity of
viewpoints and experiences is well illustrated by Baines (1997). She explains
how some feminist social work practice principles were not helpful in the
context of her work, in an under-funded, inner-city public hospital, in an
impoverished and culturally diverse community. She notes that clients
informed her that the process focus she was using seemed to fulfill her
needs rather than the clients’ needs for actual resources. Clients who gained
 39

access to a social worker demanded that the social worker use her expertise,
resources, cultural capital and connections (power) to obtain services that
are denied them (poor women of colour). She also found that these clients,
especially those who lived on the streets, had no difficult y expressing their
anger and were not passive or submissive as their anger kept them and their
children safe. This differs from a previous common assumption in feminist
therapies that women need to get in touch with their anger and learn to
express it outwards, not turn it inwards.
The positive consequence of the criticisms against feminism was that
it was forced to examine itself and to become more self-conscious and self -
critic al (Hirschmann, 1997). As a result, current feminist social work practice
and theory emphasizes issues of classism, racism, heterosexism, and
attempts to include an analysis of all the “isms”, not just sexism. Dominelli
(1998) adds that women have become a more differentiated category with
the valuing of diversity occupying center stage. Dominelli and McLeod (1989)
provide an analysis of this process in their book Feminist Social Work. They
conclude that while women share a commonality in being oppressed as a
gender, their experiences of it are very different. The need to continue to
emphasize the relevance of diversity and marginalized knowledges is
illustrated by Ballou (1995) who calls for the disempowerment of a politics of
exclusion in feminists’ focus, content and knowing structures, in order to
enable the consideration of spiritual knowledge and practice. Another
example of how the lit erature reflects issues of diversit y and inclusivity is
found in debates regarding whether men can be feminists, which is now
examined more fully.

Men and feminism

Bricker-Jenkins and Hooyman (1986, p.106) explain that some
feminists contend that men can be feminists but that they can not be
nonsexist because they partic ipate in the structures of patriarchy. Other
 40

feminists argue that men can learn to be nonsexist but can not be feminists
because feminism is rooted in women’s experience as women. These authors
do not take a position in this debate but rather encourage people to define
themselves in their own terms. Bricker-Jenkins (1989, p.126) included men in
her doctoral research sample, stating that she included men who identified
themselves as feminist or pro-feminist practitioners. She reported that for
one of her male research participants the terms pro-feminist and nonsexist
did not accurately reflect his feminist values and perspective. On the other
hand, Tolman, Mowry, Jones and Brekke (1986) believe that men in social
work should be proactive in an effort to eliminate sexism in the profession
and society, but use the term pro-feminist to connote that their perspective
is inspired by the vision of women and derived from the experiences of men.
They offer principles for a pro-feminist commitment, some of which converge
with feminist social work practice principles such as attending to process and
product, and redefining masculinity.
Although the issue of whether men can be feminists is a complex one
that encompasses vario us perspectives, increasingly there are calls for a
feminist approach that is based on inclusivity. For example, Gross (1998a)
advocates that the preferred strategy of change for feminists can not
continue to be looked at as separate and that feminist social workers need to
be inclusive. Davison Hunter and Howland Sargeant (1993) similarly argue
that the conflict over women’s issues is trivialized if it is portrayed as men
against women. As they point out, men and women can be found on each
side of many disputes. Indeed, some women are sexist and anti-feminist.
Currently the literature reflects some discussion about the future
direction of feminist social work approaches as is evidenced by Gross’s
(1998a) vie w above. Gross (1998b) also speculates about the future need for
feminist social work, pointing out that social workers are skeptical about the
continued relevance of feminism for practice. Dominelli (1998) adds that the
relevance of feminist approaches continues to be challenged across the
 41

world. However, despite these challenges to feminism, feminist approaches

have encouraged social workers to become responsive to the situation of
women in society, and to the problems that both women and men face
because of sexism (Nes & Iadicola, 1989). Due in part to the development of
feminist social work knowledge, there has been progress in incorporating
feminist perspectives into mainstream social work theories, models and
practices (Payne, 1997). Also, some schools of social work now offer feminist
courses and field placements, and feminist influenced research has helped to
modify traditional methods.10
However, women as a group still have far less power than men, which
is evidenced in women’s greater responsibilit y for domestic work whether or
not they are employed outside the home (Brayfield, 1992), and the reality
that a majority of women can’t escape the danger of poverty (Hanmer &
Statham, 1988). Dominelli (1996) argues that women in Britain are more
likely to become social work managers in reaction to a number of factors,
such as a lowering in the status of social work, fewer men seeking social
work careers, dwindling resources and expenditure cuts, frozen salaries, and
the impact of equal opportunity policie s. She stresses that gender equality in
all its manifestations remains a long way off (Dominelli, 1998). As Kenyon
(1997) reports, there is still a significant gender earnings gap between male
and female social workers. Thus, amongst other issues, it appears that future
discussion and debate will likely include the importance (or not) of feminist
social work approaches and the relevance (or not) of carving out a clear
identity for feminist social work perspectives.
This sectio n of the chapter has summarized feminist social work
approaches. Bricker-Jenkins’ (1989) research was particularly sig nificant for
this overview as her work comprehensively examined the core characteristics

For example, the School of Social Work at the Univ ersity of New South Wales (Sy dney ,
10

A ustralia) offers feminist placement experiences, as does the Faculty of Social Work at the
University of Toronto (Toronto, Canada).
 42

of feminist social work perspectives and developed a practice model.11

Although there is no unitary approach to feminist social work practice,
feminist social workers share practice principles and assumptions. Diversity is
a value that is currently emphasized within feminist social work approaches,
as well as within social work in general. Feminist social work approaches
have had some impact on social work, and feminist values and practices
have been incorporated into mainstream social work due in part to the
development of a practice model and frameworks for feminist social work
perspectives. However, many of the goals of feminist approaches such as
achieving gender equalit y remain a long way off, especially for women who
suffer multiple layers of oppression. While there has been some discussion in
the literature concerning the future of feminist social work approaches, this
discourse will continue and may in the future include discussions about
spirit uality as some feminist social workers have id entified spirit uality as an
emerging component to consider. The increasing interest in spirituality within
social work is mirrored within feminist perspectives as well, and is discussed
in the following section that also explores feminist spiritualities and the
similarities between feminist social work approaches and feminist
spirit ualities.

SPIRITUALITY AND FEMINIST SOCIAL WORK -

FEMINIST SPIRITUALITIES

Feminism and spirituality

A few feminist social workers discuss spirituality as an important part
of practice. Bricker-Jenkins (1989, pp.221-223) identifies spirituality as a
highly significant emerging theme in practice, despite the lack of discussion

The dev elopment of practice models and theory is particularly significant for marginalized
11

k nowledge and practices, and I will return to this analy sis later in the chapter.
 43

regarding spirituality in the feminist social work literature. Her work found
that feminist practitioners tend to explore and encourage spirituality in
people’s lives, and that many incorporate methods into their practice aimed
at legitimating, validating and strengthening the spirit ual domain, even
though spirituality is not generally considered an appropriate dimension of
practice and is a relatively undocumented aspect of feminist practice. She
identifies feminist social work approaches that incorporate spirituality as
holistic perspectives that value and build alliances with people’s own healing
powers.
Van Den Bergh (1995) notes that priorities are shifting as they
continue to evolve and that the new priorities include spirituality. She points
out that during the 1980’s and early 1990’s, feminist social work approaches
were concerned with eliminating false dichotomies, valuing process as well
as product, renaming one’s personal reality, reconceptualizing power, and
integrating the personal and political. She maintains that these prioritie s are
shifting in the late 1990’s and currently interests are with the process of
knowing (how people know through narratives and deconstruction), with
connection (focusing on holistic and spiritual practices, and the
interdependence of people), with caring (emphasizing morality and
responsibility), and with diversity (exploring pluralism). In their id entification
of feminist ideological themes, Bricker-Jenkins and Hooyman (1986) list
validation of the non-rational as important. This theme includes healing,
spirit uality, and nonlinear and multidimensional thinking. They also note that
the integration of mind, body and spirit are enduring themes in the women’s
movement. Similarly, Ballou (1995) identifies spirituality as both a process
and content central to the continuing develo pment of feminist psychological
perspectives.
In general, feminists are demonstrating a burgeoning interest in
issues pertaining to spiritualit y and religion. For example, the Canadian
Journal of Women’s Studies (1997, 17.1) recently devoted an entire issue to
 44

the exploration of women’s spiritualities, as did the journal Women and

Therapy (1995, 16.2/3). Although focused more on issues related to religion,
the journal Australian Feminist Studies (1999, 14.30) also devoted an entire
volume to the theme of feminisms, religions, cultures and identit ies, and half
of another volume to the theme of women, religion and citizenship (1998,
13.28). Similarly, the journal Hypatia produced a special issue exploring
feminist philosophies of religion (1994, 9.4). In the epilo gue, Thie (1994)
states that there is something nicely outrageous about a special issue in a
field that does not exist yet, that is, a feminist philosophy of religion.
The literature in these journals has informed this research but was not
specifically helpful with regards to social work practice (particularly the
journals examining issues related to feminism and religions). The articles in
the Canadian Journal of Women’s Studies and Women and Therapy were
more relevant for social work practice, although many articles were personal
reflections and narratives, which reflects the nature of spiritual knowledge
and the state of development in this area. However, it is important to note
again the wider attention given to spirituality and religion. It is this increased
interest within feminism for discussions about spirit uality and religion, which
demands a comprehensive exploration and consideration of the spiritual
dimension in feminist social work practices and theory. This demand is
strengthened by the growing interest in feminist spiritualities, which the
following discussion explores.

Feminist spiritualities
Powers (1995) notes that for the past twenty-five years, an area of
study vario usly called feminist spirituality, feminist theology or women’s
spirit uality has been flourishing. She contends that this growth began as
women started to enter seminaries in greater numbers in the 1960’s and
1970’s, which was concurrent with the growth of feminism in general and the
development of women’s studies programs. Powers (1995) adds that as
 45

women critiqued theology that reflected men’s experiences, they

rediscovered goddesses, pagan religions and cult ures that were goddess
worshipping.
Ochshorn and Cole (1995) note that feminist spirituality is often
identified as a challenge to accepted ways of being and knowing. They
describe feminist spirituality as the assertion of women’s entitlement to
identify, name, explore and assess their own spiritual experiences. King
(1989) believes that feminist spirituality is socially responsible, life affirming
and action oriented, not something added onto life or apart from it.
According to her, a feminist spirituality permeates all activity, being a
dynamic part of development. The fundamental challenge of a feminism that
is spiritual as well as political is about a radically changed perspective, which
calls into question our social, cultural, political and religious tradit ions.
Ballou (1995) points out that feminist spirituality is unmistakably
grounded in community, connection and relationship, and she concurs that it
represents a challenge to established spiritual traditions and religions
regarding accepted ways of knowing and being. This is congruent with
feminism in general and the challenges it has mounted against patriarchy.
Hunt (1995) adds that the women’s spirituality movement is a concrete
manifestation of feminist awakening in our culture; new religious and
spirit ual forms have been created, ancient practic es have been revitalized
and reclaimed, and some are simply claiming for themselves a spiritual
dimension to their lives without regard for a specific religious or spiritual
tradition.
Bernice Marie-Daly (1993) researched the re-emergence of what she
identifies as the Divine. She concludes that eco-feminism reflects this re-
emergence of the Divine in people ’s lives, as this feminist perspective
emphasizes the connectedness between people and the earth. Similarly,
Gatens-Robinson (1994) states that eco-feminists have recognized the
centrality of spirit ual experience to the development of ecological wisdom,
 46

and that feminist spirituality in its various forms can serve as an important
resource for understanding ecological responsibilit ies. She points out that
some feminists, such as Carol Christ and Starhawk, are helping to restore
feminine symbols of spiritual power by celebrating earth religions and natural
cycle s.
Finally, as Neu (1995) points out, although feminists have diverse
ideas about feminist spiritualit y, various perspectives share themes that
include a reverence for the earth and all creation, valuing women’s bodies,
seeking connectio ns wit h all life, and placing emphasis on ritual. Importantly,
a feminist spirituality is rooted in women’s experiences.
The descriptions provided above demonstrate that feminist
spirit ualities value and are concerned wit h social justice issues, power
dynamics and analysis, the importance of women’s stories and experiences,
interrelatedness with others and the earth, and process. These values are
shared by feminist social work approaches as was delineated earlier in the
chapter. The following discussio n particularly demonstrates how these values
influence feminist spiritual practices and processes.

Spiritual influences in feminist practices

Spirituality influences feminist practice in various ways affecting the
helping process by emphasizing women’s wisdom and experiences,
connections, diversity, the use of ritual and energetic healing. For example,
Berliner (1992) identifies her approach as feminist-spirit ual and explains that
as she teaches clients to trust the helping process, she must also trust the
process and let go of answers so that she has room to listen to the
questio ns. She listens to her own inner wisdom and acknowledges that she
too is on a journey and needs to learn from her clients. She also discusses a
commitment to build working relationships based on equality, respect and
trust, stating that what she does in her work is simple: bringing people
together; creating a safe context; affirming the wisdom of their lives;
 47

providing techniques that heighten a body-mind-spirit connection; and

offering support. While this way of working is not necessarily simple or
straightforward, it may feel effortless for someone like Berliner who is an
experienced practitioner and has developed practice wisdom. Also, these
processes reflect feminist spiritual values particularly the concern with power
dynamics and the importance of women’s stories.
Kimmel and Kazanis (1995) focus on how women’s consciousness
raising groups and counselling groups can provide meeting places where
significant connections can occur and feelings of connected purpose can
evolve, which they define as a spiritual process. The spiritual work that goes
on in women’s groups is identified as the use of intuition, imagination,
memory, foresight and vision. According to these authors, women’s groups
through collaborative story telling help women claim their birthright and to
trust their instincts, body, authentic expression and power. They also point
out that this spiritual process can occur in more informal meetings with
women, such as over a “deep lunch” that denotes an intimate and significant
connection with another. Experiences such as these are experiential, abstract
and hard to quantify, yet Kimmel and Kazanis (1995, p.216) stress that these
experiences and connections strengthen and provide sustenance to one’s
spirit .
Other authors have explored the use of rituals in work with women
and stress the importance of ritual for women in order to heal and develop
spirit uality (Johnson, 1997; Bewley, 1995). Enguidanos and Law (1995)
argue that rituals help to create a closer contact with the true essence of
who we are, what we believe in, and how we are feeling. They contend that
by feeling pain and utilizing the strength that spirituality provides, clients are
encouraged to accept the past and begin to shift pain. Neu (1995) examines
the functio n of ritual in feminist spiritual support groups. She believes that
feminist rit uals can enhance women’s mental health by increasing their
 48

balance, strength, energy and comfort, empowering women and offering

collective spiritual support to mark life transitions and changes.
The value of recognizing diversity and pluralism is illustrated in
Mangan Harding’s (1997) article, whic h describes through a case example of
a midwifery task force, how a shared sense of spirituality can guide different
people and groups who have their own vested interests into a plan for the
future. She makes the important point that when diversity is not intentionally
preserved, the most powerful tend to replicate themselves by imposing their
views onto others. Her case example relates to earlier discussion about core
values that are shared across the major religious/spiritual perspectives.
When people meet at a level of shared values and spiritualit y they can
transcend differences which can enable collaborative work. Finally, Maass
and Cohen (1986) describe energistic healing as part of their search for a
holistic practice that aims to balance all parts of a person (body, mind, spirit
and emotions). They believe that when all these parts of a person are
balanced, then the person experiences what they identify as full health.
However, it is not entirely clear what full health means nor how this
balancing process occurs.
There is obviously some overlap between spiritually influenced
feminist practices and the spiritually influenced social work practices
presented in the previous chapter. For example, making meaning, helping
people to connect with others and to trust themselves, the use of group
processes, and intuition were also previously discussed as spiritually
influenced non-feminist practices. These convergences between feminist and
non-feminist spiritually influenced practices and values are not surprising. As
this chapter previously pointed out, there are many shared values and
practices between social work and feminist perspectives, culminating for
some practitioners in a merging of the two into a feminist social work
approach. In addition, both the feminist social work and wider social work
literatures have identified spirituality as an emerging component in the
 49

development of practic es, research and knowledge. These similarities in

values and practices also reflect current influences on social work practice
and knowle dge development that are discussed in the follo wing section.
This section has described how some feminist social workers identify
spirit uality as an important emerging component in practice, as do some
social workers in general. Overall, feminists have demonstrated increased
interest in considering issues of spirituality and/or religion, although many of
these discussions about spirituality such as the broader discussions of
spirit uality and social work, take the form of personal narratives. As the
previous chapter pointed out, this reflects the nature of spiritual knowledge
and the early development of this area. However, the increasing interest in
discussing spirituality coupled with considerations regarding the future of
feminist social work approaches gives the momentum for this research study
and establishes its timeliness.
Feminist spiritualities were presented briefly as challenges to accepted
ways of being and knowing, grounded in community and women’s
experiences. Just as there is no unitary way to practice feminist social work,
different ideas are held about feminist spiritualit ies alt hough various
perspectives share themes, which influence feminist practices in several
ways. Spiritually influenced feminist processes are akin to some of the
spirit ually influenced practices identified in the previous chapter. Indeed,
there are many commonalities between feminist and non-feminist spiritually
influenced practic es, and these similarities are to be expected given the
overlap of values between feminist, social work and spiritual perspectives,
and the increasingly shared nature of social work values, knowledges and
practices across perspectives.
In fact, the current context of social work knowledge and practice is
examined next as it bears implications for spiritually influenced knowledges
and practices, and a brie f discussion of this context is particularly warranted
as both feminist and non-feminist social workers have expressed interests in
 50

exploring spirituality.12 Being relegated to the margins as a knowledge and

practice is an experience shared by feminist approaches, even though the
development of feminist social work practice models and frameworks helped
to validate these perspectives. The brief analysis that follows will also help to
contextualize both feminist and spiritually influenced practices and
knowledges within the broader frame of social work knowledge.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIAL WORK KNOWLEDGE –

CURRENT INFLUENCES

This section provides a brief overview of the development of social

work knowledge and points out the importance of strong integrative links
between research and practice. Current influences on building knowledge are
discussed, and feminist and spiritual knowledges and practices are
contextualized throughout the discussion.

Brief overview of the development of knowledge

Drury Hudson (1997, p.36) explains that throughout social work’s
history there have existed broad trends that at different times emphasized
distinct models and knowledge bases for practice. For instance,
psychoanalytic and psychosocial theories were popular during the 1920’s to
the 1950’s, behavioral approaches gained prominence during the 1960’s and
1970’s, and during the late 1970’s and 1980’s systems and ecological models
were put forth as unifying theories for social work. More recently
perspectives such as feminism and social constructionism have influenced

It is bey ond the scope and purpose of this discussion to prov ide a detailed analy sis of
12

social work knowledge dev elopment and for such an analy sis the reader is referred to
Richard Roberts (1990) for further discussion. A lso, Bob Pease & Jan Fook ’s (1999) book
Transforming Social Work Practice offers postmodern critical perspectives for consideration
regarding social work k nowledge and practice.
 51

social work to redefine itself by stressing the social constructio n of reality

and meaning, and by emphasizing a stronger connection between practice
and research.
As Fischer (1993) notes, a great epistemological debate took place in
the 1980’s within social work that focused around two main issues - logical
positivism versus other philosophies of knowledge development, and
quantitative (“scientific”) versus qualitative (“soft”) research methods. As a
result of this debate, calls were increasingly made for an expanded
epistemology and increased integratio n of social work practice and research.
For example, Wells Imre (1984, 1985) argues that the restriction of
knowledge to that which can be known through empirical science constructs
a dichotomy between empirical knowledge and practice wisdom, which
makes communication between social workers and researchers difficult. She
states that social work requires a philosophy of knowing capable of
encompassing all that is human, as we are intrinsically concerned with
humanity. Similarly, Berger (1986) also points out that social work theory
and practic e should be highly connected but that often they are not. He
argues that social work models in general have almost all been developed by
academics and demonstrate a myriad of problems, one of which is a lack of
connection between theory and practice. Thus, a practice-based profession
such as social work requires research activities and the development of
knowledge, which emerge from or are significantly connected to the real
world of practice.
In fact, since the 1970’s there has been a proliferation of practice
models addressing various client populations and problems (Goldstein &
Noonan, 1999), which are generally based on practice experiences and
practice wisdom, case examples, existing theory and the research literature
(see for example Hickson & Phelps, 1998; Pollio , McDonald, & North, 1996;
Klein & Cnaan, 1995; Vosler, 1994; Behroozi, 1992; Chau, 1990; Roberts-
DeGennaro, 1987). To construct knowledge based on practice wisdom and
 52

experience, existing theory and the research literature reflects the similar
development of a feminist social work practice model. This process of
building knowledge from practice experiences addresses the need for a
strong connection between practic e and research, and produces models that
are particularly relevant for practitioners as knowle dge is grounded in both
empirical research and the real world of practice.
Although there is a greater acceptance for a variety of methods to
create knowledge, which include methods based in practice wisdom, it
should be noted that some researchers continue to emphasize the need for
“scientifically” based practice. Recently, attempts have been made to develop
clinic al practice guidelines as a way of increasing empirically based practice
and improving client outcomes (Howard & Jenson, 1999). Howard and
Jenson (1999) state that the efforts to promote greater research activity and
to strengthen social work’s scientific foundations have met with little success,
and they believe that social work research continues to be of poor quality
and that few practice decisions are empirically based. The chasm between
practitioners and researchers has never been wider according to them. As
Kirk (1999) points out, clinical practice guidelines are the latest attempt to
bring science to bear on social work practice. Other attempts include
evidence-based practice that makes a distinction between claims that rely on
authority or consensus and those that have survived tests of their accuracy
(Gambrill, 1999). However, the lit erature that advocates for an emphasis on
practice wisdom is prominent and recognizes that practice wisdom can be
part of empirically based practice and knowledge. Practice wisdom is a part
of the “art” of social work practice that is examined in greater detail in the
following discussio n.

The art of social work practice

A useful categorization of the professional knowledge of social work is
presented by Drury Hudson (1997, p.38). She argues that professional
 53

knowledge can be categorized into five main knowledge forms - theoretical,

empirical, procedural, practice wisdom and personal knowledge. As she
notes, each of these categories overlaps to create professional knowledge,
whic h is the cumulated understanding derived from theory, research,
practice, and experiences that contribute to the professio n’s understanding
of its work. Professional knowledge serves as a guide for social work
practice.
It is useful to consider each area of knowledge separately as social
workers tend to rely more on some types of knowle dge compared to others.
For instance as Drury Hudson (1997) points out, social workers are inclined
to rely largely on practice wisdom, organizational policy and procedures,
legislation, and social work values as the main basis for practice. She
identifies practice wisdom as the knowledge gained from the conduct of
social work practice, and personal knowledge as an inherent or spontaneous
process where the worker commits herself to action outside of immediate
consciousness or based on a personalized notion of common sense.
Similarly, Klein and Bloom (1995) define practice wisdom as a
personal and value-driven system of knowledge that emerges out of the
transaction between the phenomenological experie nce of the client situation
and the use of scientific information. They state that practice wisdom
incorporates values into a system of knowledge and that it serves to
translate empirical and theoretical knowledge, and previous practice
experience into professional action.
The understanding of social work as “art” is prominent in the literature
along with the acknowle dgment of practice wisdom. The art of social work
encompasses personal knowledge and practice wisdom, and includes
concepts such as intuition, empathy, communication, relationship and the
use of self (Robbins, Chatterjee & Canda, 1999; Drury Hudson, 1997; Dean,
1989). Goldstein (1999) believes that artistry and theory should not be
considered polarities because social work is concerned with personal
 54

meanings, ethical dilemmas and all that it means to be human. Certainly,

perspectives such as feminist social work and other anti-oppression
approaches have encouraged a focus on personal knowledge and practice
wisdom, as well as a move away from grand all-encompassing theories.
Understanding social work as art is in harmony with Pease and Fook’s (1999,
pp. 11-13) postmodern crit ical social work approach, which they argue
values diversity and uncertainty, challenges professional knowledge, and
acknowledges multiple realities and the value-laden nature of social work.
Additionally, personal knowledge and practic e wisdom are developed
by way of practice experience, and are similar to what some social workers
have identified as tacit knowle dge. Tacit knowledge refers to intellectual,
emotional, conscious and unconscious resources that a social worker utilizes
in thinking about and doing practice (Wells Imre, 1985). Wells Imre (1985)
argues that much of the work of experienced social workers involves tacit
resources such as intuition, and that these resources are both a part of how
they practice and a part of who they are. This description of tacit resources
supports the earlier discussion in this chapter regarding the significance of
values. For instance, feminist social work values are both personal and
professional, and are a part of both who a person is and how they practice.
Also, Wells Imre’s (1985) contention that tacit knowledge is a complex
product of a social worker’s prior experiences and that it should be studied,
not denigrated, is in harmony with this research study that explores
spirit uality.
Along the same lines, Weick (1999) identifies what she calls “guilt y
knowledge”. Guilty knowledge refers to the knowledge and experience of
marginalized groups like social work that do not have great status in the
knowledge hierarchy, and whose knowledge is often dismissed as “soft” or
lacking substance. As Hartman (1992) points out, privileging the methods of
science has led to the subjugation of other knowledges located at the
margins of society. Interestingly, this marginalization of knowledge can occur
 55

in multiple layers so that within social work (itself considered a marginalized

knowledge), exist other knowledges that are even further marginalized, such
as feminist perspectives and spiritualit y.
As well as emphasizing the art of social work practice, current
influences also include a shift away from grand theories and a concurrent
move towards sharing values and practices across social work modalities.
These issues are now examined.

Shared social work practices, values and knowledge

Brown and Brodsky (1992) argue that in order to survive the 21 st
century, most approaches will follow a consumer-oriented model such as a
feminist one. In fact, feminist viewpoints, values and practices are
increasingly shared with other social work perspectives. For example, Michael
White’s (1997) narrative therapy approach shares viewpoints and values with
feminist social work approaches, even though the two models do not
represent the same theoretical approach. White identifies Foucault’s
poststructuralist writings as having the greatest influence on the
development of his ideas. However, his model encourages examining the
impact of all the “ism’s” on people’s lives and acknowledging the effect of
practice on therapists’ lives, suggestions which resonate strongly with
feminist social work approaches.
Another example may be found in the most recent edition of the Life
Model of Social Work Practice (Germain & Gitterman, 1996). Germain and
Gitterman (1996) point out the similarities in feminist and ecological thinking,
such as a commitment to social justice and helping people to empowerment.
They note that concepts from feminism have been entering the practice of
many, if not most, social workers over the past two decades, and conclude
that life-modeled practice augmented by feminist and social constructionist
thought is well suited to the social conditions of today’s world.
 56

Although social work has long been concerned with developing a

distinct unifying theory and knowledge base that could encompass all of
social work practice (Roberts, 1990), as De Hoyos (1989) argues, it has
failed to do so and most social workers use an ecle ctic approach. However,
as the development of a life model of practice by Germain and Gitterman
(1996) demonstrates, the search for all-encompassing theories and models
has not completely disappeared. It could be argued that the amalgamation of
feminism and social constructionism into their life model may diminish the
diversity and complexity of these perspectives. Similarly, Lynn (1999)
contends that the adoption of the systems approach as social work
education’s theoretical base in the 1970’s neutralized the reforming thrust of
radic al social work. The outcome was that the latter became regulated to
just another subject taught on social work theory modules. Indeed, all-
encompassing theoretical perspectives and models can oversimplify or even
eclipse and marginalize other important theory, practice and knowledge.
Coates (1991) also argues that all-encompassing models imply that
their particular perspective reflects the view of the profession as a whole,
and that this is the one and only understanding of practice. He favours
generalist practice, which he describes as supporting the trend towards social
workers becoming comfortable with multi-methods, multi-theory and multi-
technique practice. Others like Goldstein and Noonan (1999) agree and state
that exclusive reliance on any one model is too restrictive and not
appropriate for addressing the comple x and varying needs of clients, nor the
complexity of social work practice. The move away from grand narratives
and theorie s to a more context dependent practice approach is better able to
recognize that the development of effective practice models is an unending
process (Lynn, 1999). Thus, it could be argued that generalist practice
combined with a more context dependent approach may also be better able
to recognize marginalized knowledges, particularly knowledges and practic es
 57

that are based in practice wisdom and personal knowledge such as

spirit uality and feminist perspectives.
As the above discussion demonstrates, there is strong impetus within
social work to acknowledge various ways of knowing and building knowledge
thereby legitimizing marginalized knowledges and expanding knowledge
bases. There are also calls to acknowle dge spirituality in the future
development of social work modalitie s, and this chapter concludes with a
summary of these viewpoints.

Future directions
Witkin (1999) believes that the defining feature of the postmodern era
has been the challenging of assumptions about the nature of truth and
reality. He argues that postmodernism’s influence on social work can be seen
through new perspectives on social work knowledge and practice, critiques of
the privileged status of empirical knowing and proposals for alternative
inquiry approaches. Accordingly, he also links social constructionism’s
critiq ue, which focuses on the mechanisms through which knowledge is
controlled by and serves dominant interests in society, with critical theory
and feminist philo sophy. Thus, it can be argued that approaches such as
feminist social work have also influenced social work in these directions,
whic h illustrates how marginalized knowledges can exert influence when they
are shifted into more mainstream discourse and practice. This chapter’s
discussion demonstrates how considerations about spirituality are beginning
to influence social work in general. Moreover, several authors discuss the
need to specifically acknowledge spirituality in future social work knowledge
development.
For example, Robins, Chatterjee and Canda (1999) note that if
practice is to adequately reflect social work’s mission for social justice and a
holistic concern for person and environment, knowledge must be expanded
to include a broad multidisciplinary theory base that will provide a more
 58

comprehensive view of the human condition. They advocate that social

workers must become better educated about spirituality. Goldstein and
Noonan (1999) point out that emerging frameworks for practice include
incorporations of more spiritually oriented approaches. Goldstein (1999)
encourages social workers to break out of the walls of conventional thinking,
noting that social work is concerned with all that it means to be human.
Similarly, Krill (1990) believes the most successful, spontaneous and dynamic
form of helping depends on the integration of theory, religion/philosophy and
subjective experience. Finally, Caspi (1992) argues that social work must
include more relative, ethical and intuitive knowledges. Witkin (1999) who
has published amply regarding social work knowledge and research,
contends that social work is better prepared than other helping professions
to legitimate subjugated knowledge and to expose knowle dge-power
connections, as social workers believe that it’s important for marginalized
people to have a voice and that these perspectives are valuable to hear.
Thus, his viewpoint along with the other perspectives presented above help
to create a context within which future considerations of spirituality can be
encouraged.
This final section of the chapter has provided an overview of the
development of social work knowledge, thereby contextualizing feminist and
spirit ual knowledges and practices within the larger frame of social work
knowledge. Although social work has been concerned with developing a
unifying theory, increasingly there are moves away from all-encompassing
theories and models to more emphasis on the art of practice and
contextually based processes. These current influences are shaping social
work in a number of ways. There appears to be a greater recognition of
practice wisdom and personal knowledge, and many recently developed
practice models are based on these knowledges, which makes them relevant
for practitio ners and addresses the need for strong integrative links between
research and practice. Emphases on practice wisdom and personal
 59

knowledge are highly significant for feminist and spiritual approaches. This
significance is evidenced in the current literature that relies heavily on
discussions about practic e experiences, case studies and personal narratives.
Also, the development of feminist social work approaches and spiritually
influenced practices have emerged from practitioners’ wisdom and personal
knowledge.
Additionally, social work values and practices are increasingly shared
across approaches. The sharing of feminist values and practices
demonstrates the influence that marginalized knowledges can exert when
they are developed into frameworks that can be considered and worked with.
The move away from all-encompassing frameworks to more contextually
based generalist practice can also more effectively recognize practice wisdom
and personal knowledge, which in turn aids in recognizing marginalized
knowledges and practices. These current trends, coupled with calls to include
considerations of spirituality in future theory and model development,
indicate that spiritual knowledge is now far more likely to be recognized and
developed, which strengthens and reiterates the timeliness of this research
study.

Conclusion
This chapter has described feminist social work approaches and
feminist spiritualities. There is no unitary way to practice feminist social work
but there are principles that are shared by feminist social workers. These
shared assumptions include an emphasis on process, working collaboratively
with clients in relationships based on equality, analyzing gender, and valuing
women’s experiences and diversity. Feminist social workers consciously use
their professional and personal values to motivate and evaluate their actions.
The develo pment of a feminist social work practice model influenced social
workers’ viewpoints, values and practices by shifting feminist values and
perspectives into more mainstream discourses.
 60

The future development and relevance of a feminist perspective is

beginning to be discussed in the literature as feminist approaches continue
to be challenged. Given that some feminist social workers have identified
spirit uality as an important emerging component of practice and that
priorities are shifting to a focus on holistic practices, it appears likely that
discussions about spirituality will become part of this discussio n. Indeed,
feminists in general have demonstrated a growing interest in spiritual
matters as is evidenced in the literature and this provid es another layer of
support for the relevance of this research study.
Feminist spiritualit ies were described as diverse but sharing themes
such as valuing women’s bodies, experiences and stories, emphasizing ritual,
process and social justice, and seeking connections with all life. These values
and spiritually influenced practices are in harmony with feminist social work
approaches. Also, there are similaritie s between both spiritually influenced
feminist and non-feminist practices. Moreover, increasingly values and
practices are shared across various social work modalities.
The current context of social work knowledge and practice encourages
the recognition of marginalized knowledges, the acknowle dgement of many
ways of knowing and developing knowledge, the embracing of practice
wisdom and personal knowledge, and a move away from all-encompassing
theories to a more generalist and context dependent practice. These
influences are highly relevant for spiritual and feminist knowledges and
practices, in that these perspectives emerge from personal experiences,
values and viewpoints.
Vario us social work approaches have identified spirituality as an
important factor to consider in the future development of knowle dge.
However, this research study situates its exploration of spirituality specifically
in feminist social work contexts, and is aligned with the interest in the future
evolution of feminist social work approaches. Feminist social work values,
processes and analyses are well suited to consider marginalized knowledges
 61

as they make room for the “other”, value experiences and connections, aim
to ground knowledge in practice, and emphasize diversity. These are all
additional contextual factors of this study. Thus, feminist social work
approaches offer an appropriate context and a worthy starting point for the
exploration of spirituality.
As Chapters One and Two have demonstrated, there are few cohesive
frameworks for spiritual practice to build upon. The presentations of
spirit uality in the literature are not necessarily coherent or clear about what
spirit uality and related concepts mean to social workers, and there is a
demand for empirical research examining spirituality. At the same time,
many feminist and non-feminist social workers are being influenced by
spirit uality in their practices, and claiming an efficacy of spiritually influenced
processes. Thus, this research study is carefully shaped by the current
contexts of social work practice. The following chapter describes the
methods chosen to implement an exploratory research process in this
emerging field of study.
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CHAPTER THREE
THE RESEARCH PROCESS

Introduction
The previo us two chapters illustrate that both feminist and non-
feminist social workers are increasingly demonstrating an interest in
discussio ns about spirituality. Indeed, the literature in this area contains
various rationales for the inclusion of spirituality and some preliminary
knowledge development is evident in the form of spiritually influenced
practices. Additionally, current influences on the development of social work
knowledge are conducive to recognizing marginalized knowledge and
practice such as the focus of this research. Although both feminist and non-
feminist social workers have identified spirituality as an important emerging
component in practice, this thesis explores spirituality specifically within the
context of feminist social work practices.
An exploratory research approach is necessary given the lack of
empirical research in this area. This research study is qualitative and guided
by feminist research principles. Data was collected via semi-structured
interviews and focus groups, and analyzed using a grounded theory
methodological approach. This chapter provides an analysis of the qualit ative
and feminist epistemology of the research study, and explains the rationale
for the choice of a grounded theory methodological approach. The research
design and the interview questions are described and the implementation of
the research design is outlined. Also, the chapter provides an analysis of
researcher bias and presents the methodology of grounded theory analysis of
the data.
The analysis of the research data led to an unexpected uncovering of
significant convergences amongst the research participants’ beliefs, values
and practices. This unanticipated finding added a second layer of data
 63

collection and analysis, which is described in the last section of this chapter.
To begin, the epistemology of the research study will be presented.

EPISTEMOLOGY OF THE RESEARCH STUDY

The research epistemology of this thesis refle cts qualitative, feminist

and grounded theory methods and principles. These three perspectives and
methods are in strong harmony, sharing the recognition of the importance of
practice experiences and practitioner wisdom. Each of these perspectives is
now discussed in turn.

Qualitative methods
Qualitative methods are inductive approaches that aim to construct
theory, while quantitative methods are deductive approaches that test
theory. While qualitative methods are usually associated with naturalism and
the social sciences, quantitative methods generally reflect positivist scie nce.
Historically, researchers have subordinated the discovery of theory and
qualitative methods to quantitative methods such as hypothesis testing.
Gilgun (1992) points out that the testing of hypotheses has been considered
a more sophisticated form of research within the positivist-oriented social
sciences. While proponents of quantitative research imply that their methods
are more scientific and therefore a more valid method of knowledge creation,
qualitative researchers emphasize that positivist methods have less relevance
for social work practice (Wit kin, 1995). For example, Gilgun (1992) argues
that social work needs discovery-oriented research in order to develop new
knowledge, which is a perspective that supports and fits with this thesis.
Along these lines, Witkin (1995) contends that social work must
honour its unique commitment to a contextual understanding of people, its
explicit value base that emphasizes human rights and dignity, its
 64

commitment to serving oppressed and marginalized people, and its mission

to foster a more just society despite the reality that not all research methods
and questions are equally valued. The value driven nature of social work and
its concern with creating change influence research questions that should
determine methods of inquiry. For example, this study explores marginalized
spirit ual knowledge and practice from the perspectives of feminist
practitioners. Thus, qualitative methods are better suited for in-depth
exploration of practitioners’ viewpoints, values and practices, and the
relationships between beliefs and behaviours.
Increasingly there are more calls for an elimination of dichotomous
thinking and recognition of the utility of both quantitative and qualit ative
approaches (see for example Mason, 1997; Allen-Meares, 1995; Gambrill,
1994). These calls reflect previous discussion that pointed out a shift away
from positivist science to a greater acceptance of alternative methods. As
such, Maguire (1987) contends that we have passed the point where feminist
influenced research methods need to be defended or rationalized. The
epistemology of this research study must also reflect the principles inherent
in feminist research given the focus of the study on feminist social work
practices. Feminist research principles and methods that often utilize
qualitative methods are briefly examined next.

Feminist methods and principles

Mason (1997) argues that with the women’s movement of the 1960’s
and 1970’s came scepticism about traditional research and its treatment of
women, and feminist research developed out of this scepticism. McCarl
Neilson (1990) believes that feminist methods are part of a larger intellectual
movement that represent a fundamental shift away from traditional social
science methods towards a recognition that there are many ways to build
knowledge. As some researchers stress, feminist research methods offer
alternatives to methods that are judged to be inappropriate and inadequate
 65

as these methods are sexist in design and use findings from all-male samples
to describe women, or emphasize value-free science (Westkott, 1990).
According to Cook and Fonow (1990), the notion of feminist methods
includes two dimensions - the epistemological ideas of feminist methods, and
methodological practices. Just as there is no one way to practice feminist
social work, there is no one way to conduct feminist research (Reinharz,
1992). However, Mason (1997) notes that feminist research principles guide
research processes, even though researchers disagree on their application.
She identifies these shared principles as using women’s experiences as a
resource for research, improving women’s lives through research and
reconceptualizing power so that researcher and participant are more equal.
Similarly, Cook and Fonow (1990) discuss five basic epistemological
principles that are also shared by other anti-oppression methods. These
include attending to the significance of gender, using consciousness raising
as a method, challenging the idea of separation between the subject and
object of research and the notion that grounded experiences are unscientific,
recognizing ethic al implications, and empowering women through the
research process. Davis (1986) stresses connectio n between researcher and
participant, and Van Den Bergh (1995) emphasizes partnerships and building
on dialogue. In describing her study, Sparr (1998) notes that feminist
analysis shaped the research goals, the process and content of trainings to
be held with participants, the research questions and techniques that were
used, and influenced how participants were invited into the process and the
style in which groups worked.
Thus, researchers who are guided by feminist principles are concerned
with the overall process of the research, the creation of egalitarian
relationships, and with working collaboratively and meaningfully with
participants. Feminist principle s have influenced this study’s design and
implementation by basing the inquiry in the participants’ beliefs and
experiences, and by using semi-structured individual interviews and focus
 66

groups in order to foster a collaborative and meaningful research process.

The participants’ experie nces and participation in this study were honoured
in several ways. They received transcripts of their interviews, were informed
through written communication about the developments and progress of this
thesis, and were invited to provide feedback on the research results.
A choice was also made to use a grounded theory methodological
approach that is a qualitative discovery-oriented method, which shares some
feminist research principles. Further rationale for this choice is now
presented.

Grounded theory methods

Although Glaser and Strauss (1967) orig inally developed grounded
theory as a method of analysis in sociology, it has become a highly
successful research process utilized by many other fields. In fact, grounded
theory methods have evolved since the approach was first published and
now there is no one correct way to conduct grounded theory research (Dey,
1999). In general, grounded theory methods are inductive approaches that
involve a continuous process of defining and redefining concepts, and
relationships between concepts (Gilgun, 1994). This process is termed
“constant comparison” by Glaser and Strauss (1967).
Gilgun (1994) explains that the process of grounded theory should be
used when the research purpose is discovery and the development of
concept definitions and relatio nships. The purpose of a grounded theory
approach is to generate rather than test theory (Corbin, 1986). It is a
transcending way to view data which guides future research and raises
thought about the data to a higher level (Glaser, 1978). The goals of this
research study are necessarily exploratory given the lack of prior knowledge
development in spirituality and social work, and they fall squarely within
these purposes of grounded theory methods.
 67

Practice professio ns such as nursing and social work have made

considerable use of grounded theory methods in their quest to conduct
research that is relevant for practice. Within social work there are regular
calls for research that is practice-oriented and reflects social work values
(Swigonski, 1994). Grounded theory is particularly suitable for social work
research as not only do the findings of the research fit the realities of
practice, but also the similarities between practice and grounded theory
methods are significant. These include a focus on the participant’s/client’s
perspective and data collection methods such as interviewing (Gilgun, 1994).
Additionally, Siporin (1985) argues that research findings, like
theories, need to be made relevant for practice by being identified and
translated into knowledge and criteria for use. Grounded theory methods can
establish this knowledge from actual practice experiences that make the
results highly relevant for practitioners. Thus, a grounded theory method is
particularly suitable for this research study as it produces results that emerge
from practice experiences and makes its greatest contribution in areas in
whic h little research has been done (Chenitz & Swanson, 1986; Glaser,
1978).
Finally, grounded theory methods share feminist research principles
such as honouring the importance of practice experiences. The end result of
a grounded theory method and analysis produces theory that organizes and
describes relevant knowledge, and guides further action and research
(Chenitz & Swanson, 1986). The theory is understandable, fits with
experience in the area, is flexible and general enough to be applicable to
diverse situations, and provides practitioners with a base upon which to
explain and plan interventions (Corbin, 1986).
This section has discussed the research epistemolo gy which is based
in qualitative and feminist perspectives and methods. Over the past two
decades many social workers have moved beyond debating the merits of
quantitative versus qualitative methods to an acceptance that both are
 68

relevant depending on the research questions. Qualitative methods are

better suited for the in -depth exploration of social workers’ values, practices
and beliefs about spirituality. Also, principle s inherent in feminist research
methods are reflected in this study’s design and implementation.
Both qualitative and feminist methods complement inductive grounded
theory approaches, whic h aim to discover theory and value the importance of
practice experiences. Grounded theory methods are particularly suitable for
this thesis as there is a lack of prior knowle dge development in spirituality
and social work, and because both grounded theory and social work methods
focus on participants’/clients’ perspectives and use data collection methods
such as interviewing. Grounded theory methodology fits with practice
contexts and findings may be highly significant for practitioners as they
emerge from the real world of practic e. Whether or not the findings of this
study are relevant for practitioners will be discussed in the following
chapters. However, basing this research inquiry in practitioners’ experiences
and fostering a meaningful and collaborative research process reflects
feminist, qualitative and grounded theory methods and principle s. How the
research epistemology influenced the research design is further discussed in
the following section which describes the research questions, the use of
semi-structured interviews and the research sample.

THE RESEARCH DESIGN

Research questions
The development of the core research questions of this inquiry is
shaped primarily by the exploratory goals of the research, the literature in
the field, and my own conceptual framework. In general, the research aims
to explore whether self-identified feminist social workers identify the use of
 69

spirit ual influences in their practice. This thesis topic is explored by

addressing the following research questions:
1. What are self-identified feminist social workers’ ideas about a
spirit ual dimension or spirituality, and feminist social work?
2. What are the underlying perspectives that inform their personal
conceptualizations about spirituality and/or a spiritual dimension?
3. In what ways, if any, does a spiritual dimension and/or spirituality
influence their practices?
4. Do self-identified feminist social workers identify spiritually
influenced practice methods or processes?
5. What are their perceptions about the effects and implications of a
spirit ually influenced social work practice?
6. What are their thoughts about incorporating spirituality into social
work education and training?
All of the interview questions reflect the above research questions.13
The interview questions are grouped into the following five areas:
1. Feminist social work and spirituality (How would you describe
feminist social work practice?),
2. Understandings about spirituality (What are your thoughts
concerning the connections or lack thereof between feminism and
spirit uality and/or a spirit ual dimension?),
3. Expressions of spirituality in practice (If your feminist social work
practice reflects a spiritual dimension and/or spirituality, how
would you describe this?),
4. Implications of expressing spirituality, or not, in practice (Are there
some types of feminist social work practice that are more
conducive to incorporating a spiritual dimension and/or spirituality
than others? Why and why not?),

The interv iew guide and questions can be found in Appendix II.
13
 70

5. Future directions (Should social work schools offer some type of

exposure to spirituality? Why and why not? What are your
concerns and/or hopes about this possibility?).
It is important to note that prior to participating in this study, the
participants were informed by way of a participant information statement
that the researcher conceptualized spirituality and religion differently.14
Religion was defined as constructions of institutionalized worship dependent
on dogma and a notion of God. Spirituality was defined as representing a
personal philosophy, referring to beliefs in something “bigger” (whatever that
something might be), feelings of connectedness and community, and/or a
desire to live life meaningfully. Because this study was interested in exploring
spirit uality, potential research participants were informed about this interest.
Additionally, both of the terms spirituality and spiritual dimension were used
in the research and intervie w questions in order to be inclusive of
participants’ diverse spiritual beliefs. Participants were informed that these
terms could imply similar meanings or not, once again acknowledging the
rights of the individual to self-define the meaning of such terms.
In order to explore the research questions that were noted previously,
a decision was made to interview particip ants individually using a semi-
structured format. The rationale for this choice is now examined.

The use of semi-structured interviews

The choice of semi-structured interviews over unstructured or
structured intervie ws or another research method was influenced primarily
by the nature of spirituality and the explo ratory goals of this study. For
example, discussions about spirituality can be complex, abstract and highly
personal. It can be a struggle to find words to describe beliefs and
experiences, and given the marginalized nature of spirituality I suspected

14
Please see Appendix III for the participant information statement.
 71

that few participants would have had previous experie nce of talking to
someone about their spirituality and feminist social work practice. Thus, the
recruitment of participants could be a problem in willingness to undertake a
written questionnaire for example. Moreover, I believed it was important for
semi-structured questions to guide the interview process and stimulate
thinking about the topic areas, but the semi-structured format allowed room
for spontaneous questions, dialogue and exploration. As Davis (1986) points
out, too often researchers make the critical error of believing that people
have ready-made answers to their question s. She contends that answers are
often in the process of formation and the interview process can help to
access these budding thoughts. Also, grounded theory approaches are
inextricably although not exclusively linked with interview methodology.
Reinharz (1992) notes that interview studies frequently rely on a grounded
theory method of data analysis. Interview research explores participants’
notions of reality and promotes the generation of theory.
Overall, interviews offer partic ipants the opportunity to share their
subjective experie nces and they are flexible, provide a good response rate,
allow for the use of spontaneous and comple x questions, and for clarification
and discussion (Reinharz, 1992; Bailey, 1987; Maguire, 1987). Additionally,
the use of interviews utilizes basic social work practice skills such as
interviewing, which is well suited to qualitative methods of research. And as
Reinharz (1992) notes, the predominant manner by which feminist
researchers have sought to involve their research respondents in a
meaningful way has been through the use of interviews. Accordingly, this
study involves the participants in a meaningful way by grounding the
research inquiry in their practice experiences. The following discussion
describes how and where the participants were lo cated.
 72

Sampling method and sample size

The sampling method began with a purposive sampling technique and
as the research progressed, the sampling became more discriminate. A
participant information statement was used to help recruit participants –
twenty in total, which was a large enough sample to generate rich data but
small enough to enable thorough analysis of the data.
The choice of the sampling method was influenced by several factors
including the exploratory goals of the research, the relative lack of research
in the area, a grounded theory methodological approach, the interview
methodology and the underlying epistemology of the research. For example,
when using grounded theory methods the sampling procedures are linked to
the type of coding process that is being used to make sense of the data.
Typically, the research process begins with a purposive, open sampling
method and as the research inquiry progresses and the coding becomes
more refined and abstract, the sampling becomes discriminate (Strauss &
Corbin, 1990). In discriminate sampling the researcher becomes deliberate
about who to sample in order to obtain needed data and to verify the theory,
whic h has emerged from the data.
Sandelowski (1995) argues that the determination of an adequate
sample size in qualitative research depends ultimately on a matter of
judgement in evaluating the quality of the data collected against the uses to
whic h it will be put, the research method, the sampling strategy and the
intended research product. Accordingly, researchers using grounding theory
methods advocate for theoretical sampling or theoretical saturation as a way
of determining sample size (Gilgun, 1992), which fits with Sandelowski’s
(1995) view that a good principle to follow is that an adequate sample size
permits the deep, case-oriented analysis that is a hallmark of qualitative
inquiry and that results in a richly textured understanding of experie nce.
Generally in a grounded theory exploration it is suggested to include
participants until no new or relevant data seems to emerge, category
 73

development is dense and relationships between categories are well

established and validated (Strauss & Corbin, 1990). In realit y, absolute
theoretical saturation may never be achie ved but it is possible to reach a
point where a reasonable level of confidence can be felt about the selection
of new types of cases. However, due to the nature of this sampling
technique, it is difficult to determine the exact size of the sample required
prior to beginning the research process.
Theoretical saturation began to be evident at about the fourteenth
interview. New data had not emerged, the main categorie s produced little or
no new information and relationships between the categories were well
developed. Therefore, after the completion of the fifteenth interview
participants with specific characteristic s such as gender, cultural background,
social work experience and spiritual perspective were purposively sought in
order to create as diverse a sample as possible, and to verify the “story line”
or “core category” that had emerged. Strauss and Corbin (1990) refer to the
story line as the core category, which emerges from final integration of the
data. As Sandelowski (1995) points out, when qualitative researchers decide
to seek out people because of particular characteristics, it is because they
are considered good sources of information that will advance the study
towards an analytic goal.
Thus, given the guidelines concerning exploratory research, the
exploratory goals of this study, the desire for a diverse sample and the use
of a grounded theory method, twenty semi-structured, individual interviews
were completed. Indeed, the sample of twenty participants was large enough
to generate complex data that displayed diversity in experiences, yet was
small enough to allow for thorough analysis to begin to make sense of
participants’ understandings of spirituality and the influence of spirituality in
their practices.
A snowball technique, a type of purposive sampling, was used to
initially identify participants. A purposive, open sampling method was
 74

necessary, in part because there is no overt label such as “feminist-spirit ual

social worker” that could have been used to identify participants. Purposive
sampling makes it impossible to generalize the research findings beyond the
identified sample which is generally small. However, in a grounded theory
approach the goal is to explore the phenomena in question, not to achieve
generalizable results. Generally, in qualitative research the deep
understanding generated by information-rich cases is valued, while in
quantitative research it is the generalizations of the result s to larger
populations which is important (Sandelowski, 1995).
Potential research participants were invited to consider participating in
this study through a participant information statement that was distributed in
a number of ways. The statement was mailed to all the organizations in the
greater metropolitan Sydney area that supervised social work field students
for the University of New South Wale s (UNSW) School of Social Work. The
statement was also distributed in undergraduate and postgraduate classes at
the UNSW and within a social work department in a major teaching hospital
in the northern Sydney area. Additionally, it was sent to the School of Social
Work at The Flinders Universit y of South Australia and to contacts I had in
Brisbane in Queensland. I also personally contacted people who were
identified as potential participants by colleagues and social workers who had
heard about this study, and by participants already committed to the
research.
The criteria for participation are listed in the participant information
statement, that is, either self-identificatio n as a feminist social worker or as
working from a feminist perspective. The only definition of feminist social
work that was offered to potential participants stated that although feminist
social work shares practice principles and assumptions there is no unitary
approach to its application, and that feminist social work combines feminist
theory and social work practice principles. This definition of feminist social
work was used in order to be inclusive of many different viewpoints and to
 75

reflect the reality that there is no one way to practice feminist social work. A
decision was also made to include men in the sample as I encouraged people
to self-identify according to their own terms, a viewpoint that is advocated
by Bricker-Jenkins and Hooyman (1986, p.106). As Chapter Two pointed out,
the debate about whether or not men can be feminists is a complex one.
However, encouraging people to self-identify as feminists reflects the current
emphasis in feminist approaches on diversity and inclusivity.
Once the participant information statement was distributed, people
who may not have been interested in participating themselves nevertheless
passed the statement on to social work colleagues and friends. One of the
drawbacks of this snowball technique is that people will identify others who
are similar to them. However in this research study, only one participant was
enlisted through this sampling technique. In fact, participants were quickly
identified as information about the study was disseminated. This was most
evident in Adelaide, the Capital City of the State of South Australia. Once the
social work community in Adelaide became informed about the study, my
contact at The Flinders University of South Australia was inundated with
offers to participate. This overwhelming response resulted in seven of the
twenty participants comprising residents of Adelaide and the surrounding
area.

Sample description
Overall, the participants represent an experienced group of social
workers with diverse direct practice experiences. The sample comprises three
men and seventeen women. Ages of the participants range from twenty-
three to fifty-one, and seventeen of the participants are thirty-three years of
age and older. One participant identified as Aboriginal and six participants
identified being from non-English speaking backgrounds. Eighteen
participants have a Bachelor of Social Work degree, two of whom have an
 76

additional Master of Social Work degree, and two were in the process of
completing their Bachelor of Social Work degrees.
The participants work in various settings such as hospitals, non-
government organizatio ns, community health centers, child protection
agencies and children’s services, private practices, lo cal government services,
hospices, in disability servic es and at a university. One participant was not
engaged in paid social work practic e but identified being involved with
various community development projects and commit tees. Two other
participants were engaged in social work placements in legal-research
services and community health. The majority of participants are engaged in
direct practice, which means the results are best contemplated in relation to
work with individuals, couples, families and small groups.
Although four particip ants had less than two years of social work
experience, the other participants’ social work experience ranged from six to
twenty-five, with twelve participants indicating that they had ten or more
years of social work experience. Of the four participants who had less than
two years of experience, one had social work placement experience only.
However, the other three participants had all come to study social work later
in their careers and although they had not previously held jobs as social
workers, they had each accumulated over ten years of practice experience in
health and welfare, disabilities and youth, and social justice work. Twelve
participants are employed on a full-time basis and five partic ipants indicated
they worked part-time, hours per week ranging from twenty to twenty-eight.
Finally, it is relevant to note the participants’ diverse religious and
spirit ual backgrounds because this study explores spirituality. As children,
eight participants were not raised in any partic ular spiritual or religious
tradition while eight were raised as Catholics, two were raised in the United
and Anglican traditions, and two were raised in what they identifie d as
fundamentalist and orthodox traditions. Of those twelve partic ipants who
were raised by their families in a specific relig ious tradition, four had left
 77

those traditions. As adults, five particip ants who were raised with no religious
or spiritual traditio n are practic ing a spiritual or religious perspective, which
include Christianit y, Yoga, metaphysics and another new age perspective
influenced by Eastern philosophies.
This sectio n of the chapter described the research design and
discussed the research questions, the use of semi-structured interviews, the
sampling method, and sample size and description. Self-identified feminist
social workers and practitioners working from feminist perspectives were
asked about their understandings of spirituality and feminist social work, if
spirit uality influenced their practices and their ideas regarding spiritually
influenced practice. Twenty participants were individually intervie wed using a
semi-structured format. Interview methodology fits with grounded theory
approaches and involves the participants in a meaningful way by grounding
the research inquiry in their experiences, beliefs and values. Thus, it is a
research process that is well suited to explorations of spirituality as spiritual
discourse can be complex, abstract and highly personal. The semi-structured
questions guided the dialogue but allowed for spontaneous questions,
exploration and development of responses.
In grounded theory approaches, sampling procedures are linked to
coding processes that are being used to analyze incoming data. A snowball
technique was utilized at the beginning of this research process and as
theoretical saturation became evident, five participants were recruited based
on characteristics such as work experience. Although the results of this study
can not be generalized beyond the study sample, the diverse sample
generated information rich cases that helped to explore spiritualit y in feminist
practices. Interestingly, locating a diverse and experienced sample for this
study proved unproblematic and in fact, many more people than could be
interviewed expressed interest in becoming participants. This reflects the
overall growing interest in discussing spirituality across social work
approaches, and the scarcity of contexts for these discussions. The
 78

implementation of the research design is discussed next, which includes an

analysis of researcher bias.

IMPLEMENTATION OF THE RESEARCH

The interview process

Once the interview guide was developed, a pilot or pre-test phase
was conducted to assess the overall effectiveness of the questions and any
potential problems. This pilot phase was based on three interviews that
produced comprehensive data which addressed the exploratory research
questions. Thus, it was determined that except for two repetitive questions
that were subsequently deleted from the interview guid e, the rest of the
interviews would proceed using the same questions and interview guide.
All of the individual interviews were tape-recorded and transcribed for
the purpose of a grounded theory analysis. Each participant received a copy
of their transcribed interview with a request to review their transcript for
accuracy and to record on the transcript where they thought the
transcription was inaccurate. They were also given an opportunity to add
further written comments and any sig nificant information that they thought
was missing from the original interview, which added to the rigor of the
research process.
Interview questions were sent to the participants prior to the
scheduled interviews. This choice was made on the basis that responses
would be more comprehensive and clear if participants had time to
contemplate the questio ns, especially since the nature of the subject matter
is complex and there is a lack of knowledge in this area. The desire for rich
and substantial data outweighed the possibility that the participants would be
influenced by the questions prior to the interview. In fact, most of the
participants agreed and explained that they appreciated receiving the
 79

questions beforehand because they had not been asked questions like this
before. As one participant explained, the questions were helpful in thinking
and preparing…I know absolutely that the day you spoke to me on the
phone…if we had met the next day or if I hadn’t had the chance to think
about the questions, then the interview would have been over in three
15
minutes I can guarantee.
Any research process, including the implementation described above,
is influenced by personal biases. As the previous chapter pointed out,
feminist research principles emphasize that research is not unbiased or
value-free. Being clear about our potential biases highlights the importance
of the research process and acknowledges these limitations. Personal biases
that are declared can also be used by the reader to further evaluate the
researcher’s work (Mason, 1997). As Hartman (1994) contends, ontological,
epistemological and value assumptions must be made explicit for knowledge
can be understood and evaluated only in the context of the framing
assumptions.
Personal biases can be lessened in a grounded theory approach.
Keeping interviews as open as possible may encourage many themes to
emerge and may lessen the chances of imposing a personal conceptual
framework on participants (Gilgun, 1992). However, although interviews
should be approached with an open mind as Dey (1999, p.251) argues, there
is a difference between an open mind and an empty head. Consequently, a
brief analysis of my biases is warranted although I have attempted to keep
interviews as open as possible by using semi-structured questions and
framing the research process as explo ratory. This is part of the process of
positioning myself in relation to this study.

Italics are used in this thesis for the participants’ words. The separation of words by three
15

periods indicates words or phrases that are omitted because they are repetitive or
unnecessary, for example, um or ah.
 80

Researcher Bias
I agree with the previously discussed ideas that spiritualit y is a sense
of something bigger than the self and that a connection with this something
bigger can make life experience feel more meaningful. There is value in
Ballou’s (1995) viewpoint that spirituality exists within our ordinary life
experiences, states of consciousness and relationships. Similarly, there is
merit in the assertion that spirituality can be a coping resource
(Sermabeikian, 1994) and a positive force in the healing process. For me,
spirit uality transcends religion. Dudley and Helfgott (1990) found that for
most social workers their greatest concern was for the separation of Church
and State and the fear that one viewpoint would dominate all others. I share
these concerns and place value on diversity of viewpoints and beliefs, and on
tolerance and compassion.
While my personal perspective converges with conceptualizations of
spirit uality in the literature and the emphasis on diversity, it has also clearly
affected the construction of this study, particularly the focus on spirituality
rather than religion. I do not have theological training or knowledge as do
some researchers in the area, for example, Hartman (1996) and Bullis
(1993). Thus, my interests are in an overarching spirituality that transcends
sectarian perspectives. Additionally, my beliefs that spirituality can be a part
of helping processes and my experiences as a social worker have encouraged
the development of research questions aimed at exploring spiritual influences
in practice. With regards to the interview process, I attempted to remain
conscious about my own lack of affiliation with religion and the influence this
might have with participants who are affiliated with religio n by, for example,
not engaging in religio us discourse. However, my interests in diverse
spirit ualities and my upbringing in a liberal Christian tradit ion assisted me in
understanding the different perspectives articulated by the participants.
Most of the world’s religions share at their core similar humanistic
values and philosophies (Huxley, 1945). I believe that these values can
 81

promote unity and tolerance, and explain in part some of the research results
that will be discussed in the following chapters. For the purposes of the
present discussion, I will note that my belief in the significance of these
underlying shared values and my analytical ability to locate shared values,
beliefs and practices across perspectives influenced the grounded theory
analysis by contrib uting to the recognition of significant convergences in the
data. In a grounded theory approach theory emerges from the data but
researcher biases and analytical skills obviously affect the analysis by
influencing what are recognized as significant relationships between and
amongst the data. The following section discusses the analysis of the
research data.
This section has described the implementatio n of the research process
and the effects of researcher bias. Individual interviews were tape recorded
and transcribed for grounded theory analysis. The participants were offered
the opportunity to verify and add to the transcription of their interview,
whic h increased the rigor of the research and enhanced the meaningfulness
of the research process.
Also, since research is not value-free it is important to position myself
in relation to this study so that the overall research process can be further
evaluated. My interests in spirituality and experiences as a practit ioner
affected the construction of the research questions, while my feminist
perspective shaped the research epistemology and processes. Additionally,
my belief in the importance of shared values across religious/spiritual
perspectives, and my analytical abilities to locate these shared values shaped
the grounded theory analysis by uncovering convergences amongst
participants’ beliefs, values and practices. The next and final section of this
chapter describes this process of grounded theory analysis.
 82

THE RESEARCH ANALYSIS

The analysis of research data began with a grounded theory analysis

of the interview data, which uncovered surprising convergences amongst the
participants’ beliefs, values and practices. These convergences led to further
research questions and analysis, followed by another layer of data collection
and grounded theory analysis by way of focus groups.

A grounded theory analysis

Mizrahi and Abramson (1994) explain that the first step in data
analysis is to devise a strategy to convert the mass of data into systematic
schema for examining its meaning, discovering themes and patterns, and
making connections among concepts. In grounded theory methods, coding
represents the operations by which data are broken down, conceptualized
and reconstructed in new ways. It is the central process by which theories
are built from data (Strauss & Corbin, 1990, p.57). Glaser and Strauss (1967)
first develo ped the constant comparative method of coding data. This
method is an overlapping process that involves the simultaneous coding and
analysis of data. The coded data are clustered into related categories that
are then compared with one another and with new emerging data in order to
discover links between the categories. Making links between the categories is
a means of putting conceptual order on the mass of data.
Strauss and Corbin (1990) describe open, axial and selective coding as
three major types of coding, although they also note that these processes
overlap. During open coding similar events are labelled and grouped to form
categories. Data are compared for similarities and differences, and questions
are asked about the phenomena. In axial coding the data are put back
together in new ways by making connections between categories and in
selective coding the core category is selected and systematically related to
 83

the other categories. Final integration of the data is not much different from
axial coding but it is done at a higher, more abstract analytical le vel.
I began using open coding after the third interview was transcribed.
Participants’ responses were colour coded (each participant was given a
unique colour), responses were cut out of the transcript and grouped into
relevant categories. As new data emerged, it was either clustered into
already existing categories saturating those categories or, partic ularly in the
preliminary stages of analysis, it was grouped into a new category. Although
Turner (1981) and Glaser and Strauss (1967) suggest using a card system to
help organize and code responses, given the amount of data the interviews
produced the colour coding system also generated an effective way of
organizing and making sense of the data. This manual way of coding
encouraged a strong familiarity with the data. As the analysis continued, the
categories were continuously compared with one another and with new
emerging data in order to discover links between the categories (axial
coding). A notebook was also used throughout the analysis to record any
discrepancies or convergences between participant responses and questions
and observations that arose from the analysis.
Any categories that were related were combined and once again
compared to incoming data to assess their relationships to hypotheses that
were emerging from the comparisons between categories. For example, a
category that emerged early in the data analysis was that spirituality helped
participants to make meaning or sense of life events. This category was
eventually combined with the categories of having a sense of trust that
things will work out, finding meaning in social work, and believing that
spirituality fosters living a good life. This category of making meaning or
sense of experiences was also related to categories regarding spiritually
influenced practic es. For example, how participants understood spirituality
affected what they identified as spiritually influenced practices. Therefore,
 84

many participants identified that helping clients to make meaning of life

events was a spiritually influenced process in practice.
As links between the categories are built the theory begins to emerge
around core categories (selective coding). As the data analysis continued, I
was struck by significant emerging convergences amongst the participants’
responses. On one hand, perhaps these convergences should have been
antic ipated due to the shared nature of values across major religious and
spirit ual perspectives that were discussed in Chapter One. On the other
hand, the extent of the convergences was surprising given the diversity of
the particip ants’ backgrounds and experiences. Refinement of the theory
comes from the continued connection and reduction of concepts that leads to
increased abstraction (Corbin, 1986; Stern, 1986; Glaser, 1978). Determining
the story line (the main or core category) is necessary to achieve final
integration of the data. Groupings were searched for according to gender,
sexuality, age, experience and spiritual/religious beliefs but remarkably, no
significant differences were found. Perhaps when further research and
discourse is develo ped, the sufficiently artic ulated common ground may then
allow differences to emerge. 16 Clearly the emergence of convergences in
values, beliefs and practices in this study led to additional research questions
and analysis, and this is described next.

The development and organization of practice principles

The uncovering of major convergences regarding discussions of
spirit uality and spiritually influenced practices led to a conscious decision to
pursue another le vel of data analysis, and later data collection. Given these
convergences new research questions emerged. For instance, I wondered if
there was anything that distinguished a “feminist-spirit ual” approach to social
work practice and if it was possible to distinguish this emerging “feminist-

This is not to say that there were no differences amongst participants’ beliefs, v alues and
16

practices, and the following chapters discuss these wherev er possible.

 85

spirit ual” approach to social work practice from other conventional models.
Keeping these questions in mind, I returned to the data analysis. Categories
were again reduced and connected (selective coding), and the main themes
that emerged were developed and written into a set of practice principles.
This second layer became possible as the research unfolded, and was not
part of the original research plan.
Once the practice princip les were writ ten it became evident that they
could be organized into three broad groupings that address different aspects
of the participants’ spiritual beliefs and social work practices. For example,
the first grouping – understandings of spirituality, basic philosophy and
values, encompasses three practice principles that reflect the participants’
understandings of spirituality and religion, the need for research in this area
and the effects of the marginalized nature of spirituality on practice, and the
similarities between feminist, social work and spiritual values. The second
grouping – processes of spirit ual development and beliefs about the spiritual
essence of human existence, encompasses two practice principles that
address the partic ipants’ ideas about spiritual development and their beliefs
about the spiritual essence of human life. While this grouping overlaps with
the first grouping of categories, its focus is on the participants’ personal
processes and experiences. The third grouping – spiritually influenced
practice processes and relationships, encompasses six practice principles that
include the partic ipants’ ideas about the goals of practice and examples of
spirit ually influenced practices. Clearly, there is some overlap between the
three groupings. Importantly, the practice principles make sense as a whole
although each practice principle could also stand alone for consideration.
A decision was made to send a copy of the practice principles to all of
the participants in order to seek written feedback. Participants were also sent
a letter outlining the research process to date, which asked for their
comments on this preliminary work. Specifically, they were asked if the
practice principles represented their views regarding spiritually influenced
 86

practices and in what ways did the practice principles represent and did not
represent their beliefs, values and practices. Ten of the participants sent
back written responses that were used to rewrite some of the practice
principles. Some practice practices were agreed upon by all of the
participants who sent back feedback, while changes were indicated for
others. 17 When a decision was made to seek feedback from the participants,
a decision was also made to invite them to take part in focus groups in order
to discuss the practice principles and related issues. This process was
developed and followed in order to check how accurately the practice
principles reflected the participants’ viewpoints, values and practices. Its
other aim was to further refine the practice principles, to maintain adherence
to the epistemology of the research process, and last to increase the rigor of
the research process by adding another layer of data colle ction and analysis.
The use of focus groups is discussed next.

Focus groups
Focus groups are often a part of research processes that reflect and
share feminist epistemologies. This study demonstrates feminist research
principles through the processes of seeking out participant feedback and
incorporating this feedback into the development of the practice principles,
informing the participants about the research process and progress, adding
another layer of data collection and analysis to increase the research rigor,
and developing knowledge that may prove helpful for opening up discussion
and consideration about spirituality and social work.
As Wilkinson (1999) points out, focus groups have much to offer
feminist researchers including a method that is contextual, as focus groups
avoid the assumptions of the individual devoid of social context. They also
provide an interactive social context within which participants can construct

Chapter Seven describes this dev elopment of the practice principles in detail and provides
17

examples of the written feedback and how it was used to refine the practice principles.
 87

meaning together, and they provide a relatively non-hierarchical method as

the balance of power is shifted away from the researcher to the participants.
As she explains, it is much harder to impose your own agenda in a group
context because the group generally develops themes that are most
important to them. Finally, different responses may be generated by group
discussion compared to individual interviews (Kitzinger & Barbour, 1999). On
the other hand, it may be difficult for some participants to engage in group
processes if they feel intimidated by other members or they may not divulge
information in the group context. However, the use of both individual
interviews and focus groups in this study compensates for these potential
disadvantages.

Implementation of the focus groups

Fourteen of the twenty research participants (two men and twelve
women) took part in three focus groups, which were held over a six week
perio d after written feedback was received from participants. Two groups
each had four participants and one group had six particip ants. Two groups
were held in Sydney and one was held in Adelaide, which accommodated all
of the participants except for one who lived in Brisbane. Based on the written
feedback and further consideration of the convergences that had emerged,
the particip ants were presented in the focus groups with three broad topics
for discussion. They were asked to consider the following:
1. Feminism and spiritualit y (what makes the practice principles
feminist. Alternatively, can they exist outside of a feminist
context?),
2. Private and subjugated knowledge (what prevented them from
sharing this aspect of their work. Might the principles help discuss
their practice and encourage a more accountable/transparent
practice?),
 88

3. Congruencies versus differences (how important is it to name the

differences between participants as well as the congruencies?
Should we assume that the principles would be applied uniquely or
not?).
They were also asked to comment on the revised practice principles.
As with the individual interviews, the focus group meetings were tape-
recorded and transcribed, and copies of the transcripts were sent to the
participants to check the accuracy of the transcription and to offer the
opportunity for feedback.

Analysis of the focus group processes

The transcripts of the focus group meetings were analyzed in the
same manner as the individual interviews using a grounded theory
methodological approach. This analysis generated many of the same
categories as the interview analysis, which lends weig ht to theoretical
saturation having occurred. New categories that emerged were in reference
to the questions regarding the feminist nature of the practice principles. For
example, one of the themes that emerged addresses the difficulties of
holding the practice principles exclusively in a feminist framework when the
definition of feminism itself is not clear, and when feminist values are shared
with other perspectives. Chapter Eight discusses this focus group analysis.
The participants also expressed general comments about the practice
principles. For example, some of the participants pointed out that overall the
practice principles did not reflect enough of a focus on social justice and
community/group emphases. This feedback was used to further refine the
practice principles and this process and analysis of this feedback is discussed
in Chapter Seven.
What difference did the focus groups make? The focus groups
certainly provided the participants with an opportunity to meet other social
workers who were also interested in spirituality and feminist social work
 89

practices, which was important given the isolation many participants felt with
their viewpoints. The focus group discussions also contributed to a more
meaningful research process by encouraging the participants to help refine
the practice principles, and allowed the checking out of such striking
convergences. Importantly, given the marginalized nature of spirituality in
social work, it was relevant to begin the process of public ly discussing
spirit ually influenced feminist social work practices and processes.
This last section of the chapter described the research analysis that
uses a grounded theory methodological approach. Participant responses
were colour coded and grouped into categories, which were continuously
compared with one another and with emerging data in order to discover links
between them. Related categories were combined and compared again to
incoming data while hypotheses that were emerging from the comparisons
were assessed. As the links between the categories were formed and the
main category was uncovered, I was surprised to find that major
convergences had emerged as the main category or story line.
These convergences led to another layer of data analysis that
explored whether anything distinguished a “feminist-spirit ual” approach to
practice and if it was possible to distinguish this approach from other
perspectives. A decision was made to write the main categories that
emerged from this layer of analysis into a set of practice principles. The
participants received a preliminary draft of the practice principles and ten
participants sent back written feedback that was used to rewrite the practice
principles. These revised practice principles were then discussed in focus
groups, which allo wed the convergences to be checked and assessed how
well the practice principles encompassed the participants’ beliefs, values and
practices. The use of focus groups increases the rigor of the research and
also reflects the research epistemology by involving the participants in
refining the practice principles. Importantly, the focus groups also offered an
opportunity for dialogue about spirituality. All of the participants’ feedback
 90

regarding the practice principles was considered in rewriting them into a final
version that is presented in Chapter Eight.

Conclusion
Refle cting qualitative and feminist epistemology, and utilizing semi-
structured interviews and a grounded theory methodology and analysis, this
research study explored self-identified feminist social workers’
conceptualizations of spirituality and spiritually influenced practices, and the
implications of spiritually influenced practices. It was necessary to begin this
research study at an exploratory level of investigation due to the dearth of
research in spirituality and feminist/non-feminist social work, and the lack of
any cohesive practice guidelines or “spiritual-social work” frameworks
emerging in the literature.
The grounded theory analysis unexpectedly uncovered striking
convergences amongst the participants’ beliefs, values and practices
regarding spirituality and feminist social work practices and life experiences.
These convergences were further considered and analyzed, which led to the
development of practice principles. The colle ction of more data and another
layer of analysis took place by way of focus groups, which allowed the
convergences to be checked, further refined the practice principles, involved
the participants meaningfully in this research, and furthered the analysis of
the practice principles.
The following five chapters provide an analysis of the convergences
and the focus group processes, and describe the development of the practice
principles. These discussions are structured according to the organization
and develo pment of the practice principles. Thus, the following chapter
examines the convergent categories in the first grouping which encompass
the participants’ values, concepts of spirituality, and their ideas about
spirit uality in social work. Chapter Five analyzes the convergent categories in
the second grouping which address the participants’ ideas about spiritual
 91

development and the spiritual essence of human life, and Chapter Six
discusses the convergent categorie s organized in the third grouping which
include the participants’ ideas about spiritually influenced practices and
relationships. Chapter Seven presents the development of the practice
principles, and Chapter Eight describes the focus group analysis of the
practice principles and discusses the idea of practic e principles in general.
To begin this process of examining the important convergences, the
following chapter will analyze the categories in the first grouping that
address some of the participants’ basic values and perspectives regarding
spirit uality and social work. These categories include ideas about spirituality
and religion, how social work, spiritual and feminist values converge, and the
effects of the secular nature of social work on the participants’ practices.
 92

CHAPTER FOUR
SPIRITUALITY AND FEMINIST SOCIAL WORK APPROACHES

Introduction
The research process that was discussed in the previous chapter,
described how the initial grounded theory analysis uncovered strong
convergences amongst the participants’ viewpoints, values and practices
regarding spirituality and feminist/non-feminist social work. Further analysis
of these convergences encouraged a decision to develop them into practice
principles, which were then further developed and refined through a process
of seeking feedback from the participants both individually and in focus
groups.
The practice principles can be organized into three broad groupings
that address some of the participants’ ideas and values concerning
spirit uality and its incorporation into social work (understandings of
spirit uality, religion and feminist social work, and the similaritie s between
them), beliefs about the spirit ual essence of human existence and spiritual
development (everyone has a spirit/spirituality, and spiritual development is
a life-long process), and spiritually influenced practice processes (some
contexts are more suited for the incorporation of spirituality, and spiritually
influenced practices include the use of generic spiritual language and
processes such as making meaning).
This data satisfactorily addresses the research questions. For instance,
the first grouping of convergent categorie s makes clear the participants’
ideas about spirituality and feminist social work, and the underlying
perspectives that inform their understandings about spirit uality. The second
grouping of categories overlaps with the first grouping in that it also reflects
participants’ ideas about spirituality and spiritual development, but this
grouping explicates the participants’ personal processes of spiritual
development and how spirituality shapes their life and work experiences. The
 93

third grouping of categories explains how spiritualit y influences the

participants’ practices, identifies spiritually influenced processes, and
encompasses their perceptions regarding the implications of spiritually
influenced practic e. Only one research question - What are their thoughts
about incorporating spirituality into social work education and training?, is
not explicitly addressed in the category groupings, although the participants’
desire for the incorporation of spirit uality into social work is clear. While
some participants discussed their preliminary ideas about the inclusion of
spirit uality into social work education, these conversations tended to be brief
and not as well developed as other topics of discussion, which again reflects
the early state of develo pment in this area and in the participants’ spiritually
influenced practices.
The purpose of this chapter is to discuss and analyze the convergent
categories that describe and encompass the participants’ shared values,
beliefs and goals. This chapter focuses on the partic ipants’ conceptualizations
of spirituality and religion, the differences and similarities between them,
understandings of feminist social work, and the commonalitie s between
feminist social work approaches and spiritualities. Chapter Five examines the
categories that address the participants’ ideas about human experience and
spirit ual development, while Chapter Six explores the categories that
describe spiritually influenced practice processes. Additionally, consequences
of the secularization and professionalization of social work are discussed in
this chapter, as these themes presented themselves in the data. It is
important to note that the convergent categories discussed in this chapter
and the following two chapters reflect agreement amongst the majority of
the particip ants. However, where it exists, the diversity in perspectives and
practices will also be considered.
 94

SPIRITUALITY AND RELIGION

Consistent with the social work literature reviewed in this thesis, all of
the participants defined spirituality and religion differently. In addition,
almost all of the participants discussed Christian relig ious traditions and their
sense of affiliation or separation with these perspectives. Some of the
participants also described anti-fundamentalist vie wpoints and values. These
issues are examined in the follo wing section.

Conceptualizations of spirituality and religion

While the particip ants understand spiritualit y and religion differently,
most also acknowledge that spirituality and religion often intersect forming
complex relationships. Although one participant expressed her desire for a
stronger connection between spirituality and religion, most others stressed
the importance of differentiating between the two. As one participant
explains, By separating the two it would then create the opportunity to
discuss spirituality issues. Because it’s less threatening and…I think it’s more
consistent with social work values than this idea of religion. This viewpoint
reflects the earlier discussio n in Chapter One that described the
convergences between social work and spiritual values, and the need to
adopt diverse understandings of spirituality within social work (Canda, 1998).
All of the participants’ conceptualizations of spirituality are
summarized in table 4.1 located in Appendix IV.18 Across the research
sample, the definitions of spirituality were surprisingly similar given the
participants’ diverse spiritual and religious backgrounds. However, these
similarities may be explained by the earlier discussion in Chapter One, which
noted that the major religious and spiritual traditions share core values.
Indeed, Canda (1988) based his conceptualization of spirituality for social

It should be noted that the tables referred to in this thesis are descriptiv e. Their purpose is
18

to explicate the story of the research.

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work on these common themes and values. Overall, the participants

understand spirituality as an experiential process that can be highly personal,
a resource, a process which involves making meaning, living a good life,
social analysis, connectio n, love, finding balance and a sense of otherness.
These perceptions are in harmony with the previous discussions of
spirit uality, where spirituality was defined as a resource, as an important part
of making meaning and as a sense of something bigger that transcends
ordinary life experiences. One can note here the strong resonance between
participant understandings and the lit erature.
Perceptions of spirituality such as intuition and reincarnation are
shared primarily amongst the participants who identify interests in an
eclectic, new-age or alternative spirituality and who are interested in Eastern
philosophies and Indigenous traditio ns. One participant who follows an
Orthodox religious tradit ion mentioned powerlessness. For her admitting her
powerlessness means trusting God and recognizing one’s limitations, and
does not imply an abdication of personal power.
Most of the partic ipants identify religion as an organizational structure
that can provide rules, doctrine, traditions and history, and in some cases a
source for spirituality. Two of the participants who were very involved with
their respective Churches working and living within religious communities,
made a point of describing themselves as non-religious and not caught up in
the structure of religion. Their viewpoints support the need within socialwork
to distinguish between religio n and spirituality. Also, several participants
describe spiritualit y as transcending religion, which is defined as a person or
man-made institution. Most participants acknowledge that while some people
can locate spirituality within religion, others can not. They recognize that
religion is one way to become spirit ual, but by no means the only way.
Additionally, there were a few participants who pointed out that while
spirit uality is always shifting and evolving, religion can become static. On the
other hand, one participant who lives within an Orthodox traditio n contends
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that the body of law that prescribes the rules to be followed is also supposed
to change with the times, and that there are rules about how it should
change.
Eighteen of the twenty participants discussed Christian religious
traditions and their affiliation or non-affiliation with these perspectives, as
Christianity is the dominant religious perspective in the Western world and all
of the participants had some form of contact with these tradit ions. These
discussions were framed in the contexts of personal and professional values
and are examined next. It should be noted that the Indigenous participant
does not fit neatly into the following discussion as she is neit her actively
involved with nor experie nces a need to separate from the Christian tradition
she was raised in. The Jewish participant also did not discuss Christianity in
any depth, although she does share some of the following viewpoints with
regards to her religious tradition.

Personal and professional values - affiliations with religion

All seven of the participants who were actively involved with Christian
religious traditions described differences of opinion they held with some of
their tradition’s values and practices, noting in particular the clash between
feminist values and philosophies and patriarchal perspectives. However,
these participants remain committed to these traditions for various reasons
and developed mechanisms for coping with and challenging patriarchal
viewpoints and values. For example, as one participant describes about her
experiences in Church,
Not all worship is by definition a positive experience…I accept that
that’s the way it is…that there would be worship experiences,
especially worship experiences led by men with particularly masculine
points of view. And music that may or may not suit my spiritualit y…so
that from week to week there are no guarantees about that. That’s
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okay. That’s part of…the price you pay for corporate spirituality. And I
would find individual spirituality really unsatisfying.
Another participant explains that he takes those aspects of organized
religion that he finds helpful and throws away what he doesn’t find useful.
He is able to focus on the positive values advocated by his tradition while at
the same time acknowledges his disagreement with some Church
perspectives, as he understands the Church as comprised of people who
make mistakes. One participant describes the dilemmas she has with the
patriarchal nature of both Catholicism and Judaism but points out that she
likes the struggle and the arguing and feels comfortable with it. Another
participant consciously acts to affect change within her tradition, explaining
that she can do this more effectively as a member of the religious tradition.
For her, institutionalized practic es and rituals are not a burden but a source
of spirituality.
For some participants the benefits of organized religion clearly
outweigh the dissonance they feel between their personal and professional
values and Church perspectives. For most of these participants, religious
involvement carried over from childhood and familial experiences and
provided comfort and a sense of connectedness to family and culture. One
participant notes that the Catholic Church provided a bed, food and a roof
over my head…in a way that I didn’t see anybody else stepping forward,
because as a child she was sent to an orphanage. Although she spoke at
length about the struggle between her feminist values and Catholic ism’s
viewpoints, interestingly this tradition also provided experiences of liberation
for her, which she attributes to her working-class background. She describes,
My first consciousness raising group was actually a student group…I
got to see about the reality of my life as a student…reflect on
the…Christian gospel values that were presented and see how the
difference was between my reality and…those values. And take some
actio n to build a bridge between that contradiction…I came out with a
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language and an analysis of the world that…I got from collective

worship…from being in a youth group that was down and out in a
working class area of town.
Similarly, another particip ant notes how she left a sheltered family life
in which she was very immature, very unworldly, and entered a Catholic
religious community that encouraged her to mature and to develop an
analysis of the world. Descriptions of patriarchal Christian traditions as
liberating for feminists are uncommon within the literature. The experie nces
presented here clearly illustrate that an individual’s engagement with religion
can be complex. While there are some patriarchal religious values and
practices that did not appeal to these participants, other values and practices
did find a place within their perspectives. I will note here that the three
participants involved with Eastern spiritual and religious traditions did not
identify discrepancies between their personal and professional values and
these traditions as they were described as non-patriarchal.

Personal and professional values – non-affiliations with religion

Contrary to the decisions made by the participants above, eleven
participants discussed how discrepancies between some Christian religious
values and philosophies and their personal and professional values, led to a
withdrawal from these traditions or a decisio n not to become involved with
them. One of these participants is affiliated with a Buddhist tradit ion, two are
engaged with a Yoga tradition based in Eastern philosophies and belief
systems, seven describe their spiritualit y as influenced by Eastern
philosophies and one discusses how his spirit uality reflects humanitarian and
social work values. It is not surprising that many of the participants express
dismay at how some patriarchal religious institutions disempower people
(particularly women), as feminist analysis focuses attention on power
dynamics within all societal systems. Issues that were raised by the
participants include anger at how patriarchal religions contribute to the
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shame women feel about their bodies and fertility, the presence of abuse in
some religious schools and institutions, and the armed conflic t religion
contributes to in many parts of the world.
For three participants who le ft Christian traditions the process of
leaving was difficult but in the end they felt they could no longer reconcile
their spiritual, personal and professional values with Church practices and
values. As one participant states, I just simply stopped going. Because…I
can’t live with the hypocrisy…I’m angry with…the fact that the Church is full
of people that go there and sit and pray and then call me a demon or tell me
I’m going to hell. Although choosing to leave a religious tradition is not
always a difficult process, for this participant it was painful. As he notes, he
can’t ignore what he doesn’t like and continue to attend Church because he
has suffered personal attacks based on his homosexuality, although he does
miss the community, the rituals and the sense of belonging that were so
much a part of his life.
Another participant discusses how she could not reconcile the
patriarchal stance of her tradition with her personal and professional values,
for example, I couldn’t reconcile both the content and…the way that things
are done with my feminism and with my spirituality either. Additionally, one
participant explains that she could not continue to live with the
inconsistencies she witnessed in Church between discourse and practice,
noting that the Church preached love and acceptance but did not accept
gays and lesbians or women leaders. Thus, it proved difficult for some
participants to remain within these traditio ns when they became the objects
of attack or witnessed discrimination.
Finally, while most of the participants express concerns about the
potential for religious traditions to be oppressive, two participants also argue
that spirituality is potentially no less corrupt than religion. As one participant
contends, I think there’s a tendency…to sort of see spirituality as this really
privileged nice term that connotates [sic] all the good that’s outside the
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power dynamics of this terrible world where we create man-made

religions…and I don’t see that as a possibility. This viewpoint demonstrates
the importance of not dichotomizing spirituality and relig ion as “good” and
“bad”, and recognizing for example that spirituality can also be used to
oppress people and cause harm. One belief system and perspective that was
identified by several participants as clashing with their professional and
personal values and possibly causing harm was fundamentalism. These
viewpoints are considered in the following discussion.

Anti-fundamentalist values
A third of the participants clearly expressed attitudes that could be
characterized as anti-fundamentalist. Fundamentalism refers here to values
that advocate one right way of being and believing that excludes other points
of view and experiences. Their concerns are not surprising as Loewenberg
(1988) suggests that social workers are concerned with rigid ritualism and
inflexible doctrines that characterize many fundamentalist groups. One
participant expresses concern about fundamentalists in social work courses.
Her viewpoint is that if spirituality courses/subjects were offered, this could
harden their posit ions and then they’ll quote that as being justified by social
work ethics…I think that would be very disastrous. Another participant who
was previously involved in a fundamentalist Christian tradition and later in a
left wing Marxist group notes that they seem to embody very similar dangers
and oppressions…in the desire to control people and tell people what was
right and wrong and if they were doing wrong, they were basically
condemned either to false consciousness or to hell. Paradoxically, this
participant also attributes his strong positive sense of self to the
fundamentalist tradition he was educated in pointing out that the Baptists for
all their failings and all of their guilt tripping had this real doctrine about
God’s grace.
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Two partic ipants who identified as Christians, expressed concerns

about openly discussing their beliefs because they didn’t want to be viewed
as Evangelical, bible-bashing Christians. A couple of participants also
mentioned that the language used by Christian fundamentalists is oppressive
and that it induces strong negative feelings. This emphasis on language
certainly converges with a feminist analysis that can address how language is
used to exclude and oppress people.19 These expressions of anti-Christian
fundamentalist sentiment are likely to be connected to a number of factors
such as the dominance of Christianit y in the Western world and personal
experiences with Christian traditions. Overall, the partic ipants’ values and
beliefs fit closely with the social work literature presented in Chapter One,
and the themes that spiritual and religious diversity must be fostered and
that perspectives perceived as oppressive and limiting such as
fundamentalism conflict with social work values.
It is important to note that although anti-fundamentalist vie wpoints
were often focused on Christian traditions, they were not restricted to
Christianity. As one participant argues, any framework can become
restrictive. She contends that feminist frameworks can really limit people.
Can really box people into a very limited framework that I think is very
unhelpful…So any kind of fundamentalism I find rather abhorrent.
Finally, one participant compares the spirituality that is growing in the
West to fundamentalism that reflects the worst of Christianity. In his opinio n
this post -secular spirituality is focused on individual profit, welfare and health
and is presented as something that can be manipulated for individual benefit.
He notes that if people are not successful for example, or if they become ill
they are blamed and excluded again for being different and not following

19
Christian theologians lik e Matthew Fox (1996) argue that fundamentalists hav e
appropriated Christian language for their own agenda and that it needs to be reclaimed.
Howev er, the possibility of reclaiming language that has been used to exclude and
marginalize people is y et to be determined.
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through with the right way of thinking or the right way of being, which
repeats what I saw happen to people in the fundamentalist movement. This
comment illustrates the dangers in promoting one right way of thinking or
being and the need for inclusivity and acceptance of diversity. If people are
marginalized or oppressed their opportunities for self-actualization may be
diminished. Thus, social work values such as the rig ht for self-determination
and self-actualization clash with fundamentalist beliefs and values that are
perceived to restrict freedom of choice and experience, and are viewed as
exclusionary.
This sectio n of the chapter has discussed how the participants’
understandings of spirit uality and religion converge wit h the social work
literature, and how the distinctions between spirituality and religion are
important even to those partic ipants who are actively involved with religious
traditions. Spirituality was understood similarly by the participants and was
also perceived as more convergent with social work values. Both the
literature and the participants contend that conceptualizations of spirituality
are more acceptable for social work than religious concepts are.
Participants’ affiliations and non-affiliations with patriarchal Christian
religious traditions are complex. Although some participants experienced
dissonance between their personal and professional values and their
tradition’s values, they remained affiliated. These participants accepted the
struggle between their personal and religious perspectives and experienced
that the benefits of affiliation outweighed the challenges. For many of these
participants belonging to a relig ious tradition was connected wit h family and
culture and was a part of their identity. These benefits even included
experiences of liberation. Thus, assumptions of values and viewpoints should
not be made based on a person’s affiliation with patriarchal religious
traditions, as participants who were engaged wit h religion struggled with
values and practices and often attempted to affect change within the
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tradition. Other participants chose to withdraw from religion, which was

sometimes a painful process of loss.
Several participants expressed anti-fundamentalist values that are
reflected in the literature. All fundamentalist frameworks that are perceived
as exclusio nary and limiting were deemed unacceptable. These anti-
fundamentalist values bear implications for social workers with
fundamentalist beliefs, as they may experience more struggle between their
personal and professional values, and may need more assistance during this
process as the dissonance they experience may be greater, and they may
experience marginalization based on a general lack of acceptance for their
beliefs.
This sectio n of the chapter has presented an analysis of the
participants’ concepts of spirituality and religion. The following section
presents their ideas about feminist social work and examines the similarities
between feminist social work approaches and spiritualities.

FEMINIST SOCIAL WORK PERSPECTIVES AND SPIRITUALITY

Conceptualizations of feminist social work approaches

Overall, both the literature and the particip ants similarly understand
feminist social work perspectives. Also, the participants describe feminism as
complex with a feminist awareness or perspective developing early in life for
some and in adult hood for others. While there appears to be no differences
across gender regarding the above understandings, all three male
participants identified as gay, which influenced their feminist perspectives.
Consistently across the research sample the participants’ feminist
perspectives are so interwoven with their social work approach that they
have become synonymous. As one participant argues, I think of course I’m a
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feminist. I don’t think you can practice social work unless you are.20 The
participants’ viewpoints reflect the previous discussion in Chapter Two, which
examined the commonalities between feminist and social work values and
philosophies, and how these similarities were used to advocate for a merging
of feminist perspectives and social work (Sandell, 1993; Collins, 1986).
The participants’ understand feminist social work as both a personal
and collective process that focuses on analyzing power, using language that
fits for clients, reclaiming practices, supporting and empowering people, and
that values action, change, diversity and inclusion. These ideas are
summarized in Table 4.2 located in Appendix V, and are quite consistent with
the literature already reviewed in this thesis. For example, both the
participants and the literature point out that feminist social work is
concerned with values of diversity and inclusiveness, process, social change
and action, analysis of power and oppressions, and represents a personal
and collective endeavor. In addition, most participants describe feminism as
a complex construct that changes over time and identify their feminist
perspective as eclectic, drawing on various feminist ideologies such as Liberal
and Marxist feminism.
Some of the participants also discussed the orig ins of their feminist
perspective, describing an awareness of inequality and oppression that
began to emerge in childhood. One participant explains that growing up with
two brothers, she witnessed the inhibitions that were placed on girls. She
remembers wanting to be a boy and puberty being a constricting time of
shrinking possibilities. Two of the male participants described how they
exhibited feelings about injustice from an early age. One of these
participants remembers at the age of eight, asking his mother to purchase
for him Helen Reddy’s record “I Am Woman” (a song about women’s
liberation).

It should be noted that participants’ discussions and references to “social work” in this
20

thesis are inclusiv e of their feminist perspectives.

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Other participants identified later life experiences and challenges as

important in the formation of their feminist values. As one participant
describes, My perspective has changed through my experiences…the
experience of being a mother, of being a woman at home with…a baby and
learning what that’s like. These experiences and shifts in feminist awareness
could also influence practice, for example, by developing an understanding of
a clie nt’s oppression on a more personal level. Thus, while some participants
developed a feminist perspective as adults, others felt an affinity for anti-
oppression values early in life, which in these cases was a process supported
by parents and other family members.
All three men in the research sample identified as gay and discussed
how their experiences as gay men aided in the formation of a feminist
consciousness and analysis. For instance, all three attribute their own
personal experiences of being marginalized within a heterosexual society to
the connection and empathy they feel for women’s experiences of
oppression. However, being gay and/or experiencing forms of
marginalization and discrimination will not necessarily lead to an affiliation
with feminism and other anti-oppression perspectives. The reality that these
three participants chose social work as a career indicates that other factors
are implicated in the development of their feminist values, such as a desire
to help people and address injustice. As was discussed in Chapter Two, the
debate about whether or not men can be feminists is a complex one. Indeed,
two of the male participants are wary about claiming to be feminists but did
identify with a feminist approach and used feminism in their work. One
female participant notes that she would like to reflect more on the issue of
whether men could be feminists but feels that the more feminists the better,
and many of the particip ants are supportive of a more inclusive approach to
feminism.
When Tables 4.1 and 4.2 in Appendices IV and V are compared, it
becomes evident that there are similarities between the participants’
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interpretations of feminist social work and spirituality. These commonalities

are explored in the following discussion.

Convergences between feminist social work and spirituality

According to the participants both feminist social work perspectives
and spiritualities are concerned with process, values of diversity and
inclusivity, action and change, and are collective and personal constructs.
These shared values also shaped some participants’ choice of a career in
social work. One participant notes that spirituality is a lens just like feminism
is a lens, which she uses to analyze and experience the world. Another
participant believes that spirit ual and feminist social work values emerge
from the same family of values. For example, two of the participants id entify
these shared values as the promotion of positive change and growth,
assisting people to reach their potential and to discover their true worth.
Several other participants expressed that some core social work values are
spirit ual values as well – they name beginning where the client is,
demonstrating respect for people and honoring that people do what they
need to do, and that they are really important people, believing in the
inherent right of self-determination and that clients are the expert of their
own experience , and demonstrating a non-judgmental attitude. Also, one
participant identifies that spirit uality is an all inclusiveness…inclusiveness of
everyone…that’s feminism too.
Most of the participants stress how both their feminist social work
and spiritual values emphasize the importance of social action and justice.
For example, one participant contends that feminist social workers should be
helping people to develop a spirituality that is liberative, cognizant of
oppression and that acknowledges the equality of all people. Another
participant discusses her belief that it would be possible to present
spirit uality within a social work program because spirit uality is not separate
from politics. One participant argues that she can’t see how people can be
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Christian and say that they’re not feminist, whic h illustrates the connections
between her religious, spiritual and feminist social work values. Similarly, a
participant who is affiliated with a Buddhist tradition explains that Buddhism
has an analysis of power too, like feminist social work.
Another area of convergence is evident in the participants’ discussions
of how their choice of a social work career was shaped by their spiritual
and/or relig ious values and belie fs. As one participant illustrates, Because the
whole thing of improving the world, of helping people comes into it. It’s
probably a lot of what motivated me to do social work…I was always sort of
seen as a person who’s going to go and change the world, fix it up. Another
participant acknowledges, What brought me to want to be a social worker…I
recognize that those had to do with some spiritual ideals. One partic ipant
was not sure how many of her social work peers would attribute value to
spirit uality but believes that social work attracts people who see a need for
righting the wrongs of society, which can be values based in spirituality or
not. In fact, consistently across the research sample social work is described
as more than a job. Social work values converge with the participants’
spirit ual values and beliefs, and social work provides a work context in which
these values can have influence. For example, one participant frames the
social work he does as an act of spirit uality, explaining that this social work
context allo ws me to be who I am. And allows me to…be more generous and
thoughtful.
Finally, one participant who had attended training in a spiritual healing
and counselling course that included techniques like colour healing, working
with chakras and deep meditation, describes how the course could fit very
well within a social work framework. However, she consciously works at
separating this training from her social work approach in order to enhance
her experiences and beliefs in the spiritual components of helping. She
believes that while there are connections between a social work perspective
and the spirituality course, the spiritual experiences transcend the physical
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world in which social work is located. Also, her opportunities to use these
practices are very limited despite the similarities in values. The effects of
social work contexts on spiritual influences in practice are discussed in
Chapter Six.
As well as identifying various convergences between feminist social
work and spiritual values, most of the participants also discussed how the
incorporation of spirituality into feminist social work approaches can lead to a
more holistic practice approach.

A holistic practice approach

In general, holistic practice refers to meaningful helping approaches
that attend to body, mind, emotions and spirit. Social work is identified as
well suited to take up holistic practice approaches, although its knowledge
bases generally ignore considerations of spirituality. A majority of participants
emphasize that social work needs to be more holistic in its understanding
and assessment of people. The participants stress that if social work negates
spirit uality, it is not capable of working in a holistic manner. For example, as
one participant notes, So to separate a spirit ual dynamic or a spiritual
experience or spiritual ways of knowing life that people have, if we’re going
to say…no we don’t deal with that, then we can’t really do therapy in a very
holistic setting at all. A holistic practice approach is described as
incorporating spirituality but not emphasizing it over other resources and
aspects of a person’s life. Spirituality is not identified as more important but
rather as a part of the other work. As one participant advocates, Give it as
much meaning as any other part of our work but no more than. Many of the
participants discussed the multi-levels of disadvantage that social work
clients face. Thus, basic needs such as housing, money and food often need
to be prioritized. One participant points out that because of the nature of
social work, practitioners should be able to move fluidly between practical
concerns and other issues such as spirituality. Also, one participant argues
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that holistic practice is different than eclecticism because holistic practice

includes mind, body and soul, and eclectic practice may not recognize
spirit uality.
A third of the participants identify social work as the helping
profession that has the potential and ability to assume a multifaceted role
and holistic practice approach, which is consistent with the literature and
reflects Canda’s (1998) and Carroll’s (1998) views that social work should
strive for a holistic understanding of the person-in-environment. Bric ker-
Jenkins (1989, p.221) identified a feminist social work perspective that
includes spirituality as a holistic approach and notes that these approaches
engage physical and spiritual dimensions as well as intellectual, social and
emotional aspects of life. One particip ant notes that social workers can talk
to people on a lot of different levels and that there are few helping
professionals left who can assume this type of role due to increasing
specializatio n. Indeed, social workers continue to assume roles such as case
management that encourage the development of knowle dge across various
fields.
Several participants also believe that a spiritually influenced practice
can lead to more meaningful and effective processes. For example,
- In someway that social work is both conceived in the theory and
sometimes the way it’s practiced does see that there’s a line. And I
think that that’s really patronizing…and that’s part of this
professionalism too…and I think it’s not as simple as that. And it ’s
not honest…it’s a more difficult way of practic ing I suspect.
Because it means bringing in more of ourselves to the work that
we do. And being perhaps…more open and being more authentic.
But I think it means being a better worker.
- I mean the progress people make when they work at this level [a
spirit ual level] is just unbelievable. It’s so fast.
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These viewpoints are in agreement with discussio n refle cted in the

literature and in the earlier examination in Chapter One of the rationales for
the inclusio n of spirituality into social work (Russel, 1998; Bewley, 1995;
Guthrie, 1995; Powers, 1995). The first comment above also points to the
importance of the worker’s personal spiritual develo pment and self-
awareness. Being authentic with clients requires insight and knowledge
about what aspects of the self are brought to practice, and this matter of
personal spiritual development is examined more fully in the following
chapter.
While social work is identified as a profession that can incorporate
spirit uality into its knowledge and practice bases, several partic ipants note
that social work theory and models are not generally holistic and usually
dismiss discussions about spirituality. For example, one participant describes
developmental and change theories as located too much at a…cognitive
cerebral level and that social work needs to ponder What is that experience
of what really happens with the relationship that makes the difference? I
think somewhere in there, spirituality fits. Two participants express their
irritation with a problem solving model, brief therapy and cognitive
behavioral approaches even though they occasio nally use these models,
describing them as narrow and incredibly constricting, confining of the
human spirit . One participant believes the systems approach negates a focus
on individual dynamics and people’s own resources that could include
spirit uality. And an Indigenous participant explains that a social worker
relying on mainstream models and approaches wouldn’t have a hope of
surviving working with Indigenous communities. These comments are not
surprising given the current thin state of knowledge and the lack of empirical
study and model development in this area.
Most of the participants also discussed the need for the analysis of
spirit uality given their desire for more holistic approaches. One participant
believes that Lots of people are doing it [working with spirituality], they just
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haven’t named it...there isn’t a framework that people feel...they can use.
Other participants identify the need for more clarity regarding spirituality and
deem it important to explore how spirituality is both helpful and not helpful
for clients. One participant advocates that including spirituality in social work
will eventually help social workers to become more objective about
spirit uality, helping to ensure that personal perspectives are not imposed on
clients. The needs identified here reflect the demands within social work for
research on the efficacy of spiritual interventions (Russel, 1998), and the
need for language, practice methods and models designed to integrate
spirit uality and social work theory (Bullis, 1996), once again pointing to the
relevance and timeliness of this study.
On the other hand, two participants wonder if an incorporation of
spirit uality into social work might further marginalize an already marginalized
profession. One of these partic ipants felt that social workers are not always
viewed as credible and that social work was already sufficiently abstract
without introducing spirituality into the equation. Indeed, the need for
professional credibility has been a concern for social work since its inception
as a profession and led to the marginalization of certain knowledges and
practices, as was previously discussed in Chapter One. Perhaps current
emphasis on the art of practice indicates a greater acceptance of the nature
of social work as opposed to emphasizing positivist scie nce that doesn’t
always fit with social work methods or perspectives. In fact, despite their
concerns, both of these participants also describe aspects of their practice as
spirit ual and desire a holistic approach inclusive of spiritualit y. Thus, it
appears that concerns about marginalization will not prevent the continued
considerations of spirituality as knowledge for practice, especially when
spirit ually influenced practices are identified as effective and meaningful.
While most of the partic ipants agreed that a more holistic practice approach
needs to be fostered, many also discussed the future of feminist approaches,
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whic h are now briefly examined. Marginalization as a process is discussed

more fully in the following section of this chapter.

The future of feminist social work perspectives

Many of the participants discussed the future of feminist social work
approaches and indicate a continued need for feminist analysis. Several
issues are identified that are linked with this need such as the continued
existence of inequalities amongst people and men and women, the lack of
identificatio n with feminist perspectives amongst many social workers, and
the lack of explicit feminist discourse in social work. One participant connects
the absence of explicit feminist dialogue in social work with the
characteristics of social work students. In her opinion, students increasingly
reflect a middle-class privileged background, which results in less experience
of, and empathy for, issues such as poverty and oppression. If this is the
case for some students, it reiterates the importance of personal experie nces
and the effects of these experiences on understanding clients’ struggles.
Another participant attributes the disappearance of overt feminist discourse
in social work to a stagnation in feminist theory. Two participants argue that
the incorporation of spirituality into feminist social work approaches could
inject new life and direction into feminist social work practices and theory,
whic h reiterates the desire for more holistic practic es and theories.
At the same time, many of the participants also identify a seemingly
contradictory desire to move beyond frameworks, whic h include feminist
models. While they indicate that feminist approaches and analyses are
important, they do not want to be restricted by this or any other framework.
A couple of participants discuss postmodernist and constructionist
approaches as future trends in social work practice but overall, the
participants identify multi-layered analysis and transcending frameworks as
positive and useful. These viewpoints reflect the current nature of shared
social work knowledge and practice that was described in Chapter Two.
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Current emphases within social work stress a multi-modeled and multi-

theoretical approach that could also account for the less explicit nature of
feminist discourse. Perhaps one of the dilemmas that will need to be
grappled with is how to maintain the importance of feminist analysis while
knowledge, practice and values become increasingly shared across
modalities. Chapter Eight returns to this analysis in greater depth.
This section of the chapter discussed how the participants’
understandings of feminist social work fit with the literature. Feminism was
also described as complex, eclectic, inclusive and developing over time and
with experience, and continual shifts in feminist awareness influence
practice. Participants identified a continued need for feminist social work
practices and analyses but observed that feminist discourse has become less
explicit in social work. Some participants argued that feminist theory is
stagnant and identified the incorporation of spirituality as a factor that could
inject new life into feminist social work theory and practices. Interestingly, it
appears that the participants are reiterating and emphasizing the importance
of Bricker-Jenkins’ (1989) earlier findings that identified a spiritually
influenced feminist social work practice as holistic. In fact, participants
identified several commonalities between their feminist social work
approaches and spiritual values. Social work was more than a job for the
participants in this study, offering a professional context where they could
express their feminist and spiritual values. Thus, spirituality demands
discussion within social work because at the very least spiritual values and
beliefs guide some practitioners in their practices and account for the choice
of a social work career.
A holistic social work approach was also connected with more effective
and meaningful practices. While claims of efficacy need to be explored
further, reports of the effectiveness of spiritually influenced processes are
promising. However, spirituality continues to be largely ignored in the
development of social work knowledge. The need for knowledge building and
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the analysis of spirituality’s applicability and efficacy was stressed by both

the participants and in the literature. The absence of spirit uality in knowledge
development is further addressed in the follo wing section that examines the
marginalized nature of spiritual knowle dge and practice.

SPIRITUALITY - A MARGINALIZED KNOWLEDGE

Chapter One discussed how the secularization and professionalization

of social work impacted on the type of knowledge that was deemed
acceptable for the profession and served to divorce values from research and
practice. Both these issues, the privileging of the methods of scie nce and the
separation of values from research and practice, are reflected in the
following categories that address the marginalization of spirituality and the
effects of this marginalization on the participants’ experiences and practices.

The secular nature of social work and the marginalization of

spirituality
A majority of the participants pointed out that they fear being
marginalized, ostracized, judged and/or ridiculed by other social workers if
they incorporate and express spirituality in social work contexts. These fears
coupled with a lack of spiritual discourse in social work leads to a sense of
isolation and need for collegial support. Overall, the participants’ believe that
social workers are unsupportive of, or not interested in, exploring spiritually
influenced practic es. For example, some of the adjectives used to describe
how they believe spirituality is perceived are hippie, namby-pamby, looney
tunes and wanky. One partic ipant’s experiences have been that,
There’s open hostility...it’s done in jokes, in occasional direct
comments. I think often trying to separate spirituality and religion are
diffic ult. I have trouble with it...in the work place...I hear comments
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whic h make it obvious that it’s not okay...usually it’s

because...spirituality and religion are then eventually connected to
some form of eit her fundamentalism or oppressive discourse. All of
whic h is valid comments on one level you know. But then it’s cut off
there. And I don’t think spirituality is ever identifie d as a tool to find
other ways of helping ourselves or our clients know their lives or know
their experience or to understand their oppression...that’s not
validated at all.
This example reit erates previous discussion in this thesis that pointed
out the need to differentiate between spirituality and religion in social work
as conceptualizations of spirituality are deemed more acceptable and
convergent with social work values, such as the emphasis on diversity. Also,
connections between religion, spirituality and fundamentalism impedes the
serious consideration of spirituality as discussed earlier in this chapter.
The marginalization experienced by the participants and/or the fear of
being marginalized led to a sense of isolation and desire for collegial support
from like-minded people. As one particip ant describes, she is always on the
lookout for conversations about spirituality. An example of the need for
support is demonstrated by a group of participants and other social workers
who formed a spirituality and social work support group, which arose from a
public lecture I delivered discussing this research. The participants’ need for
support can be further understood when the extent of the marginalization of
spirit ual knowledge is considered. For example, social work knowledge exists
at the margins of society (Hartman, 1992) and represents a knowledge that
is dismissed as soft, fanciful and lacking substance (Weic k, 1999). Spiritual
knowledge is further marginalized within this already marginalized knowledge
and practice base.
The analysis above relates to the earlier concerns expressed by two
participants that the incorporation of spirituality would further marginalize
social work. However, social work is not the only helping profession that is
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increasingly considering spirituality in practice although concerns of losing

professional status may be greater for social workers. For example, Van
Raalte (2001, p.16) contends that the field of psychiatry is beginning to
recognize the importance of spiritual “wellness”. While the marginalization of
professional knowledges is complex, it appears from the lit erature that some
social workers are ultimately concerned wit h delivering the most effective
and relevant practice they can, and these goals encourage the calls to
include spirituality. However, at the same time many participants also
express a personal need to address spirituality in social work.
For instance, all of the participants agree that there is a dearth of
spirit ual content within social work and many discussed their own education
stressing the invisibility of spirituality. As one participant explains, I have had
this issue very explicitly ever since my social work training. Because I had an
extraordinary spiritual awakening during the process of my social work
degree. And I was…in very serious conflict between the…secular and spiritual
frameworks. This participant also argues that an entire dimension of life was
not accounted for and there was no language to discuss it. Another
participant also had a difficult time during her social work education
indicating that spirituality was not reflected in the relationships or teaching
styles, and that she would have had difficulty convincing her teachers and
fellow students that inquiries about spirituality were valid questions in the
first place.
However, two participants who were recently engaged in social work
study focused their undergraduate and graduate theses on spirituality topics,
whic h provided them with an opportunity to address issues that could not be
dealt with in a classroom situation because they were politically incorrect or
there wouldn’t be any understanding of them. As one of these participants
notes, the thesis process provided an opportunity to have spirituality
recognized as legitimate thought. Thus, some attitudes have shifted as some
university programs now allow for the academic exploration of spirituality.
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These practices help to legitimize spirituality as knowledge for practice and

research, and perhaps reflect increasing interests in spirituality and a greater
acceptance of the art of practice. Secularization and professionalization
processes have not only privileged positivist science and marginalized certain
knowledges, but have also separated values from practice and research.

Personal values and practice experience

The connection between personal values and spirituality and the
notion that personal values have no utility in a professional practice affect
many of the participants despite their work experience. However,
inexperienced social workers hold the strongest views regarding the
separation of values and practice. As previous theoretical discussion pointed
out, it is a common theme within social work to stress the important position
professional (but not personal) values hold (Loewenberg & Dolg off, 1992).
One participant describes feeling like she is in big trouble when she engages
in discussio ns about spiritualit y with clients. Other particip ants connect
similar feelings to values reminiscent of their earlier social work education. As
one participant notes, It’s funny the whole professionalism issue...it’s like
touching a client...talking about spirituality or...doing something that might
be seen as being spiritual...it’s not okay. You need permission to do that. It’s
not legitimized.
Another participant questions teaching social work students to be
value-free when in fact practitioners are value-laden. She believes that it is
an ongoing struggle to discover how one’s beliefs and values affect practice.
Similarly, another participant argues that being unaware of personal values
and beliefs can actually impact more on practic e and can lead to the
imposition of personal attitudes onto clients. These comments point to the
importance of continual development of self-awareness and insight about
what professional and personal values guide practice.
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The partic ipants that held the strongest views regarding the
separation of personal values from practic e had the least amount of social
work practice experience. As one participant who was a fourth year social
work student states, I definitely separate social work from my religion or
from my spirituality...I make a separation because of being trained not to
bring in my personal values...you got to be aware of your values...you’re
supposed to separate yourself in a sense as a professional. You’re supposed
to have a le vel of detachment. Her comments reflect the earlie r discussion in
Chapter One regarding the importance of value neutrality for occupational
groups that claim professional status (Loewenberg, 1988), and illustrates
that this viewpoint continues to shape beliefs and practic es.
Perhaps the above viewpoint is strongest amongst new social work
graduates and inexperienced practitioners because they depend on the
literature and their recent studies for practice guidance, relying more on
theoretical, empirical and procedural knowledge whereas experienced
practitioners use practice wisdom and personal knowledge [using Drury
Hudson’s (1997) categorizations]. New graduates simply have not had the
time to develop practice wisdom and personal knowledge. As Dean (1989)
points out, personal knowledge changes the understanding of the use of
theories and leads to a relativistic view of knowledge.
The lack of discussion and recognition of personal values in practice
has implications for knowledge such as spirituality and feminism, which is
affiliated with personal values and beliefs. For example, inexperienced
workers may struggle more with concepts such as spirituality, as this
knowledge is not evident in theoretic al, empirical or procedural knowledges
that they most utilize. Thus, the continued absence of spirituality from
theoretical models and empirical research perpetuates its marginalizatio n.
The issue of separating personal values from practice can also be related to
the lack of theory and model development in spirituality and social work, and
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a comparison wit h feminist social work practices will elucid ate this matter
further.

Personal values and the lack of spiritual knowledge

The research participants did not identify difficulties with applying
feminist social work values in practice, whic h encompass both professional
and personal values. As one participant notes, feminism is not identified
exclusively as a personal value or belief structure. Thus, it may be that when
a social worker’s personal values converge with professional values and
accepted social work models and theories (as in feminist social work), it
becomes permissible to engage in discussion with clients from these
perspectives. In these instances, the social worker is not only expressing
her/his personal values and beliefs but also a legitimized professional
knowledge and practice. As an earlier comment illustrated, doing something
that is spiritual is not legitimized.
Similarly, one participant points out that discussio n about politics is
considered valid discourse. He feels far less ambiguous about his feminist
position but feels wary about spirituality because he has doubts about how
to define it, talk about it, and has no legitimized language to discuss it.
Another participant explains,
I’m just very concerned about imposing my beliefs about spirituality
on others. Much more than I am about…my feminist ideology…I mean
feminism is well developed and more formalized if you like…it’s more
okay to say you’re a feminist…than to identify as a spiritualist or to
identify as a person who thinks spiritualit y is important…Feminist
theory, I mean is there a spiritual theory?
It appears that if spirituality frameworks, models and/or theories were
developed then practitioners might feel more justified in utilizing spirituality
knowledge in practice, which indicates the significance of the development of
practice principles in this study. Spirituality has yet to be recognized as
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relevant knowledge for practice and this leaves many participants feeling
cautious about incorporating spiritualit y into their practices. For example, one
participant allowed herself to be led into spiritual discussions by clients rather
than initiating them. However, she acknowledges that this is not always the
most helpful response and described a client who became upset because she
had not shared her relig ious beliefs that were similar to the client’s beliefs,
particularly as the therapeutic issues were tied to religious values. Perhaps
the practice principles may assist some practitioners to feel more
professionally competent in their use of spiritually influence practices or
spirit ual discourse with clients.
This final section of the chapter illustrated how most of the
participants are concerned with being marginalized by colleagues if they
incorporate and express spirituality in work contexts. In particular, the
connection between spirituality and personal values affects its acceptability,
as do links between spirituality, religion and fundamentalist values.
Connecting spirituality with personal values appears to particularly affect
inexperienced social workers because they are taught to divorce personal
values from professional practic e, and depend more on empirical, theoretical
and procedural knowledges. Consequently, inexperienced workers may
struggle more with understanding and acknowledging how their personal
values, which include spirituality, influence their practice. The introduction of
discussions about spirituality into social work educatio n could assist in
exploring how personal values affect social work thereby assisting to validate
spirit uality as knowledge for social work. In fact, many particip ants id entified
the need for theory building and empirical research in spiritualit y and social
work. The invisibility of spirituality in social work in general, le aves
participants feeling cautious about incorporating spirituality into their work.
However, the experiences of two participants who conducted thesis projects
on spirituality topics indicate that attitudes are shifting. In particular, the
development of practice principles may prove important in helping to shift
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spirit uality out of the margins into more mainstream discourses and
practices.

Conclusion
This chapter has presented for consideration categories that
encompass the participants’ conceptualizations of spirituality and religion, the
convergences between their feminist social work approaches and spiritual
values, and their ideas about the consequences of the secularization and
professionalization of social work for spiritual knowledge and practice. The
participants differentiate between definitions of spirituality and religion but
also recognize that they influence each other. Their understandings of
spirit uality are strikingly similar to those offered in the literature, as are their
anti-fundamentalist viewpoints. For most of the participants, their feminist
social work and spirituality values converge on many layers and together
characterize a practice that is respectful, compassionate and focused on
empowerment. The participants’ feminist and spirit ual perspectives are both
described as complex, eclectic and continually evolving through life
experiences.
While many participants experienced dissonance between some
professional and personal values and patriarchal religious perspectives,
several participants were engaged with these traditions accepting the
struggles and challenging patriarchal viewpoints from within. For these
participants, their professional, personal and spiritual values still converged,
but social workers espousing fundamentalist beliefs may experience a strong
clash between professional and personal values and beliefs, and may require
support in this struggle. Spirit uality and feminism are continually evolving,
whic h emphasizes the importance of engaging in a continual process of
developing self-awareness regarding the influence of values and beliefs on
practices.
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Finally, both the participants and the literature emphasize the need for
knowledge development in spirituality and social work, and a majority of the
participants assert that social work should address spirituality so that a more
holistic, effective and meaningful practice approach can be developed. The
acceptance of spiritual knowledge may lead to increased considerations and
incorporations of it, which could assist in the process of exploring how
personal values affect practices. Thus, the development of practice principles
could prove significant in helping to recognize the validity of spiritual
knowledge and practices.
The following chapter examines categories that describe the
participants’ personal processes of spiritual development and their ideas
about the spiritual essence of human existence and life. Spirituality can be a
highly intimate and personal construct that can evoke profound questions
about life and the meaning of experiences. This research study in its
exploration of spirituality encountered this layer of more private and personal
discourse that is not usually presented within the professional literature.
However, this data is a strength of this thesis and the following chapter
focuses attention on some of these more intimate descriptions of the
participants’ spirituality and spiritual processes, as they are important to the
overall understanding of the participants’ conceptualizations of spirituality
and how these understandings influence their practices.
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CHAPTER FIVE
THE PROCESSES OF SPIRITUAL EXPLORATION
AND DEVELOPMENT

Introduction
The previous chapter discussed categories that represent the
participants’ values and ideas about spirituality in social work and their
concepts of spirituality and religion. This chapter presents for consideration
categories in the second grouping that encompass the participants’ personal
and more private processes and beliefs regarding the existence, exploration
and development of spirituality. These important categories as expressed by
the particip ants illustrate personal experiences of spiritual growth and their
ideas regarding the spiritual essence of human existence. The chapter begins
by focusing on some of the participants’ personal stories of spiritual
awakening and development and the impact of these processes on their
lives, and then examines the partic ipants’ beliefs about the essence of
human life.
This data analysis chapter is different in substance from the other
chapters in that personal accounts of development and struggle are
discussed. While personal stories are not generally presented within
academic discourse, visibly presenting the participants’ subjective
experiences converges with feminist traditions of listening and telling
people’s stories, particularly women’s stories and those of marginalized and
oppressed people. Rubin and Rubin (1995, pp.99-100 & 261) discuss ethical
and pragmatic reasons for presenting interviewees’ narratives, for example,
including the idea that stories should be presented accurately and honestly in
a way that maximizes interest in the research undertaken. Additionally,
allowing the participants’ stories to sometimes stand alone wit hout
connections to literature and analysis reflects feminist values that respect the
process of listening to personal accounts (Laidlaw & Malmo, 1990).
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These subjective experiences also reflect the personal nature of

spirit ual knowledge. As previous discussio n of the lit erature noted, a
significant number of articles regarding spirituality and social work focus on
personal reflections concerning the efficacy and relevance of spiritually
influenced practic e, and personal narratives describing spiritual awareness
and its affects on practice. A recent example of the exploration of narrative is
evident in the book Spirituality in Social Work Practice, Narratives for
Professional Helping (Abels, 2000), which presents social workers’ personal
stories about practice experiences and the meaning they gained from these
experiences (see for other examples Krill, 1995; Nakashima, 1995). Spiritual
discussions often encompass a personal layer of narrative because spirituality
can represent a highly personal and individualized concept of existence.
The substance of this chapter also differs in its integration of themes,
categories and literature. While the categories presented in this chapter are
reflective of some of the literature and theory which has already been
presented, the exploration is different because of the personal nature of the
knowledge that is discussed. Thus, this chapter represents the deep interface
of spirituality with professional practice and feminist social work philosophy
and values. Since spirituality can be a personal and intimate construct and is
a crucial component of the particip ants’ lives, this chapter provides an
important foundation from which to understand how the participants make
sense of spiritualit y and why spiritualit y influences their social work practices.

SPIRITUALITY AS A DEVELOPING PROCESS

Overall, the participants describe their spiritual development as an

ongoing, continual and sometimes difficult process. Many participants
discussed a transformative life event that profoundly influenced their spirit ual
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growth, while others described the ongoing influences of family, culture,

spirit ual/religious traditions and friends on their spiritual awareness.

The process of the development of spirituality

All of the participants describe spiritual development and growth as a
never-ending and continual process, and exhibit a commitment to this
process alt hough they describe it in vario us ways focusing on different
aspects. For example, one participant describes spirituality as encompassing
self-growth, The drive to be knowing and to know yourself…not just
something, it’s a process that grows. Another participant points out that
growth and healing never end that Life is a journey…I don’t think we’re ever
fully healed of anything. One participant compares her spirit ual growth and
process to the development of her feminist awareness stating, In much the
same way my spirituality is about my development, I think my kind of
feminism is as well. I don’t remember waking up at the age of 20 and
thinking…I should be a feminist.
Similarly, other participants point out how their spirituality and their
spirit ual awareness and growth is continually evolving. For instance, one
participant describes being required to compose a personal framework
statement at the beginning of his social work education outlining his reasons
for the choice of social work. He recalls, I remember writing this big spiel
about God, love and…it was quite…a religio us document…at lots of le vels.
Upon the completion of his social work education he again had to produce a
similar document. His final statement was Lots of stuff about people’s rights
and…social justice framework and discrimination…And it really shifted and
moved. And I thought at the time that they were incredibly different
documents. But I actually think now they’re probably similar documents at
some level. And very different at other levels. This participant’s spiritual and
religious context and analysis shifted because he withdrew from the religious
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tradition he was actively involved with during his social work education,
whic h accounts in part for the change in his focus and analysis.
Other participants discussed how they are confident that their spiritual
awareness and development will continue to shift, ebbing and flowing in
accordance with life’s challenges. As two participants point out,
- It’d be great to do a longitudinal study on this. But in 10 years
time…how people think about spirituality. I mean I know that I’m
going to be completely different.
- I think that sense of wholeness is for all of us something that we
can have for a moment and then something else will rise. And then
we need to go through that. So I don’t think it’s a sense of
wholeness that we have all of the time. I think it’s a process of
that. That there are seasons in people’s lives where they will feel
oh yes, I’m whole and I’m at peace and I’m feeling at one with the
things around me. And that there are times when they just feel
bloody awful and that they just don’t…feel connected to
anything…And I think that’s life.
The comments presented above imply that there is relevance in
continuing to research spirituality and social work as conceptualizations of
spirit uality shift over time and with experie nce, which affects social work
processes. As the previous chapter discussed, life experiences that affect
spirit uality shape practic e, for example, by helping practitioners to better
empathize with clients’ oppressions and struggles. Thus, an ongoing striving
for greater awareness and understanding appears to be important in
research, practice and self-exploration processes. The need for social
workers to demonstrate self-awareness is well documented within the social
work literature (Hancock, 1997).
Somewhat differently, one participant believes that the spiritual realm
is also evolving and changing. She states, The thing about the future is that
it’s not necessarily written down in law. Because everybody has this concept
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that heaven is evolved, heaven’s got the answers. And heaven’s an evolving
place, just like the earth is an evolving place. And we’re changing, we’re
doing, we’re learning, so is Upstairs changing and doing and learning. As well
as believing in the continual process of spiritual development, the
participants all held in common an attitude towards life and work that could
be characterized as reflective and questioning.

A reflective and questioning perspective

The participants’ reflective and questioning stance is demonstrated by
the following participant who points out, It’s really, really fascinating to
me…the struggles are always there. One participant expressed her surprise
that Everyone doesn’t want to know about spirit uality...they don’t want to
explore the answers or the options. She explains that I had so many
questions…it surprises me when people don’t explore them. Other
participants describe their reflective approaches and how these perspectives
affect life decisions, patterns and experiences. For example,
- My spirituality is an arguing one and a curious one and a wanting
to discuss…as much as if I say my spirituality is part of who I am,
it’s not a complacent thing.
- I crave time to myself and I mean I love being connected with
others but…I spend a lot of time thinking…and reflecting and
listening to music and reading. Because otherwise it’s easy…to
disintegrate or to loose it a bit and it’s one of the reasons I work
part-time.
- I got into writing poetry. My own poetry in a big way. And I think
that was all about a process of being reflective. Who I was and
some of my own journeys in life. I went into therapy about that
time.
Additionally, one particip ant describes her process of acknowledging
that she held certain values and attitudes that needed to be challenged and
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therefore engaged herself in sit uations that would challenge her to grow and
shift her viewpoint, such as volunteering to work in a kitchen with homeless
men. She was moved by the experience and states, They were very
protective…And I thought, for someone who’s been through so much in their
life to still care…and they were all like that. And I was just so touched you
know. She sums up her philosophy as, There’s certain areas of prejudice that
you hold in yourself you know. And you don’t have to attend to all of them.
Attend to one or two and know how to do it so that you can recognize it.
The participants’ dedication and commitment to the process of
continual spiritual growth and self-development is demonstrated in the above
comments, pointing to the relevance of this commitment and the helpfulness
of engaging in spiritual exploration. This kind of explo ration has implications
for social workers who are interested in incorporating spiritualit y into social
work, as the need to engage in personal spiritual discovery appears
important. In fact, the literature reflects these viewpoints. As previous
discussion of the theoretical literature illustrated, Canda (1998) argues that
social work education needs to pay more attention to assisting students to
enhance their capacity for empathy and intuition (which he connects with
spirit uality), and Russel (1998) stresses that social workers need to
understand and explore their own spirituality in order to effectively help
clients. However, while the helpfulness of engaging in personal spiritual
development can be explored and noted, the importance of respecting
people’s interests or disinterests in spirituality can also be noted. The
participants’ commitment to the process of spiritual development is strong
despite the reality that this process was often difficult. Some of these
struggles are now discussed.

The struggle of spiritual development

Understanding spiritual development and growth in terms of struggle
was a common theme shared by most of the participants although these
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struggles were conceptualized in various ways. For example, one participant

argues that spirit uality is somehow born out of a struggle [a struggle for
happiness] and having difficult things to deal with. For another partic ipant
her struggle centers on her spirituality and her desire for Absolute faith and
trust that there is something else out there and wanting to have that
absolute faith, versus her skepticism about spirituality. As she explains,
Because I’m always on the lookout for more worldly explanations for why
things happen. And then I think well as I do that, then I’m discounting the
other stuff…so it’s a constant turmoil really…I consider myself a person
trying to be spiritual. The following comment reiterates the commitment
made by the participants to the life-long process of spiritual growth. This
participant accepts struggle and views life’s challenges as,
Part of an evolutionary process in terms of the spiritual journey…if I
manage to deal with that in a much more enlightened way…then
hopefully I will move further alo ng the spiritual path…these things are
presented…this is part of my spiritual path…to deal with whatever is
presented to me. And it might be that I need to confront issues
around my own ego, around pride, around humility.
Additionally, one particip ant discusses how struggling with spirituality
sometimes leads to what she identifie s as spiritual suffering. She points out,
One of the things that’s resulted for me around an experience of
spirit uality is when you have an inner life or a spirit life that’s
connected to your daily life, you sometimes suffer spiritually…So I
think if anything…my spiritual journey has been hard on myself
really…I’ve ended up at times completely unemployable because I’ve
struggled through…what I would describe as faith questions or
spirit ual questions that have left me absolutely and utterly exhausted.
These comments presented above demonstrate the
acknowledgement and acceptance that spiritual development and growth can
be a necessary but difficult struggle, which was a recurrent theme
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consistently across the research sample. In fact, sometimes it was the

experience of trauma or great difficulty and challe nge that acted to bring
about spirit ual discovery and exploration for some of the participants. On the
other hand, positive events were also catalysts in the transformation of
participants’ spirit ual lives. Some of these transformative experiences and
their influence on spiritual awareness are discussed next.

Transformative experiences and spirituality

More than half of the research participants discussed some sort of
traumatic, painful or positive transformative life event that had a profound
effect on their id eas about spirituality and spiritual development. Overall,
these events focus on experiences of coping with death and illness,
relationship breakdown and experiencing a spiritual and/or religious
awakening.
For example, spirituality helped some particip ants to make meaning of
the death of people whom they loved. One participant, in dealing with the
death of her son, turned to spirituality for some sort of understanding and
meaning. She describes,
So up until I was just over 40, I left that stuff alone [spirituality]. So
for 20 years I thought I don’t want to know about any of that sort of
stuff and shut it all. And would have said that I was an extremely
unspirit ual sort of person. It wasn’t an element of my life that was
important. But three years ago our son die d and for me that was a
major turning point in terms of spiritual stuff…and at that time I guess
there was a need for me to make some sense out of what had
happened.
Another participant makes clear how dealing with the death of her
brother brought her to a clo ser examination of spirituality. She notes,
through the loss of my brother…Because he died as a very young person. He
was 26. Trying to make sense of death and dying…that made me look more
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closely at spirituality. And in another example , a participant describes how

the shocking death of a client led her into an examination of spiritual issues.
She explains, Around the same time I had a patient who killed himself,
committed suicide…he blew his brains out. And I found him and it was such
a shocking experience…I had to take time off work and I did this incredible
soul searching kind of thing…so what is the larger meaning of life all about?
Additionally, one partic ipant who at one point in her life was dying
described an out of body experience in which she was given a choice to live
or die. She obviously decided to live and as a result of this event she
contends that My understanding of other dimensions has been expanded and
is growing over the years as a result of my experience.
Issues like death and dying have been identified in the literature as
topics that are strongly connected with spirituality because death raises
questions about life and meaning (Lloyd, 1997; Smith et al, 1993).21 In the
search for meaning in death and dying, these participants mentioned above
turned to spirituality and spirit ual reflection to help them understand and
make sense of the painful events. Also, a prior affiliation with a spiritual
and/or religious tradition does not appear to be implicated in looking to
spirit uality for assistance in making meaning, as two of these participants
had no affiliations with any spiritual/religious traditio n before the occurrence
of these events.
The breakdown of relationships was also cited by two participants as
life events that moved them towards spirituality. As one participant notes,
What I’m doing now for me is that I’ve been on a huge learning curve
around spirituality…and that’s been because I had a big relationship
breakdown about 18 months ago. Another participant attributes spirituality to
saving her from a possible suicide after a series of challenges and failed
relationships. She describes a fairly miserable childhood and then in my 20’s

This was discussed in Chapter One regarding the rationales for incorporating spirituality
21

into social work (p. 16).

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having…when I say tragic I’m exaggerating, but unhappy relatio nships that
left me feeling very, very depressed, quite desperate, quite suicidal and I
kind of fell into spirituality at a point when I was suic idal. So it sort of
rescued me. The loss of relationship is another example of an experience
that often encourages people to make meaning and sense of their life
experiences. In Chapter One making meaning was identified as a process
that is influenced by spirituality and this will be examined in greater depth in
Chapter Six, which explo res spiritually influenced practices.
Transformative experiences are not always created out of a sense of
trauma or pain. Two research participants discussed spiritual and/or religious
awakenings that profoundly impacted their lives and that were described as
encompassing overwhelming joy, love and devotion. One participant
describes meeting Swami Muktananda twenty years ago. As she explains he
is an enlightened being…He blew my socks off…I received what we call
Shaktipat Tradition, which is the awakening of the Kundalini energy. I didn’t
know what that was. I had no idea about what that meant. And six months
later when I walked into the first meditation center…I just had an experience
that totally turned my life around. She describes these events as a kind of
extraordinary spiritual awakening and my whole life did a 180-degree
turn…and I started meditating and…my whole life just changed dramatically
within a six month period.
Another participant who lives in religious community describes her
entrance into this community as a process…It’s like for me at the age of
23…I’d never been so deeply in love with anything or anyone, feel like I’d
give up my whole life for. But at the age of 23, that’s what I experienced.
For this participant, her entry into religious community began a process of
deep spiritual growth and exploration. Her process of making a decision to
enter religious life was also influenced by her family, culture and friends.
Almost half of the research participants made no mention of one
transformative experience greatly influencing their spiritual development.
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Conversely, the steady and ongoing influences of family, culture, friends and
religious/spiritual traditions shaped the unfolding of their spirituality.

The influence of family and culture on spiritual development

Several participants discussed both positive and negative familial
influences and the influence of culture on their spiritual interests and
development. Although familial influence was strong, as adults some
participants shifted spiritual beliefs and values based on their own life
experiences. A few particip ants spoke about how positive values
demonstrated within their families influenced their ideas about spirituality
and assisted in forming a personal sense of ethics and values. As one
participant illustrates,
There are so many different influences…certainly my family
upbringing, which was this really middle-class, very liberal, very
tolerant, very nic e upbringing. I mean there are some really good
values there that my parents had…a certain kindness that I think I
learned there…I think especially from my mother. Kindness was really
important.
Similarly, another participant notes, The things that have always
influenced me like my family, like my grandparents, like my belief and my
love for my family. Those things have always influenced who I am. And what
I am. Also, the positive influence of family members does not necessarily
cease when these people die. For example , one participant discussed her
belief that her grandmother (who die d years ago) is still a positive influence
in her spirit ual journey and guides her. She believes that she’s there with me
you know. In that [spiritual] search…and she’s always with me you know.
Although the influence of family on an individual’s values and beliefs is
strong, several participants expressed holding very different spiritual values
and beliefs to their families of origin. As was summarized in the sample
description, although twelve participants were raised in some sort of
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religious/spiritual tradition, four had left those traditions and five participants
who were raised with no religious/spiritual instruction had chosen an
affiliation as adults. For example, the participant who was described earlier
as having met Swami Muktananda and experiencing a spiritual awakening
described her parents and grandparents as atheists, noting that this was
Quite unusual…there weren’t many of us. And I was kind of proud of it.
Because of course I was raised to think that people leaned on God or
concepts of God were for the weak. Thus, while familial values and beliefs
appeared to be strong influences on the participants as children, in
adulthood many of the participants shifted their beliefs based on their own
life experiences.
For instance, also described earlier was a participant who began to
consider spiritualit y after the death of her son. She describes her upbringing
as follows. I grew up in a family where there was no religious instruction and
in fact my parents were probably quite hostile around religion…I adopted
that attitude as well. Like religion is a load of bullshit and felt really angry
about religion. But I had no idea why. I just took on my parent’s views about
that. Similarly, one participant discusses how she has opened up to her
spirit uality after years of not wanting to have anything to do with it. She
attributes this earlier reluctance to her father’s practice of holding seances.
She states,
One of the reasons that I didn’t want to have anything to do with it
for a while…and I was really quite disdainful of that…but it was my
father and he used to hold seances. And he did that when I was quite
young…but also as a teenager…and it became a really very frightening
thing for me. And I became very fearful and I didn’t like being in the
house by myself and so on…And I identified spirituality with that…it’s
like as an adult I actually had to separate that all out. And find my
own spirituality that was separate from my father.
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A couple of the participants also identified culture, which is connected

to family as an important factor in influencing spirituality. One participant felt
that her European heritage was a more spirit ual influence than her Australian
culture. She argues that My cultural background has been important as
well…there’s just a specialness. I got lots of stories…fables, anecdotal
things…you know a Europeaness…they seem to be a more spiritual culture
than Australia. Another participant recalls her first childhood memory was of
my grandmother praying. I must have been about two. It was at night and
she had a huge picture of Our Lady of Sorrows over her bed. She was an
Irish woman. And I remember the light was on…it was night and she was
praying.
As these comments above demonstrate, some cult ures are strongly
connected to spiritual and/or religious influences. Chapter One discussed the
strong influence of spirit uality and religion in some cultures and the need for
social workers to be able to work effectively with clients of differing cultural
herit age. The recognitio n of cultural diversity was identified as one of the
rationales for incorporating spirituality into social work theory and practice
(Falicov, 1999; Jackson, 1995; Berthold, 1989).

The influence of spiritual/religious traditions on spiritual

development
Given that twelve of the participants were raised in some sort of
religious and/or spiritual tradition and five participants had adopted a
tradition as adults, several mentioned both the strong influence of people
affiliated with religious and/or spiritual traditions and the traditions
themselves, in their lives and on their spiritual growth. One participant
indicated that she choose to become a Catholic due to the strong influence
of a Dutch priest who when I was about 12…I spent two years wit h a most
remarkable priest…he developed my moral values…he would get me to
debate the matter. Like he would say to me, “When is it not a sin to be
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adulterous?” Similarly, the participant mentio ned earlier who lives in religious
community notes, I had these friends who were Franciscans. I suppose I got
to know them…they lived not very far from where we lived. So from the time
I was 12, I had their influence sort of around me.
One partic ipant developed a strong interest in Buddhism in her
adulthood. She argues that the Buddhist influence has made her Aware of
the contribution that I make to the difficulties of my life and how I can
change myself I suppose and take responsibility for my own behaviour. So
that’s been really important. Another participant in describing his adult
experience with Christianity, points out that the strong idealistic values [of
the left wing of the Christian Church] sort of Christian Socialism…the whole
peace movement…had a very profound effect on him. Thus, it appears that
the values of particular traditions and the people associated with these
traditions were particularly influential for some of the participants in their
own spiritual growth and self-development. The influence and importance of
friends and like-minded people was also raised by several participants as
significant for their spiritual exploration and growth.

The importance of friends in spiritual development

One participant points out how her friendships have encouraged her
to continue with her spiritual process. She explains, The people that I’ve met
through the journey, the path that I’ve been on have been bloody fantastic
and that’s been part of what’s kept me there…I’ve got two close friends…we
are equally questioning and reflective on our lives.
Another participant describes the inspiration she feels from her
friendships. As she states, As much as the experience of seeing friends kind
of go on and change, it’s quite inspiring…I’ve got a friend now who’s done a
lot of meditation and I find him very inspiring just because of his integrity
and the…sense of peace that I feel, that people feel around him. Another
participant who left her spiritual tradition keeps in touch with one person
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who was in the same spiritual group as me and intellectually we have very
similar sorts of beliefs and interests, so we occasionally feed each other
books and have lo ng talks. This provides her with an opportunity to focus on
spirit ual topics and aids in sustaining and furthering her spiritual growth. As
was mentioned in the previous chapter, due to the isolation and lack of
acceptance most of the participants feel regarding explorations of spirituality
in social work, it is important to develop contacts with people who can
nurture and support reflections on spirituality and practice.
However, the influence of friends is not alw ays positive and for one
participant develo ping spiritually resulted in the loss of some friends who
were not supportive of this process for her. As she describes, It has meant
that I’ve become really selective actually in my friends and who I choose to
spend time with…And its meant that I’ve lost some friends…Like I needed to
protect myself…I suppose honour…the tender parts of me because I think it’s
not always…well received. Her experiences reiterate the importance of
support from like-minded colleagues and friends.
This section of the chapter discussed how the participants identified
spirit ual development as a life-long process, reflecting in their own lives a
commitment to this process that was demonstrated in various ways. The
ongoing and continual process of spiritual development and self-growth
points to the importance of striving for greater self-understanding and
awareness that in turn appears to influence helping processes. Also, wit hin
the social work literature spiritual exploration is identifie d as crucial for all
practitioners but particularly for social workers interested in incorporating
spirit uality. This emphasis on the importance of spiritual exploration appears
to indicate that this process is rele vant. While spiritual exploration may
impact on the effectiveness and meaningfulness of the helping interaction,
this discussion will be taken up again in the following chapter that explores
in-depth categories that address practice methods and relationships.
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However, the present discussion points to the importance of supporting

practitioners in their explorations of spirituality.
The participants also recognized and accepted that the processes of
spirit ual development are often difficult. The process of making meaning of
these transformative experiences and various other life situations was
particularly identified as influenced by spirituality by the particip ants and in
the literature. The reality that social work clients engage in processes of
making meaning, points to the importance of considering spirituality as a
possible factor in this process and in social work practice. Additionally, the
participants’ processes of spiritual exploration were also influenced by family,
culture, friends and religio us/spiritual traditions. The participants’
experiences as adults challenged them to develo p their own values and
beliefs about spirituality, which reflects the continual learning process in
spirit ual exploratio n. The link between culture and spirituality in some
families emphasizes the significance of recognizing clients’ cultures as
potentially connected to spirituality and the possible need to address this
aspect of their life experience. Also, the significance of friends and support
of like-minded people reiterates the need for support that was identified
amongst the participants and discussed in the previous chapter. Perhaps if
spirit uality was accepted as valid knowledge in social work, this need for
support would diminish as fears of marginalization would lessen.
This thesis earlier discussed the participants’ conceptualizations of
spirit uality (what spirituality is), while this chapter described the development
of spirituality (how it comes to be recognized by participants). The following
discussion examines the participants’ viewpoints regarding the spiritual
essence of human life and existence (why spirituality is important).
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SPIRITUALITY - THE ESSENCE OF HUMAN EXISTENCE

Having spirituality and being a spirit

Consistently across the research sample, the participants discussed
their beliefs that all people have a spirit and spirituality, even if it is not
recognized or acknowledged. The particip ants described their
spirit s/spirit ualities as the true essence of who they are and discussed how
these beliefs influence their life experiences. Spirit is used interchangeably by
many of the participants with the terms soul, higher-self and inner-self.
Although these terms can imply different constructs, spirit is used here as a
broad term encompassing these other concepts. The following comments
demonstrate viewpoints that the human essence is spiritual in nature.
- I think we all have it but we don’t necessarily all recognize it. It’s
what makes you, you in a way.
- I certainly think that we’re all spirit. That if you acknowledge it or
not, you have a spirit…and if you acknowledge it or not there is a
God who created this place and each of us. So that’s what I
believe.
- And whether some people may decide to live wholly…in the
everyday world…now that doesn’t mean…that their spirit is not
there. But it may not be expressed, not consciously anyway.
Perhaps it can still come out in their dreams and even in illness
and symptoms and so forth. But it’s definitely still there. I think we
all have a spirit.
- I don’t think you’re kind of spiritual one minute and not spiritual
the next…I suppose I think there’s a spiritual dimension to human
existence and we all have it whether we’re aware of it or not.
- It’s almost like I think we all have a spirituality whether or not
we’re conscious of it or claim it .
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The participants described their own spirituality and spirit as the true
essence of who they are. As one participant explains, I guess for me
spirit uality is about what is the essence of the individual living within this
community?…Working in a hospice you see what happens to people when all
the things that we put around ourselves to define us…are taken away from
people bit by bit…and yet there is an essence of who that person is.
Other participants note,
- My sense of spirituality is my sense of me…So it’s not so much that
it’s something I grab and take, it’s who I am.
- Like it’s about my core, my essence, who I am, how I live my life.
- But who you are when you’re out of body is who you are…like your
body dies and you are who you are. And that’s what they deem
the higher-self or the soul.
- Life just would be very nihilistic without it. I can’t see being happy,
I can’t see being me you know, without it.
These beliefs presented above that one’s spirit/spirituality is a sense
of something bigger and transcendent that helps to foster feelings of
meaningfulness and happiness are consistent with the participants’
understandings of spirituality. As well, these viewpoints are reflected in the
social work literature as previous theoretical discussio n illustrated. For
example, Tolliver (1997) argues that spirituality is integral to the human
being. Canda’s (1986) conceptualization of spirituality describes spirituality as
a universal aspect of human nature and experience, and Derezotes (1995)
defines spiritualit y as a complex, intrapsychic dimension of human
development. 22 These beliefs that everyone has a spirit/spirituality and that

22
Some would argue that the v iewpoints presented here are essentialist in nature. The
debate surrounding essentialism continues particularly amongst feminist authors. Different
perspectiv es in this debate can be located in Fuss (1989), Spelman (1988), Ghoray shi (1996)
and Witt (1989). Howev er, an exploration of these perspectives is bey ond the purpose and
scope of this chapter.
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our spirit is the essence of who we are also affects how the participants
experience their lives and practice social work.
For example, several participants described how believing in a spiritual
essence affects their relations with the world, as would other over-arching
beliefs and values. One participant points out that spirituality is just there
and part of us but it’s also…something about how you relate. It affects how
you relate to the world, how you see the world. These perspectives are
discussed in Zukav’s (1989) book The Seat of the Soul, which discusses in
depth how people who are consciously aware of their spiritual essence live
life differently compared to people who are not consciously aware of, or
connected to their spirit /spirituality. With reference to social work practice,
another participant notes that she considers everything she does as spiritual
including, Everything I do from the way I greet the client and sit them down
and talk to them…trying to look at how the service can be made more
accessible…looking at what’s going on at the clinic and the relationships
between the staff. This influence of spirituality in social work practice
requires further examination and the exploration of the interface between
spirit uality and practice is addressed in-depth in the following chapter.
There is a difference between hold ing and sharing these viewpoints
presented above and imposing these beliefs onto others. As the previous
chapter discussed, the participants in this study are concerned with issues of
oppression and power and are cautious in how spirituality is expressed with
clients. It is important for social workers to explore how personal and
professional values affect practice. The following comment demonstrates an
acknowledgement of the belief that while everyone may have a
spirit /spirituality, different people will be more or less interested in
spirit uality, which should be respected. The participant questions why some
people appear to be more spiritual or more interested in it compared to
others. She believes that everybody has a soul. Just like everybody has a
body…and within each soul there may be more or less of a propensity to
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spirit uality or to physicality or whatever. And that’s perhaps a continuum

within each soul. Whether they’re more earth bound or spirit bound.
Finally, a couple of participants had experiences and thoughts
regarding the nature of this spiritual essence. One participant described
experiences within a Yoga tradition in which she believes she encountered
her inner self or spiritual essence. She describes this encounter as an
experience of Divine love or inner bliss and that’s our true nature. That’s the
true nature of the human being. She adds that this experience totally
transforms your whole experience of what we think we are as human beings.
So that at the core we are love. At the core we are this state of expanded
consciousness, of oneness with all things. This is another example from the
participant who was described earlier in this chapter as having had a
transformative spiritual experience after meeting Swami Muktananda. These
types of transformative experiences can have profound and far-reaching
effects on the meanings that are attributed to life events. For example,
believing that our true nature is Divine love that is connected with all things
could affect the meaning assigned to experie nces such as death and loss. As
one particip ant contends, people do not die they reconnect with the Divine in
a sense, whic h may be a comforting belief in a time of death. The final
discussion in this sectio n of the chapter addresses beliefs that while all
human beings have spirituality, women may be more strongly connected to
spirit uality than men are.

Women, men and spirituality

Four of the participants discussed beliefs that women may be more
connected to spirituality than men are and one participant conjectured that
at the very least, women’s spirituality may be different from men’s spirituality
and the spirituality of children. These perspectives appear to be connected to
culture and to definitions of spirituality. One participant positively reframes
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the exclusion of women from various rituals within Judaism by pointing out
women's stronger connection to spirituality. She argues that women are,
More in tune and more spiritual. More in touch with God than men
are. And that’s why men need the physical rituals. There are a lot of
physical rituals that men go through that women don’t necessarily
have…I don’t feel I need all the trappings that men do…but for me
there’s an awareness of God there all the time. And there is a sense in
Judaism that women have this awareness. That women have this
connection.
Another participant links women’s socializatio n as carers and nurturers
to a stronger connection to spiritualit y. As she describes,
Well I think there’s a common ground for women there…you think
about women’s conditioning around nurturing and caring and I do
think women are the experts on being able to share that knowle dge,
that subjective knowledge of what it ’s like to be a woman…I believe
that we walk around feeling very differently to men…whether it’s
conditioning or I don’t know…but the thing is about the…ability to
care and nurture. And I think that’s spirituality.
A third participant discusses women’s intuition and links this to a
stronger connection with spirituality. She notes, It’s intertwined with
spirit uality…that gut feeling, that intuition but then that could be female too.
You know, females have a great intuition about things…Maybe it’s all part
and parcel of being a female. These last two comments particularly
demonstrate how the understanding of spiritualit y, in this case as caring,
nurturing and connection to intuition (characteristic s associated with women
in the Western world), influence perceptions about spiritual connectedness
and development. If spirituality is defined and understood as encompassing
characteristics generally associated with women, women will be viewed as
more connected to spirituality than men.
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Many women do indicate a desire to discuss spirituality and to

incorporate spirituality into practice, as Chapter Two discussed. Bricker-
Jenkins and Hooyman (1986) argue that the integration of mind, body and
spirit is an enduring theme in the women’s movement. The burgeoning
literature pertaining to feminist spirituality and feminist spiritual movements
also reflects this desire for the consideration of spiritual issues. Also, within
the feminist spirituality literature some support can be found for these
research participants’ perspectives. For example, King (1989) argues that
women have a greater capacity for spirituality. On the other hand, authors
like Gross (1998a) note that claims for women’s spiritual, developmental and
moral difference are not grounded in research and that feminism’s preferred
strategy of change can not continue to be based on separateness but needs
to be more inclusive. Perhaps Gross’s perspective is more consistent with,
and reflective of, social work lit erature as many men are actually engaged in
discourse and practice regarding spirit uality.
Additionally, a fourth particip ant considered the possibility that
women’s spirituality is different from men’s spirituality which are both
different from children’s spirituality. She draws on Australian Aboriginal
beliefs to illustrate her viewpoint stating, If you look at Aboriginal tribes they
would tell you that women’s spirituality is different than men’s
spirit uality…the practices for women would be different than the practices for
men. This perspective is different from the previo us three presented above,
as it addresses difference rather than a comparison of the strength of
spirit ual connectio n.
Whether or not women’s spirit uality is different from men’s spirituality
and children’s spirituality is a complex and contentious issue, as is the belief
that women are more strongly connected to spirituality than men are. These
beliefs appear to be connected to culture and based on the accompanying
concepts of spirit uality. Some cultures and spiritual/religious traditions may
indeed hold these viewpoints. Thus, it is important to note the relevance of
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understanding diverse cultural definitions of spirituality and how cultural

beliefs may affect life experiences and the meaning attributed to these
events. Being sensitive to and developing understanding of cultural
differences was id entified as important previously in this chapter.
This section of the chapter discussed the participants’ beliefs that the
essence of a person is their spirit and spirituality whether this spiritual
essence is acknowledged or not, and these viewpoints are also reflected in
the social work literature. Since all people will not necessarily recognize or
deem important their connection with spirituality and/or their spirit, respect
should be demonstrated for people’s viewpoints and their level of spiritual
awareness or development. This conviction that spirituality is our true
essence strongly shapes how the participants live their lives, that is, how
they relate to people, make sense of their life experiences and practice social
work. This points to the importance of examining personal and professional
beliefs and values, and how these affect social work practices.
Three participants also discussed beliefs that women’s connections to
spirit uality are stronger than men’s connections, while another particip ant
expressed her belief that women’s spirituality may be different from men’s
and children’s spirituality. These viewpoints appear to be based on
understandings of spirituality and connected to culture. Certainly within the
social work literature, many men write about the need to consider
spirit uality. Generalizations about men’s and women’s spiritual connections
may not reflect the complexity inherent in people’s lives. For example, the
men in this research sample are more interested in spirituality and in
fostering their spiritual development than some women are, just as they are
more strongly committed to feminist perspectives. However, this discussion
does stress the importance of developing cultural sensitivity regarding
diverse definitions of spirituality and how these understandings influence
experiences and the meaning attributed to life events.
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Conclusion
Spirituality is important in the research participants’ lives and this
chapter has examined and presented some of their personal stories and
beliefs regarding the process of spiritual development and the essence of
human existence. The exploration of personal narrative is important because
the stories reflect the personal nature of spiritual knowledge and help to
further illustrate the partic ipants' conceptualizations of spirituality and the
influence of spirituality on their experiences.
The participants discussed the continual and life-long process of
spirit ual development and demonstrated a commitment to this ongoing
process. For instance, some particip ants placed themselves in situations
whic h they knew would challenge their beliefs while others engaged in
counselling and utilized experiential techniques to help them reflect on their
spirit ual processes. The importance of engaging in spiritual development was
also identified in the social work literature. All of these viewpoints point to
the importance of engaging in spiritual explo ration.
There was also an acceptance amongst the participants that the
process of spirit ual development is often a struggle. For some participants
this struggle involved transformative experiences that acted as catalysts in
their discovery and growth of spirituality. Spirituality helped participants
make meaning of these events and struggles. Considering making meaning
as a process that is influenced by spiritualit y is particularly crucial for social
work because many social work clients engage in helping processes in order
to make meaning or sense of life events. Other participants’ spiritual growth
processes were affected by the steady influences of family, culture, friends
and spiritual/religious traditions.
Finally, this chapter discussed participants’ beliefs that spirituality is
the essence of human existence, whether it is recognized or not. These
viewpoints signific antly shape how the participants live their lives and make
sense of life experiences. Thus, it is important for social workers to develop
 147

an appreciation of cultural diversity and to understand how

conceptualizations of spirituality affect people’s lives and the meaning they
attribute to experiences. Beliefs that spirit uality is the essence of human
existence not only affected the particip ants’ experiences but would
presumably also influence their social work practices. The purpose of the
following chapter is to explore in depth how the participants’ understandings
and beliefs about spirituality affect their social work practices. The
participants discuss how their conceptualizations of spirituality influence the
ways in whic h they reflect spirituality in their practices, and how spirit ual
development, social work contexts and client populations also affect their
social work.
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CHAPTER SIX
THE INTERFACE OF SPIRITUALITY AND PRACTICE –
PRACTICE METHODS AND RELATIONSHIPS

Introduction
The previo us two chapters discussed the participants’ desire for
spirit ual discourse in social work, their viewpoints that the incorporation of
spirit uality into practice leads to a more meaningful, effective and holistic
practice, their understandings of spirituality and personal narratives
regarding spiritual growth, and their beliefs about the spiritual essence of
human life. This chapter addresses if and in what ways these shared beliefs
and experiences affect practice processes.
This chapter first examines how personal spirit ual development, social
work contexts and client populations influence the incorporation of spirituality
into practice. Second, the chapter presents further analysis of categories that
emerged from the participants’ discussions of practice methods and
relationships. Specifically, these categories describe incorporations of
spirit uality through shifting language and forming relationships with clients,
and spiritually influenced practice processes such as making meaning and
fostering connections and experiences of self-love. Although these categories
reflect consensus amongst the majority of the participants, the chapter
concludes with a summary of all of the spiritually influenced practices
identified by the participants, thereby making visible the extent of diversity in
spirit ually influenced practices that emerged in this study.
Discussion in the previous chapter identified the importance of the
participants’ commitment to the ongoing process of spiritual development
and raised the idea that these processes may have implications for
practitioners interested in including spirituality in their work. For instance,
personal spiritual exploration is linked with the ability to effectively address
spirit uality in practice. This chapter begins with a further analysis of how
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personal spiritual development affects the incorporation of spirituality and

examines how social work contexts and client populations also signific antly
shape spirit ually influenced practices.

THE INFLUENCES OF PERSONAL SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT, SOCIAL

WORK CONTEXTS AND CLIENT POPULATIONS ON
INCORPORATIONS OF SPIRITUALITY INTO PRACTICE

Personal spiritual processes

Most of the participants discussed how life and work experie nces
affected their ability to incorporate spirituality into their practices. Several
participants also linked personal spiritual development with both overall
practice effectiveness and practice effectiveness in assisting clients with
issues identified as spirit ual. For many of the participants, work experience
and personal spiritual growth together increased the confidence they felt in
including spirituality in practice.
For instance, one participant believes that the more in touch a person
is with themselves (identifying that as spirit uality), the more useful that
person will be to others. She asserts that if you’re not a peace with yourself
at that level, then that’s going to block your ability to work. Another
participant agrees that what people can be helped with is incredibly
influenced by your own life experience, and where you’ve been and how
much you’re achieved yourself and where you’ve moved on. She believes
that you can’t really get your clients to progress further than you. Similarly,
one participant attributes her spiritual growth over the past few years as
having made a difference to the work that I do, while another participant
describes her increased feelings of comfort in leading clients into spiritual
discussions as a gradual evolution that also had to do with becoming attuned
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to the diversity of people’s religions and people’s spirituality and people’s

choice to either take it or leave it.
Most of the partic ipants discussed how both work and life experience
and spiritual development affect their willingness and ability to acknowledge
that spirituality is included in their practices, in part because a majorit y are
experienced practitioners who are interested in personal spiritual exploration.
Thus, most of the participants have had time to develop practice wisdom,
which encompasses these experie nces and the awareness that comes from
engaging in a continual process of self-discovery. As one participant
describes, there is no more conflict for her between spirituality and social
work. She points out that There’s been a coming together, a crystallizing of a
path or a way of working that can embrace all different kinds of ways of
approaching things, but also recognizes where my skill is…now I kind of see
that there are different frameworks that are suitable to different people at
different levels of their spiritual evolution. Her comment illustrates how years
of practice experience, personal spiritual growth and practice wisdom
influences the incorporation of spirituality.
The need to engage in personal spiritual explo ration is not only
supported by experienced participants but also by the following participant
who feels inexperienced. This participant who was just completing her social
work education, believes that her lack of practice wisdom affects her ability
to include spirituality in her practice. For example, I don’t have any personal
experience or personal wisdom to draw upon this work, so I can do this. So
I’m going very much according to the book at this stage because I have less
experience. For her, going by the book results in a practice that is separated
from spirituality, which relates to previous discussion regarding inexperienced
workers and their dependence on theoretical, empiric al and procedural
knowledge, as opposed to practice wisdom and personal knowledge.
The importance of spiritual exploration and the influence of this
process on practice is also discussed in the literature. The previous overview
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of the literature suggested that the personal cultivatio n of spirituality is

crucial preparation for the application of knowledge and skills in practice, and
that social workers need to grapple with their own spiritual issues in order to
effectively help clients on a spiritual le vel (Russel, 1998; Canda, 1988).
Finally, work experience not only influences the incorporation of
spirit uality but can also affect religious practices and spiritual development.
One participant discussed how her social work experiences influence the
development of her religious life and spirituality (having defined these
differently). Being involved in Church life and teaching she points out that
The pastoral care work that I do and the teaching that I do in pastoral care
is all grounded in my experie nce in palliative care. Not the other way
around…My work influences my religio us life [and spirituality]. She attributes
this dynamic to working with dying people, which she believes encourages a
reflective process regarding her personal, professional and spirit ual/religious
development. This participant’s work context in palliative care is a significant
factor that is connected to her spiritual and religious life and work. The
influence of social work contexts is examined next.

Social work contexts – factors that promote the inclusion of

spirituality
All of the particip ants identifie d various factors connected to social
work context and client populations that influenced the incorporation of
spirit uality into practice. Social work contexts and client populations that both
promote and impede the incorporation of spirituality are summarized in
Tables 6.1 and 6.2, located in Appendices VI and VII. Factors that promote
the inclusio n of spirituality include the age of clients, issues of death and
loss, work with women, individuals and marginalized populations, private
practice, trauma work and culture. Almost all of these factors may encourage
the establishment of longer-term, significant relationships with clients due to
the nature of the social work process. For example, help ing someone deal
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with death can be an intimate process, which may in turn promote the
inclusion of spirituality. The worker/client relationship is discussed later in
this chapter.
Additionally, issues of power appear to be connected to several
factors. For example, working privately with clients can encourage an
increased sense of personal power and autonomy in practice style and choice
of models, techniques and theories. Social workers in this context may feel
more freedom to work with spirituality as is evidenced by an example in
Table 6.1, in which the private practice context enabled the participant to
explicitly construct a spiritually influenced practice approach. There is
generally a good fit between the clie nts that choose to access her service
and the service she provides. The clie nts in this case also have more power
as they make a choice to access and pay for her services, even though
power imbalances inevitably remain between worker and client.
Working with marginalized populations also addresses issues of
power. Ironically, existing in the margins of society or in a group perceived
as alternative and less powerful may lead to an increased sense of freedom
to consider alternative viewpoints such as spirituality. In the example
provided in Table 6.1, the participant experienced that the marginalized
client group was open to discussing spirituality, which converged with her
own perspectives and styles of practice and encouraged her to incorporate
spirit uality. Similarly, social work knowledge itself is identified as
marginalized. Perhaps it is in part this marginalization that provides room
within social work to consider even more marginalized knowledges. Social
workers are considered by some as better prepared than other helping
professions to legitimate subjugated knowledges, as social work emphasizes
values of social justice and self-actualization, and works with oppressed and
marginalized populations (Witkin, 1999).
Several factors in Table 6.1 are also discussed in the literature. For
example, in Chapter One spirit uality was identified as an important coping
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and healing resource in the area of trauma for both clients and social
workers (Hagon, 1998). Other authors stressed that spirituality can provide
comfort in managing illness (Tangenberg, 2000). Work in the areas of death,
dying, grief and lo ss were also identified as having strong links to spirituality
(Lloyd, 1997; Smith et al, 1993), as was the cultural diversit y of clients
(Boyd-Franklin & Walker Lockwood, 1999; Falicov, 1999; Tolliver, 1997).
Also, in Chapter Two various authors raised the links between working with
women and spirituality (Johnson, 1997; Bewley, 1995).
Religion is not identified specifically as a factor that promotes the
inclusion of spirituality and there may be a few issues that account for this
finding. Actually, religion can be included in the factor of culture. Almost a
third of the partic ipants identified the culture of clients or multiculturalism as
topics that are connected to religion and spirituality. One partic ipant notes
that recognition of the diversity of clients’ cultures has enabled discussions
about spirituality and religion at his work place. He points out that initiating
discussion about culture is more acceptable than religious or spiritual
discourse, which could account for the absence of the explicit identification of
religion here. Also, the focus of this study on spirituality and the participants’
differentiation between spirituality and religion was likely to have influenced
responses.
Finally, one participant who was an experienced practitioner in
counselling abused women, but who was engaged in social work education
emphasizes the powerlessness of social work students in some contexts. She
feels that her lesser status as an unpaid practic um student affects her
confidence in incorporating spirituality. The power and status accorded to
social workers and perceived personal power certainly differs according to
work contexts and positions, and affects in various ways the incorporation of
spirit uality. Issues of power are further analyzed in the following sectio n.
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Social work contexts – factors that impede the inclusion of

spirituality
The factors identified by the participants as impeding the
incorporation of spirituality into practice are listed in Table 6.2 in Appendix
VII. They include dealing wit h basic needs, child protection and
administrative work versus therapeutic work, voluntary versus involuntary
clients, firm delineation of the social work role, clients paying for services in a
non-private practice context, and crisis work. Some of these factors such as
dealing with basic needs, firm delineation of the social work role, crisis work
and administrative duties illustrate that not having enough time to form close
relationships with clients and the lack of freedom of choice in practice models
and goals impedes the inclusion of spirituality. Overall, the participants
believe that having time to build relationships is important in spiritually
influenced practice, as is the freedom to work according to practice wisdom
and personal knowledge.
Some of these factors also illustrate how issues of power affect the
incorporation of spirituality. For example, one participant raised the issue of
fee for service. She experiences less freedom to include spirituality in her
work when clients pay for services in a non-private practice context. Paying
for services in her example shifts power to the client that often results in
client demands for partic ular outcomes, whic h she feels restricts her practice
approach. This participant works in what she identifies as a constraining
context with conservative clients and she is encouraged to utilize certain
models and techniques. This example differs from the earlier one of private
practice because clients are paying and choosing a particular service not a
specific practitioner, which pressures the worker to deliver this service.
Clients have the right to demand specific services from organizations. Thus,
the onus is on practitioners to consider whether work contexts and client
populations will promote or impede practice that incorporates their
philosophy and values.
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A few participants also stressed that voluntary clients have more

power because they choose to access services while involuntary clients are
forced to attend. Being aware of these power differentials led to participants
feeling wary about incorporating spirituality into work with involuntary
clients. As was discussed earlier in Chapter Four, the participants are
concerned with being oppressive, which leads to a cautious approach
regarding spiritually influenced practices. One participant identifies that as a
child protection worker she feels very restricted in her practice with regards
to spirituality. Not only does she have more power than her involuntary
clients but often has to exert power over clients. Consequently, she seldom
has the opportunity to form trusting, longer-term relatio nships with clients
that are based on equality and that appear to aid in the incorporation of
spirit uality. However, not all involuntary clients are powerless. Another
participant who works with an involuntary teenage client group found that
spirit ually influenced practices were included in some of her work, for
example through the use of meditation exercises. Despit e their involuntary
status some of these clients do engage willingly in the social work process,
whic h allows the use of these spiritually influenced processes.
Overall, spirituality is not completely absent from practice processes
even in situations where participants feel very restricted in their practices.
For instance, connecting with clients on a higher level of consciousness is an
example of a spiritually influenced process that was discussed by a
participant who feels extremely restricted in her role as a child protection
worker. The following section of the chapter further discusses this example
and other spiritually influenced practic es.
This section of the chapter has discussed how the participants connect
their life and work experiences and their commitment to spiritual exploration,
to their ability and willingness to incorporate spiritualit y into practice. Most of
the participants are experienced practitioners who have had time to develop
a practice wisdom, which enables these links to be made. Practic e wisdom is
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an important layer of professional knowledge that deserves exploration and

attention, particularly since it appears to be connected to the inclusion of
spirit uality in practice. Inexperienced workers may struggle more with
spirit uality because they lack practice wisdom and experience. However,
whether practice wisdom is necessary for the incorporation of spirituality is
yet to be determined and raises issues for further study that are discussed in
the final chapter. Similarly, the participants also indicated that a social
worker’s personal spiritual exploration and development positively affects
practice effectiveness and the meaningfulness of practice. These are not
surprising findings given most of the participants’ work/life experiences, ages
and interests in spiritual exploration. However, the reality that both the
literature and the participants stress the importance of personal spiritual
development indicates its relevance in spiritually influenced practice.
While most of the participants experienced some restriction in their
work regarding the inclusion of spirituality, the most restriction was
expressed by the partic ipants working with clients who were involuntary,
dealing with survival needs and who demanded certain services, particularly
in contexts that restricted choice of practice models and promoted short-
term client contact. In these situatio ns, often the worker has power over
clients, which coupled with non-therapeutic work does not promote the
inclusion of spirituality. On the other hand, the least restricted participants
work in contexts such as private practice and palliative care that provide
freedom to develop spiritually influenced practice approaches, or with clients
such as marginalized groups that encourage spirituality discourse. Thus,
although issues of power are complex it appears that contexts and client
populations in which both the worker and the client are empowered and
sharing power are the most conducive to promoting the incorporation of
spirit uality. These contexts and client populations also often enable the
development of worker/client relationships that could be characterized as
egalitarian, meaningful, trusting and lo nger-term, which appears relevant for
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the inclusion of spirituality. In fact, most of the participants engaged in

practice that facilitated these types of relationships, which could account in
part for their identification of spiritually influenced practices in this study.
Practitioners who are interested in spirituality could use this data to consider
issues of power and how a particular context will promote or impede their
practice style, values and the inclusion of spiritualit y. The following
discussion builds on the analysis started here and furthers discussion
regarding issues of power, relationship and social work context.

SPIRITUALLY INFLUENCED PRACTICES

The following section presents an overview and analysis of the final

layer of categories that arose from the participants’ discussions of practice
methods and relationships, which encompass spiritually influenced practice
processes. These include incorporations of spirituality through language and
relationship, and spiritually influenced processes such as making meaning
and fostering clients’ connectio ns and experiences of self-love. To reiterate,
these categories represent the convergent viewpoints of a majority of the
participants. However, the chapter concludes with a brief summary of all the
spirit ually influenced practices that were identified by the participants.

Language and spirituality

Consistently across the research sample, the particip ants stress that
they accommodate a client’s spiritual perspective by shifting their language
to converge with the client’s discourse. Various rationale s are provided for
shifting language that include respect, the promotion of deeper connections,
to transcend differences and to achieve practice goals. Also, explicit religious
and spiritual discourse is not often engaged in. In general, the participants
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emphasize the importance of using what speaks to people and working with
a language that people relate to .
Several participants identified that they shifted their language out of
respect for the client. As one partic ipant notes, If you want to deliver a
spirit ual language, you use something they understand. You start from
where they are. You don’t expect them to move to your position. Other
participants identified that a deeper connection with clients can occur when
language is shifted. For instance, Social workers have a language…doctors
have a language and Christians have a language, and so I would speak in
that language to them. There would be a deeper connection. This comment
illustrates that when religious beliefs are shared between client and worker,
the use of religio us language can promote a closer, more meaningful or
effective connection. On the other hand, one participant explains that if
clients use religious language exclusively she will work with them to build a
more generic language, so if their religious perspective is threatened they
will still have a means of discussing spirituality. These two examples can be
related to Doherty’s (1999) Three Domains of Language and Meaning model
that was discussed in Chapter One. For instance, the model supports the
practice of introducing spiritual issues through the language of overlap areas
and using spiritual/religious terms if the client’s beliefs are known.
Participants also shifted their language in order to communicate more
effectively, to achieve practice aims and goals, and to transcend differences.
As one participant explains, I’m not going to impose anything on them…so if
they have Christian beliefs then I will use their Christian beliefs…and
incorporate some of the energy and experience I’ve got into that to help
them recover. Overall, language is chosen because of its perceived
helpfulness to the social work process. This is demonstrated in the following
comment by a participant who chose to omit the use of the word spirituality
to enable more effective communication and to transcend differences
regarding definitio ns of spirituality. For example, If I say spiritual, it ’s got to
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come from the Bible and that…religious philosophy. That’s her concept of
spirit ual. Whereas if I talk energy she goes, “Oh yeah, that’s good. Oh yeah,
I can feel that…that’s right, okay.”
There was also wide recognitio n that religious language has oppressed
some people, due in part to the participants’ feminist social work
perspectives. As one participant discussed, even though she has liberative
ways of talking about God, she realizes that for many women language is
oppressive. She shifts her language because As a woman who comes from a
Judeo-Christian background, I would want to I guess be in some sense of
solidarity with my sisters who didn’t experience Christianity as much else
other than oppressive. Several other participants point out that religious
language produces tremendous barriers. Thus, religious language is generally
avoided except in cases where the client introduces this language into the
process and/or it is deemed useful to the helping process, as in the example
provided above that discusses using religious language to enable connections
with clients.
Engaging in explicit discussions about spirituality is not the norm for
the particip ants except in situations where worker and client share spiritual
perspectives, the client introduces spirituality and/or the topics under
consideration facilitate these discussions. Relating back to the previous
discussion regarding social work contexts, the participants who regularly
engage explicitly in spiritual discussions work in contexts and with client
populations that most often meet these conditions, such as palliative care
and private practice. Various explanations are provided for avoiding explicit
discussion about spirituality many of which were previously discussed in
Chapter Four, for example, fears of marginalization and lack of acceptance
by the client, the secular nature of social work, acknowledging the capability
to act oppressively and lacking a spiritual language. Two participants
reflecting on their own counselling experiences explained that both they and
their counsellors avoided using the word spirituality although the participants
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identify the issues that were addressed as spirit ual ones. One of these
participants described her counsellor as too traditio nal to explicitly discuss
spirit uality, which reflects the need to divorce spiritual discourse from
professional practice. The lack of explicit spiritual discourse raises issues
concerning the transparency of practice.

Language and spirituality – transparency of practice

The following comment illustrates that there are also instances when
the participants are influenced and guided by personal ideas about or
understandings of spirituality and times when helping processes are
understood as spiritual without identifying this to clients. For example,
I might have said, we’ll do a bit of relaxation, a bit of meditation and
that’s all I’d say. But the commentary might be similar to a spiritual
commentary without me calling it that. And so I’d get them to focus
on the soul, focus on the third eye, without using that word…my role
as a social worker is not spiritual teaching as such, my role is to help
them recover.
This example and others like it raise questions about the transparency
of practice and the absence of explicit spiritual discourse. Many of the
participants acknowledge that they are not transparent in their practices with
clients regarding spirituality and several partic ipants question this, wondering
if they should be more explicit. It could be argued that this non -transparency
is contrary to feminist social work practices and values that aim to equalize
power imbalances between worker and client by identifying counselling
approaches and perspectives. However, only a couple of participants identify
this issue as an ethical one and none of the participants link it with feminist
values. In fact, one participant points out that if she talks directly with her
clients about how she uses spirituality, the clients wouldn’t understand or it
would challenge or frighten them leading to an ineffective process. Her
viewpoint is not meant to be patronizing, but reflects her experience as a
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practitioner and her concern with helping clients to achieve their goals.
Another participant did not want clients to have preconceived ideas about
her or the work that could be engaged in.
Actually, based on expressed concerns of acting oppressively with
clients and the rationales for not discussing spirituality, most participants
would likely identify the explicit discussion of personal viewpoints regarding
spirit uality as unethical, and an inappropriate use of their power and
influence as a professional. Because spirituality has not yet been accepted as
legitimate knowledge for social work, its associatio n wit h personal
perspectives and values leaves the participants feeling wary about explicitly
engaging in these discussions with clients.
Additionally, the idea was raised earlier in Chapter Four that the
development of spiritual models and language as legitimate methods and
processes may lead to the increased use of spiritually influenced practices.
However, legitimizing spirituality will not necessarily lead to more explicit
discussions or transparent practices. For example, both the use of language
that fits for clients and the avoidance of it in some situations are mirrored in
most of the participants’ feminist practices. Many of the participants
explained that they might not explicitly use feminist language with clients
either because it may be confusing, misleading and at odds with the goals of
the helping process. While this may not be convergent with feminist values
as mentioned above, perhaps the non-explicit use of feminist language is a
reflection of the particip ants’ practice experience. As practice wisdom and
personal knowledge is developed there may be less reliance on textbook
theory and practice, as a personal practice approach incorporates these
frameworks and values. Above all else, the primary emphasis in both the
participants’ feminist and spiritually influenced practices appears to be to
utilize language that is deemed most appropriate, helpful and effective for
clients’ processes.
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While the participants agreed that it may not be appropriate to discuss

personal spiritual beliefs with clients, most acknowledged that these personal
beliefs influence and guide practice. Indeed, social workers are guided by a
myriad of personal perspectives that are not always identified to clients, just
as every therapeutic modality and technique is not generally explained. This
analysis reiterates the importance of developing self-awareness regarding
personal and professional perspectives and values. Social workers bring who
they are and what they believe to every social work encounter and this bears
analysis that can aid in efforts to not impose personal perspectives onto
clients. While more inexperienced practitioners may attempt to separate their
personal perspectives from their practice, experienced practitio ners realize
that these biases shape practic e and require attention. Consequently, most
of the participants emphasize the importance of developing insig ht and self-
awareness that includes spiritual exploration.
The following categories demonstrate more specifically how the
participants’ concepts of spirituality influence their social work practices.
Making meaning processes are discussed first, which Hartman (1996, pp.3,
6) describes as one aspect of human existence and the sense of purpose or
meaning in everyday life that makes life livable. Alternatively,
meaninglessness conjures up feelings of hopele ssness, isolation and in
extreme cases, suicidal thoughts.

Making meaning
The practice of helping clients to make meaning is described as a
spirit ual one by many participants because spirituality itself is conceptualized
as a process of making meaning. Hartman (1996, p.3) agrees that finding
meaning in crisis and making meaning in life is an act of spirituality and a
spirit ual task. Indeed, the previous chapter illustrated how spirituality helped
many of the participants to make sense or meaning of experiences. In
response to a query regarding the rationale for identifying making meaning
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as a spiritually influenced practice, one participant explains, Because I think

spirit uality is about meaning…I let people explore whatever that stuff is. And
it’s all about meaning. Another participant in a description of her work points
out that often when you work in therapy with someone, initially you deal
with the concrete matters…and then you move along that continuum of
therapy into an area where they’re trying to make sense of their whole
life…and that’s where I tend to go…if that le ad is there…I do call it a spiritual
dimension.
Four participants specific ally discussed helping people deal with death
and dying as a spiritual making meaning process. One particip ant argues that
helping people to face and make sense of deeply personal, intimate issues
related to dying involves spirituality. She states, Because I think in a sense
it’s all about spirituality. About human beings in crisis and what resources do
we have and what does it mean to…suffer. Another participant believes that
it is important to help people explore whatever they want around their
spirit uality and death in whatever form fits for them, including constructions
of where they’re going, what they think is going to happen to them…it’s their
private stuff. That’s their way of making sense of their world. It’s not mine.
This participant emphasizes the importance of coming to terms with dying
and that the process has to be resolved by the client without him imposing
his beliefs about death and spirituality. The issues clients bring to the helping
process certainly influence the need (or not) to engage in making meaning,
and death is certainly an experience that encourages making meaning
processes.
One participant also argues that the assumption should not be made
that there is always meaning in suffering. She makes the distinction between
making meaning and finding meaning, stressing that sometimes there is no
meaning to be found in suffering but that it has to be constructed. As she
describes, some clients take a long time to make meaning, some have
already resolved what the meaning of their suffering is, others are ready and
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willing to engage in the making meaning process and still others might never
make meaning of their situation.23 In other words, pain and suffering often
seem unfair but despite the unfairness of life’s challenges, people can make
sense of these sit uations that helps to deal with these struggles.
With regards to other areas of practice, one participant identified
utilizing clie nt’s dreams as a way of helping them to make meaning. She
names the use of dreams as an important strategy…because I think that the
brain produces images that are essentially about the psychosocialspiritual
reality of people. So that’s spiritual…and so I really encourage people to talk
to me about their dreams. Also, the use of spirituality and religio n to help
make sense of paranormal experiences was identified by one participant. For
example, in working wit h a client who thought she had seen a ghost, the
participant talked about it in…spiritual terms and identified this social work
process as spiritual direction because ideas of God were raised. She adds
that in the work she does this type of process doesn’t happen often. It’s not
an everyday thing. In this example, both the participant and client shared
religious beliefs that provided them with a language and a context within
whic h they could interpret the experience both religiously and spiritually.
Also, the client began discussing the situation in religious terms, which
encouraged the participant to utilize their shared perspectives.
Finally, the participants’ ideas of making meaning as a spiritual
process is reflected in the literature, as previous theoretical discussion has
illustrated. For example, Anderson (1999) argues that the aim in counselling
is to help people know their story in order to reframe it, and Barrett (1999)
describes healing from trauma as a quest for spirituality that reflects a deep
need for meaning. Other conceptualizations of spiritualit y also affect what
practices are identified as spiritually influenced. For instance, the participants

Hartman (1996, p.129) also contends that finding and mak ing meaning are not identical in
23

their meaning although they are used interchangeably in the literature. He states that
finding meaning implies the discov ery of something that already exists, while mak ing
meaning implies the creation of something from a set of raw materials.
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defined spirituality as connectio n, that is, connectio n to something “bigger”,

community, one’s self, environment, culture, nature and other people. Thus,
assisting clients to foster connections on a myriad of levels was identified as
spirit ually influenced practice and is discussed next.

Fostering connections
Most of the participants discussed how helping clients foster
connections with community, in groups and with their feelings are spiritually
influenced practice. As the following comment illustrates, helping clients build
community is a spiritual process that aids in promoting a positive sense of
self. For example,
Because I define spirituality as a lot around my values around
community, and also a lot around my values of people being
empowered to find their own goals and communities to find their own
goals. That influences my work profoundly…helping people build their
community…I see that’s where our sense of self and our sense of
valuing ourselves comes from, is having a good experience of
community and interpersonal relationships.
Another participant describes how a group of women whom she had
facilitated writing workshops for, had decided to continue their meetings
when the workshops ended. She attributes this desire for the ongoing group
connection to spirituality and contends that There’s something deeper than
just that they’re a group of women who meet for writing that keeps them
there, and that sort of sharing in their lives and the connecting at that
level…I don’t think it’s just in therapy groups…the process of what happens
in groups and support that people can get…I think that there’s a spiritual
dimension to that. Spiritual connectio ns that are sometimes formed amongst
people in groups can be supportive and even life enhancing or changing.
Some feminist literature reflects these viewpoints and also discusses how
group connection can encompass spirituality. For instance, Ballou (1995)
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argues that feminist spirituality is grounded in communit y, connection and

relationship, and Kimmel and Kazanis (1995) describe the deep spiritual
connections that can occur in conscio usness raising and counselling groups.
While the examples above have focused on more communal spiritual
connections, assisting clients to connect with their feelings was also
identified as an incorporation of spirituality and was associated with helping
people to connect with their spirituality. All of the participants identify the
connection of feelings with spirituality, for example , People who shut down
their emotions find dealing with spirituality very difficult...the emotional life is
very close to spirituality. Another participant explains that she focuses on
how clients are feeling and how they manage emotions because this
constitutes working with the soul stuff. Similarly, one participant frames a
disconnection from feelings as an intimacy issue stating, I find that people
who have difficulties with becoming intimate have a sense of
disconnectedness within themselves…It’s around trust and it’s around
acceptance. Thus, it is perceived that a consequence of being disconnected
from feelings is a hampered ability to be intimate with others and to form
connections with one’s spirituality.
Overall, the participants identified disconnection from both feelings
and spirituality as impeding the development of self-awareness, spiritual
growth and relationships. As one participant notes, People live their lives
very, very quickly and have lo st that kind of…in touchness if you like. In
touch with themselves and in touch…with others and the planet. As a result,
some participants liken the social work process to a facilitation of
connectedness, which demonstrates the importance placed on connections.
It is important to note however, that most of the participants also agree that
being able to disconnect from unhealthy people and influences is equally
important, and in the process of disconnecting from these negative
influences sometimes more positive and healthy connections occur. As one
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participant emphasizes, it is not always a healthy thing to be connected with

others despite society’s emphasis on relationships.
Finally, one participant illustrates how fostering a connection with
what she calls her heart center promotes a more effective practice for her
and her clie nts. She describes,
When I’m sitting with clients, I’ll sit with my mantra. I’ll sit and repeat
my mantra…it’s very centering for me…as a therapist. And I can kind
of drop into a very still, calm place. And from that place I work with
people and my mind is clearer, I’m centered, I’m open, I’m not
judging…they get the benefit of the fact that I am calm, centered,
clear-headed, connected to my heart center.
This example lends support to earlier discussions that identified the
importance of a social worker’s personal spiritual development for the
effective facilitation of social work processes. The connection that can occur
between social worker and client is analyzed next as it was specifically
identified as an incorporation of spirituality by most of the partic ipants.

The social worker-client relationship

Overall, the participants described their relationships wit h clients as
spirit ual when they were wholly present wit h clients, sharing client’s stories
and when a deep connection had occurred between them. The importance of
acknowledging these client connections because of potential effects on
workers is also identifie d, as is the relevance of relatio nship in affecting
change.
One participant believes that spirituality is present when he is wholly
attending to someone. For example, For me it’s about sitting with someone’s
pain. Someone’s you know, grief. Allowing yourself to be there. That’s
spirit ual. Because it demands so much of you. Other participants indicated
that a connection is spiritual when it feels like it exists on a spiritual level or a
higher level of consciousness or awareness, which are viewpoints reflected in
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the literature. Indeed, for some social workers the very essence of the
therapeutic relationship is spiritual because it fosters personal
transformation, wholeness, intimate relationships and involves opening the
self to sorrow and connection (Walsh, 1999a; Weingarten, 1999).
One participant discusses the importance of understanding these deep
spirit ual connectio ns as part of our professional role. She believes that We
really connect with some of our clients at quit e a deep level. And to
understand that as part of the professional role that we have. Not something
outside of it because as soon as we say that it’s outside of it, it can throw us.
Her comment emphasizes the importance of understanding how practitioners
can be affected by the relationships they form with clients. Recognizing how
we are connected with and affected by clients also reflects feminist social
work values. For example, several participants point out how through
personal life experiences and growth, they now feel less of a separation and
more of a connection with clients. As one participant notes, That’s part of me
seeing that I’m connected to everyone…I don’t see that there’s a line
between myself and my clients. Because I’ve been a client too. Another
participant attributes feeling less of a separateness from clie nts to her
spirit ual growth. She points out that consequently her work has taken on
more of a spiritual dimension…there is more of a sense of being connected
and that my human experience is really just the same as theirs. These
examples also illustrate how the development of practice wisdom that is
influenced by life experiences and spiritual development can encourage a
more egalitarian helping philosophy focused on relationship.
Along these lines, one participant believes that for the most part it is
her relationship with clie nts that affects change, not what she is doing in
terms of therapeutic techniques. It is her process of being with that person
that influences the clie nt to shift. The significance of the worker-client
relationship is widely supported in the helping literature. Carl Rogers (1961)
is well known for his emphasis on the importance of a genuine and authentic
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relationship with clients. Within the social work lit erature, Klein and Cnaan
(1995) discuss a practice model that emphasizes the building of
relationships. In their opinion, the importance of relationship is substantiated
in the social work research literature. For the participants in this study, the
abilit y and willingness to form spiritual connections with clients appears to be
influenced by spiritual development and self-awareness. The particip ants
were for the most part engaged in and committed to a continual process of
self-development and spiritual exploratio n, which enables them to form
spirit ual connectio ns with clients.
However, it should be noted that although relationships form the basis
of direct practice work, not every effective relationship needs to encompass a
spirit ual connectio n. Clients may not be willing to engage with us on that
level and likewise, we may not deem it appropriate to do so with them. Also,
social work contexts and client populations affect helping processes and
incorporations of spirituality. Some contexts and client populations such as
involuntary clients, may not encourage the formation of spiritual
relationships. Interestingly however, a spiritual connection with an
involuntary or hostile client may be possible. For example, one participant
describes how she sometimes attempts to connect and form a relationship
with a client’s higher consciousness, especially clients who are difficult to
engage, for the purposes of achieving a positive outcome. She notes, There
are times that I’ve been aware of being in an interview with people
and…some other connection has occurred…I will consciously use that if I
think it’s a situatio n that is going to be really hard going. In this example the
participant understands spirituality as including a higher consciousness.
Thus, connecting with a person’s higher consciousness is spiritual for her.
The final category that emerged in discussions about practice methods
and relationships concerns experiencing self-love and a sense of wholeness.
Spirituality is defined by many participants as an experience of love.
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Consequently, helping clients to feel self-love and wholeness is also identified

as spiritually influenced practice.

Self-love and wholeness

For many particip ants, a connection to spiritualit y converges with
experiencing a positive sense of self. As one participant notes, Spirituality is
about a good sense of self. And…having good spirituality, having a fulfilled
soul is being in touch and in tune with the Self. And I think the more
detached you are, the less spiritual you feel. Similarly, another participant
explains that her present belief about spiritualism and myself is something
about a belief in yourself…a belief that you can rely on yourself, that you are
a good person, a kind person and a healthy person. These viewpoints
influence practices in various ways. For instance, some participants
emphasize the need for people to love themselves while others stress
fostering feelings of wholeness, and both of these experiences are linked
with more meaningful and effective practice processes.
The bottom line for some participants is to assist people to develop
their self-acceptance and self-love and to learn to nurture themselves
because Unless people like themselves…nothing comes, nothing else. You
really have got no where to go if you don’t love yourself. Another participant
explains that she talks to people about Wholeness and oneness and what it
means to feel content with themselves as people, to feel good about
themselves, proud of their choices, to believe in the positive aspects of
themselves, to believe in their own good…That they are good enough. One
participant emphasizes that what is important is the experience of feeling
self-love. In he r opinion, this feeling has to be an energetic, physical and
emotional experience.
All of these perspectives reflect beliefs that because spirituality is
conceptualized as love, assisting people to connect with their spirituality can
promote feelings of self-love and, vice versa, that feeling self-love can
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promote the development of spirituality. It should be noted that while a

positive sense of self can augment the processes of self-growth and
reflection, which can include spirituality, certainly people who do not feel
good about themselves can also turn to spirit uality for assistance. As
previous discussions in this thesis have noted, spirituality can be a factor in
coping with and making sense of challenges and struggles by all people.
Assisting clients to develop a sense of wholeness, whic h is related to
feelings of self-love was identifie d as essential by three participants. One
participant points out that a spiritual process for many clients is the search
for something that will make them feel whole. Another participant
emphasizes recognizing the wholeness of people’s experiences and believes
that People are more than people with HIV. People are more than
women…for me, it’s about saying…people are more than having an illness.
They’re also sexual people, they’re also spiritual people…So I think it’s about
putting those other aspects of people ’s lives in the open and supporting and
nurturing every aspect of people’s lives. Another participant believes that
when people sense a feeling of wholeness then healing and therapy is an
easie r road. Once you have experienced it then you know what…your goals
are.
As this last comment indicates, helping people feel and experience
self-love and wholeness is connected to a more effective and meaningful
practice experience. For example, one participant describes the process of
helping people to experience a valuing of themselves as rewarding. She
describes, Finding significance, the significance of them…and the significance
of their relationships and the signific ance of their relationship with God is
just…awesome. It’s just amazing. Another participant points out that her
experience of spirituality has been that it has the potential to heal very
deeply. And offer a lot of joy. She wonders if she sees that and others see
that, then I suppose to not offer that would in a sense perhaps be an
obligation of the duty of care. Throughout this thesis both the participants
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and the literature have linked spirit ually influenced practices with more
effective and meaningful processes. It appears that at the very least social
work should attend to spirituality and consider its applic ations in practice.
Better still would be to study the effectiveness (or not) of spiritually
influenced practices. Otherwise, our understanding about a potentially
significant part of life experience and helping processes will continue to be
hampered and ignored or marginalized.
Finally, one participant discussed her thoughts about how these
feelings of wholeness and self-love are created. She believes that there is no
formula that can be relie d on that will inform us about when this is going to
occur for people, and she understands healing and a sense of wholeness as a
spirit ual gift. For instance, There’s something about the receptivenessof…the
human spirit . When it’s done enough work to accept a gift of some kind. This
example demonstrates that dynamic s occur within practice that may be
diffic ult to articulate and grasp, and practice often includes these more
abstract constructs as well as helping processes that have been more
thoroughly studied and developed such as empathy. As Chapter Two pointed
out, if a diversity of knowledges and research models are embraced, these
abstract processes can be studied, discussed and developed into knowledge.
The categories presented thus far are based on consensus amongst
the majority of the participants. While most participants discussed the
importance of the relationship between practitioner and client, and the
utilization of client-centered language, they also identified other spiritually
influenced practices that are not necessarily shared widely across the
research sample but that illustrate diversity in beliefs and practices. These
practices are now briefly examined.

Additional spiritually influenced practices

Table 6.3 in Appendix VIII summarizes all of the additional spiritually
influenced practices that were identified by the participants. These are
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organized into four groups for the purposes of clarity. Religious expressions
in practice include prayer and referral to religious organizations. Social work
processes that are influenced by spirituality include assessment and social
actio n, and values such as respect and believing in people ’s inherent worth.
Spiritual tools and techniques include working with spiritual guides,
astrological concepts and flower essences, while experiential techniques
include working with energy, ritual and medit ation. Some preliminary
analysis can be offered here but, given the exploratory nature of this
research, an in-depth analysis of these practices is beyond the scope of this
study. In fact, this analysis was not part of the research but instead it has
tentatively emerged. However, the diversity of these practices holds
numerous possibilities for future investigations.
It was noted earlier in this chapter that beliefs about spirituality affect
how spirituality is included in practice. This dynamic appears to hold true for
these additional practices listed in Table 6.3. For example, the participants
who had present and past affiliations with religious traditions identify
religiously influenced practices. Similarly, the participants who stressed that
spirit uality was experiential (about a third of the sample) utilize techniques in
their social work that aim to help people experience spirit uality, for example,
meditation. Spiritual techniques such as flower essences and spirit guides are
mentioned by five partic ipants. These participants share interests in working
with energy and connecting with people on a higher level of consciousness,
and with Eastern philosophies and traditions. All but one work in private
practice contexts and they are amongst the most experienced practitioners in
this sample, which would provide them with freedom and confidence to use
these techniques. Finally, various social work processes are identified as
spirit ually influenced practices, which is not surprising given the
convergences identified earlier in Chapter Four between feminist social work
values and spirituality, such as an emphasis on social change and diversity.
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Some of the practices summarized in Table 6.3 have also been

identified in the literature discussed earlier in this thesis. For example, Perry
and Rolland (1999) advocate linking spiritual well being and justice. Wright
(1999) mentions prayer as a spiritual technique, Aponte (1999) stresses the
usefulness of connecting people with spiritual/religious resources, Oaks
(1998) encourages tuning into intuitio n as practice knowle dge, Carroll (1998)
presents meditation and guided imagery as useful, and Schwartz’s (1999)
Internal Family Systems model is akin to working with spirit guides or the
Higher-Self. Therefore, the participants have identified spiritually influenced
practices that both converge with the literature and identify new directions
for exploration.
This section of the chapter has explo red how spirituality is
incorporated into the participants’ practices. Overall, the participants shift
their language or avoid explicit spirit ual discourse in order to achieve the
most helpful process for clients. There are likely some contexts where
practice is more transparent because spirit ual discourse is encouraged or
expected by clients and a spiritual language is being developed in these
areas. Other contexts discourage the inclusio n of spirituality and this coupled
with the secular nature of social work, the association of spirituality with
personal values, and the marginalization of spirituality creates wariness
about explicitly discussing spirituality with clients. In fact, these factors shape
perceptions of explicit spiritual discourse as potentially unethical and an
abuse of power by imposing personal values onto clients. Also, while the
legitimizatio n of spiritual knowledge may help practitioners to feel more
justified in using this knowle dge, explicit spiritual discourse will likely still
depend on perceptions regarding the helpfulness of this discourse. Whether
spirit uality should be more explicitly named is yet to be determined.
Conceptualizations of spirituality influence how spirituality is
incorporated into social work. Certainly, some social work contexts and client
populations encourage spiritually influenced practice more than others do.
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For example, not having the time to form relationship s with clients will
certainly affect the ability to engage in making meaning processes. The
processes of fostering connections and experiences of self-love, forming
spirit ual relationships wit h clients and shifting language were all connected
with experiencing a more meaningful and effective practice. These
viewpoints reiterate the need to consider spirituality in practice because of
potential positive effects.
Practice wisdom and personal spiritual exploration are implicated in
the ability to form relatio nships with clients as life and work experiences can
shape our understanding of clients’ experiences, and our willingness to
connect with them. Thus, the close and/or spiritual relationships that can
sometimes form with clients are particularly important for inexperienced
social workers to consider as they lack practice wisdom and these
relationships may raise questions about professionalism, boundaries, values
and feelings. Overall, a greater understanding of spiritually influenced
concepts such as self-love, relatio nship and connection is required because
these experiences appear to encourage effective processes for clients but our
knowledge about them is limited.

Conclusion
This chapter has presented for consideration the third grouping of
categories that address the incorporations of spirituality into social work,
whic h emerged from discussions of practice methods and relationships.
Spirituality was incorporated into practice through the processes of shifting
language, making meaning, fostering connections, forming spiritual
relationships with clients, promoting experiences of self-love, and through
various other processes and techniques identified by the participants. Also,
the particip ants described social work contexts and client populations that
both promoted and impeded the inclusion of spirituality into practice.
Perceptions of power had in some cases an influence on whether spirituality
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was included in practice, and it appears that the most conducive situatio n for
the incorporation of spirituality exists when power is more evenly balanced
and shared between practitioners and clients. Social work contexts and client
populations bear significant influence on the inclusion of spirituality and can
shape what practices are possible and the transparencie s of practice with
regards to spirit uality.
The importance of fostering personal self-awareness and spiritual
development was identified throughout the chapter. A worker’s spiritual
growth is perceived to affect the overall meaningfulness of practice as well
as its effectiveness. Practitio ners who are engaged in processes of continual
self-development are perceived as being able to engage with clients on
deeper levels of connection and to assist clients in making meaning and
building connectio ns. The development of practice wisdom is also associated
with spiritually influenced practice. Although it is not surprising that more
experienced workers are deemed more effective and more willing to consider
spirit uality in practice, a greater understanding of the connections between
practice wisdom, spiritual development and spiritually influenced practice is
required.
Thus concludes the discussion of the major convergent themes and
categories that arose from the analysis of interview data. Three groupings of
categories were identified that discussed the participants’ ideas about
spirit uality and their values and goals of practice (Chapter Four), spiritual
processes and the essence of human life (Chapter Five), and practice
methods and relationships (Chapter Six). A point that has been raised
throughout these three chapters is that spiritual knowledge needs to be
uncovered and articulated in order to help facilitate discourse and
considerations about practice. In fact, while this study did not set out to
produce spiritual knowledge or practice principles, the emergence of
convergent themes and categories prompted further questions and the
accompanying analysis of new data that did result in the develo pment of a
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set of practice principles. The following chapter examines this decision and
the ensuing process of development of the practice principles.
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CHAPTER SEVEN
THE DEVELOPMENT OF PRACTICE PRINCIPLES

Introduction
The previous three chapters presented for consid eration the major
themes and categories that arose from the analysis of data collected from
participant interviews. Remarkably they represent major convergences
amongst the participants’ belie fs, values and practices. This research study
asked preliminary questions which satisfactorily addressed the research
questions, and did not expect to develop knowledge for practice in the form
of practice principles, given the preliminary nature of previous knowledge
development and empirical research in spirituality and social work. However,
in keeping with a grounded theory methodology, the unexpected emergence
of these convergent categories prompted a re-examination of the literature
to assess the existence of convergences documented elsewhere and/or the
prior develo pment of models, frameworks and practice principles. The lack of
development of any coherent and empirically based models, practice
principles or frameworks for a “spiritual-social work” practice necessitated a
return to the research method. It was through further research inquiry and
data analysis of the convergent categories that the potential of developing a
more formal knowledge in the area became evident. The possibility of
articulating practice principles developed with the analysis of the convergent
categories.
This chapter examines the interview data further and re-organizes the
information to develop a coherent if preliminary set of practice principles.
The categories that were discussed in the previous three chapters are briefly
summarized in order to illustrate how the first development of the practice
principles attempted to incorporate these viewpoints. It should be noted that
the practice principles presented for consideration here in this chapter are
not in their final version. The particip ants reviewed the practic e principles
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again during the focus groups, and as a result, changes were made based on
participant feedback and analysis of the focus group meetings. The final
version of the practice principles will be presented in the following chapter
that discusses the focus group analysis. This chapter’s relevance is in its sole
focus on the development of the practice principles and in its re-examination
of previously discussed ideas, thereby linking the development of the
practice principles with previous discussion of the literature and data analysis
in a close and cohesive manner. The chapter begins by summarizing
discussion regarding the need for the development of theory, models,
frameworks and language in spiritualit y and social work.

THE NEED FOR KNOWLEDGE DEVELOPMENT IN

SPIRITUALITY AND SOCIAL WORK

The need for spiritual knowledge

Both the participants and the literature contend that the incorporation
of spirituality can contribute to more effective and meaningful practice
processes. However, these viewpoints are generally based on personal
practice experiences and though this is an important form of knowledge,
empirical research is needed to develop, broaden and strengthen our
understanding of how spirituality shapes practice experiences beyond the
experience of sole practitioners. Even Schwartz’s (1999) Internal Family
Systems model and Doherty’s (1999) Three Domains of Language and
Meaning model, which are well develo ped and useful schemas, are based on
the respective author’s practice experiences. Indeed, in Schwartz’s model,
there is a lack of clarity and some uncertainty with regards to understanding
and articulating how the processes described in the model actually work. As
Amato-von Hemert (1994) argues, it is not in social work’s best interest for
practitioners to solely use their personal experiences as the knowledge base
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for their practice and the standard for decisio n making in this area.
Consequently, knowledge is required in the form of frameworks, models,
practice principles and preliminary theory that would encourage reflectio n on
how spirit uality shapes practic e.
Additionally, models, language, theory and frameworks that emerge
from practitioners’ experiences are particularly relevant for a practice-based
profession such as social work. As was argued in Chapter Two, there has
been, and continues to be, a need within social work for the development of
strong integrative links between practice and research (Berger, 1986; Wells
Imre, 1985). In fact, Siporin (1985) contends that research findings need to
be made relevant for practice by being identified and translated into criteria
for use, which includes the development of practice principles. Therefore, the
practice principles developed in this study could be highly relevant as they
emerged from the empirical study of a group of self-identified feminist social
workers’ experiences, beliefs and values. The importance of the development
of practice principles can be further delineated by examining the
development of knowledge for a feminist social work approach.

The development of feminist social work knowledge

Since Bricker-Jenkins’ (1989) work was one of the first empirical
research studies to examine the core characteristic s of an emerging feminist
social work practice, it was important in that it legitimized a model of
practice that was marginalized. It is important to develop practice models,
frameworks and preliminary theory for marginalized knowledge so that it
may be legitimized, explored, researched, developed and applied in practice.
Similarly, spirituality constitutes a non-legitimate and marginalized practice
and knowle dge. Thus, the development of practice principles is a potentially
important process that could promote the consideration of spirituality in
social work and could be used as a base for the future development of
practice models, techniq ues and theory.
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Additionally, feminist social workers have recognized spirituality as

important (Van Den Bergh, 1995; Bricker-Jenkins & Hooyman, 1986).
Bricker-Jenkins (1989) found in her research that spirituality was a significant
theme in a feminist social work practice and that feminist social workers
tended to explore and encourage spirituality in clients’ experiences and lives.
However, she also noted that spirituality was not generally refle cted in the
feminist social work literature at that time. Thus, the practice principles that
have been develo ped in this study further this identification and exploration
of spiritual influences in feminist practices noted by these researchers.
This section of the chapter has discussed the lack of “spiritual-social
work” models and frameworks that could guide practitioners in their practice.
The development of knowledge for practice is important because it can assist
practitioners to assess and explain their practic es, to provide some
rationalization for values and actions taken with clie nts, and can help predict
and plan interventions. In addition, having access to models, theory,
frameworks and practice principles can help practit ioners feel more
comfortable and professionally competent in using marginalized knowledges.
There continues to be calls in social work for strong integrative links between
practice and research so that practitioners can utilize research results. The
unanticipated findings in this research study allowed the development of
practice principles that can be utilized to further promote the exploration and
development of spirituality in social work. The following section of the
chapter presents the development of the eleven practice principles.

DEVELOPMENT OF THE PRACTICE PRINCIPLES

The discussion of the practice principles follows their organization into

three broad groupings – understandings of spirituality, basic philosophy and
values; the process of spiritual development and beliefs about the spiritual
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essence of human existence; and spiritually influenced practice processes

and relationships. The preliminary development of each practice principle is
presented first followed by the revised practice principle, which incorporates
written feedback received from ten participants. As previous methodological
discussion noted, once the practice principles were written in draft form they
were sent to all of the partic ipants for written feedback. Based on this
feedback some of the practice principles were edited while others were not
as they were agreed upon by all ten of the participants. It should be noted
that two of the particip ants expressed that overall the practic e principles
generally fit for me, and all of the principles are congrue nt with my practic e
and values. The other eight participants made more specific comments about
various practice principles and examples are provided in the following
discussions.
While the practice principles share a base of convergent feminist
social work and spiritual values and make sense as a whole , each practice
principle could stand alone for consideration, that is, no one practice
principle is a pre-requisite for another practice principle. However, the
practice principles are related to one another as the categories overlap. Also,
it is not necessary for the practice principles to build on each other. Thus,
they are presented in no particular order, although they do progress from
the particip ants’ more general discussion of their beliefs and values to more
specific identification of what they do in practice. The ensuing discussions
are based on the analysis that is presented in Chapters Four, Five and Six.

Understandings of spirituality, basic philosophy and values

The first grouping of categories encompasses the participants’
understandings about spiritualit y and religion, their ideas about the effects of
the secular nature of social work on spiritually influenced discourse, and their
beliefs about the convergence of feminist, social work and spiritual values.
Three practice principles are organized in this first grouping.
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Spirituality and religion

One of the categories discussed in Chapter Four illustrates that the
participants understand spirituality and religion differently but they also
acknowledge that spirituality and religion form complex relationships and can
influence one other. Also, the participants’ definitions of spirituality are
surprisingly similar given their diverse spirit ual and religious backgrounds,
but these understandings do converge with conceptualizations of spiritualit y
in the literature and with the beginning definitions provided in the
Introduction.
In general, the participants and the literature define spirituality as a
resource, an important part of making meaning, and as a sense of something
“bigger” that is transcendent. Religion on the other hand is defined as an
organizational structure that can provide rules, traditions and doctrine and
that can serve as a source for spirituality. Overall, the participants’
viewpoints are in harmony with the literature that discusses the need to
distinguish between religion and spirituality. As one particip ant notes,
spirit uality is viewed as less threatening and more consistent with social work
values such as fostering and embracing diversity. These viewpoints were
written into the following practice principle:
Spirituality and religion are distinct concepts. While spirituality
and religion influence each other and are implicated in one
another, ultimately they are different things.
While some participants agreed wit h this statement, two of the
participants wrote comments that were used to edit the practice principle.
For example, while one participant explains that and on reflection I would
have to say that they are very different, another participant argues that To
define these concepts as distinct I would first have to have a set meaning for
both where neither were part of the other. Based on these and other
comments the practice principle was rewritten into the following:
1. Spirituality and religion are different. At the same time, they
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overlap, influence each other and are implicated in one another.

Convergences in values
Another category that is discussed in Chapter Four focuses on the
commonalities of values and practices between feminist, social work and
spirit ual perspectives. For the participants in this study, their feminist
perspectives are so interwoven with their social work approaches that they
are experienced as synonymous. The particip ants’ understandings of feminist
social work are convergent with the literature. For example, both the
participants and the literature theorize feminist social work as valuing
diversity, process, analysis of power and social change.
The participants also identify similarities between their feminist social
work values and approaches and spirit uality, noting that both are concerned
with process, values of diversity and inclusivity and social action, and that
they are collective and personal constructs. Several participants argue that
core social work values such as demonstrating respect for people and
fostering the right of self-determination are spiritual values as well, while
most of the participants stress how feminist social work and spiritual values
emphasize social action and justice. Another area of convergence is
demonstrated in discussions of career choice. The participants’ choice of
social work as a profession was often influenced by their spiritual and/or
religious values.
Additionally, the participants indicate a need for a more holistic social
work approach that is inclusive of spirituality. Based on it s values and roles,
social work is deemed well suited for the incorporation of spirituality, which is
also reflected in the social work literature. A holistic approach that includes
spirit uality is identified as promoting a more effective and meaningful
practice experience by both the participants and the literature, and is
described as including spiritualit y but not emphasizing it over other resources
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and aspects of people’s lives. The categories summarized above were written
into the following practice principle:
2. Social work, spiritual and feminist values and philosophies
converge on a myriad of levels. The integration of spirituality
into feminist social work practic e contributes to a holistic
practice approach.
This practic e principle was agreed upon by all of the participants who
responded to the request for written feedback. For example, one participant
writes, Yes again. For me they converge in the area we call community, risk
taking, solidarity and resistance. Given the participants’ feedback, this
practice principle was not changed prior to the focus group meetings.

Marginalized knowledge
The final categories in the first grouping address the marginalization
of spiritual knowledge, the association between spirituality and personal
values and the repercussions of this for practice, and the need for knowledge
development in spirituality and social work. For example, a majority of the
participants discuss fears of being marginalized, judged and/or ridiculed by
other practitioners if they openly engage in discussions about spirituality or
conduct spiritually influenced practices in social work contexts. These
concerns of marginalization are linked with a need for support from like-
minded colleagues and friends, and with the absence of spiritual content in
social work.
The connection that is sometimes made between spirituality and
personal values and the viewpoint that personal values have no place in
professional practice also affects the participants’ practices, particularly the
participants who have the least amount of work experie nce. More
experienced participants stress how practice is not value-free and point out
the importance of exploring how personal values influence practices. The
lack of knowledge development in spirit uality and social work is also
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connected to this issue of personal values. For example, when personal

values converge with professional values and le gitimized knowledge, it
becomes more permissible to utilize these perspectives with clients (as in
feminist social work approaches). Thus, because spirituality lacks
legitimizatio n, a cautious approach concerning the use of spirituality in
practice is identified by the participants. The categories summarized above
were written into the following practice principle:
The reality that social work is a secular profession coupled
with the lack of theoretical structure for a feminist-spirit ual
practice creates tensions in practice. This tension promotes
a cautious and respectful attitude in applying spirituality in
practice. There is a desire and need to discuss spirituality
in social work practice. A greater awareness and acceptance
of this dimension in social work is calle d for.
All of the particip ants generally agreed with this practice principle.
One participant wrote Yes, yes yes! Two other participants did not have
specific changes to note but point out how the origins of the social work
profession were not secular, although social work like other helping
professions is now secularized. One participant stresses that despite this
secular nature, Some people are looking for some spiritual support when
they go for counselling. Based on the written feedback received only the first
sentence of this practice principle was edited to the following:
3. The present reality that social work is a secular profession
coupled with the lack of theoretical structure for a feminist-spirit ual
practice creates tensions in practice. This tension promotes
a cautious and respectful attitude in applying spiritualit y in
practice. There is a desire and need to discuss spirituality
in social work practice. A greater awareness and acceptance
of this dimension in social work is calle d for.
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The process of spiritual development and beliefs about the spiritual

essence of human existence
The second grouping of categories which are discussed in Chapter
Five encompass the participants’ personal stories regarding the process of
spirit ual development and growth, and their beliefs about the spiritual
essence of human existence and life. Two practice principles are organized in
this grouping.

The process of spiritual development

The participants describe spirit ual growth and development as a life-
long and continual process. Also, the participants are committed to this
continual process and demonstrate a reflective and questioning attitude
towards life. For example, some partic ipants encouraged themselves to shift
attitudes and values by engaging with situations and client populations that
they knew would challenge them, while other participants engaged in
reflective and experiential processes such as writing poetry and attending
counselling.
For many of the participants, the process of spiritual development
encompasses struggle. Both positive and painful transformative experie nces
are sometimes part of this process and struggle. For example, some
participants identified having to make meaning of the death of loved ones or
the loss of relationships as a profound experience that encouraged them to
explore spirituality. A couple of the participants discuss more positive
transformative experiences involving spiritual and/or relig ious involvement,
while others describe the steady influences of family, culture, friends and
spirit ual/religious traditions on their spiritual development. These categories
were written into the following practice principle:
The develo pment of spirituality is above all a process that is
complex and never-ending. This process is often influenced by
other people and life-events. A commit ment is demonstrated
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to this evolving process which reflects the importance placed on

self-growth and self-analysis.
While one participant stated that she agrees with this statement, three
other participants indicated changes. One participant points out difficulties
with the terms self-growth and self-analysis. He states, I’m not sure I
understand the last sentence…self-growth and self-analysis seem very
loaded with the philosophies of Western humanism…I’m not sure self-growth
or self-analysis can act helpfully as universal normative crit eria. Similarly,
another participant notes that she would prefer to use the term self-
awareness rather than self-analysis, which I think of as too intellectual and
bound by the rational mind. A third participant believes that the development
of spirituality is influenced by people, life events and God and other spiritual
powers. I think it ’s remiss to omit God in spiritual development. Based on
this feedback the following changes were made:
4. The develo pment of spirituality is above all a process that
is complex and never-ending. This process is often influenced
by other people and life-events that can act as catalysts
in the exploration of something “bigger” (whatever that
something “bigger” may be). Feminist-spirit ual social workers
committed to this evolving process, place importance on their
own continued development and growth.

Spirituality as the essence of human life

The other categories discussed in Chapter Five encompass the
participants’ beliefs about the essence of human existence and life
experience. Consistently across the research sample, the participants
discussed their beliefs that all people have a spirit /spirituality whether it is
acknowledged or not, and that the human essence is spiritual in nature. They
also describ e their spirits/spiritualities as the true essence of who they are.
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These viewpoints that everyone has a spirit/spirituality also affects how the
participants live their lives and practice social work.
While the participants share beliefs in people ’s spiritual essence, they
are concerned with imposing this belief onto clients and identify the
importance of exploring the influence of personal and professional values on
practice. A few of the participants also discuss their beliefs that women are
more connected to spirituality than men are, and that women’s, men’s and
children’s spirituality may differ. However, since only four participants
identified these viewpoints they are not included in the following practice
principle:
Every human being has a spirit or a soul and thus spirituality.
A person’s spirit or soul is the essence of that person and is
the core of the self. People are at different levels of spiritual
development and evolution.
One participant points out that To judge people as being at different
levels of spiritual development and evolution, we need some normative
criteria. Another participant writes that she agrees with this practice principle
but that she would add, Some people would choose not to acknowledge this
sense of spiritualit y within themselves. A third participant notes that I don’t
subscribe much to levels. It’s too hierarchical. Based on the participants’
feedback the practice principle was changed to the following:
5. A person has a spirit, soul and/or spirituality. Respect
and understanding is demonstrated for a person’s desire or
lack thereof, to acknowledge and work with this aspect of their life.

Spiritually influenced practice processes and relationships

The third grouping of categories which are discussed in Chapter Six
include the participants’ viewpoints regarding the influences of personal
spirit ual development, social work contexts and client populations on the
incorporation of spirituality in practice, how the relationship between worker
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and client can be spiritual, the use of generic spiritual language with clients,
and how making meaning, fostering connection and self-love can represent
spirit ually influenced helping processes. Six practice principles are organized
in this grouping.

The influence of spiritual development, social work contexts and

client populations on spiritually influenced practices
Most of the participants discussed how life and work experience
influence their ability to consider spirituality in practice and several
participants connect their personal spiritual exploration with overall practice
effectiveness and the increased meaningfulness of practice. It appears that
practice experience, personal spiritual growth and the development of
practice wisdom all promote the inclusio n of spirituality in practice. Also,
some social work contexts and client populations are more conducive to
including spirituality. For example, it appears that the contexts and client
populations in which both the worker and the client are empowered and
sharing power are those which better promote the inclusion of spirituality.
Examples of these types of contexts and client groups include private
practice, palliative care and marginalized populations. The categories
summarized above were written into the following practice principle:
The social work context and personal development impact on
the application of spirituality in practic e. Certain social work
contexts are more conducive than others. Additionally, a
commitment to personal growth and understanding and work
experience promote this application and inclusion.
All of the participants agreed with this practice principle. As one
participant writes, Yes, very true. We are all bound by our life and work
contexts. Another participant points o ut that personal growth and
development need to include joining a union, finding secure housing,
surviving unemployment and underemployment…we grow or can grow from
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any situation. As a result of this feedback, only a few words were edited prior
to the focus group discussions, which resulted in the following practice
principle:
6. The social work context and personal development
influence the application of spirituality in practice. Certain
social work contexts are more conducive than others. A
commitment to personal development and work experience
promote this application and inclusion.

Language and spirituality

Most of the participants describe shifting their language and using a
generic spiritual language with clients to accommodate a client’s spiritual
perspective, using what is comfortable and what works. Various rationales
are offered for using generic language that include having respect for clients,
enabling a deeper connection with clients, communicating more effectively,
transcending differences and achieving practice goals.
Transparency of practice issues are also discussed as many
participants do not engage in explicit spiritual discourse with clients.
However, based on their concerns about oppression and the rationale s for
not explicitly discussing spirituality, most participants would be likely to
identify overt discussion of personal spiritual viewpoints as an abuse of
power and/or unethical. In general, the language that is chosen is perceived
to be the most appropriate and help ful to the social work process. These
categories are reflected in the following practice principle:
7. Generic or common language is used when discussing
spirit uality. Conscious shifts in language occur in order to
converge with clients’ language.
This practic e principle was also agreed upon by all of the participants
who provided feedback. Some examples of this feedback are, Yes, I do this
in my practice, and Very good point. An important principle for all social work
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practice. Consequently, this practice principle was not changed prio r to the
focus group discussions.

Making meaning processes

Another category organized in the third grouping of categories
encompasses making meaning processes. Making meaning is described by
many of the participants as a spiritually influenced social work process. For
example, participants discuss helping clients make meaning of life
experiences such as death, dying and suffering as processes that encompass
spirit uality. Death and dying in particular are identified as experiences that
encourage making meaning processes. These categorie s were developed into
the following practice principle:
Spirituality is used to make sense of life and work experiences.
The process of making meaning is spiritual as it is an
intimate, personal process that explores values and beliefs.
While the participants generally agreed with this practice principle,
four partic ipants suggested changes. One participant comments that
Spirituality may be a part of that [making meaning] but meaning making is a
basic human phenomena. Two participants point out that they agree with
this practic e principle but argue that making meaning is also a communal
experience. One participant also notes that while she agrees with the
practice principle, Not all people want to do this and therefore, this must be
respected. Based on this feedback, the practice principle was changed to the
following:
8. Spirituality can be used to help make sense of life and
work experiences. The process of making meaning can be
described as spirit ual because it is an intimate, personal and/or
communal process that explores values and beliefs.
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Fostering connections
Assisting clients to foster connections on a myriad of levels is
identified by the participants as a spiritually influenced helping process. For
example, assisting clients to build and connect with community can be a
spirit ual process because spirituality is understood as connection, and
positive community connections can help promote a good sense of self. The
participants also link a connection with emotions to spirituality. As one
participant contends, emotions are very close to spiritualit y. Thus, a
disconnection from feelings is identified as hampering an ability to be
intimate with others and to form connections with one’s spirituality. A
disconnection from both feelings and spirituality is viewed as impeding the
development of self-awareness, spiritual growth and relationships. As a
result, some participants liken the social work process to a facilitation of
connectedness. In addition, one participant noted in her interview that
fostering a connection with her heart center promotes a more effective
practice for her and her clients, which reiterates the importance of the social
worker’s spiritual development. These categories summarized above were
written into the following practice principle:
9. Connection in all its forms is valued and deemed essential.
Nurturing a strong and steady connection with one’s inner-self
positively affects the quality and effectiveness of the social
work encounter.
Overall, the participants agreed with this practice principle . One
participant points out that the converse is true for her as well. She writes, I
shudder at [the] experiences of my clients when I went through depressed
and out of touch times. Similarly, another participant notes that If one is off-
balance within themselves than this is surely to affect the quality and
effectiveness of their practice. As a result of this feedback, this practice
principle was unchanged.
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The social worker and client relationship

Most of the partic ipants agree that the relationship formed between
worker and client can encompass or reflect spirituality. In general, these
relationships are described as spiritual when partic ipants feel that they are
wholly present with clients, sharing client’s storie s and when a deep
connection has occurred between them; deep connection signifying
spirit uality because the relationship exists on a spiritual le vel or higher level
of consciousness or awareness.
One participant also stresses that these spiritual connections that can
occur with clients should be understood and analyzed as part of our
professional role. Other participants discuss how personal life experie nces
influence their ability to form closer connections with clients, while one
participant explains that she believes it is the relationship she forms with
clients that affects change, not what she is doing in terms of therapeutic
techniques. The following practice principle encompasses these categories:
The relationship between social worker and client is vital and
is at the heart of a meaningful and effective practice. This
relationship is spiritual in that it necessitates sharing of life
stories, involves connection and is based on compassion and caring.
In general, the participants also agreed with this practice principle but
three participants point out that worker/client relationships are not
necessarily spiritual. As one participant writes, It may be respectful and
compassionate on my part but not necessarily spiritual…Some clients are so
concrete or materially focused the spiritual dimension would not arise.
Another client states that It depends on the context of the therapeutic
practice. If a client comes in wanting some specific outcome or support on a
practical level, they may not want to engage in a close connection. Taking
this feedback into consideratio n, the practice principle was edit ed to state
that the relationship can be spiritual, as opposed to stating that it is spiritual.
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10. The relationship between social worker and client is vital

and is at the heart of a meaningful and effective practice.
This relationship can be spiritual in that it necessitates sharing
of life stories, involves connection and is based on compassion
and caring.

Fostering experiences of self-love and wholeness

The final category that was identified by the participants in their
discussions about practice methods and relationships, describes how
fostering experiences of self-love and wholeness in clients is also a spiritually
influenced practice. Many participants expressed the viewpoint that spiritual
development and a connection to spirituality can be linked with experiencing
a positive sense of self. Since spirituality is conceptualized as love, assisting
people to connect with their spiritualit y can promote feelings of self-love and
worth, and experiencing self-love can promote the development of
spirit uality. Thus, for some of the participants one of the basic goals in social
work is to assist people to develop their self-acceptance and self-love and to
learn to nurture themselves. The participants also discussed beliefs that
helping clie nts feel self-love and wholeness leads to more effective and
meaningful practice experiences. These categorie s were written into the
following practice princip le:
Spirituality is based on feelings and experience of self-respect,
self-love and trust in self. Spiritual beliefs affect how people
come to understand themselves as worthy human beings.
Many of the participants commented on this practice principle, which
is likely to reflect the complexity and ambiguity of terms such as self-respect,
self-love and wholeness. For example, one participant wonders about the
inner-focus of the practice principle on the individual and emphasizes the
importance of a broader communal and social justice focus. Another
participant explains that spirituality is based on the spirit s of other
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individuals…of God and other spiritual beings, so that the practice principle is
incomplete if it fails to acknowledge these spirits. One participant also points
out that If we say spirituality is based on our self-respect, we are saying to a
woman, “No self-respect, you don’t have spirituality”. Based on this and
other feedback the practice principle was changed to the following:
11. It is important to foster a person’s ability to feel and
experience trust in self and others, and love and respect for
self and others because these experiences can be linked to
spirit ual development. A person’s spiritual beliefs can affect and
influence their self-perceptions and their interactions with others.

Conclusion
This chapter discussed how and why the convergent categories that
were analyzed in Chapters Four, Five and Six were developed into practice
principles. Although the original goals of this research study were exploratory
and did not aim to produce practice principles, the strength of the
convergent themes, a re-examination of the literature and further data
analysis of the participant interviews strongly encouraged the development
of practice principles. This development is important and relevant as both the
participants and the social work literature point out the lack of research and
knowledge in spirituality and social work, and express a need for discourse,
language, research, models and theory that could assist in broadening our
understanding about spiritual influences in practice.
It is important for social work to develop theory, models, practice
principles and/or frameworks for practice. These frameworks help to guide
practice in terms of assessment, the planning of interventions, and the
expression of values. Since some practitioners are influenced by spirituality
and incorporate it into their practices, the development of knowledge in this
area is particularly important given the current lack of guiding frameworks
and the marginalized nature of spirituality. Potentially, access to theory,
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practice models and practice principles can not only help practitio ners to feel
legitimized and competent in their use of spiritualit y but could also promote
the consideration of spirituality across social work. The practic e principles
produced in this study may be particularly significant for practitioners
because they are based on and have emerged from practice experiences,
and represent a strong integrative link between research and practice.
I attempted to involve the participants in this study in a meaningful
way in the refinement of the practice principles first through using their
written feedback to edit preliminary work, and then by inviting them to
participate in focus groups in order to discuss the revised practice princip les.
A focus group process would also allow for checking the accuracy of the
revisions that were made, would assist in further developing the practice
principles and would allow any additional categories to emerge, thereby
enric hing the analysis of the data and the research findings, and adding to
the rigor of the research. The following chapter discusses the focus group
process, the analysis of the categories that arose from the focus groups, and
presents the final version of the practice principles.
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CHAPTER EIGHT
FOCUS GROUP ANALYSIS OF THE PRACTICE PRINCIPLES

Introduction
The previous chapter presented the preliminary work of the practice
principles, which was refined using written feedback from ten participants.
This chapter examines the final layer of analysis that discusses the practice
principles and the idea of practice principles in general. As described, all of
the participants who were interviewed were invited to attend focus groupsin
order to discuss the revised practice principles thereby checking the accuracy
of the revisions, further refining the practice principles and involving the
participants in a meaningful way. As well as reflecting on the practice
principles as a whole, the focus groups were asked to consider the
marginalized and feminist nature of the practice principles and the
importance (or not) of diversity in application of the practice principles.
These discussion topics emerged from the data analysis. For example, the
fear of being marginalized and the marginalization of spirituality were
significant themes and I wondered about the participant’s viewpoints
regarding the practice principles’ influence in promoting discussion about
spirit uality, and possibly encouraging a more accountable practice. Similarly,
given the particip ants’ feminist perspectives, what were their viewpoints
regarding the feminist nature (or not) of the practice principles?
Fourteen participants in total participated in three focus groups (two
focus groups each had four participants and one focus group had six
participants). No one group was significantly different from the others. Each
group was comprised of particip ants who reflected the overall diversity of the
original research sample. Looking for similarities and differences within and
between the groups produced no notable factors. For example, no one group
identified themes that were not consistent with the other two groups’
perspectives. The homogeneity amongst the group discussions can be
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attributed to the similarities in particip ants’ values, beliefs and practices, the
consistencies and balance of the group compositions, and the fact that the
groups were provided with discussion topics. However, it should be noted
that the group process in the largest focus group was particularly
stimulating, which is perhaps a result of the addition of two people that
enric hed the diversity of viewpoints to consider.
The focus group analysis produced similar themes and categories to
the intervie w analysis, which lends weight to the assessment that theoretical
saturation had been reached. However, additional categories emerged from
discussions regarding the feminist nature (or not) of the practice principles.
The categories that emerged from the focus group analysis are examined in
this chapter. The chapter discusses the potential influence of the practice
principles in shifting spirituality into more mainstream social work discussion
and practice, and the effects of the research process on shaping the
participants’ ideas and practices. The chapter also examines the feminist
nature of the practice principles, the importance of recognizing this, the
contribution of feminist analysis, and how the increasingly shared nature of
social work knowledge reflects the participants’ beliefs that the practice
principles can exist within various frameworks. It is also important to assume
diversity in application of the practice principles. Finally, the chapter
describes how participants’ concerns wit h social change and struggle
influenced the final revisions of the practice principles. First however, the
practice principles that were described in the previous chapter are presented
in order to contextualize the following discussion and analysis, and to better
illustrate the changes that were made to these practice principles based on
the focus group analysis. The final version of the practice principles is
presented at the end of this chapter.24 The practice principles that were
revised with written feedback are as follows:

For the purposes of clarity , the practice principles in their three stages of development are
24

located in A ppendices IX, X and XI.

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1. Spirituality and religion are different. At the same time, they overlap,
influence each other and are implicated in one another.
2. Social work, spiritual and feminist values and philo sophie s converge
on a myriad of levels. The integration of spirituality into feminist social
work practice contributes to a holistic practice approach.
3. The present reality that social work is a secular profession coupled
with the lack of theoretical structure for a feminist-spirit ual practice
creates tensions in practice. This tension promotes a cautious a
respectful attitude in applying spirituality in practice. There is a desire
and need to discuss spirituality in social work practice. A greater
awareness and acceptance of this dimensio n in social work is called
for.
4. The development of spirituality is above all a process that is complex
and never-ending. This process is often influenced by other people
and life-events that can act as catalysts in the exploration of
something bigger (whatever that something bigger may be). Feminist-
spirit ual social workers committed to this evolving process, place
importance on their own continued development and growth.
5. A person has a spirit, soul and/or spirituality. Respect and
understanding is demonstrated for a person’s desire or lack thereof, to
acknowledge and work with this aspect of their life.
6. The social work context and personal development influence the
application of spirituality in practice. Certain social work contexts are
more conducive than others are. A commitment to personal
development and work experience promote this application and
inclusion.
7. Generic or common language is used when discussing spirituality.
Conscious shifts in language occur in order to converge with clients’
language.
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8. Spirituality can be used to help make sense of life and work

experiences. The process of meaning making can be described as
spirit ual because it is an intimate, personal and/or communal process
that explores values and beliefs.
9. Connection in all its forms is valued and deemed essential. Nurturing a
strong and steady connection with one’s inner-self positively affects
the quality and effectiveness of the social work encounter.
10.The relationship between social worker and client is vital and is at the
heart of a meaningful and effective practice. This relatio nship can be
spirit ual in that it necessitates sharing of life storie s, involves
connection and is based on compassion and caring.
11.It is important to foster a person’s ability to feel and experience trust
in self and others, and love and respect for self and others because
these experiences can be linked to spiritual development. A person’s
spirit ual beliefs can affect and influence their self-perceptions and
their interactions with others.

SHIFTING SPIRITUALITY OUT OF THE MARGINS

Chapter One discussed the marginalized nature of spirit ual knowledge

and describ ed how this marginalization is connected in part to the processes
of secularization and professio nalization in social work. Similarly, Chapter
Four discussed the participants’ fear of being judged, their feelings of
isolation and concern about imposing personal values onto clients, and their
need to acknowledge spirituality in social work. While the following section
reiterates some of these issues it also illustrates how the practice principles
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can assist in helping to shift spiritual knowledge and practice out of the
margins.25

Issues concerning the marginalized nature of spirituality

Several issues regarding the marginalized nature of spirit uality arose
in the focus group discussions in part because the participants were asked to
consider the marginalized nature of spirituality, but also because for most of
the particip ants this was the first opportunity they had to discuss spirituality
with other social workers. Some partic ipants discussed their need for collegial
support while others raised concerns of marginalization that were related to
social work contexts and roles.
The need for collegial support was once again expressed in all three
focus groups, which points to the importance of lo cating people who are like-
minded and interested in spiritual dialogue and exploration who can assist
the development of personal refle ctions on spirituality. The following
discussion illustrates the importance of finding colle gial support and
importantly also demonstrates how marginalized knowledge often gets
expressed in the margins and not in mainstream social work meetings and
discourses.
Participant 1. I know from my experience there are some people who
would be kindred spirits. But it’s like, how do you find the kindred
spirit s. And then what do you do with it?
Participant 2. How do you get to know about those kindred
spirit s…given that…this becomes private and subjugated…[we] had
meetings here, you know after Diana came last year, and that was a
strong theme in the meetings…about how often things get edited. And
censored. You know, we do that to ourselves for very sound reasons.

Most of the categories discussed in this section were also identified by the participants in
25

the indiv idual interv iews and were discussed in Chapter Four. There is agreement across the
three focus groups with the categories discussed here.
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How does that then affect those connections though…finding

community and peer support?
Participant 1. I think sometimes it is non-verbal stuff…I don’t smoke
but I’m a passive smoker and it’s like often when people go
out…whether it’s in training or whatever it is and you talk…sometimes
that’s where you get the real conversation.
Participant 3. Yes, it’s in those spaces isn’t it? Whether it’s around the
coffee or again the smoking or I found it too in the toilets…It’s
somewhere that’s not in the middle of the meeting where I still think it
happens. I still think people look at each other sideways or go, ah.
All focus groups also discussed their beliefs that within social work
spirit uality is not recognized by many as a legitimate knowledge for practice.
One focus group agrees that These are the principles that one could practice
with [but that] there would be a percentage of the social work population
who would go, “What a load of bull”. In another focus group, a participant
realized and acknowledged during the group discussion that she hid her
graduate thesis topic from people out of concern that her spiritually oriented
research topic would be viewed with skepticism or a lack of acceptance. The
following discussion demonstrates this process and illustrates how the
opportunity to engage with like-minded others encouraged her insight. She is
Participant 1.
Participant 1. It’s almost like having closet spiritualists isn’t
it?…People…had asked me what…the topic of my research has been
and it’s almost like…I hid it. I sort of said, “Oh I’m doing something
about people living together”. Because I thought that was easier to
say. But once I actually started to say, “It’s about religious
communitie s”, well I think people became quite interested. And then I
could openly talk about it. Yeah, its been good. I hadn’t even thought
about it until tonight. I did find it a hard thing.
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Participant 2. There’s always a risk I guess. It sounds like your risks

sort of have paid off. Like you’ve had good…feedback. I don’t know
that it’s always the case for everyone.
Participant 1. No, probably not.
In addition, all of the focus groups discussed again the idea that some
social work contexts and client groups better promote the incorporation of
spirit uality into practice. For instance, one participant points out that There
are sectors of the population also that you couldn’t apply these principle s to,
to some degree…I guess that there are large numbers of people (and I’m
making an assumption here), that would not see the relevance to spirituality
or to a spiritual sense of self. Similarly, another participant in the same group
wonders if the crisis work she engages in is all that conducive to the
incorporation of spirituality. The following comment illustrates how her
participation in a focus group encouraged her to reflect on this viewpoint,
comparing spirituality to working from a feminist perspective. This reflective
process also demonstrates the significance of having access to people who
can engage in conversations about spirituality and how these discussions can
help in shifting and refining beliefs. She notes, But you wouldn’t necessarily
be thinking in terms of spirituality you know. At three o’clo ck in the morning
working in sexual assault . It’s…often not the best time…you’re dealing with
the practicalities of the moment…but you’re still working in a feminist
framework, so I guess you can unhook the two.

The role of the practice principles in legitimizing spirituality

The last comment presented above emphasizes the significance that
discussions about spirituality can have. Importantly, the three focus groups
identify how the practice principles could be utilized to promote spiritual
discourse in social work, thereby helping to legitimize spiritual knowledge
and even encouraging a more accountable practice. Examples of comments
and discussion from each of the three focus groups illustrate these
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viewpoints and stress the relevance of the practice principles. For example,
one participant argues that the set of practice principles opens…up a whole
area for discussion, which for a long time you didn’t talk about…or you still
don’t talk about…in a work context. Unless you work in a particularly special
place. Similarly, another focus group discussion stresses the importance of
developing and recording knowledge in a form that can be utilized. For
instance,
Participant 1. And I think even to have stuff writ ten down, you can
then respond to it and be conscious of what you’re doing with it. If
stuff doesn’t get written down then you…can’t make sense…As I said,
my reactions are I want to add to this but…if this wasn’t written down,
I can’t do that.
Participant 2. That’s right.
Participant 1. And it’s part of breaking the isolation…by having stuff
written down and it can be something to aspire to and…to challe nge.
Another participant in a third group notes that It’s important to
develop practice principles and to bring them out into the open
because…when they’re more overt…it kind of legitimizes discussion and
reflection…So I think it’s important that we talk about them. I think we
become more accountable as well, in terms of our work. Two of the focus
groups discussed this issue of accountable practice. Some partic ipants note
that the practice principles could be used as a tool or a framework to enable
spirit ual discussion with clients, while others point out that the practice
principles could be used to help stimulate thinking amongst practitioners
about their work. One participant explains that the practice principles could
assist practitioners to identify how spirituality influences their practices. She
states, Because I think…some people [social workers] might do that [use
spirit uality] and not know it…or feel ashamed or embarrassed about it.
Part of the process of shifting marginalized knowledge into more
mainstream social work discourses, involves the identification of the
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knowledge and the structuring of it into some kind of framework for

discussion and continued development. This process was discussed
previously with regards to Bricker-Jenkins’ (1989) work in developing a
feminist social work practice model. The development and discussion of the
practice principles represents a step in the direction of legitimizing and at
least making visible, a marginalized and largely invisible knowledge. This was
a step identified as important by the focus group participants.
Along the same lines, many of the focus group particip ants point out
how engaging in both the individual research interviews and the focus group
interaction helped them to feel more comfortable with spirituality in practice,
and provided an opportunity to formulate and refine ideas. Their feedback
emphasizes the significance and meaningfulness of the research methods
chosen in this study and is discussed next.

The role of research processes in shifting marginalized knowledge

Focus group participants in all three of the groups discussed how the
process of being interviewed helped them to reflect on and develop their
practices, further refined their ideas about spiritualit y, validated their
knowledge and practices, and strengthened the influence spirit uality has in
their work; all aspects of shifting marginalized knowledge. Importantly, the
focus groups offered an opportunity for the participants to provide this
feedback and a chance for me to hear it. Partic ipating in a focus group
provided further support and opportunity to formulate ideas regarding
spirit uality and practice.
Words used by the participants to describe the process of being
individually interviewed are interesting, profound, useful, challenging and
stimulating. One participant explains that she used to feel as though I lived
two very different spheres of existence. I don’t feel that anymore having
done this project [her postgraduate research study]…and I think having had
the intervie w there’s been a shift in that. Because I do feel more comfortable
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about being who I am. For this participant, a combination of conducting

postgraduate research in spirituality and participating in this study helped to
strengthen the connection between her practice and spirituality, and made
her feel more legitimized in her spiritually influenced practice approach.
Another participant in another focus group describes the process of
being individually intervie wed as quite powerful [and] really useful…Certainly
the process of working out what I believed in and trying to communicate that
to someone else was very useful. For this participant, the individual interview
process had an impact on her practice whereas she was not sure reading the
practice principles in the focus group would. However she adds that The
more these conversations are had and the more time is created to have
them, the more…we’ll all advance in our work and personally as well…To sit
around and talk theory again and talk about our values and beliefs…talk
about the practice that we’ve done as opposed to the practice that we might
do…it’s a great opportunity.
The comments above demonstrate the influence that creating spaces
for discussion can have on both the development of knowledge and practice,
and on the process of makin g marginalized knowledge visible and more
acceptable. There was something exciting for some of the participants about
having their beliefs, values and practices recorded on paper and shared with
others. The process validated to some extent their practice knowle dge,
values and ideas, and in some cases led to a greater influence of spirituality
in their practices. As one participant notes, I’ve reflected and discussed…with
a few other counsellors…different aspects of spirituality and practice. Not like
at great length, but it’s just coming into conversation a bit more. Thus, both
the research interview and focus group processes helped some of the
participants to evolve their ideas and practic es about spirituality and to feel
validated in doing this. Clearly the process of opening a space and inviting
people to talk about what they believe…and what’s important to them…is
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very, very profound, and plays an important part in recognizing and

legitimizing marginalized knowle dge.
This section of the chapter re-examined some categories that were
previously discussed in this thesis regarding the marginalization of
spirit uality. The importance of spiritual discussions and the influence of this
dialogue on the shifting of viewpoints were also raised, which points to the
importance of introducing spirituality into social work discourses. All
participants agreed that the practice principles could be used to promote
discussion about spirituality, thereby helping to le gitimize this knowle dge.
They also identifie d that developing the practice principles and writing them
down allows the practice principles to be challenged and worked with, which
in turn could help make practic e more accountable by stimulating reflection
and guiding practices. Thus, the practice principles represent a step towards
making spiritual knowledge in social work visible and more acceptable.
The participants also discussed how participating in the research
interviews and the focus groups help ed them to reflect on their practices,
further developed and validated their ideas, and strengthened the influence
of spirituality in their work. These discussions re-emphasize the importance
of making room for the discussion of marginalized knowledges. This process
of recognizing marginalized knowledges can be described as a feminist one,
whic h is relevant to this study. The participants were asked to consider the
feminist nature (or not) of the practice principle s and these discussions
encouraged the emergence of new categories that are examined in the
following section.
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CONTEXTUALIZING THE PRACTICE PRINCIPLES

The feminist nature of the practice principles

Overall, the focus groups describe the practice principles as feminist
because of the process that was followed in the development of the practice
principles and the shared values that they reflect. For instance, one focus
group agrees that the practice principles are feminist because they were
developed using a feminist process and with self-identified feminist social
workers. As one participant notes,
I guess one of the aspects of feminism has been a recognition of what
hasn’t been said or the other…And this whole issue of spirituality in
social work is really a recognitio n of something that’s not really been
talked about, in the same way that feminism brings up issues that
aren’t really talked about and that are covered over…here you’re
identifying experiences that are other…In that way, it sort of does
reflect feminism.
All of the focus groups discussed values and agree that the practice
principles reflect convergent feminist, spiritual and social work values. These
convergent values were previously described in Chapter Four, and were
identified as promoting equality, process, diversit y, and social justice and
change. The focus group discussions about values enrich this previous
analysis. For example, one focus group discussed how both feminism and
spirit uality help people to transcend oppressive ideas about who we should
be and how we should live, and that both also help to address issues of
oppression. As one participant wonders, Are we through our practice actually
trying to keep people oppressed within the oppressive masculine dominated
systems or are we trying to free up the individual whoever that might be, to
follow whatever is their best path. And not allow that oppression to happen?
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Another focus group discussed the emergence of the practice

principles from a shared feminist, spiritual and social work value base. This is
illustrated in the following dialogue.
Participant 1. I think frameworks or…principles of practic e…are only
ways that assist us to do what we actually want to do anyway.
Participant 2. Or they’re composed out of what we’re doing.
Participant 1. Yeah.
Participant 2. They come afterwards.
Participant 1. Yeah.
Participant 3. But it’s values first and framework later in a sense isn’t
it? So it’s like we develop our…theoretical framework based upon what
we feel and believe at a more fundamental level.
Participant 2. And that frameworks evolve and change over time as
thinking changes and experience and growth and all of that takes
place.
This discussion illustrates the strong connection in social work
between values, knowledge and practice that was previously discussed in
Chapter One, and points to the significance of the practice principles because
they emerge from and encompass the participants’ values, beliefs and
practices. Knowledge that emerges from practice experiences appears
particularly relevant for social workers because it reflects the real world of
practice and may be highly applicable to practice situations. In addition, this
dialogue reiterates the importance of personal exploration and how this
process influences practice and practice frameworks.
While feminist, social work and spiritual values are similar for the
participants in this study and are reflected in the practice principles, it is not
the case that feminist social work and spirituality have to be connected. For
example, one of the participants notes his concern that People who are
committed to feminism who may not understand that as spiritual could…feel
invalidated when we begin to define them as the same thing. I also think it
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can affect how we start defining each one. And as another participant points
out, Some people might also feel that they were feminists and not believe in
any of this. However, the importance of acknowledging the feminist nature
of the practice principles was discussed by the focus groups.

Recognizing the feminist nature of the practice principles

While all of the focus groups concur that the practice principles can
exist within multiple feminist and non-feminist frameworks, they also
identified that the feminist nature of the practice principles should be
acknowledged, as sometimes feminist values are co-opted and the particular
benefits of feminist analysis are not recognized.26 One focus group points out
that there is no difficulty in holding the practice principles within various
contexts, as long as frameworks or approaches share feminist values. As one
participant contends, So I think that I could live quite comfortably with taking
it out of the realm of saying it’s feminist, as long as we were using…equit y
and fairness. Equity and fairness could be identified as both feminist and
more general social work values given the increasingly shared nature of
values across social work perspectives, hence, the practice principle s fit into
feminist and non-feminist frameworks. The participants would likely agree
that more of a problem is posed if the practice principles are held within an
anti-feminist or anti-social work values model or framework. In this case, the
practice principles would not reflect the values upon which they are based.
Another focus group discussed the importance of recognizing and
naming feminism and feminist values. As the following comment illustrates,
the increasingly shared nature of social work knowledge, practice and values
can lead to what this participant identified as a co-optation of feminist values
and practices. For example,

Feminism has also borrowed ideas from other perspectiv es. As Breckenridge (1996, p.114)
26

points out, the women’s mov ement adopted the slogan “the personal is political” from the
“new left”, along with the idea that indiv idual oppression is situated in relations within
society .
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I think that feminism has had enormous impact…I see young women
now doing things that 25 years ago would not have been possible.
And I think it’s important that we’re able to name that as
feminism…the impact that it has. And I don’t like that
sometimes…feminism gets co-opted…not only the ideas but the
practices…what I was saying before…the emphasis on the importance
of process as well as content. Sometimes it has…been used but it
hasn’t been named.
Similarly, one participant in another focus group wonders about not
encouraging what we’re calling feminism to become so generic that…our
values can be calle d by any name…I wonder there, where the recognition of
gender differences and gender experiences and the experiences of always
being posit ioned in gender go? As this comment points out, the continued
relevance of feminism is the focus on gender. Certainly other participants
agree with the continued need for feminist analysis as was discussed earlier
in Chapter Two. Thus, despite the inevitability that the practice principles
may be moved into different contexts, it is important to recognize the
feminist nature of the practice principle s and the significance of feminist
social work perspectives and analyses.
Diversity is a current emphasis within both feminist and non-feminist
social work approaches. Previous theoretical discussio n illustrated the
importance of embracing diverse conceptualizations of spirituality and
identified diversit y and inclusivity as significant values and practices in
feminist social work perspectives. Diversity is also one of the shared
convergent values discussed previously in this section and was identified by
each of the focus groups, in part because they were asked to consider issues
of diversity and similarity regarding the use of the practice principles. These
issues are discussed next.
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Valuing diversity
All of the focus groups stress that diversity should be assumed
regarding application of the practice principles and their own practices. One
of the groups identified how making diverse points of view visible not only
reflects feminist process but also helps to shift difference out of the margins
by encouraging people to consider alternative viewpoints. At the very least,
recognizing differences provides support and a voic e for people who may be
marginalized. These issues are illustrated in the following dialogue.
Participant 1. I lo ve…what I call people seeing themselves on the
page…if you see your experience written down…this isn’t just me who
thinks like this. So I think if we only do the convergences, then you
lose a lot of the stuff…If you’re outside the mainstream…you’re not
going to see yourself on the page.
Participant 2. That’s right…I think this wouldn’t fit with a feminist
perspective, if you look at keeping those people who have slightly
different views out of it…They’re being isolated…marginalized…I
would have thought that if we’re very much about…social work and
feminism and all those things, then it’s about bringing people in and
being inclusive.
Participant 3. I would be in agreement with that too.
Participant 4. And I think it pushes the boundaries a bit as well if you
incorporate difference. So it might help extend things over
time…forcing people to maybe move out of the comfort zone or to
reconsider some things they…hadn’t considered…Push the limits.
One participant in another focus group points out how individual
practice changes over time and depends on context so that diversity in one’s
personal practice approach should be assumed as well. The rest of the focus
group participants agree with his id ea, which reiterates the importance
placed on continual self-development and growth. His viewpoint also re-
emphasizes the influence of social work contexts and client populatio ns in
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either promoting or impeding the use of spirituality. He states the practice

principles are,
Ideas for us to think about in our practice, so that when we went to
the local context of our practic e they could be informative…But then
they would always be different depending on who we were at that
time…and who our clients were…the different contexts of life…we are
always bringing things to every context including what we feel about
our political commitments, our spiritual commitments.
Additionally, there was no difficulty expressed in any of the focus
groups regarding the coexistence of the shared convergent value base of the
practice principles, and this emphasis on valuing diversity in beliefs and
practice expressions. The interplay between valuing commonalities and
differences is well expressed by the following participant. She points out that
she is not a poststructural girl although there’s bits of poststructuralism I
love and adds,
I do believe that there are universals. I do believe in absolutes…that’s
why I think there has to be something that we all believe in. And yet,
how we express it. I mean I believe in not having…totalizing stuff. You
know, we make everything the same. I mean I don’t believe in
that…but there still has to be something which is a common cord.
The common cord here is the shared base of convergent values that
the practice principles reflect, but the expression of the practice principles
must be considered diverse not just across participants but also within one’s
own practice. This need to recognize both similarities and differences is
supported in the feminist literature (see Fawcett, 1998; Hirschmann, 1997;
Dominelli, 1996; Brodribb, 1992 for examples).
Finally, one participant describes a work experience in which the
organization espoused an emphasis on diversity but in practice diversity was
not encouraged. She explains that the language used within the agency had
a sameness to it and she felt that there was…the dominant story and then
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there was the alternative story…you could have these big thought balloons
as to what people are actually really thinking…as opposed to what was being
said. She cautions that We need to be careful to say that we respect
differences but [then go on to] actually respect differences in practice. Her
comment emphasizes the importance of maintaining congruency between
values and practic e and thus, the relevance of the practice principles. For
instance, le gitimizing spiritual knowledge could lead to a stronger connection
and congruency between spiritual values and practice. As was discussed
earlier in this chapter, some practitio ners may not recognize how spiritual
values shape their practices because this knowledge is marginalized.
The increasingly shared nature of social work values and knowledge
such as an emphasis on diversity, was also reflected in the participants’
viewpoints that the practice principles do not have to exist within an
exclusive feminist framework. These ideas are now considered.

The shared nature of social work values, knowledge and practice

Although all three focus groups believe that the practic e principles
encompass feminist values, they also contend that the practice principle s can
go beyond a feminist context because the practice principles reflect values
shared across social work perspectives. As one participant argues, the
practice principles could also reflect personal growth frameworks. Any
psychotherapeutic frameworks which work with respect of other as a basic
premise. Another participant in the same focus group concurs and points out
that I use very much a strengths perspective or a more narrative perspective
in my work and most of these [practice principles] would fit that too…as they
would a feminist perspective.
As these comments above illustrate, the participants use various
perspectives in their social work that all share values. Since the practic e
principles encompass these shared values, they can be applic able within
various frameworks and do not have to be held within an exclusive feminist
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context. Thus, the practice principles may be useful for both feminist and
non-feminist social workers across a wide variety of social work approaches.
The participants’ practic es reflect the trend within social work of a
move towards a more generalist practice, described in Chapter Two as a
mult i-methods, multi-theory and multi-technique social work practice
(Coates, 1991). This move towards generalist practice and the concurrent
move away from grand unifying theories and frameworks is demonstrated in
the following focus group dialogue, which also reiterates anti-fundamentalist
values discussed earlier in this thesis. For instance,
Participant 1. I actually think we are moving away from what I would
consider to be these grand theories…any type of sort of ism’s
into…what I would consider a much more constructive way of looking
at people’s lives and seeing their lives as being an individual
experience. And working with people from a much more individual
framework in a way…and pulling down things as we need them…It’s
not cut and dry…but it doesn’t make your practice not feminist. It
doesn’t make your practice not spiritual.
Participant 2. I’ve been working…most recently where a…man is being
abused by his female partner emotionally.
Participant 3. I’ve got one of those today, yes.
Participant 2. But in some ways…I think if I’d been prescribing to the
kind of feminism that…I used to subscribe to, I don’t know if I would
have even allowed that to be a possibility in my work.
Participant 3. But you see, then you start talking about fundamentalist
feminism. You take any kind of framework or dogma and you can
create a fundamentalism around it.
This focus group discussion also demonstrates the perspective that
working from a shared theory and value base encourages a more rele vant
and perhaps effective practice, which is supported in the social work
literature. As was identified in Chapter Two, exclusive reliance on any one
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model is too restrictive for addressing the complex needs of clients and the
complexity of social work practice (Goldstein & Noonan, 1999).
Finally, as shared values and practices become internalized and part of
a social worker’s practice wisdom and personal knowledge, it can become
diffic ult to disentangle approaches and values from each other. The follo wing
dialogue from another focus group demonstrates this process and reiterates
the idea mentioned earlier that since the practic e principles reflect shared
values and approaches, they are applicable within feminist and non-feminist
frameworks. For example,
Participant 1. They’re kind of general social work practice principles I
think…whic h is fine because they can be feminist practice principle s as
well as generic social work practice principles…When you…see
yourself as feminist and you do what you do…to try to disentangle
what it actually means, as you were saying, what is that you actually
do?
Participant 2. I think part of that is also that it becomes part of you.
And it’s only when you hear somebody who’s anti-feminism that you
actually realize that…your practice is feminist practice…if I was to
picture what feminism was for me, it was sort of a sense of being
nurturing and being able to be a caring person. But in a lot of ways
my spirituality is that as well…I know that in the interview that I did
with Diana, it was very difficult for me to kind of separate all that
because it’s all part of me, and it’s part of who I am…it’s very hard to
sort of try and get some clear sense of what the difference is.
Participant 1. To compartmentalize the spirit ual part from the feminist
part.
Participant 2. And even the social work part now. Because it’s so
ingrained to me as well. It certainly is.
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Participant 3. I like what you said, that it’s…so part of you that you’d
only notice it when it was anti…I’d agree with most of these things. I
call myself a feminist so…it [practice principle s] must fit into that.
The final category that emerged from the focus group discussions that
is related to contextualizing the practice principles concerns the need for
ongoing development and this is the next category to be examined.

The need for ongoing development of the practice principles

The three focus groups all expressed concern that the practice
principles remain open to change and further development. As one
participant summarizes, In the end I think…what I hear we’re saying is that
we don’t…want it to be so hammered down that it becomes kind of a set
thing. That it [practice principles] somehow needs to remain fluid. Similarly,
one participant in another focus group points out that one of the potential
negative consequences of naming practice principles is that they will become
set in concrete or…powerful in itself…and it can become sort of the right way
to be. Or you feel you’re not quite good enough spiritually if you don’t follow
certain principles. That’s the only negative consequence I can see. Not
particularly to these but to any setting down of principles. This participant
also expressed frustratio n at the adoption of one particular practice model
within social work as the way to go , stating that she had been through so
many of them. Her comments reflect earlier discussion in this chapter and
previous theoretical discussion regarding a move towards generalist or
eclectic social work practice and away from grand theories and practice
models. In addition, concerns that the practice principle s remain open to
change reflect previous discussions regarding the ongoing process of
personal spiritual development and how this process can influence practice.
Similarly, one of the focus groups also expressed concern that if these
practice principles were viewed as a model that they would become exclusive
and hampered in their ability to shift. One particip ant suggests thinking of
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them as guiding principles, not principles of practice [because] principles of

practice reads like a Pincus and Minahan…sort of social work text-book from
the ‘70s, which…puts me into a bit of a panic because I think, do I know
them? This comment raises several issues. If the intent of the practice
principles is to stimulate thought about spirituality in social work, it is not
clear whether the meaning of guiding principles for practice and practice
principles differs significantly. However, the concern expressed here
regarding models is valid and perhaps illustrates past practice within social
work that presented models and theories as all encompassing and the way to
go, to restate an earlier comment. The current emphasis wit hin social work
appears to recognize that the development of effective practice models is an
unending process. As Chapter Two points out, the move away from grand
theories to a more generalist approach is better able to recognize this
continual process (Lynn, 1999). In any case, the practice principles do not
represent a model but constitute knowledge that can be used to foster
discussion and reflection on practice. As one partic ipant notes, the practice
principles are useful but not the whole story.
This section of the chapter discussed the feminist nature of the
practice principles. For instance, while one focus group points out the
feminist process that was followed in the development of the practice
principles, all of the focus groups agree that the practice principles reflect
shared feminist, spiritual and social work values. The feminist nature of the
practice principles should be acknowledged because feminist analysis
continues to be relevant, particularly the analysis of gender. The importance
of congruency between values and practices was also identified. The practice
principles may assist in contributing to a more integrated practice by helping
practitioners to recognize marginalized spiritual values that can shape
practice.
There was also consensus amongst the focus groups that diversity in
application of the practice principles should be assumed across different
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practitioners’ work and within one’s own practice as well. Making diversity
visible not only reflects a feminist process by providing support and a voice
to marginalized people/knowledge, but also helps to shift difference out of
the margins by encouraging the consideration of these alternative
viewpoints. The practice principles can be used to help shift spirit uality out of
the margins by encouraging discussio n about these alternative viewpoints
and practices.
The focus groups also agreed that the practice principles can exist
outside an exclusive feminist context because they reflect values shared
across vario us social work frameworks. Thus, the practice principles can be
used within various social work perspectives and for both feminist and non-
feminist social workers, which strengthens their relevance for social work in
general. The emphasis on a more generalist practice also fits with the
expressed need for the practice principles to remain open to change. The
practice principles could foster discussion and consideration of spirituality in
social work and provide a base for future exploration in the area. These
possibilities come together with current trends in social work away from
grand theories and models, and emphasize an ongoing process of
development.
The focus groups were also asked to provide feedback about the
revised practice principle s that were presented in the introduction to this
chapter. Group discussion identified two issues that were incorporated into
the final editing of the practice principles - an emphasis on social justice and
change, and a focus on struggle in spiritual development. The following
section discusses this feedback and presents the final version of the practice
principles.
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EMPHASIS ON SOCIAL JUSTICE AND STRUGGLE

IN THE PRACTICE PRINCIPLES

Overall, the three focus groups agreed with the revised practice
principles and indicated no changes except for a stronger emphasis on social
change and justice, and struggle in spiritual process, whic h was discussed in
two of the focus groups. The particip ants who raised these issues identified
in the individual interviews a strong connection between spirituality,
community, social change and politics, and also discussed personal struggles
as part of their spiritual development. It should be noted that as one
participant explains, this feedback is more about adding emphasis rather
than changing a lot of this…because I think this is great.

Emphasis on social change

Concern was expressed by five participants (three from one focus
group and two from another focus group), that their beliefs in social change
and justice and community work were not apparent enough in the practice
principles. These participants stressed that their feminist social work and
spirit ual values and practices share a commit ment to social change activities,
whic h was describ ed in Chapter Four as an obligation to do something with
one’s spirit uality and to act for the common good. As one participant
contends, I actually think that spirituality can deeply challenge
that…individualism…If it is truly about connections between people and
about relationships, then it does matter what happens on the other side of
the world. It does matter deeply. This comment points again to the
importance placed by many of the particip ants on connection both as a
conceptualization of spirituality and as a spiritually influenced practice.
Another participant notes that as he read the practice principles that
were sent to him prior to the focus groups, he was overwhelmed with the
focus on the sort of Western humanist individual again. And I found that
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very, very troubling. Because a lot of people’s experience of spiritualit y are

not based on the self. He offers the follo wing explanation for the stronger
emphasis on individual process compared to the recognition of community.
I think the reason for this was the way we began to define feminism
and spirituality with each other in the conversations. We’re so inward
focused. So that our feminism became inward focused, our spirituality
became inward focused, we focused on the heart of the matter, on
the true self, on the inner-self…Both feminism and spirituality are also
about the struggles. Whether those struggles are political or personal
or existential.
As this comment indicates, the participants all discussed their own
personal spiritual processes and beliefs, which may have shifted emphasis
onto more of an individual focus even though for several participants the
connection between community, spirituality and feminism is strong. While
spirit ual experiences can certainly be communal and community oriented,
they are at the same time deeply personal experie nces. Indeed, spirituality
was defined in Chapter One as a highly personal construct. Additionally,
perhaps the participants’ work experiences affected these discussions.
Although all of the participants work with clients from a systemic perspective
that encompasses feminist analysis and social action, for most participants
their day to day work involves direct practice with individuals, couples and
families, and not communities.
In addition, the following focus group discussion illustrates how for
some participants the emphasis on social change and activity is implied in the
practice principles. The need to explicitly identify values and practices
diminishes or becomes implicit in their work as these values and practices
are incorporated into practice wisdom and personal knowledge. However, for
other participants it is important to explicitly state these values. For example,
Participant 1. I suppose I think that…intrinsic in just the social work
stuff is things around social justice, political awareness and activit y. So
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for me, it’s implie d if we’re talking about this stuff in a social work
context.
Participant 2. Yeah, but then so is the importance of
relationship…That’s been written about at length…All good social work
practice…is about making things explicit.
Participant 3. I think it’s important that it’s named…It’s good that
there is a strong emphasis here on our relationship with self and with
each other. But I don’t think it ends there.

Processes of struggle
The two focus groups mentioned above also discussed struggle and
identified it as a feminist social work and spiritual value, to be embraced both
in personal develo pment and in practice processes. They believed that the
practice principle s did not emphasize this aspect of spirituality and feminism
enough and that struggle was important to stress. The following focus group
dialogue demonstrates that struggle is valued both as a personal and
professional process and can be a valid goal in itself. For instance,
Participant 1. Looking in the shadow side of the self and the negative
and trying to integrate that and make that whole as part of spiritual
life, spiritual development. And…part of feminism is also looking
at…the shadow side of society, is to oppress women and minority
groups and not acknowledge that…I don’t think that’s alluded to in the
principles…they’re all very positive and nic e. Whereas feminism is
often not very nice…it’s often bloody depressing and there’s a lot of
anger and related feelings about the sort of stuff that happens around
the world.
Participant 2. …that spirituality, that feminism, that our commitments
to something beyond what we experience now as our lived experience
has to embrace struggle and not knowing and uncertainty and
discomfort as values…Sometimes the affirmation has to be around the
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spirit ual value of struggle and of anger…and that’s just as valid an end
goal for our practice…as inner peace.
Participant 3. …I mean spirituality does involve struggle…in practice
you’re dealing with people who are struggling on some level. I really
identify wit h that…idea of spirituality and struggle.
The signific ance of struggle was previously discussed in Chapter Five,
whic h described how challenges and profound life events influenced the
participants’ personal spiritual development. For example, making sense of
death and dying, suffering through and ending negative relatio nships, and
disconnecting from unsupportive friends and family were all identified by the
participants as challenges that fostered their discovery and development of
spirit uality.
As the following comment illustrates, two focus group participants also
identified and discussed the process of disconnection as a particular struggle
they had engaged in, and express the viewpoint that disconnectio n must be
recognized as just as valid a process as connection. Disconnection was
discussed earlier in Chapter Six as an important process and sometimes
disconnecting from negative or unhealthy influences leads to more positive
and healthy connections. For many of the participants in this study, both
connection and disconnection are significant spiritual and feminist social work
processes. For example,
Participant 1. For me one of the best things I did…was to actually
move away from the spiritual group that I poured huge amounts of
energy, money…to then leave it, was sort of horrific but also
incredibly freeing and a very, very difficult thing to do…But the
breaking of the connections still led to connection with my inner-self,
what I needed to do I guess…So I guess that would be one of my
concerns. That if you’re writing connection, are you not also looking at
separation and individuation and those sorts of things.
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Participant 2. I mean I think there’s some people that I just choose

not to be connected wit h…And so it’s important for me to have to find
a way to affirm that disconnection. And sometimes they’re not easy
disconnections.
Taking into account the discussion above regarding the need for a
stronger emphasis on social action and change, community and struggle, the
practice principles were revised again. This process of revision and the final
version of the practice principle s is presented next.

Practice principles for spirituality and social work

Where it was possible, the emphasis on community and social change
and the significance of struggle were taken into account in a final re-writing
of the practice principles. About half of the practice principles (most in the
category of practice methods and relationships) seemed able to incorporate
these emphases. It was not possib le to bring together the emphases
indicated above with all of the practic e principles, as some of the categories
reflected in the practice princip les address different areas and issues such as
the essence of human existence. The final version of the practice principles is
as follows:
1. Spirituality and religion are conceptualized differently, but they also
overlap and influence each other.
2. The present reality that social work is a secular profession coupled
with the lack of theoretical development in spirituality creates tensions
in practice. This tension leads to a cautious attitude regarding the
incorporation of spirituality in practice. There is a strong need for
research and the development of frameworks that explore spirituality
in social work. Overall, a greater awareness of spirituality is called for.
3. Social work, spiritual and feminist values and practices converge on a
myriad of levels such as in a commitment to social change. The
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incorporation of spirituality into social work approaches contributes to

more holistic practice perspectives.
4. A person’s spirit and/or spirituality is the essence of their human
existence and life experience. Respect and understanding is
demonstrated for a person’s desire or lack thereof to recognize this
spirit ual essence.
5. The development of spirituality is above all a complex and life-long
process, which sometimes encompasses struggle . The process of
spirit ual development can be influenced by family, friends, culture,
religious/spiritual traditions, and transformative life events, which can
act as catalysts for spiritual discovery and exploration. A commitment
to the ongoing process of spiritual development is important.
6. Generic language is often used with clients in discussions about
spirit uality and spiritual issues. Language is shifted in order to
accommodate clients’ perspectives, to foster connections, and
importantly, to facilitate effective and helpful social work processes.
7. Social work contexts, client populations and personal spiritual
development influence the incorporation of spirituality in practice.
Some contexts and client populations better promote the inclusion of
spirit uality, especially those that foster a more equal distribution of
power between worker and client. A commitment to personal spiritual
development and work experience also encourage the incorporation of
spirit uality into practice.
8. Spirituality is often a part of making meaning of life and work
experiences. The social work process of making meaning can be a
spirit ual one because it is an intimate, personal and/or communal
process that helps clients explo re values and beliefs.
9. Connection in many forms such as with oneself, community, nature
and the Universe/God is valued and deemed important for the
development of self-awareness and relationships with others. Also,
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fostering a connection with one’s spirit or spirituality can positively

influence the quality and effectiveness of social work processes.
Disconnection is also important and is sometimes a necessary process.
10.The relationship between social worker and client(s) is important and
can affect the meaningfulness and effectiveness of social work
processes. This relationship can be spiritual in that it may involve the
sharing of life stories, deep connection, and feelings of compassion
and caring.
11.It is important to foster a client’s ability to feel and experience trust,
love and respect for self and others, as these experiences can be
linked with spirit ual development. A client’s spiritual beliefs may
influence their self-perceptions and interactions with others.

Conclusion
Three focus groups discussed the practice principles and the idea of
practice principles in general. The le vel of homogeneity across the focus
group discussions is consistent with the convergences that emerged from the
initial interview analysis and the written feedback received from ten
participants. As a result, this final layer of analysis re-examined some
categories that were discussed earlier in this thesis, further refining the
previous analysis. The practic e principles were identified as having the
potential to promote discussion, guide practice and encourage a more
accountable practice by helping practitioners to reflect on their values and
practices. The development of the practice principles encourages
marginalized knowledge to be worked with and challenged.
New categories also emerged in relation to discussions regarding the
feminist nature of the practice principles. The practic e principles were
identified as feminist in nature because they reflect feminist values and were
developed following a feminist process. This feminist nature should be
recognized as feminist analysis continues to be relevant. However, given the
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nature of shared values and practices across social work approaches, the
practice principles can exist in feminist and non-feminist frameworks, which
actually points to the relevance of the practice principles for social work in
general. Also, the practice principles could assist in promoting congruency
between values and practices by helping practitioners to recognize spiritual
values that can shape practic es. The practice principles make spirituality
visible, which not only reflects feminist process but also helps to shift
spirituality out of the margins by encouraging the consideration of these
values and practic es.
This is not the end of the story but the beginning. As the focus groups
emphasized, it is inevitable and positive that the practice princip les will shift
as they are taken up into practice and discussion, and as practice and
personal contexts change. The following chapter examines the relevance of
the practice principles and the implications that the practice principles have
for social work practice, research and education. Recommendations for
future study are also suggested for this emerging area of spirituality and
social work.
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CHAPTER NINE
CONCLUSION

Introduction
The work of this research study necessarily began on an exploratory
basis given the relative lack of prior knowledge and empiric al research in
social work regarding spirituality and spiritually influenced practice. The
original research questions aimed to explore the following:
1. What are self-identified feminist social workers’ ideas about a spiritual
dimension and/or spirituality, and feminist social work?
2. What are the underlying perspectives that inform their personal
conceptualizations about spirituality and/or a spiritual dimension?
3. In what ways, if any, does a spiritual dimension and/or spirituality
influence their practices?
4. Do they identify spiritually influenced practice methods or processes?
5. What are their perceptions about the effects and implications of a
spirit ually influenced social work practice?
6. What are their thoughts about incorporating spirituality into social
work education and training?
Except for the last inquiry, these research questions have been addressed
by this study, but unexpectedly this study has gone beyond the exploration
of spirituality in feminist practices by develo ping a set of practice principles
that constitutes a guiding framework for social workers interested in
incorporating spirituality into their work.
As this thesis has discussed, the convergent data showed that the
participants’ concepts of spirituality fit closely with definitions offered in the
literature, and that there is broad agreement both in the literature and
amongst the participants that these conceptualizations of spirituality reflect
social work values. Moreover, perceptions about spirituality shape practices
in various ways from altering perceptions of the helping process itself to
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influencing the choice of practice models and approaches to shaping specific

practices such as the use of generic spirit ual language. Holistic practices
influenced by spirituality are perceived as more effective and meaningful
than non-holistic approaches by both the partic ipants and in the literature.
The marked extent of the convergences amongst participants’
viewpoints, values and practices that emerged from the data analysis was
not anticipated. The scope of congruent thoughts and beliefs between
participants is particularly surprising given the lack of previous study in the
area, the absence of any coherent “spiritual-social work” frameworks in the
literature, and the participants’ diverse spiritual/religious backgrounds.
However, the commonalities amongst the participants’ feminist social work
perspectives, the extent of their direct practice experiences, and their
interests in spirituality would have all contributed to the formation of these
convergences. When considering the data it became apparent that it would
be an important step to develop these key similarities into a framework for
practice. This framework addresses the absence of previous knowledge
development, the marginalization of spiritual knowledge and the need for
language, frameworks and models.
Overall, the research data resonate with my own experiences and
work. This encourages me to wonder about the client who thanked me for
helping to inspire a spiritual future, who I mentioned at the very beginning of
this thesis. If I had access to the practice principles when I worked with this
client, how would my practice and reflection on the work been influenced?
The signific ance of the practice principles in help ing to promote feelings of
professional competence and a more transparent practice is demonstrated by
reflecting on this question. Moreover, my uncertainty about incorporating
spirit uality into practice, my concerns about being marginalized by
colleagues, and my feelings of isolation are all reflected in the viewpoints and
situations identifie d by the participants in this study. Generally, in both the
participants’ practices and my own work, incorporations of spirituality have
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heretofore occurred without discussion and feedback with colleagues,

without guiding frameworks and with feelings of caution and even
apprehension.
While the marginalization of spirituality in social work impedes
discussions about it, the importance of making room for spiritual discussion
can not be over-emphasized. Most of the participants stress how taking part
in this research process helped them to articulate, understand and advance
their thinking about spirituality in social work. Certainly the discussions that
took place as a result of this research study have helped make both the
participants and myself feel a greater sense of permissio n about including
spirit uality in our practic es. However, while these discussions have begun
already the process of shifting spiritual knowledge and practice out of the
margins (albeit on a small scale), the development of the practice principles
could significantly further this process by extending this opportunity to other
practitioners. In fact, if spiritual knowledge is to be shifted out of the
margins, then discussions about spirituality will have to continue and spread
across social work models and approaches. Importantly, the practice
principles can offer a framework for these discussions and considerations
about spirit uality.
Additionally, if I had access to a guiding framework such as the
practice principles when I worked with the client mentioned above, my
understanding of and ability to articulate our work together could have been
more developed and useful. The practice principles may have helped me to
feel more professionally confident in discussing spiritual issues with clients by
supporting my interests in personal spiritual development and the relevance
of these processes for practice, and by reflecting some of my own practices
such as the use of generic spiritual language. In addition, the practice
principles could have helped me to consider how personal spiritual
development and spirituality can shape practices. Perhaps feeling more
secure would have in turn encouraged discussio ns with colleagues thereby
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decreasing my sense of isolation and, importantly, providing a space in which

thoughts and practices can be refined and further developed. Explicitly
discussing spiritually influenced practices could also lead to a more
transparent and accountable practice in that colleagues can question and
help develo p practices. It is in these ways that the develo pment of practice
principles can be especially crucial for marginalized knowle dge and practice.
Thus, the practice principles can help to promote feelings of le gitimacy with
regards to including spirituality in practice, and can also provide guidelines or
limits of what is an appropriate professional use of spirituality in practice.
The unease and uncertainty that is associated with the use of spirit uality is
most likely to affect practitioners by hampering their abilit ies to extend their
practice and develop the richness of suitable spiritual practice.
This chapter expands this more personal discussion to a broader
analysis of the particip ants’ practices and the significance of the practice
principles. This discussion occurs according to three themes – the importance
of engaging in personal spiritual develo pment; the relevance and signific ance
of practice wisdom; and the effectiveness and meaningfulness of spiritually
influenced holistic practices. These themes in particular warrant further
analysis because they are raised at various points throughout this thesis,
both in the analysis of the data and in the theoretical discussion of the
literature. The practice princip les can help to expound upon these three
related themes, and the implications that the practice principles hold for
social work practice, education and research are discussed. In the course of
this discussion, possibilities for research become apparent and the chapter
concludes with an examination of possible future research directions.
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PERSONAL SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT, PRACTICE WISDOM,

PRACTICE EFFECTIVENESS AND THE RELEVANCE OF
THE PRACTICE PRINCIPLES

Personal spiritual development and exploration

The importance of personal spiritual development and exploration is
discussed both in the literature and by the participants, which indicates its
significance in relation to spirituality and social work practice. The literature
links personal spiritual development with helping practitioners to cope with
their work (Hagon, 1998), with the choice of helping styles, models and
theories (Canda, 1988), and with the abilit y to assist clients in addressing
matters identified as spiritual (Russel, 1998), which are issues reflected in
the particip ants’ viewpoints.
For example, the participants identify how their spiritual beliefs and
values underpin their choice of a social work career that can enable the
expression of spiritual values in a work context. They also describe how
personal spiritual perspectives guide their practices and life experiences. In
some cases personal spiritual development assists participants to feel more
connected to clients, which is perceived to contribute to effective and
meaningful practice. Certainly relationship is believed to be an important part
of helping processes and personal spiritual awareness assists some
participants to form deep spirit ual connections with clients.
In addition, the participants stress the importance of achieving a level
of self-awareness that can promote and enable effective work with clients.
Being blocked or not aware of personal values and beliefs is linked with
ineffective practic e processes. In particular, the particip ants connect their
self-awareness with two helping processes and skills, that is, forming
spirit ual or close relatio nships with clients and demonstrating empathic
understanding of clients’ experiences. Both of these practice processes are
deemed to contribute to more effective and meaningful practices, as
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relationship building and empathy are essential in helping many clients

change and develop.
The findings summarized above are consistent with common social
work knowledge and practice. The need for practitioners to demonstrate self-
awareness and the importance of empathy are well recognized within social
work and other allied helping professions. In fact, both the exploration of
personal values and the development of empathic skills are usually taught as
basic helping skills which are integral to effective practice (Corey, 1996). The
practice principles refle ct this emphasis on personal development but
augment this process by focusing attention on life-long spiritual development
and a spiritual dimension in personal and professional experiences. The
significance of the practice principles is in their promotion of the links
between personal spiritual development and practice effectiveness and
meaningfulness, thereby addressing an area of life and work experience that
has previously been ignored.
While most of the participants describe how their personal spiritual
development helps them to consider and incorporate spirituality into their
practices, they also point out that practice experience and practice wisdom in
addition to personal spiritual exploration promotes spiritually influenced
practice. Even the inexperienced participant who was completing
undergraduate social work studies notes how her lack of a practice wisdom
and experience hampers the incorporation of spirituality into her work,
despite her well-developed spiritual life. Yet in spite of these beliefs and
experiences it is debatable if practice wisdom is essential for the inclusion of
spirit uality, especially if personal spiritual development is also strong.
Perhaps the circumstances that the inexperienced participant is situated in
are due to several other factors which can be addressed by utilizing the
practice principles.
For instance, there are other factors that discourage both experienced
and inexperienced workers from incorporating spirituality into practice. The
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marginalized nature of spiritual knowle dge, the secular nature of social work,
the absence of spiritual discourse in social work education and practice, the
separation between personal values and professional practices, and the lack
of any cohesive “spiritual-social work” frameworks or models to guide the
incorporation and consideration of spirituality all contribute to the continued
marginalization and absence of spiritual discourse. These factors that were
all discussed in this thesis, coupled with a lack of experience and reliance on
text-book theory and models, would certainly reinforce ideas that spiritual
knowledge is not acceptable.
However, the practic e principles could assist inexperienced
practitioners who have engaged in spiritual exploration (such as the
participant mentioned above) by providing a framework that confirms the
importance of personal spiritual development and that focuses attentio n on
how spirituality can shape and enrich professional practice. Thus, while the
practice principles constitute knowledge that can help practitioners in general
feel more professionally competent in incorporating spiritual knowledge, they
may be especially useful for practitioners who lack practice wisdom but have
engaged in spiritual exploration. As many of the participants point out, work
and life experiences help them to feel more comfortable about including
spirit uality in the absence of spiritual frameworks or practice models. Using
the practice principles, social workers can consider how spirituality can
influence social work processes, which clearly has implications for both
practice and education in that students could be encouraged to consider
spirit uality on personal and professional levels.
But what of inexperienced workers/students who also have not
seriously considered their own spiritual viewpoints or values? The practice
principles could be used to encourage social work students to consider how
their spiritual perspectives or lack thereof may influence their approach to
problem solving, assessment and choice of interventions by serving as a base
from which to engage in these discussions. Having a framework to help
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guide discussion may be especially significant in this area as educators may

be wary or unsure about how to facilit ate these discussions. In particular, the
practice principles could be used to guide preliminary discussion regarding
understandings of spirituality, the effects of the secular nature of social work
on spiritual knowledge, the spiritual essence of life, and the congruencies
amongst spiritual and feminist social work values and practices.
Also, many students come to social work wit h spiritual and/or religious
beliefs and values, and spirituality could be included in the ongoing process
of encouraging students to consider how their backgrounds, beliefs and
values will affect practice interventions. Beginning social workers are
expected to demonstrate skills such as empathy at least at a basic level of
competence. Likewise, they could be encouraged to engage in personal
spirit ual exploration and consideration about different spiritual perspectives,
and how these beliefs and values can shape practic es. Exposing students to
discussions about spirituality may prove to be an important part of the
overall process of legitimizing spiritual knowledge and practice within social
work.
Therefore, while both personal spiritual development and practice
wisdom/experience affects the participants’ abilities and willingness to
incorporate spirituality into their work, the introduction of practice principles
may influence this relationship in that both inexperienced and experienced
practitioners can learn and be encouraged to address spirituality in their
practices. However, the importance of practice wisdom should not be
diminished and bears further analysis.

Practice wisdom
Almost all of the research participants identified practice wisdom as a
significant layer of knowledge and experience that helped them include
spirit uality in practice. This incorporation is evident through the formation of
close and/or spiritual relationships with clients, the ability to accurately
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empathize with clients’ situations, and the facilit ation of other spiritually
influenced practices such as help ing clients to make meaning and to form
connections with community. Practitioners who have developed practice
wisdom may be better able and more willing to address spirituality in their
work for various reasons that arise from the process of gaining experience.
For example, practice wisdom and experience can promote confidence and
belief in one’s skills, the ability to link theory and practice, and the
competence to utilize and apply more complex and abstract concepts in
practice. Also, experie nced practitioners have had time to be affected by
clients and to analyze the nature of the profession and the work that they do
within the real world of practice. They have moved beyond a reliance on
theoretical, empirical and procedural knowledges (Drury Hudson, 1997).
Thus, the advanced skills and knowledge evidenced by experienced
practitioners likely result s in more competent and effective social work by
practitioners who are better able and more prepared to address complexity
in their work, which has implications for the inclusio n of spirituality.
Discussions about spirituality and spiritually influenced practices can
be complex and abstract, that is, these concepts and practices are often
diffic ult to encapsulate in words and our current understanding about them is
limited due in part to their experiential nature. Similarly, other more complex
practice processes such as intuitio n, empathy, the use of self and
relationship, whic h constitute the art of social work practic e, are also
sometimes difficult to conceptualize both theoretically and in practice.
Experienced practitioners may utilize and attend to the art of practice more
than inexperienced workers as the former have mastered basic helping skills,
and may feel more confident in pushing the limits of what is considered
acceptable knowledge and practice for social work. Yet as was mentioned
earlier, this is not to say that inexperienced social workers should not be
encouraged to consider marginalized and complex knowledge in their
practices, although the incorporation of these knowledges might be different.
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However, even with practice wisdom most of the participants still

expressed concerns about being ostracized regarding their spiritual
viewpoints and practices. The development of frameworks that are based in
practice wisdom is necessary to legitimate marginalized knowledge and
practice, which may be a part of this layer of knowledge. As the participants’
concerns of marginalization (and my own) clearly illustrate, the development
of practice wisdom alone is not necessarily sufficient to engender feelings of
legitimacy when marginalized knowledge is a part of practice and practice
knowledge. Thus, the practice principles are highly relevant as they emerged
from the collective practice wisdom of a group of experienced practitioners
(for the most part), and constit ute a framework for practice that can further
the process of shifting spiritual knowledge into more mainstream social work
discourses. Moreover, guiding frameworks for practice can also influence
other social work approaches, which is a process evidenced in the effects
feminist social work practice models had/have on social work perspectives in
general.
The development of practice wisdom and the gaining of work/life
experience promote more effective and meaningful practice. In fact, many
social work practice models are based in practice wisdom just as the practice
principles are. Certainly the participants in this study link their personal
spirit ual growth and practice wisdom with increased practice effectiveness.
Similarly, holistic practice is identified as more rele vant and effective than
non-holistic approaches. The participants’ viewpoints regarding practice
effectiveness are important to consider given their experiences and practice
wisdom, and the following section examines this matter further.

The effectiveness and meaningfulness of holistic practices

While it is beyond the scope and capacity of this study to assess the
effectiveness of spirit ually influenced holistic practices, participants’
viewpoints regarding practice efficacy can be examined and deserve some
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exploration as these are promising and form the impetus for incorporating
spirit uality into their work. The social work literature also contends that
spirit ually influenced practices are more effective and practice efficacy is one
factor that underlies the calls for the inclusion of spirituality into social work
(Bewley, 1995; Guthrie , 1995; Powers, 1995). Overall, the participants
connect increased practice effectiveness and meaningfulness with their own
personal spiritual develo pment and work experie nce, and describe how
spirit ually influenced practices affect client change more effectively than non-
holistic approaches. In general, effectiveness signifies the skills required to
assist clients to achieve goals that could include healing, developing insight
or altering self-perceptions and attitudes to name a few examples.
Some participants assert that the incorporation of spirituality into
practice by way of a connection to one’s own spirituality leads to a more
authentic and holistic use of the self, which is associated with being a more
effective practitio ner. Other participants acknowledge that a practit ioner
should have the ability to demonstrate insight and that spiritual growth is a
part of this self-discovery process. In fact, one participant in particular
emphasizes how a connection with her spirituality promotes feelings of
calmness, openness and clear-headedness that enable an effective use of
skills in order to facilitate clie nts’ processes. Additionally, a connection with
one’s spirituality encourages the formation of meaningful relatio nships with
clients that are also linked with facilitating change.
Several participants describe the more rapid progress that clients
make when they are encouraged to address issues on a spiritual level. Other
participants incorporate spirituality in order to facilitate experiences of self-
love and a sense of wholeness, whic h are feelings associated with forming
positive relationships with others and with setting goals. Overall, practices
that include spirituality are considered to have the potential to heal deeply.
Also, most of the partic ipants describe theory and frameworks that ig nore
spirit uality as narrow, constric ting, not cognizant of important factors in
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people’s lives, and inappropriate for some clients and cultures, and thus
ineffective. The participants agree that being an effective practit ioner
includes the recognition and appreciation of clients’ spiritual and religious
diversity, and the utilization of practic e approaches that are appropriate for
clients’ unique situations.
Clearly, perceptions that holistic spiritually influenced practices are
more relevant and effectual for some clients encourages the incorporation of
spirit uality into social work. Whether the practice principles can aid in
producing effective practice is yet to be determined and depends to some
extent on how effectiveness is defined. For example, if practitioner and/or
practice effectiveness signifies accountability and consistency then the
practice principles can encourage this type of spiritual practice. As was
discussed earlier with regards to the case anecdote, the practice principles
can promote a more transparent and accountable practice by legitimizing
spirit ual knowledge, by assisting to articulate spiritually influenced work with
clients, by promoting consistency between personal values and professional
practice, and by suggesting limits for the professional use of spirituality in
practice.
However, the practice principles are not a practice model and
consequently do not tell practitioners what they need to do to practice
competent spiritually influenced social work. While the practice principles can
be used as a base for the future development of practice models, whether or
not a practice model can or should even be developed is debatable. On one
hand, as indicated by the numerous spiritually influenced practices identified
by the participants, there are many ways to practice spiritually influenced
social work just as there is no one way to practice feminist social work. And
practicing from a multi-modeled constructivist perspective converges with
current emphases in social work and the move away from all-encompassing
theories and frameworks.
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On the other hand, the many ways of practicing feminist social work
has been a criticism, particularly in the early stages of model development.
Complaints were/are leveled against feminist social work approaches that
these perspectives and models are fuzzy regarding what feminist social
workers actually do. However, with the continued development of feminist
social work models, practice techniques and processes are delineated and
continue to be developed. Certainly, the practice principle s can be used as a
base for the future development of knowledge that will also advance our
understanding of the use of spirituality in social work. As this discussion
illustrates, practice efficacy deserves further study. This chapter concludes
with discussion that suggests future research directions, which include the
exploration of practice effectiveness.

FUTURE RESEARCH DIRECTIONS

This study has enriched and expanded social work knowledge

regarding concepts of spirituality and how spirituality influences feminist
social work practices, and it has developed practice principles that constitute
an important guiding framework for social work. However, much still remains
to explore and discover in this emerging field of study. Indeed, the
possibilities for continued research are extensive. This chapter’s discussion
raises several possible directions and the specific findings of this research
study can serve as a base for these explorations. Further study regarding
practice effectiveness is one area that deserves recognition. Two additional
possibilities are also discussed in the following section that address the
facilitation of learning in spirituality and social work, and the nature and
scope of practices influenced by spirit uality.
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Practice effectiveness
This chapter has outlined how both the participants in this study and
the literature perceive that incorporating spirituality into social work and
working holistically improves practice effectiveness and the meaningfulness
of the practice experience. However, the ability to articulate our present
understanding of how these practices work and how/why they are effective
requires attention. For example, this is clearly evidenced in previous
theoretical discussion of Schwartz’s Internal Family System’s model (1999).
As Holmes (1994) admits, he does not fully understand the experiences
clients have according to this model but believes that it promotes effective
practice. It would be interesting to assess clients’ and practitioners’
perspectives regarding spiritually influenced experiences and how their ideas
of what transpires in practice compare and contrast. This type of inquiry
would expand our understanding of these processes beyond sole practitioner
viewpoints. We also know little about why spiritually influenced practic es are
perceived to be more effective than non-holistic approaches. Indeed, there is
virtually no empirically based comparison in the literature between practices
that incorporate spirituality and other approaches. Although this reflects the
current state of knowledge in this area, with the current development ofthat
knowledge it becomes more possible (and more pressing) to address this
issue.
Additionally, although reports concerning practice effectiveness are
promising, what practitio ners say they do does not always correspond with
what actually occurs in practice. Naturalistic inquiry could be used as a
research method to further explore both how spirituality influences practice
and how spiritually influenced practices work and are effective. Based on
some of the participants’ perceptions regarding practice effectiveness,
possible topics for further exploration could include what working on a
spirit ual level actually means, how and why and if clients progress more
rapidly when spirituality is addressed, how holistic practice differs from and is
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more effective than other practice approaches, and what is meant by “deep
healing” and how does spirituality shape this type of change?
The participants connect practice effectiveness with practice wisdom
and personal spiritual development. However as this chapter points out, the
practice principles can be used to facilitate learning and exploration about
spirit uality, and this facilitation is discussed next.

Facilitating the exploration of spirituality and curriculum

development
Consistent with the lack of empirically based knowledge regarding
other aspects of spiritually influenced practice, we know lit tle about the best
ways to help students learn about spirituality and social work, how they
could be encouraged to consider their own and other’s spiritualit y, what
material and experiences should be promoted, and how knowledge about
spirit ually influenced practices can best be facilitated and conveyed. While
some literature emphasizes that students should be taught about models of
spirit ual development (Derezotes, 1995), others suggest that guidelines and
professional wisdom need to be developed concerning topics such as how to
raise spirituality with clients and the appropriate use of religious/spiritual
language (Ressler, 1998). While the participants certainly stress the
relevance of their own spiritual development and the effects of these
processes on their practices, the research data does not specifically
encompass their ideas about helping students to explore personal spiritual
values and beliefs. Consequently, the need to facilitate exploratio n of
personal spiritual perspectives in social work courses arises more from the
discussions in the literature.
However, the development of curriculum in the area is a strong need
especially since some educators already include spirituality in their course
offerings, others are interested in doing so, and there is increasing demand
for the acknowledgement of spirit uality within social work education.
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Additionally, this study has demonstrated how significant and profound

discussions about spirituality can be. Opening up classrooms to spiritual
discourse could have major implications for the overall legitimizatio n of
spirit ually influenced knowledge and practice, and the practice principles can
certainly be applied in these contexts to begin dialogue. While it may be
diffic ult to influence some long-standing attitudes, students may be more
open to considering spirituality as legitimate knowle dge. On the other hand,
because spiritualit y can be a highly personal and experiential construct we
must explore and consider how to facilitate teaching about spirituality in a
manner that refle cts inherent social work values such as respect, equality,
inclusivity, diversit y and self-determination.
Future research could be undertaken with students themselves in
order to assess their attitudes, desires and needs regarding the incorporation
of spirituality into social work education. These findings could be compared
and contrasted with educators’ experiences and vie wpoints about including
spirit uality in social work courses, and how this might (or does) already
occur. By studying and observing both students’ and educators’ perspectives,
our understanding regarding classroom experiences can be enriched and
expanded upon. There is certainly a need to go beyond survey research and
sole practitioner reports in order to deepen and develop our knowledge
regarding the facilitation of spiritual discourse.

The scope of spiritually influenced practices

The findings of this study suggest that participants believe that there
are many ways for spirituality to affect practices from the way in which
helping processes are understood to the incorporation of specific techniques
and practic e processes. In fact, table 6.3 in Appendix VIII lists twenty-two
practices that are shaped by spirituality in addition to those reflected in the
practice principles which are shared amongst the participants. However, little
is known about these spiritually influenced practices as an identification and
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analysis of the variety of practices affected by spirit uality is beyond the goals
of this exploration. In fact, the number of spiritually influenced practices
described by the particip ants was unexpected.
However, based on the findings of this research study several
questions suggest themselves - When is it useful to raise discussion about
spirit uality with clients? Which practices are used most frequently by social
workers and are there any patterns between a practitio ner’s characteristics
and the utilization of specific practices? How and why is meditation that is
spirit ually influenced perceived to be effective? How is working with energy
understood to incorporate spirituality and how/why does it work? These are
simply some examples of questions which arise from consid ering the tapestry
of practices that were id entified by the participants in this study.
Importantly, taking the exploration of the incorporation of spirituality
into social work out of the context of feminist social work practice
approaches may well expand the diversity of spirit ually influenced practices
that could be identified. Also, it would be interesting to compare and contrast
feminist social workers’ conceptualizations of spirit ually influenced practices
with non-feminist social workers’ perspectives, particularly given the current
context of social work that observes the increasingly shared nature of values
and practic es across approaches. The partic ipants’ beliefs that the practice
principles can be moved around different perspectives and utilized by many
social work approaches certainly supports the need to take this research into
other social work contexts. Of course, the work of this thesis will increase in
relevance and sig nificance when it is taken up by other researchers and
practitioners and considered within their own contexts.
Additionally, comparisons and contrasts could be investigated between
feminist social workers who incorporate spiritualit y into their practice and
those who do not. While the research participants in this study identified
many commonalit ies between their feminist social work and spiritual values,
beliefs and practices, whether other feminist social workers would make
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these connections is yet to be determined. Further it may be important to

consider and discuss the implications of linking feminist social work
perspectives with the exploration and incorporation of spiritually influenced
practices. For instance, although feminist social work has certainly had major
influence on social work perspectives, values and practices identifie d as
feminist continue to be marginalized in some contexts. Perhaps a connection
between spirituality and feminist social work perspectives may serve to
marginalize both of these approaches even further. Similarly, the capacity of
the work of this thesis to influence social workers across various perspectives
may be limited in that some practitio ners may believe that the result s are
restricted to those working from feminist approaches.
Particularly since the early 1990’s, strong interest has been
demonstrated in exploring and discussing spirituality and holistic practice
across social work perspectives, with a corresponding expansion of literature
that addresses various issues and that calls for the further advancement of
knowledge in this area. This research study has developed knowledge for
social work in the form of practice principles that can further research and
the development of spiritually influenced practices, and that can help to
legitimize spiritual knowledge and practices. Although the discussion above
provides important directions for future research agendas, overall it should
be kept in mind that, as an area of study and practice, spirituality is yet to be
accepted and is just beginning to emerge from the margins of social work. As
Bricker-Jenkins (1989, p.260) so aptly points out, “If in the rapture of having
our concerns finally legitimated, we abandon rigor and incorporate
uncritically the “new knowledge” into our practice, we will have abandoned
our process principles as well.” Clearly, then, we need to progress with
rigorous research agendas that continue to examine crit ically the practices
that incorporate spirituality and that build our knowledge in this emerging
field of study.
 247

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 264

APPENDIX I
DOHERTY’S THREE DOMAINS OF LANGUAGE AND MEANING MODEL

SPIRITUAL ONLY
Go d's W ill Rebor n
Calling Sacred
Gra ce Faith
CLINICAL-SPIRITUAL Sacred T exts Prayer ALL THREE
Ser enity Mir acle Healin g
Centered ness Value s
Love Gro wth /De velopmen t
W holene ss Gu ilt
Hope Forg iveness
SPIRITUAL Meaning
Trust
Su ffering Commun ity
Conn ected ness
MORAL ONLY
Rig ht & W rong
CLINICAL O NLY CLINICAL Sh ould
Per son ality MORAL
Owe
Mental Illne ss
Ou ght
Family Dysfun ction
Ob ligation
Commun ication
Fairness
Self-esteem
Justice
Self-differe ntiation
Bo und aries CLINICAL-MORAL SPIRITUAL-MORAL
Commitme nt Comman dments
Resp onsibility Go ld en Rule
Harmful B ehavio r Evil
Manipu lation Sin
Hone sty
Violence
Deception
 265

APPENDIX II
INTERVIEW GUIDE AND QUESTIONS

An Exploration of the Spiritual Dimension of Social Work

In the Practice of Social Workers who Self-Identify
As Working from a Feminist Perspective

Introduction

You are being sent these questions because you have agreed to
participate in this doctoral research study, and you have expressed an
interest in speaking with me about issues related to spirit uality and your
feminist social work practice. This study is interested in exploring self-
identified feminist social worker’s ideas and perceptions about spiritualit y
and/or a spiritual dimension, and how, if at all, these personal
understandings are incorporated into feminist social work practice. In this
study, spirituality and/or a spiritual dimension are conceptualized as separate
concepts, although for you they may be connected. Since this research
project is situated within the context of feminist social work theory and
practice, I am also interested in exploring the convergences and differences
between feminist social work and spirituality and/or a spiritual dimension.

Interview Questio ns

1. Feminist social work and a spiritual dimension

1. What does being a feminist mean to you? In your opinion what is

feminism?
2. How would you describe feminist social work practice?
3. Is there a need for feminist social work? Why and why not?
4. What are your thoughts about the future of feminism within social work?
 266

5. Did you have some kind of exposure in your social work education to the
topics of spirituality and/or a spiritual dimension? Would you have
appreciated this, or did you appreciate this exposure?

2. Understandings of spirituality and/or a spiritual dimension.

1. As we discuss the notions of spirituality and a spirit ual dimension, and its
presence or absence in feminist social work and your life experience, is
there language that we should avoid, or that you would prefer we did not
use? Do you have any thoughts in general about language and its
relationship to topics of spirituality and/or a spiritual dimension?
2. What do the terms spirituality and spiritual dimension mean to you, if
anything?
3. In your understanding, are spirituality and/or a spiritual dimension
different from religion?
4. Do spirituality and/or a spiritual dimension influence the way you live your
life? If so, how would you describe these influences? If not, what other
influences impact on your life?
5. Would you describe yourself as a spiritual person?
6. Have you noticed an increased attention to matters concerning spirituality
and/or a spiritual dimension in feminist social work practice, in social
work practice and in society in general? What are your thoughts about
this?
7. What are your thoughts concerning the connectio ns or lack thereof
between feminism and spirituality and/or a spiritual dimension?
8. What influences the meanings you give to spirituality and/or a spiritual
dimension? For example, are there philosophies, cultural traditions,
religious influences, life experiences or other perspectives that led you to
this meaning?
9. Has anything ever happened to you in your life that caused you to
become more aware, or alternatively less in touch with, a spiritual
dimension and/or spirituality, or even to alter your perception of these
concepts?
10. Are there common themes or similarities among the perspectives,
philosophies, and influences that inform your own personal meaning of
spirit uality and/or a spirit ual dimension?
11. In your opinion, what makes spirituality and/or a spiritual dimension more
important to some people than others?
 267

3. Expressions of spirituality and/or a spiritual dimension in

feminist social work practice.

1. Some social workers (Bullis, 1996) state that for authentic healing and
therapy to take place, the client must have a sense of wholeness and the
sacred in their life. What are your thoughts about this?
2. What are your thoughts about how your understanding about spirituality
and/or a spiritual dimension, influences or does not influence your
feminist social work practice?
3. If your feminist social work practice reflects a spiritual dimension and/or
spirit uality, how would you describe this?
4. Are you able to describe specific techniques or practices in your feminist
social work practice that you would id entify as spiritual and/or using a
spirit ual dimension?
5. Do you think that the integration of a spiritual dimension and/or
spirit uality is important in the continued evolution of feminist social work
practice?

4. Implications of expressing or not expressing spirituality and/or

a spiritual dimension in social work practice.

1. In your opinion, how is it that some people come to draw on a spiritual

dimension and/or spirituality as a resource in life? Can and should
feminist social workers assist in develo ping this process?
2. What are your reflections on the posit ive and negative impacts spirituality
and/or a spiritual dimension has on people?
3. Can you think of a time when your spirituality or spiritual beliefs and
values, or lack thereof, were expressed in, or influenced your feminist
social work practice? Was this a positive and/or a negative experience?
Can you discuss this example?
4. Are there some types of feminist social work practice that are more
conducive to incorporating a spiritual dimension and/or spiritualit y than
others? Why and why not?

5. Future Directions

1. Have you ever attended any professional training, workshops, or

seminars related to the topics of spirituality and/or a spiritual dimension?
What are your reflections on these experiences?
2. Should social work schools offer some type of exposure to spirit uality?
Why and why not? What are your concerns and/or hopes about this
possibilit y? If a decision were made to offer such exposure, what should
this look like, for example, elective courses, required course content,
seminars, workshops, or other alternatives?
 268

APPENDIX III
PARTICIPANT INFORMATION STATEMENT

University of New South Wales

Ph.D. Candidate – Diana Coholic
Telephone: 02-9664-5785
Email: [email protected]

Participant Information Statement

Project: An Exploration of the Spiritual Dimension of Social Work

In the Practice of Social Workers who Self-Identify
as Working from a Feminist Perspective

You are invited to partic ipate in a doctoral research study exploring self-
identified feminist social worker’s perceptions about a spiritual dimensio n in
feminist social work practice. I am interested in speaking with you about how
feminist social workers understand spirituality and/or a spiritual dimension,
and how, if at all, these meanings are expressed in feminist social work
practice.

In this study, spirituality and relig ion are conceptualized as separate

concepts. Religion refers to the constructions of institutionalized worship that
are dependent on dogma and a notion of God. Spirituality on the other hand
is much more difficult to define, as it represents a personal philosophy. It can
refer to beliefs in something “bigger” (whatever that something might be)
that guides life processes, it can refer to feelings of connectedness and
community, or it can refer to a desire to live life with meaning. I use the
terms spirituality and spiritual dimension interchangeably because to me they
have similar meanings. However, to others these terms may invoke very
different perceptions.

The research study is sit uated within the context of feminist social work
theory and practice. I am interested in learning what feminism means to
social workers who self-identify as working from a feminist perspective. My
understanding of feminist social work is that practice principles and
assumptions are shared, but there is no unitary approach to its application.
Feminist social work combines feminist theory and social work practice
principles.
 269

Your participation in this research study will include completion of a

demographic information form, and participating in an in-depth research
interview that will last approximately up to two hours. A transcript of the
interview will be sent to you so that you can check its accuracy.

Any information that is obtained in connection with this study and that can
be id entified with you will remain confidential and will be disclosed only with
your permission. If you give me your permission by signing a consent form, I
plan to publish the results in academic journals and books. In any
publication, information will be presented in such a way that you can not be
identified.

Data from the study will be stored in files, on floppy disks, and on audiotapes
according to the National Health and Medical Research guidelines. This
requires research information to be kept under lock and key in a secure
location for five years. I will keep the data from this research in a locked
filing cabinet, and only I will have access to the data.

I can not guarantee or promise that you personally will receive any benefits
from this study. However, I hope that the study will further develop our
understanding of the possible expression of spirituality and/or a spiritual
dimension in feminist social work theory and practice.

If you decide to participate, you are free to withdraw your consent and to
discontinue participation at any time.

I thank you for considering participating in this research study. If you have
any questio ns at any time either before or after the research interview, I can
be contacted by telephone (02-9664-5785) or by email
([email protected]). I would be happy to answer any
questions or concerns you might have. My supervisors at the School of Social
Work, University of New South Wales are Jan Breckenridge and Carmel
Flaskas. They can be reached at (02-9385 -1864). Should you have any
problems or queries about the way in which the study was conducted, and
you do not feel comfortable contacting me, you may contact them at the
School of Social Work.

You will be given a copy of this form to keep.

 270

APPENDIX IV
TABLE 4.1 – RESEARCH PARTICIPANTS’
CONCEPTUALIZATIONS OF SPIRITUALITY

Participants’ Concepts of Spirituality Examples

Intuition Hav ing a gut feeling, k nowing what needs to be done in a giv en
situation.
Making meaning & trust Trusting that things happen for a reason & making sense of and
understanding those reasons; trust in God, something “bigger”.
Values & liv ing a “good” life Important to liv e ethical life and to hav e relationships based on
positiv e v alues lik e lov e. Trying to be the best y ou can be.
Part of daily life & living Being present in the moment & open to life experiences.
Social analy sis & justice A n obligation to do something with your spirituality and to act
for common good.
Connection Connection to something “bigger”, community , one’s self,
culture, one’s env ironment, nature, other people.
Resource A positiv e coping resource, source of strength and potential.
Personal & Priv ate One’s personal and priv ate relationship with the something
“bigger”. Means many different things to different people.
Lov e, grace & hope Embodies and represents love, generosity , tolerance, a belief in
grace & my stery , and prov ides a source of hopefulness.
Reincarnation Notions of past-liv es, finding meaning in present life based on
patterns of many existences.
Finding balance A bout nurturing y ourself & hav ing fun.
Otherness A higher or bigger thing, a specialness, feeling a presence of this
otherness.
Process Often dev eloped v ia profound experiences with people, family ,
religion, culture, clients, trauma & struggle. A personal and
reflectiv e process that nev er ends.
Experience It is experiential and expressed through ritual, emotions, poetry ,
meditation, Yoga, relaxation, work ing with energy , music.
Powerlessness Recognition that God is in control; akin to trusting that there is a
bigger plan for y our life.
 271

APPENDIX V
TABLE 4.2 – RESEARCH PARTICIPANTS’ CONCEPTUALIZATIONS
OF FEMINIST SOCIAL WORK

Participants’ Concepts of Feminist Social Work Examples

A naly sis of power and oppression Challenging patriarchy , v iolence, sources of
power in communities, the role of gender and
male/female relations, power imbalances and
structural inequalities in societal, legal, political,
welfare, and economic sy stems; making the
personal political.
Locating a feminist language that conv erges Might not use ov ert feminist language because
with a client’s life situation could lead to misunderstandings/confusion
about what feminism is (women’s stuff,
separatism, man-hating) and fear of losing
clients; feminism is more about the way in
which the work is done (practice wisdom).
Reclaiming Reclaiming voice, female qualities, femaleness,
what it means to be a woman (honouring what
is different and special), spiritual and religious
rituals, practices and language (lik e hag and
witch); rediscov ering the power of the feminine.
A ction and change Both in practice and in personal life experiences;
affecting change for y ourself and for others. For
example, challenging people to shift their
attitudes regarding church policy and practice,
and language that is used.
Process (both for self and in the ways things are Feminism shifts and changes ov er time and
done) through life experiences. A ffects processes of
social work . Use of self is important.
Support for women and empowerment for all A bout the possibilities of what can be done;
people reframing negativ e beliefs into positive ones.
Inv olv es commitment to women, v iewing
women as experts on their own liv es,
importance of listening to women’s stories.
A naly sis Provides lens with which to analy ze world.
Recognition of y our oppressions and y our
priv ileges. Interest in all the “ism’s” (sexism,
racism, heterosexism, classism, etc). Reject a
practice that doesn’t address power dy namics.
Div ersity and inclusion Recognition of div ersity within groups of
women; differences in life’s priv ileges and
oppressions. Equality for women has shifted into
a desire for equality of all people, including
men.
Both collective and personal A bout mak ing connections with lik e-minded
people; could be part of a series of social
movements; consciousness raising groups.
 272

APPENDIX VI
TABLE 6.1 – FACTORS THAT PROMOTE THE INCLUSION OF
SPIRITUALITY IN PRACTICE

Factors that promote the inclusion of spirituality Examples

A ge of clients Younger people…have to be a bit further along
the way before they can talk about spiritual
things. Whereas older people, the process of
aging has in itself produced either an urgency,
or the need to reflect on your life has been
around longer…there’s an intensity and…a
reluctance to do the work with younger people,
and it takes a lot more trust…and we don’t
always have the time…it’s easier…with people to
be a bit more objectiv e about their own life,
than young people in the mid dle of it all, with so
much left to do.
Death and dy ing; Issues of grief and loss; I think palliative care workers in particular are
palliativ e care; work with HIV populations; really open to this stuff because the clients
abortion issues challenge it…You can’t work in palliative care
without looking at your own mortality.
Work ing with women I’m passionate about it, and I love it and…it’s
just great. Working with a group of
women…who go leaps and bounds with stuff,
that can really relate to that kind of stuff.
Individual practice I find the spir ituality stuff for me works best on
a one-to-one level.
Priv ate practice I never felt I could work the way I wanted to
work, in the public system…and I’d known this
for years, that I had to somehow find a way to
work the way I wanted to work, and that was
setting up an environment…most of the people
now who seem to come, are ready to do this.
It’s not appropriate for everyone.
Trauma work Sexual assault is such an interesting area to
work in…they’ve got major, major trauma you
know, and major, major trauma gets you
thinking about things.
Culture You couldn’t possible work in Australia with
Aboriginal people and say, but I’m not going to
discuss spiritual issues. As if spirituality was
separate from culture and the economics, and
the history, and every other experience of
language and meaning.
Work ing with alternativ e, fringe, marginalized They’re not constrained by in stitutions or
populations organizations…and so to get their own
spirituality they’ve had to do it internally…and
not lo oked at it externally, like going to Church.
 273

APPENDIX VII
TABLE 6.2 – FACTORS THAT IMPEDE THE INCLUSION
OF SPIRITUALITY IN PRACTICE

Factors that impede the inclusion of spirituality Examples

Dealing with basic and surv ival needs The people that I’m working with have
got…multiple disadvantage…some of it is really
survival…and on a day to day level. So I’m not
sure how appropriate it is at this point to bring
in spirituality.
Child protection work ; administrativ e duties I have to be very min dful of…documented
v ersus therapeutic work requirements that the organization expects me
to complete…To do that requires me not to have
this other perspective…because the nature of
the organization is we are case managers, so we
don’t do therapeutic work with people. We are
investigators…it’s our job to determine whether
a child has been abused or not.
Voluntary v ersus involuntary client population I guess I’m a little bit more inclined to be less
constrained with a population who’s there
voluntarily.
Firm delineation of the social work role I found that there were impediments being a
social worker. Because you are categorized…I’m
talking about the hospital system…the person
would be wanting to talk about spiritual, non-
social work matters, and this belongs to the
chaplain’s area…I struggled with that in itially,
because you know, protocol says that you need
to stay in your own area.
Clients pay ing for serv ices v ersus funded Some of them are paying 130 dollars for that
services, in a non-priv ate practice context hour to come…and I said to them…let’s just do
this family genogram. Well at that point the
father said, what the hell has this got to do with
my son’s drug use?…I’m paying you and wasting
my time…and that was a classic example I think
of how people are there to get something. They
want it then and there, they want it pretty damn
quick.
Crisis work ; short-term client contact; need time People are quite traumatized that I work with.
to dev elop a relationship before spirituality is Often the contact is fly by nig ht, and not in the
discussed context of a counselling relationship or a
therapy relationship. Like it can be more diffic ult
to raise those things with somebody you don’t
know very well.
 274

APPENDIX VIII
TABLE 6.3 – SPIRITUALLY INFLUENCED PRACTICES

Spiritually Influenced Practices Examples

Religion: H elping people w ho hav e been adv ersely affected by dogma, oppression, or
1. A ddressing negativ e effects abused in religious context.
of religion
2. Referral to religious When indicated, referral to C hurch community or religious practitioners.
organizations
3. P ray er When appropriate pray w ith a client.
4. Issues of forgiv eness A kin to issues of acceptance and letting go of grief. C omes up in work with
people w ho are religious – is it an important part of healing?
Social Wor k P r ocesses: H elping people take responsibility for the atmosphere around them and
1. Responsibility their actions.
2. In the interpretation and E xamining the effect of experiences on a spiritual lev el. Identify ing issues
assessment of a situation like violence and housing as spiritual issues (abuse of a person’s spirit). Part
of the assessment process; ask about spirituality , prov ide chance for people
to discuss it. Ask questions in a general, open manner.
3. S elf-actualization H elping people to self-actualize sometimes through a spiritual dimension.
4. S ocial action, change, Incorporating this dimension into w ork with people; spirituality is not
politics, analysis remov ed from political action.
5. P ersonal analy sis H elping people dev elop a personal understanding and analy sis on spiritual
lev el.
6. A ffirming and v alidating a Respecting people’s beliefs. A cknow ledging w here they are in their process.
person’s beliefs Working w ith beliefs that are different to y our own.
7. E motional containment C reating a safe place; empathy , willingness to feel other’s pain and
suffering. S upport for a person and their goals.
8. Intuition U sing intuition and know ing in helping process. Helping clients connect with
their intuition or gut instincts.
9. V alues and ethics V alues like respect, beginning where the client is, recognition of personal
v alues, belief in people’s inherent goodness and w orth, equality , non-
judgmental, justice, and compassion.
10. Guide A cting as guide, resource, cataly st in people’s change processes. If client
identifies spirituality , then okay to help them along; if they lead the w ay .
Spiritual T ools & Recognition that people hav e spirit guides w hich can assist them in their
T echniques: w ork. H igher-S elf similar to concept of soul and/or spirit.
1. Working with H igher-S elf
and spirit guides
2. A strology C onnecting with people’s star signs. U sing aspects of their sign to assist
them in their understanding of self.
3. F low er essences E ssences of Australian bush flow ers that w ork on energetic, spirituallevel to
aid in healing.
4. Books and literature Refer people to spiritually oriented literature.
Exper iential T echniques: E ncouraging and helping people to engage in and construct rituals to help
1. Ritual w ith healing process. Sometimes connected to culture.
2. E nergy Working w ith people’s energy and chakras. C hanneling positiv e energy .
Teaching people to be consciously aw are of their ow n energy . P rotecting
y ourself on energetic lev el. H ealing v ia energetic lev el.
3. E xperience S pirituality has to be experienced. Help people go bey ond or transcend the
rational, cognitiv e mind. U se expressiv e arts techniques & journalling, for
example.
4. Meditation and relaxation H elping and teaching clients to meditate or learn relaxation techniques. Use
of guided imagery .
 275

APPENDIX IX
PRELIMINARY DEVELOPMENT OF THE PRACTICE PRINCIPLES

1. Spirituality and religion are distinct concepts. While spirituality and religion
influence each other and are implicated in one another, ultimately they are
different things.
2. Social work, spiritual and feminist values and philosophies converge on a myriad
of levels. The integration of spirituality into feminist social work practice
contributes to a holistic practice approach.
3. The reality that social work is a secular profession coupled with the lack of
theoretical structure for a feminist-spiritual practice creates tensions in practice.
This tension promotes a cautious and respectful attitude in applying spirituality
in practice. There is a desire and need to discuss spirituality in social work
practice. A greater awareness and acceptance of this dimension in social work is
called for.
4. The development of spirituality is above all a process that is complex and never-
ending. This process is often influenced by other people and life-events. A
commitment is demonstrated to this evolving process which reflects the
importance placed on self-growth and self-analy sis.
5. Every human being has a spirit or a soul and thus spirituality. A person’s spirit or
soul is the essence of that person and is the core of the self. People are at
different levels of spiritual development and evolution.
6. The social work context and personal development impact on the application of
spirituality in practice. Certain social work contexts are more conducive than
others. Additionally, a commitment to personal growth and understanding and
work experience promote this application and inclusion.
7. Generic or common language is used when discussing spirituality. Conscious
shifts in language occur in order to converge with clients’ language.
8. Spirituality is used to make sense of life and work experiences. The process of
meaning making is spiritual as it is an intimate, personal process that explores
values and beliefs.
9. Connection in all its forms is valued and deemed essential. Nurturing a strong
and steady connection with one’s inner-self positively affects the quality and
effectiveness of the social work encounter.
10. The relationship between social worker and client is vital and is at the heart of a
meaningful and effective practice. This relationship is spiritual in that it
necessitates sharing of life stories, involves connection and is based on
compassion and caring.
11. Spirituality is based on feelings and experience of self-respect, self-love and
trust in self. Spiritual beliefs affect how people come to understand themselves
as worthy human beings.
 276

APPENDIX X
PRACTICE PRINCIPLES FOR SOCIAL WORK AND SPIRITUALITY –
REVISED WITH WRITTEN FEEDBACK

1. Spirituality and religion are different. At the same time, they overlap, influence
each other and are implicated in one another.
2. Social work, spiritual and feminist values and philosophies converge on a myriad
of levels. The integration of spirituality into feminist social work practice
contributes to a holistic practice approach.
3. The present reality that social work is a secular profession coupled with the lack
of theoretical structure for a feminist-spiritual practice creates tensions in
practice. This tension promotes a cautious a respectful attitude in applying
spirituality in practice. There is a desire and need to discuss spirituality in social
work practice. A greater awareness and acceptance of this dimension in social
work is called for.
4. The development of spirituality is above all a process that is complex and never-
ending. This process is often influenced by other people and life-events that can
act as catalysts in the exploration of something bigger (whatever that something
bigger may be). Feminist-spiritual social workers committed to this evolving
process, place importance on their own continued development and growth.
5. A person has a spirit, soul and/or spirituality. Respect and understanding is
demonstrated for a person’s desire or lack thereof, to acknowledge and work
with this aspect of their life.
6. The social work context and personal development influence the application of
spirituality in practice. Certain social work contexts are more conducive than
others are. A commitment to personal development and work experience
promote this application and inclusion.
7. Generic or common language is used when discussing spirituality. Conscious
shifts in language occur in order to converge with clients’ language.
8. Spirituality can be used to help make sense of life and work experiences. The
process of meaning making can be described as spiritual because it is an
intimate, personal and/or communal process that explores values and beliefs.
9. Connection in all its forms is valued and deemed essential. Nurturing a strong
and steady connection with one’s inner-self positively affects the quality and
effectiveness of the social work encounter.
10. The relationship between social worker and client is vital and is at the heart of a
meaningful and effective practice. This relationship can be spiritual in that it
necessitates sharing of life stories, involves connection and is based on
compassion and caring.
11. It is important to foster a person’s ability to feel and experience trust in self and
others, and love and respect for self and others because these experiences can
be linked to spiritual development. A person’s spiritual beliefs can affect and
influence their self-perceptions and their interactions with others.
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APPENDIX XI
PRACTICE PRINCIPLES FOR SOCIAL WORK AND SPIRITUALITY –
FINAL VERSION

1. Spirituality and religion are conceptualized differently , but they also ov erlap and
influence each other.
2. The present reality that social work is a secular profession coupled with the lack of
theoretical dev elopment in spirituality creates tensions in practice. This tension leads to
a cautious attitude regarding the incorporation of spirituality in practice. There is a
strong need for research and the dev elopment of frameworks that explore spirituality in
social work . Ov erall, a greater awareness of spirituality is called for.
3. Social work , spiritual and feminist v alues and practices conv erge on a my riad of lev els
such as in a commitment to social change. The incorporation of spirituality into social
work approaches contributes to more holistic practice perspectiv es.
4. A person’s spirit and/or spirituality is the essence of their human existence and life
experience. Respect and understanding is demonstrated for a person’s desire or lack
thereof to recognize this spiritual essence.
5. The dev elopment of spirituality is abov e all a complex and life-long process which
sometimes encompasses struggle. The process of spiritual development can be
influenced by family , friends, culture, religious/spiritual traditions, and transformativ e life
ev ents, which can act as cataly sts for spiritual discovery and exploration. A commitment
to the ongoing process of spiritual dev elopment is important.
6. Generic language is often used with clients in discussions about spirituality and spiritual
issues. Language is shifted in order to accommodate clients’ perspectiv es, to foster
connections, and importantly, to facilitate effectiv e and helpful social work processes.
7. Social work contexts, client populations and personal spiritual dev elopment influence the
incorporation of spirituality in practice. Some contexts and client populations better
promote the inclusion of spirituality , especially those that foster a more equal
distribution of power between work er and client. A commitment to personal spiritual
dev elopment and work experience also encourage the incorporation of spirituality into
practice.
8. Spirituality is often a part of mak ing meaning of life and work experiences. The social
work process of mak ing meaning can be a spiritual one because it is an intimate,
personal and/or communal process that helps clients explore v alues and beliefs.
9. Connection in many forms such as with oneself, community, nature and the
Universe/God is v alued and deemed important for the development of self-awareness
and relationships with others. A lso, fostering a connection with one’s spirit or spirituality
can positiv ely influence the quality and effectiveness of social work processes.
Disconnection is also important and is sometimes a necessary process.
10. The relationship between social work er and client(s) is important and can affect the
meaningfulness and effectiv eness of social work processes. This relationship can be
spiritual in that it may inv olv e the sharing of life stories, deep connection, and feelings of
compassion and caring.
11. It is important to foster a client’s ability to feel and experience trust, love and respect for
self and others, as these experiences can be link ed with spiritual development. A client’s
spiritual beliefs may influence their self-perceptions and interactions with others.