Content

This unit provides in depth development in reflective practice, understanding the spiritual dynamics of loss, formation of the spiritual care skills that equip people for working with people experiencing loss, and understanding the spiritual issues in palliative care.

Unit code: DP9004S

Unit status: Approved (Major revision)

Points: 24.0

Unit level: Postgraduate Elective

Unit discipline: Pastoral Theology and Ministry Studies

Delivery Mode: Face to Face

Proposing College: Stirling College

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Learning outcomes

1.

Identify a range of human experiences of loss.

2.

Describe the dynamics of relationships involving spiritual care through the journey of loss.

3.

Create a spiritual care plan to address issues of loss identified in a case study.

4.

Articulate an understanding of human spirituality as it is shaped by the experience of loss.

5.

Critically evaluate spiritual care approaches that attend to complex loss.

Unit sequence

Advanced postgraduate elective requiring a minimum of 24 points of foundational studies in DP as prerequisite OR AIFC Graduate Diploma in Counselling and Integrated Psychotherapy (Spiritual).

Pedagogy

Applying praxis methodology through reflective exercises, video presentations, interviews with practitioners in palliative care or bereavement support, lectures, readings, and assessments (synchronous and asynchronous), students will learn to identify ideological, and personal hindrances to genuine inter-subjective care in the context of loss in order to construct reflective spiritual care responses.

Indicative Bibliography

Boss, P. Loss, trauma and resilience: Therapeutic work with ambiguous loss. New York: Norton, 2006.

Chanavier, Robert. Simone Weil: Attention to the Real trans. Bernard E. Doehring. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2012.

Hitchens, Christopher. Mortality. New York: Twelve, 2012.

Kaufmann, Jeffrey. Ed. Loss of the assumptive world: A theory of traumatic loss. London: Routledge, 2014.

Kopp, Sheldon. An End to Innocence: Facing life without illusions. London: Bantam Books, 1978

Liampattung, Pranee (Ed). Research Methods in Health: Foundations for Evidence Based Practice 3rd Ed. Sydney: Oxford University Press, 2017.

Musgrave, B. and McGettigan, N. Eds. Spiritual and psychological aspects of illness: Dealing with sickness, loss, dying and death. New York, Mahwah: Paulist Press, 2010

Rumbold, B. Ed. Spirituality and Palliative Care: social and pastoral perspectives. New York, Oxford University Press, 2002.

Thompson, Neil. Grief and its Challenges. New York, Palgrave MacMillan, 2012.

Tillich, Paul. The Courage to Be. London: Fontana, 1962.

Assessment

Type Description Word count Weight (%)
Case Study - Case Study 2000 25.0
Workplace evaluation - Spiritual Care Plan 2000 25.0
Essay - Essay 4000 50.0
Approvals

Unit approved for the University of Divinity by Maggie Kappelhoff on 28 Oct, 2020

Unit record last updated: 2021-06-07 08:43:50 +1000