In South Africa, no occupational or professional councils for pastoral work exist as yet. There is no legal recognition of pastoral counseling as a helping profession and at present there is still a controversy in South Africa regarding the legality of private pastoral practice. A huge resource in the country has been effectively paralysed and eliminated from the provision of the kind of service pastoral counselors may have been offering.
What aspects of pastoral counseling lend itself to relevance in a South African context? Could pastoral work, by including spirituality, offer more inclusive services applicable to the diverse cultures and ethnic groups in South Africa? What services does pastoral work offer, which
other helping professions do not?
One unique feature of pastoral work is the focus on spirituality in the healing process. Spirituality comes in many forms. A central question in every individual’s life is normally “does God exist?” if no, then the next question is how to life without him. If yes, then how to relate to Him. God, of course, means many things. It might be Mohammed, it might be Jesus. In Voodoo, spirituality is connected to the benevolent god Rada, and for some, as prayed to by the Bocor, in the evil of Congo or Petro. In some cultures, no gods are present at all. Some smaller cultures are informed by Totenism (species or animals believed to have higher powers) while Animism (belief in spirits or ghosts who populate the same world we live in) is present in quite a variety of cultures (Not only African cultures but reflected also to a certain extent in Pentecostal and charismatic churches, in the exorcism of evil spirits). Still, as William James said, “We and *God have business with each other, and in opening ourselves to his influence our deepest destiny is fulfilled”. Many struggles within a person involve variations, often in different language. When we ask questions such as “who am I? Why am I here? How can I live to good purpose? How can I fulfill myself and my goals?” we tackle this primary issue.
One therefore cannot deal with human problems fruitfully, without referring to people’s deeper aspirations. To deny through silence people’s spiritual lifes, whether it be God (or something else), and blame their situation only on outside economic forces or individual pathology, steals what power they have and blocks off the most potent avenue for change, the
development of their own morality, or their happiness. Research also shows that religion, or spirituality “is inextricably bound with culture, and as fundamental to the lifes of many minority [and other] ethnic communities as food and drink. Faith communities are the most significant group within the local population. Therefore, people understandably become suspicious when the secular and spiritual are separated".
Most western psychological models, such as mainly used in South Africa, unfortunately exclude spiritual dimensions and overlook the significance of religion and spirituality in people’s lifes. Yet, it is not the pastoral worker’s job to “preach” or to “convert” clients to religion as a quick solution to problems. There is always a danger of “the institutionalising of spirituality” and the deferral by the health care systems to only spiritual groups if this become the case. If institutionalised, spiritual methods can become distorted, stale or dangerous.
An institutionalised use of spiritual methods creates its own ideology – even as simple as the rallying cry, "whatever works, works". It could also harm standard religious life by cementing into place the current age’s desire for freedom and flexibility despite a hankering after rigor and orthodoxy. Further, entire secular, psychological or trivial elements of health care, or counseling, could be labeled spiritual and pushed without sound reason. Many problems are also due to poverty, or other factors, and a sole spiritual focus could take away thestate’s responsibility towards social change.
The burning issue here is how to facilitate the development of people’s spiritual stories and identities and of a dialogue with their traditions, while simultaneously facilitating overall functioning in health. And this is a function of the pastoral therapist – One that mainstream therapists are not necessarily trained to address.
A point I am trying to convey here is that if the South African government wants to deliver appropriate services to its people in a “new South Africa”, spirituality, traditional values, beliefs or norms will have to be included in the mental health system approaches – not as the government or health workers might define it, but as individual people define and experience it themselves within the general characteristics of their particular cultural group. This would truly be an effective, democratic, and appropriate way of dealing with people in a new South Africa.
But does spirituality really contribute to healing, or the solving of a problem? What are the advantages of incuding spirituality in the therapeutic process - Aand, what are the consequences of not addressing a person’s spirituality?
In the history of mental health sciences, there has been a view that religion [spirituality] is associated with psychopathology. Freud, as one example, viewed religion as a "universal obsessional neurosis”. Recent studies however, have shown that, although spiritual psychopathology may occur with the seriously mentally ill, for most people spirituality is associated with mental health. Jung and Maslow, for instance, regarded mystical experiences as a sign of health and transformation. In addition, from Sociology’s side, even Marx,
although he viewed religion as an illusion, considered religion as “the heart of a heartless world”. In this sense, his view on religion and thus, spirituality, could be interpreted as acknowledging the importance of spirituality in the daily existence of people.
I want to add here that some psychologists in South Africa, such as Viljoen (1997), also puts forward that one of the problems South African people seem to be constantly confronted with, is the destruction of a solid religious [spiritual] base, leaving them to struggle with the conflict of losing the historical rootedness provided by the ancestors [spirituality], while confronting the demands of a technological society whose foundations seems flimsy indeed.
Success for utilising spirituality in healing is supported in a book published in the States by Christopher Ringwald during 2002. In this ethnographic study he describes the role of spirituality in a number of addiction programmes and demonstrates how addicts recover through practices such as self-examination, meditation, prayer and reliance on a self-defined higher power. Going as far back as the Washingtonian Total Abstinence Society in 1840,
Ringwald explores the use of spirituality within a wide range of treatment options – from the famous Twelve Step-style programmes to those tailored to the needs of addicted women, Native Americans, or homeless teens not ready to quit.
Ringwald as well, sees spirituality as beliefs that lead to values through personal verification. Spirituality can be “contrasted” to religion in that religion can be described as a set of beliefs about the cause, nature and purpose of the universe, especially if the world is considered to be the creation of a superhuman agency/s, usually involving devotional or ritual observances and often containing a moral code for the conduct of human behaviour. Spirituality, again, can exist outside institutionalised religion.
For the non religious however, spirituality might be the search for a power, cause or being that is within our reach but beyond our grasp. For addicts, as example, drugs or alcohol then become a counterfeit spirituality and rather than seeking “escape” from a harsh world per se, addicts are usually seeking God or serenity or a spiritual life: “Addicts discover the cure for their symptoms in substance abuse…trying to satisfy the hunger of the heart”.
The idea of spiritually as encompassing religion per se supports the notion of a shift away from situating pastoral and spiritual work only within the context of faith-based communities. It also indicates that pastoral and spiritual work no longer has to find legitimacy through or identification with psychology or psychological and other counseling approaches.
Spirituality, it seems, is a concept that also transcends and encompasses ethnic differences. A positive relationship with one’s spirituality satisfies core human needs - for security, for meaning, for community - whether we are Black or White.
At this point, we can very well ask, what constitutes a negative relationship between spirituality and well-being? The consequences of negative spiritual relationships are inevitably serious and disturbing, yet the problem of religious or spiritual damage has not received much attention hitherto.Perhaps because religious institutions are so much a part of our culture and
real criticism is a societal taboo. (Or partially because the pastoral profession in South Africa has not yet carved its professional niche?) Up to quite recently, the spiritual “tending” of people has been considered as so-called “church issues”, which delayed the pastoral profession from obtaining its own identity in South Africa especially.
Spiritual damage furthermore, may also seem less serious than other recovery issues such as alcoholism or child abuse. But we sometimes fail to consider that faith per se, can contribute to the exploitation of women and children, contribute to domestic violence, abuse, oppression of gender as well as racial groups, and others. People suffer oppression, sexual abuse, or
physical punishment in the name of a god and a faith. Over the years and continuing to this day the various rigid religions in the world have caused great pain, conflict, and war among people. The very nature of dogma is to separate, because these kinds of systems claim to have the only truth.
Therefore, no matter how altruistic its pronouncements, a rigid religion will produce judgment, because there will always be "others" who believe differently. Judgment leads to discrimination and, all too often, topersecution (i.e. Apartheid in South Africa).
More broadly, societies often suffer from many attitudes and assumptions that stem in part from its rigid religious roots. Dualistic thinking about right and wrong, or even about the human being, seems to dominate many of our institutions. Quite often people are disillusioned with the separation between “body” and ‘soul” as taught by modern science. It can be shattering to realise that your spirituality is creating problems in your life…Questioning your faith is not like no longer believing in Peter Pan, or in the Tooth Fairy. Many people are also reluctant to talk about this subject for fear of alienating others, or appearing foolish and self-centered. The scientific approach of modern medicine also views spirituality as something “not
real” - if it cannot be seen, touched, or measured, it is of no consequence.
Clients making use of mainstream health services therefore fail to bring up their spiritual problems in a counseling situation. Yet, when the subject does come up, a surprising number of people have a lot to say, relieved that they are not alone.
What I hope to achieve here is to generate interest and discussion on the role of spirituality in
the healing process, and thus the need for the pastoral profession in South Africa. While the human and social sciences have made great progress in the last century, religious and spiritual phenomena have only infrequently been the focus of scientific and/or systematic research. Even though there is wide acknowledgement that spiritual transformations occur and that they can have profound effects on the life of a person, group or society, a spiritual focus in
therapy has this far been marginalised, perhaps, in part, due to the long-term historical divide between scientific investigation and matters of spirituality.
The point of the matter is people get hurt in religious systems, sometimes seriously, yet neither spiritual transformation nor the "shattered faith syndrome" has received proper attention or acknowledgement in the South African mental health systems. Yes, there are multiple influences at work with regard to psychological damage, including individual temperaments, family dysfunctions, social pressures, external events, and other challenges, but marginalising spirituality as one possible source of health problems or as healing profession not only prevents spiritual growth, research and scientific progress - but can, doubtlessly, be considered unconstitutional as well.
Resources
Application Draft for the Establishment of a Professional Board in terms of Section 14A of the Social Services Professions Act 1978 (Act 110 of 1978) 2002. Pretoria: South African Association for Pastoral Work.
Benn, C 2001. Does faith contribute to healing? Scientific evidence for a correlation between spirituality and health. International Review of
Mission, 90 (356/357), 140-148.
Brown, C K 1998. The integration of healing and spirituality into health care. Journal of Interprofessional Care12(4), 373-381.
Giddens, A 1996. Sociology. 2nded. Oxford: Blackwell.
http://www.spiritualtransformationresearch.org.
http://www.tnet.com.au/~attfield/mental%20health.htm.
Meyer, W F, Moore, C & Viljoen, H G (eds) 1997. Personology: From individual to ecosystem.
Sandton: Heinemann.
Neethling, I 2003. The relevance of pastoral counselling in South Africa: with reference to the South African Association of Pastoral Work. MTh Dissertation, University of South Africa, Pretoria.
Ringwald, C 2002. The soul of recovery: Uncovering the spiritual dimension in the treatment of addictions. New York: Oxford University Press.
Winell, M 2003. Leaving the Fold. http://www.marlenewinell.com
What aspects of pastoral counseling lend itself to relevance in a South African context? Could pastoral work, by including spirituality, offer more inclusive services applicable to the diverse cultures and ethnic groups in South Africa? What services does pastoral work offer, which
other helping professions do not?
One unique feature of pastoral work is the focus on spirituality in the healing process. Spirituality comes in many forms. A central question in every individual’s life is normally “does God exist?” if no, then the next question is how to life without him. If yes, then how to relate to Him. God, of course, means many things. It might be Mohammed, it might be Jesus. In Voodoo, spirituality is connected to the benevolent god Rada, and for some, as prayed to by the Bocor, in the evil of Congo or Petro. In some cultures, no gods are present at all. Some smaller cultures are informed by Totenism (species or animals believed to have higher powers) while Animism (belief in spirits or ghosts who populate the same world we live in) is present in quite a variety of cultures (Not only African cultures but reflected also to a certain extent in Pentecostal and charismatic churches, in the exorcism of evil spirits). Still, as William James said, “We and *God have business with each other, and in opening ourselves to his influence our deepest destiny is fulfilled”. Many struggles within a person involve variations, often in different language. When we ask questions such as “who am I? Why am I here? How can I live to good purpose? How can I fulfill myself and my goals?” we tackle this primary issue.
One therefore cannot deal with human problems fruitfully, without referring to people’s deeper aspirations. To deny through silence people’s spiritual lifes, whether it be God (or something else), and blame their situation only on outside economic forces or individual pathology, steals what power they have and blocks off the most potent avenue for change, the
development of their own morality, or their happiness. Research also shows that religion, or spirituality “is inextricably bound with culture, and as fundamental to the lifes of many minority [and other] ethnic communities as food and drink. Faith communities are the most significant group within the local population. Therefore, people understandably become suspicious when the secular and spiritual are separated".
Most western psychological models, such as mainly used in South Africa, unfortunately exclude spiritual dimensions and overlook the significance of religion and spirituality in people’s lifes. Yet, it is not the pastoral worker’s job to “preach” or to “convert” clients to religion as a quick solution to problems. There is always a danger of “the institutionalising of spirituality” and the deferral by the health care systems to only spiritual groups if this become the case. If institutionalised, spiritual methods can become distorted, stale or dangerous.
An institutionalised use of spiritual methods creates its own ideology – even as simple as the rallying cry, "whatever works, works". It could also harm standard religious life by cementing into place the current age’s desire for freedom and flexibility despite a hankering after rigor and orthodoxy. Further, entire secular, psychological or trivial elements of health care, or counseling, could be labeled spiritual and pushed without sound reason. Many problems are also due to poverty, or other factors, and a sole spiritual focus could take away thestate’s responsibility towards social change.
The burning issue here is how to facilitate the development of people’s spiritual stories and identities and of a dialogue with their traditions, while simultaneously facilitating overall functioning in health. And this is a function of the pastoral therapist – One that mainstream therapists are not necessarily trained to address.
A point I am trying to convey here is that if the South African government wants to deliver appropriate services to its people in a “new South Africa”, spirituality, traditional values, beliefs or norms will have to be included in the mental health system approaches – not as the government or health workers might define it, but as individual people define and experience it themselves within the general characteristics of their particular cultural group. This would truly be an effective, democratic, and appropriate way of dealing with people in a new South Africa.
But does spirituality really contribute to healing, or the solving of a problem? What are the advantages of incuding spirituality in the therapeutic process - Aand, what are the consequences of not addressing a person’s spirituality?
In the history of mental health sciences, there has been a view that religion [spirituality] is associated with psychopathology. Freud, as one example, viewed religion as a "universal obsessional neurosis”. Recent studies however, have shown that, although spiritual psychopathology may occur with the seriously mentally ill, for most people spirituality is associated with mental health. Jung and Maslow, for instance, regarded mystical experiences as a sign of health and transformation. In addition, from Sociology’s side, even Marx,
although he viewed religion as an illusion, considered religion as “the heart of a heartless world”. In this sense, his view on religion and thus, spirituality, could be interpreted as acknowledging the importance of spirituality in the daily existence of people.
I want to add here that some psychologists in South Africa, such as Viljoen (1997), also puts forward that one of the problems South African people seem to be constantly confronted with, is the destruction of a solid religious [spiritual] base, leaving them to struggle with the conflict of losing the historical rootedness provided by the ancestors [spirituality], while confronting the demands of a technological society whose foundations seems flimsy indeed.
Success for utilising spirituality in healing is supported in a book published in the States by Christopher Ringwald during 2002. In this ethnographic study he describes the role of spirituality in a number of addiction programmes and demonstrates how addicts recover through practices such as self-examination, meditation, prayer and reliance on a self-defined higher power. Going as far back as the Washingtonian Total Abstinence Society in 1840,
Ringwald explores the use of spirituality within a wide range of treatment options – from the famous Twelve Step-style programmes to those tailored to the needs of addicted women, Native Americans, or homeless teens not ready to quit.
Ringwald as well, sees spirituality as beliefs that lead to values through personal verification. Spirituality can be “contrasted” to religion in that religion can be described as a set of beliefs about the cause, nature and purpose of the universe, especially if the world is considered to be the creation of a superhuman agency/s, usually involving devotional or ritual observances and often containing a moral code for the conduct of human behaviour. Spirituality, again, can exist outside institutionalised religion.
For the non religious however, spirituality might be the search for a power, cause or being that is within our reach but beyond our grasp. For addicts, as example, drugs or alcohol then become a counterfeit spirituality and rather than seeking “escape” from a harsh world per se, addicts are usually seeking God or serenity or a spiritual life: “Addicts discover the cure for their symptoms in substance abuse…trying to satisfy the hunger of the heart”.
The idea of spiritually as encompassing religion per se supports the notion of a shift away from situating pastoral and spiritual work only within the context of faith-based communities. It also indicates that pastoral and spiritual work no longer has to find legitimacy through or identification with psychology or psychological and other counseling approaches.
Spirituality, it seems, is a concept that also transcends and encompasses ethnic differences. A positive relationship with one’s spirituality satisfies core human needs - for security, for meaning, for community - whether we are Black or White.
At this point, we can very well ask, what constitutes a negative relationship between spirituality and well-being? The consequences of negative spiritual relationships are inevitably serious and disturbing, yet the problem of religious or spiritual damage has not received much attention hitherto.Perhaps because religious institutions are so much a part of our culture and
real criticism is a societal taboo. (Or partially because the pastoral profession in South Africa has not yet carved its professional niche?) Up to quite recently, the spiritual “tending” of people has been considered as so-called “church issues”, which delayed the pastoral profession from obtaining its own identity in South Africa especially.
Spiritual damage furthermore, may also seem less serious than other recovery issues such as alcoholism or child abuse. But we sometimes fail to consider that faith per se, can contribute to the exploitation of women and children, contribute to domestic violence, abuse, oppression of gender as well as racial groups, and others. People suffer oppression, sexual abuse, or
physical punishment in the name of a god and a faith. Over the years and continuing to this day the various rigid religions in the world have caused great pain, conflict, and war among people. The very nature of dogma is to separate, because these kinds of systems claim to have the only truth.
Therefore, no matter how altruistic its pronouncements, a rigid religion will produce judgment, because there will always be "others" who believe differently. Judgment leads to discrimination and, all too often, topersecution (i.e. Apartheid in South Africa).
More broadly, societies often suffer from many attitudes and assumptions that stem in part from its rigid religious roots. Dualistic thinking about right and wrong, or even about the human being, seems to dominate many of our institutions. Quite often people are disillusioned with the separation between “body” and ‘soul” as taught by modern science. It can be shattering to realise that your spirituality is creating problems in your life…Questioning your faith is not like no longer believing in Peter Pan, or in the Tooth Fairy. Many people are also reluctant to talk about this subject for fear of alienating others, or appearing foolish and self-centered. The scientific approach of modern medicine also views spirituality as something “not
real” - if it cannot be seen, touched, or measured, it is of no consequence.
Clients making use of mainstream health services therefore fail to bring up their spiritual problems in a counseling situation. Yet, when the subject does come up, a surprising number of people have a lot to say, relieved that they are not alone.
What I hope to achieve here is to generate interest and discussion on the role of spirituality in
the healing process, and thus the need for the pastoral profession in South Africa. While the human and social sciences have made great progress in the last century, religious and spiritual phenomena have only infrequently been the focus of scientific and/or systematic research. Even though there is wide acknowledgement that spiritual transformations occur and that they can have profound effects on the life of a person, group or society, a spiritual focus in
therapy has this far been marginalised, perhaps, in part, due to the long-term historical divide between scientific investigation and matters of spirituality.
The point of the matter is people get hurt in religious systems, sometimes seriously, yet neither spiritual transformation nor the "shattered faith syndrome" has received proper attention or acknowledgement in the South African mental health systems. Yes, there are multiple influences at work with regard to psychological damage, including individual temperaments, family dysfunctions, social pressures, external events, and other challenges, but marginalising spirituality as one possible source of health problems or as healing profession not only prevents spiritual growth, research and scientific progress - but can, doubtlessly, be considered unconstitutional as well.
Resources
Application Draft for the Establishment of a Professional Board in terms of Section 14A of the Social Services Professions Act 1978 (Act 110 of 1978) 2002. Pretoria: South African Association for Pastoral Work.
Benn, C 2001. Does faith contribute to healing? Scientific evidence for a correlation between spirituality and health. International Review of
Mission, 90 (356/357), 140-148.
Brown, C K 1998. The integration of healing and spirituality into health care. Journal of Interprofessional Care12(4), 373-381.
Giddens, A 1996. Sociology. 2nded. Oxford: Blackwell.
http://www.spiritualtransformationresearch.org.
http://www.tnet.com.au/~attfield/mental%20health.htm.
Meyer, W F, Moore, C & Viljoen, H G (eds) 1997. Personology: From individual to ecosystem.
Sandton: Heinemann.
Neethling, I 2003. The relevance of pastoral counselling in South Africa: with reference to the South African Association of Pastoral Work. MTh Dissertation, University of South Africa, Pretoria.
Ringwald, C 2002. The soul of recovery: Uncovering the spiritual dimension in the treatment of addictions. New York: Oxford University Press.
Winell, M 2003. Leaving the Fold. http://www.marlenewinell.com
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