Impact of Spirituality on the Lived Experience of Christians During OT Rehabilitation

Occupational therapy (OT) practitioners are encouraged to address spirituality, if relevant to an individual, to make interventions more client-centered (American Occupational Therapy Association [AOTA], 2014). In 2014, approximately 173 million Christians were living in the United States (Alper & Sandstorm, 2016). Therefore, it is very likely an OT practitioner will care for an individual whose experience of spirituality aligns with a Christian worldview perspective. Although studies of spirituality in OT have explored the impact of the clients’ faith on their experience of suffering, the faith perspectives of the participants was not specifically identified (Maley, C. M., Pagana, N. K., Velenger, C. A., & Humbert, T. K. (2016). In addition, Humbert (2016) introduced a conceptual model for the application of spirituality to occupational therapy practice. She proposed that activities contributing to spirituality include 1) meaningful activities that reflect the ‘fundamental essence’ of the individual, 2) life meaning activities which assist the client in making sense of painful situations, 3) activities supporting religious, faith and spiritual practices, 4) creative activities that facilitate spiritual awareness, health and transformation, and 5) occupations of the spirit that promote spiritual experiences and personal growth. The purpose of this study was to explore the lived experiences of Christians who have experienced a major life event and the impact of their spiritual experience on occupational engagement, participation, or performance. Additionally, the alignment of the participant’s experience with Humbert’s Conceptual Model of Spirituality was explored. A qualitative phenomenological design was chosen to explore the lived experience of study participants. Participants who had experienced a major life event requiring OT rehabilitation, and who identified as Christian were nominated by directors of rehabilitation and nominated others following a snowball sampling method. Data was collected through semi-structured one-hour face-to-face interviews with one female and four males, ages 22 – 80. The interviews were audiotaped and transcribed verbatim. The research team used reflexivity, an audit trail, member checking, and peer debriefing to ensure the accuracy and trustworthiness of the data collection and analysis of the study. The data was analyzed using the Moustakas approach (Moustakas, 1994). Five major themes were discovered including: the therapist’s role, the change, occupational identity, faith journey, and support. The therapist’s role included therapeutic use of self in response to each individual’s situation and respect for the values of their clients, which led participants to perceive their care as a gift from God. The change included life perspectives, roles, routines and habits and re-learning to perform select activities; clients attributed God as a source of strength in addressing these changes. Occupational identity referred to the influence of occupations on the participant’s ability to transition to a future purpose for living. Faith journey was evident as some participants identified their faith as an ongoing source of strength whereas for others, faith was a new experience. Social support was highly valued and viewed as a mechanism for spiritual encouragement. The influence of the Christian experience of spirituality on occupation and the conceptual categories of Humbert’s Model of Spirituality were validated in these themes. This study fills a gap in the professional literature by investigating spirituality as expressed from a specific worldview perspective thereby advancing the provision of holistic, culturally relevant OT services.

References

American Occupational Therapy Association. (2014). Occupational therapy practice framework: Domain and process 3rd edition. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 68(Suppl. 1), S1–S48. https://doi.org/10.5014/ajot.2014.682006

Alper, B. A., & Sandstrom, A. (2016). If the U.S. had 100 people: Charting Americans’ religious affiliations. Retrieved from http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/11/14/if-the-u-s-had-100-people-charting-americans-religious-affiliations/

Humbert, T. K. (2016). Spirituality and occupational therapy: A conceptual model for practice. In Spirituality and occupational therapy: A model for practice and research (pp. 123-143). Bethesda, MD: American Occupational Therapy Association.

Maley, C. M., Pagana, N. K., Velenger, C. A., & Humbert, T. K. (2016). Dealing with major life events and transitions: A systematic literature review on and occupational analysis of spirituality. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 70(4). https://doi.org/10.5014/ajot.2016.015537