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Making the Connection:Spirituality, Trauma and Resiliency

Yvonne R. Farley

ABSTRACT. Spirituality is increasingly identified as a significant component of resiliency. A model of individual resiliency from family based trauma is described. The characteristics from this model are explored for their compatibility with spiritual practices. Written from a practitioner’s experiences, case examples from various practice settings are given to exemplify application of spiritual or religious practices to development of the resiliency traits. Implications for practice include increased understandingoftheuseofspiritualityasatooltoenhanceadaptabilityandcoping. doi:10.1300/J377v26n01_01 [Article copies available for a fee from The Haworth Document Delivery Service: 1-800-HAWORTH. E-mail address: <[email protected]> Website: <http://www.HaworthPress.com>© 2007 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.]

KEYWORDS. Spirituality, resiliency, coping, recovery, trauma

INTRODUCTION

Spirituality has become a popular topic in the social work profession and our culture in general (Canda & Furman, 1999). There is a trend within a holistic perspective to acknowledge the spiritual component of individuals, families and culture (Shriver, 2004). As a field, social work

Yvonne R. Farley, LISW, is Clinical Assistant Professor, University of Iowa, School of Social Work, 1200 Grand Avenue, Suite 130, Des Moines, IA 50309(E-mail: [email protected]).

2 JOURNAL OF RELIGION & SPIRITUALITY IN SOCIAL WORK

Journal of Religion & Spirituality in Social Work, Vol. 26(1) 2007Available online at http://jrssw.haworthpress.com

© 2007 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.doi:10.1300/J377v26n01_01 1

has increasingly embraced the idea that avoiding spirituality to attain professionalismis notin keeping with theholistic, ecological perspective and is actually inconsistent with the history of the profession. As a result, efforts to understand the role of spirituality and the consequences of its incorporation into daily living are being undertaken related to a variety of issues. This paper will examine the role that spirituality plays in peoples’ ability to be resilient after various types of trauma.

It is written by a former practitioner who worked in social work practice for over twenty years, specializing for the last ten years in work with people who were recovering from trauma. The practice settings ranged from non-profit family counseling departments to psychiatric hospital settings. In wrestling with the issues of healing from trauma, it often becameapparenttheseclients werestrugglingwithexistentialissues related to the meaning of suffering, the nature of good and evil, their own religious beliefs and spirituality as a result of these experiences.

For example, a middle aged woman with parents who severely neglected her, struggled with understanding how and why they could do this to her and not realize the suffering she endured as a result. She came into an appointment one week reporting she had been listening to the radio when she heard a short message about the concept of “the sins of the fathers being visited on the sons.” She indicated that this idea made her stop and remember the stories her mother had told her a long time ago about the alcoholism of her grandfather and the verbal abuse her mother had endured as a result of his abusive drunkenness. Suddenly the client had the insight that her mother had suffered as a child as well and this might explain why her mother had neglected her. The client was even able to see that her mother had refrained from verbal abuse towards her and had instead chosen to withdraw when she was angry or depressed. The clienthad the additionalinsightthather motherhad tried to improve upon the parenting of her own father but inadvertently still caused a different kind of suffering in her child. This insight significantlyhelpedtheclienttogainasense of peaceabouthermother’s

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treatment of her and it was all based on a religious concept that attempted to explain the world. These types of client events reflecting an interweaving of trauma recovery and spiritualityled this practitionerto further explore these connections.

Defining Spirituality

Multiple authors have defined spirituality in an attempt to make concretean elusive concept. Multiple definitions will be explored in an effort to attain a workable definition related to resiliency. For a simple definition, according to Kahle and Robbins (2004) spirituality is “a uniquely personal and subjective experience of God” (p. 2). Sorenson (2004) looks to the Oxford English Dictionary for the following definition: “attachment to or regard for things of the spirit as opposed to material or worldly interests” (p. 22). Canda and Furman (1999) reviewed the use of the term spirituality in the social work literature and found that there were recurrent attributes associated with the definition, the most relevant to this discussion being “an aspect of a person or group dealing with a search for meaning, moral frameworks, and relationships with others, including ultimate reality” (p. 44).

For our purposes in this study, the Canda and Furman’s definition will be used since spirituality can then be achieved through formal structures as found in religion or informal experiences that are uniquely individual. These informal experiences may take on infinite individual expressions and forms but need to involve an experience of something greater than oneself comparable with transpersonal experiences so they can be differentiated from internal mental or emotional processes. In fact this definition makes clear that spirituality and religion are not mutually exclusive and although there are significant differences, there is also significant overlap. Religion is different from spirituality alone because it does involve the patterning of spiritual beliefs and practices into social institutions, with community support and traditions maintained over time (Canda & Furman, 1999). Religion can be the specific and concrete expression of spirituality (Kahle & Robbins, 2004). However, spirituality can exist without religion and religion can exist without spirituality.

Through Canda and Furman’s Operational Model of Spirituality as an aspect of human experience, the functions of spirituality are


identified (1999, p. 50). The first function is perceiving the world, which creates a screen for experiences and perceptions related to possible spiritual events. The second function is interpreting and explaining the world, which creates beliefs, values and ethics. The last function is relating to the world and spirituality can provide resources to help transform life experiences. These functions all have the potential to effect people’s ability to be resilient.

Defining Resiliency

Greene (2002) reviews multiple definitions of resiliency. These include the simplicity of one who prevails (Wolin & Wolin, 1993). Other definitions include the ability to bounce back despite exposure to severe risk (Benard, 1993), people’s push toward growth, self-healing and health (Germain, 1990), and the manifested competence in the context of significant challenges to adaptation (Masten & Coatsworth, 1998). From a psychological perspective, Greene summarizes that “resiliency is the development of clusters of self-protective behaviors or strengths” (p. 44). It is possible that some of these self-protective behaviors or strengthsarealsocomponentsofspirituality.Anotherequallycompelling alternative view is that resilient behaviors and strengths could be just as appropriately labeled as spiritual or religious behaviors, occurrences or events and that relating these concepts directly expands ones understanding of them.

Greene (2002) also identifies multiple characteristics of spirituality and religion that support recovery processes (pp. 47-48). These include the following:

• Giving definition to who we are• Often providing a structure for understanding the world and

eventsthat occur• Providing a mechanism to transcend events of this life• Giving a frame of reference for understanding good and evil• Providing a mechanism for forgivenessGreene goes on to draw the conclusion based on Angell, Dennis

and Dumain (1998) that spirituality is a fundamental form of resilience and serves as a modifiable resource that can be drawn upon during times of personal crisis. This is consistent with Canda and

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Furman’s claim that spirituality embodies adaptive and transformational properties.

These sources make clear the fact there is a growing body of information supporting the significance of spirituality as an important part of the healing and recovery process. An important question then becomes: Is this relevant to the average person or client that social workers may be working with?

Kahle and Robbins examine spiritual/religious beliefs and practices in the United States based on Gallup polls from 1999 to 2001 (2004, p. 37). Interestingly, in 2001, as many as 95% of people participating in the poll reported believing in God. Ninety percent engaged in prayer and 63% believed that religion could answer all or most of today’s problems.This would seemtoimplythatmostof theclientsthatsocialworkers come in contact with would be likely to have some openness to seeing spirituality and/or religion as a resource to draw upon in dealing with life challenges.Defining Trauma

Life challenges may not fall into a category of trauma and although spirituality may help people in dealing with a variety of life challenges, the main focus here is how spirituality can support people dealing with something more intense that general life challenges, something that falls into a category of trauma. It is important to review what exactly is meant by trauma.

Trauma is defined as an event that overwhelms the person’s coping skills (Greene, 2002). Judith Herman in her classic book on trauma defines it as “an affliction of powerless, at the moment of trauma, the victimis rendered helpless by overwhelming force . . . Traumaticevents overwhelm the ordinary systems of care that give people a sense of control, connection and meaning” (1992, p. 32).

There are many types of events that can become traumatic experiences. These include natural disasters, accidental human-made disasters such as a car accident and intentional human-made events such as terrorism and physical abuse such as domestic battering (Rogers, 2002, p. 2). Just as there are types of trauma there are also types of relationshipstotrauma.Theseincludedirectlyexperiencingthetrauma,asignificant other directly experiencing the trauma, witnessing a trauma and membership in a group affected by the trauma.


People can be in any of these categories and experience an event as a significant trauma that impacts their ability to function and overwhelms their coping skills. All of these categories also encompass the key components of Herman’s definition of trauma as an experience of powerless and helplessness, overwhelming the person’s sense of control, connection and meaning.

The part of Herman’s definition related to challenges to one’s internal meaning system as one possible aspect of a trauma. If the meaning system is challenged, more complicated reactions occur, including but not limited to a broader existential crisis related to meanings about life in general (Frankl, 1969).

Besides thepotentialtocreateanexistentialcrisis,othercharacteristics of trauma related to spiritual aspects of people include the following:

• Sense of safety and security is compromised, need for safety is magnified.

• Questions such as what does this mean about who I am? What is my place in the world?

• Person automatically reviews question of “why me?”• Person is usually forced to question concepts of good and evil• Person is forced to confront assumptions about world view• Person is confronted with issues about the nature of suffering• Person confronts issues related to own responsibility/guilt for

circumstances.

Having defined the general concepts of spirituality, trauma and resilience, a review of specific studies related to spirituality and recovery from challenging life circumstances will follow.

A DEVELOPMENTAL MODEL OF RESILIENCY

Wolin and Wolin created a developmental model of resilience in 1993 in their book The Resilient Self. This is the only model that currently exists which offers a set of characteristics that can be developed over timeas in Erickson’s modelof psychosocial development(Greene, 2002). This model is also in contrast to other resiliency characteristics which a person either possesses or not, such as IQ or basic temperament; therefore, it lends itself to an exploration

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of compatibility with aspects of spirituality such as those identified in Canda and Furman’s Operational Model. As with most individually focused models of development, for the most part, this model minimizes the role of culture and community.

However, Wolin and Wolin (1993) suggest a challenge model replace the current and dominant damage model used as the framework of the helping professions (Table 1). This model reframes the victim

TABLE 1. Spiritual Components that Enhance Individual Resiliency

Insight Mechanism for explaining the world: Spiritual nature may provide drive to find meaning

Independence Transcendence of daily living through various rituals and experiences

Relationships Caring, compassionate, affirming community alternatives comparable to family

Initiative Transforming self and the world; Service to help, heal, save and reconcile

Creativity/Humor Spiritual source, inspiration to create beauty: Transformation

Morality Multiple systems for integrity with values, ethics and social justice

into a survivor with resilient characteristics. Wolin and Wolin go on to identify seven primary traits or characteristics they observed in clients who were resilient after growing up in a troubled family. Furthermore, they observed that these traits surfaced early in life and went on to become more sophisticated as the person developed over time, thus creating a developmental model of recovery from family-based trauma.

The first trait is insight which during childhood starts out as sensing, moves on to knowing in adolescence and in the adult becomes understanding, a reflectiveframe of mind resulting from examining evidence, sorting out truth and protesting illusions with self honesty and self responsibility. The second trait is independence. In childhood it begins as straying, develops into disengaging and in adulthood becomes separating or emotional pragmatism about possible improvement in parents and protection from further harm.

Establishing relationships is the third trait of the model. In childhood it is connecting, in adolescence it is recruiting and in adults

Spiritual/Religious components that supportTrait


it is attaching which is consciously choosing relationships wisely and being committed to healthy relationships by containing, controlling and healing their emotional damage and bonding relationships by creating healthy rituals. The fourth trait is initiative which starts out as exploring, becomes working in adolescence and in adulthood is generating or problem solving with an enthusiasm for planning, acting and bringing challenging problems to a successful conclusion with a high tolerance for frustration.

The fifth and sixth traits are creativity and humor. Both start with playing, evolve into shaping and end up as either composing or laughter: Composing being the ability to see the potential for growth and strength in pain and reporting about it in art; building a new world and achieving renewal, beauty, joy and freedom. Laughing is the ability to see the absurd in the deadly, taking a lighter view of the situation and releasing pent up emotion.

The last trait is morality, a concept often associated with religion. This starts out in childhood as judging the events as wrong, in adolescence creating a personal set of values and in the adult, serving. This involves survivors restoring themselves by responding to others’ suffering, dedicating themselves to causes and improving the world; giving life meaning and leaving it a better place.

Now the question is: How are these resiliencies connected to spirituality?

More specifically, are characteristics of spirituality such that they support the development of these resilient characteristics? Each trait will be examined for possible connections.

Insight

The trait of insight is the ability to first sense, later know and finally understand that the problem lies with the family itself not with the child of a family experiencing challenges. This early sensing may be part of people’s spiritual nature. It could be seen as consistent with the inspired knowledge described by people following prayer and meditation.

Perhaps most significant to the trait of insight is spirituality and religions’ ability to provide a mechanism for explaining the world and the events that occur in the world. It is the drive to understand the world and make meaning out of experience and especially human

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suffering that may provide the basis for this human endeavor and the achievement of insight.

In ThePsychologyofReligion, theauthors statethat,“Simplyput, being able to comprehend tragedy–to make it meaningful–probably constitutes the core of successful coping and adjustment. For most people, religion performs this role quite well, especially in times of personal crisis” (Spilka, Hood, Hunsberger, & Gorsuch, 2003, p. 483).

As in the case example described at the beginning of the paper, a middle aged woman with parents who severely neglected her, struggled with understanding how and why they could do this to her, and not realize the suffering she endured as a result. After gaining a religious insight, the client had the understanding that her mother had tried to improve upon the parenting of her own father but inadvertently still caused a different kind of suffering in her child. This insight significantly helped the client to gain a sense of peace about her mother’s treatment of her and it was all based on a religious concept that attempted to explain the world.

The client was then able to move forward in her healing and away from being fixated on the “why” of her mother’s neglect. She had an understanding that her mother’s neglect was not related to something about her but instead was founded in her mother and her mother’s early family experiences. This depersonalized the neglect and the client did not have any fault for the neglect. This was freeing to the client who then felt less harsh and critical of her mother as well as herself.

In summary, making meaningof self and the world is one of the spiritual drives that Canda and Furman (1993) identify in their Operational Model of Spirituality as an aspect of human experience. This could be the same drive that helps children to try to understand their families and the dysfunctional events that occur in them. In addition, the meanings created by religion can provide answers to the universal questions that arise about pain and suffering that occur in all human lives eventually but especially occur early in life for those who grow up in families which areunhealthy.CandaandFrumanalsodefineoneofthefunctionsof spirituality as interpreting and explaining the world. This function is very compatible with the need to gain insight into the dynamics of traumatic family events.


Independence

The second trait in the Wolin model is independence from the troubled family, starting out as straying in early childhood, developing into disengaging in adolescence and separating in adulthood. Wolin and Wolin state “eminently practical, successful survivors stop looking to their families for satisfaction” (1993, p. 104). The survivor disengages from the source of the hurt and looks in other directions for comfort, sometimesachievedaloneand sometimesachievedin relationship.This trait builds on the insight that the child is different from the parents.

The spiritual characteristic that appears to relate the most to the trait of independence is the concept of transcendence. Robbins, Chatterjee and Canda (1988) stated, “Many highly self-actualized people reported experiences of self-transcendencethat were, paradoxically,crucialto their sense of self-fulfillment” (as cited in Canda & Furman, 1999, p. 162). Transcendenceis a core conceptof multiplereligiousand spiritualtraditions such as Buddhism and Native American spiritual traditions but also may be a foundational component of many practices such as prayer, meditation, trance states or vision quests and the rituals of worship services themselves, as well as transpersonal experiences identified in psychology and existentialism (McBride, 1998). Even reading holy texts may involve a goal of transcending the perspectiveof the human experience to attain a goal of connecting to the spiritual.

This is exemplified by the story of a 25-year-old woman who was suffering from serious depression related to her traumatic history. She went through some serious periods when she was intensely suicidal with strong ideations, plans, and means. One night when she was desperate for relief from her suicidal thoughts, she grabbed the family bible and opened it up to the Psalms. She started reading and didn’t stop for about a half an hour. She was amazed at the comfort and peace she gained from reading and when she stopped she realized her suicidal thoughts were more distant and much less intense. She reported feeling she had been lifted above the depression by reading the scriptures even though she did not really think of herself as a religious person. After this experience, she added reading of the Psalms to her list of coping strategies for when she felt depressed or suicidal and used this as a tool for the duration of her treatment.

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The ability to transcend daily life is often a goal of religion in seeking to rise above the mundane and achieve the more significant. Transcending the daily experience of a difficult family life would assist the individual to disengage from the family system and for a time at least, separate from the pain and discomfort. Specific practices from religious traditions could facilitate this transcendence or individuals could achieve this on their own following their own spiritual instincts. Another example of this could be the desire to spend time away from the family, submerged in a setting of nature that is peaceful and serene.

Relationships

The third trait in the Wolin Model is relationships, beginning in childhood by connecting with others, usually outside the family, developing into consciously recruiting positive relationships in adolescence and finally in adulthood being capable of attaching to and creating a healthy family system based on the experience of these earlier healthy relationships. The opportunity to have alternative relationships is the key to achieving this resource. It seems obvious and evident that spiritual/religious communities could provide opportunities for alternative relationships comparable to family.

For example, a Caucasian woman in her forties had been in recovery from alcohol addiction for five years. She was very involved in the AlcoholicAnonymous community.She decidedaftermuchthoughtand reflection to end her relationship with her biological parents who continued to mistreat her as an adult. She reported that AA had really become her family anyway and had filled that role in her life for the last five years. She felt the AA community met her emotional, mental and spiritualneeds more so than her familyever did. Ten years later,she still felt it was the best decision for her and that her new family was much healthier and more supportive than her biological family. As a result of this cutoff, the client felt she was able to both protect herself from ongoing woundedness and find closure regarding her family of origin. She felt she was healthier overall and did not have to spend the time and energy constantly recovering from the most recent incident with her family.

Religious and spiritual communities often have an explicit goal of creating a community where people can feel safe, be nurtured and


supported as well as experience genuine, unconditional love. This is exactly what the victim of difficult family life is looking for in order to become a survivor. It is not unusual for people in these communities to feel a moral obligation to reach out and spend time with others outside the community for these purposes. It appears that a natural match is inherent between the outreach goals of these communities and the emotional and mental needs for alternative relationships in the growing child of struggling families. Relating (or relationship) is also one of the three primary functions of spirituality described by Canda and Furman in their operational model.

Initiative

The fourth trait of the Wolin model is initiative, starting out as exploring, developing into working and later generating positive creative endeavors that reflect problem solving skills that overcome obstacles. Some of these efforts are symbolic of overcoming the personal pain, building the sense of control and ability to impact the world if not the family. This ability to transform life is another common theme among spiritual and religious groups as well as theology.

A man in his forties decided to leave his career as a supervisor in a factory and pursue a career as a social worker. He was in recovery from drug addiction and felt he had to make a contribution to the betterment of others. He reported that many people had helped him in his recovery and in turn, he wanted to help others. He said it gave meaning to his life. He knew he couldn’t change the whole world but maybe he could make a difference for a few people before his life was over. Finally he indicated that it helped him stay in recovery to know he was trying to make the world a better place. In this way he was transforming both his life and the life of others and generating many positive outcomes, which are the main result of the initiative trait.

Returning to Canda and Furman’s operational model, transformation is one component of relating to the world that underlies the functions of spirituality in the human experience. This transforming can take on many forms but some other examples from spiritual and religious traditions are helping, healing, saving, reconciling and social activism (1999, p. 50).

Yvonne R. Farley 13

The authors go on to say that most of the world religions have stories of transformation that are core to their foundation of beliefs and traditions to improve the self and the world, making it a better place to live and relate. These stories themselves may provide inspiration to people trying to transform their own lives.

In addition, a belief or faith that transformation is possible allows for the ability to hope for change and a better future. This facilitates people continuing to try to improve their circumstances or world which is the essence of the initiative trait.

Creativity and Humor

The fifth and sixth traits, creativity and humor have their root in the same beginnings with the children first playing and later shaping these activities more specifically. As an adult, creativity becomes composing of some type; humor is the ability to find the comic in the tragic. Wolin and Wolin put creativity and humor in a spiritual context themselves with these examples: “Creativity and humor are related resiliencies that pit God’s cosmic perspective against your troubled past” (1993, p. 176). Creativity is building a new world on the ruins of the old (p. 177) and has a transformationalquality as in the initiativetrait. Humor and laughing specifically have a renewing quality to them (p. 178) and assist people to stop taking themselves and their situations too seriously.

A teenage girl was in a psychiatric day treatment unit where patients were required to keep a daily journal. She initially resented the journal but eventually recalled her love of writing poetry. She indicated that she felt inspired when she wrote and it gave her a respite from the drudgery of dealing directly with her problems. She ended up turning in some of her poems for assignments in her English class. Her teacher nominated one for the yearly English award. The girl reported she felt such pride, she decided to become journalism major and write more stories about her struggles.

Another 29-year-old mom reported that she planted her first flower garden as a way to cope with anxiety related to past trauma. She indicated she felt such peacefulness when the beauty of flowers surrounded her. She said the only word to describe it was serenity. In both these cases, the clients were expressing a spiritual experience of


something greater than themselves and although they were not self-labeling the experience as spiritual, it involved an internal process with something greater than themselves so consistent with the original definition of spirituality used here.

Both creativity and humor involve achieving beauty, joy, freedom and the lighter perspective of experiences (Wolin & Wolin, 1993, p. 163). It is not uncommon for these art forms to be described as “inspired” by the artists themselves. Inspiration alludes to a greater power or source for the original and unique creations humans have birthed over the millenniums. The works of Mozart or Michelangelo are excellent examples.

Morality

The last trait of resiliency is morality that begins in childhood as the ability by the child to judge the right and wrong of what is occurring to them. This evolves into creating their own value system and as adults develops into serving which gives purpose to life. Morality is often associated as the domain of religion, which creates moral frameworks and opportunities for people to serve.

An example of a spiritually based morality is a father of four children who was being seen for depression. He had a history of extreme physical, emotional and mental abuse by his father. He was absolutely determined to avoid repeating this pattern with his children. As a result, he often withdrew from his family when he was angry. He made sure he never acted out in anger toward his children. He was very strict in his implementation of rules in his family about how members were supposed to behave when they were angry. It became his personal moral code of appropriate family behavior. In this way he created his own sense of morality that also had a transformational quality as far as avoiding an intergenerational pattern of abuse. He reported a significant sense of selfefficacy as a result of being capable of achieving this improvement over his father’s parenting.

Returning once again to Canda and Furman’s operational model, values, ethics and morals are the direct result of the function of interpreting, explaining and discerning values in the world. It results in a moral system and the doctrines of religion. This function of spirituality is played out through the institutions of religion but it is

Yvonne R. Farley 15

also played out on an individual level. The effectiveness of this individual process will determine the resiliency of the person.

For an overview of the compatibility of the resiliency traits with spirituality, the four spiritual characteristics consistent with International Resilient Project with children will be reviewed: hope, faith, belief inGod, and morality (Greene, 2002, p. 40). Hope is strengthened through the process of gaining insight and understanding into troubled family dynamics, getting distance from the pain, building healthy relationships, gaining a sense of mastery, laughing and creating something positive from the pain, as well as seeing that it is possible to have a different set of values from the family of origin. Faith in the ability to create something different is especially strengthen through new relationships, gaining a sense of mastery through imitative, the creative experience embodied in composing and lastly, creating a new morality. Belief in God is often the foundationforthefirsttwo,hopeandfaith.Finally,moralitycoincidesdirectly with the trait of morality in the resiliencies. It appears there is significant reciprocal determinism between all these elements and that spirituality is highly consistent with the resiliencies from these general categories as well.

IMPLICATIONS FOR SOCIAL WORK PRACTICE

As social work practitioners continue to build a more sophisticated understanding of resiliency, they can also begin to see that spirituality has additional potential as a resource. In this case, spirituality can be seen as many methods for building resilient traits that will aid in recovery from family based trauma. This application of spirituality will require social workers to expand their concepts of the use and purpose of spirituality and religious practices to include its use as a multi-faceted resource with numerous functions for potentially enhancing the building of a very specific set of coping skills described as resiliencies in the Wolin and Wolin model. In some cases social workers may already be prescribing or encouraging spiritual or religious practices as described here but do not understand their value as far as embodying an adaptive capacity. This professional insight would enhance social workers’ understanding and personal insight


into the importance of these recommendations for the overall recovery process and may encourage practitioners to recommend thesestrategiesmorefrequentlyandwithmorespecificpurposesinmind.

CONCLUSIONS

In conclusion, it appears that some people naturally develop resilient traits that are key to their becoming high functioning survivors and thrivers. Generally these traits can be strengthened by components of spirituality or religion. In cases when people do not independently develop these abilities, well-established techniques from social work practice can be used to both strengthen the trait and the spiritual aspect correlated to the trait. In all cases, this new understanding of resiliency and spirituality and the mindful use of current interventions give tremendous hope to those who are in a recovery process from trauma.

REFERENCES

Angel, G., Dennis, B., & Dumain, L. (1998). Spirituality, resilience and narrative:Coping with parental death. Families in Society, 79, 615-630.

Bass, E. & Davis, L. (1992). The courage to heal. New York, NY: Harper & Row.Canda, E. & Furman, L. (1999). Spiritual diversity in social work practice. New

York, NY: The Free Press.Frankl, V. (1969). The will to meaning: Foundations and applications of

logotherapy. New York, NY: New American Library.Germain, C. (1990). Life forces and the anatomy of practice. Smith College Studies

in Social Work, 60, 138-152.Greene, R. (2002). Resiliency. Washington, DC: NASW Press.Herman, J. (1992). Trauma and recovery. New York, NY: Basic Books.Kahle, P. & Robbins, J. (2004). The power of spirituality in therapy. Binghamton,

NY: The Haworth Press, Inc.Mastens, A. & Coatsworth, J. (1998). The development of competence in favorable

and unfavorable environments. American Psychologist, 53, 205-220.McBride, J. (1998). Spiritual crisis: Surviving trauma to the soul. Binghamton, NY:

The Haworth Press, Inc.Robbins, S., Chatterjee, P., & Canda, E. (1998). Contemporary human behavior

theory: A critical perspective for social work. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

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Rogers, D. (2002). Pastoral care for post-traumatic stress disorder. Binghamton, NY: The Haworth Press, Inc.

Shriver, J. (2004). Human behavior and the social environment. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

Sorenson, R. (2004). Minding spirituality. Hillsdale, NJ: The Analytic Press.Spilka, B., Hood, R., Hunsberger, B., & Gorsuch, R. (2003). The psychology of

religion. New York, NY: The Guildford Press.Wolin, S. & Wolin, S. (1993). The resilient self. New York, NY: Villard Books.

RECEIVED: 08/07/05REVISED: 01/09/06

ACCEPTED: 06/21/06

doi:10.1300/J377v26n01_01

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