| Summary: | 博士 === 國立暨南國際大學 === 社會政策與社會工作學系 === 104 === Spiritual issues in social work profession were neglected due to the concern of lacking scientific rigor. But clients express intense spiritual needs in social work practice. “What Spirituality is in social work practice” is the research question for this study. This study explores the nature of spirituality in social work.
The purpose of this study is to examine spirituality in social work by means of analyzing the experiences of social workers who have been helping clients through attending to spirituality. A semi-structured interview is used and the descriptive Phenomenological Method as data analyzing technique. Implications for social work theory, research, and practice are discussed.
Research findings are follows: 1. Theoretical knowledge derived from rationalism and empiricism for exploring spiritual issues is necessary. 2. The conceptualization of spirituality is as follows: Spirituality is Human essence; Spirituality is about searching for the meaning of existence; Spirituality is necessary and important dimension of Human Being; Revering spirituality is good motive for meaning searching and emotional stability; Spirituality is not personal, but a reciprocal relationship. 3. The essences of spirituality in social work is as follow: Spirituality is to be viewed as the absolute existence of photon; Spiritually cultivating is be viewed as a journey searching for truth, a process of approximating; Spirituality is to be viewed as a belief, the stronger the better, to get to be transformed; Spiritually oriented treatment is to be viewed as unspoken effect. 4. The structure and meaning of spiritual social work is as follow: On assessment: Human problems arise from the lack of a sense of the meaning and sense of worth; On treatment goal: Spiritual transformation, enhancing understanding of self-worth, meaning of their values, strengths and virtues; On treatment strategy: unconditional acceptance, metaphor, and sycronicity; On evaluation indicator: To give new life value and meaning, happiness. 5. 10 spiritual practice examples.
This study exploring spirituality in social work is a very important step forwarding illustrating appearance of spiritually oriented social work practice. The results show that the value of life and the search for meaning is the core of spirituality in social work, and to explore the true meaning of life has become an important issue. In addition, besides the empirical knowledge, rationalist view is to lay the important directions of spirituality in social work. This study also discusses similarities and differences between spirituality oriented social work practice and traditional social work with the hoped that it will be applicable for social work education and social work practice.
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