Grief, Loss and Trauma-informed Spiritual Care (SC8007W)

Content

This unit will provide the opportunity for students to critically engage with evidence-based approaches to spiritual care for people experiencing grief, loss and trauma. Students develop strategies of care to help grieving processes of individuals and communities, including rituals, and demonstrate awareness of cultural processes of grieving. They also engage critically with emotional processes of grieving associated with loss, death and dying and referral processes for complicated grief. Safe ethical, trauma-informed spiritual care is a key aspect of this unit.

Learning outcomes

Unit sequence

This is a core unit in the new award ‘Graduate Diploma of Spiritual Care.’ There are no prerequisite units required.

Pedagogy

Lectures, full class and small group discussion, reflective exercises, videos, interviews with spiritual care practitioners.

Indicative Bibliography

• Boss, P. Loss, trauma & resilience: therapeutic work with ambiguous loss. London: Norton, 2006.
• Doka, K. Living with grief: before and after the death. Washington: Hospice foundation, 2011.
• Hunsinger, Deborah van Deusen. Bearing the unbearable: trauma, gospel, and pastoral care. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2015.
• Jones, Serene. Trauma and Grace. Second Edition: Theology in a Ruptured World. Louisville: John Knox Press, 2019.
• Kelley, M. Grief: Contemporary theory and the practice of ministry. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2010.
• Musgrave, B & McGettigan, N (eds). Spiritual and Psychological aspects of Illness: dealing with sickness, loss, dying and death. New York: Paulist, 2010.
• Fitchett, George & Steve Nolan. ed., Case Studies in Spiritual Care. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2018.
• Neimeyer, Robert A. ed., Grief and Bereavement in Contemporary Society: Bridging Research and Practice. New York: Routledge, 2022.
• Neimeyer, Robert A. “What’s New in Meaning Reconstruction? Advancing Grief Theory and Practice.” Grief Matters: The Australian Journal of Grief and Bereavement 23, Issue 1, (Jan 2020): 4-9.
• Park, Jeonghyun. Pastoral Care for Survivors of a Traumatic Death. Eugene: Wipf & Stock, 2017.
• Puchalski, Christina & Betty Ferrell. Making Healthcare Whole: Integrating Spirituality into Healthcare. W. Conschocken, PA: Templeton Press, 2010.
• Swinton, John. Raging with Compassion. Pastoral Responses to the Problem of Evil. London: SCM Press, 2018.
• Tummimio, Danielle Elizabeth. Trauma-informed spiritual care: interventions for safety, meaning reconnection, and justice. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2024.
• Weller, Francis. The Wild Edge of Sorrow: The Sacred Work of Grief. Berkeley: North Atlantic, 2015.

Assessment