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1 Establish, deepen, and conclude professional spiritual-care relationships with sensitivity, openness, and respect.
PPS 1 is another competency that could take up a whole blog section on its own. It might be the best competency to re-introduce Bowen and the concept of spiritual self-differentiation. “Spiritual self-differentiation helps this chaplain honor the narrative and contextual “truth’” of the care recipient.”[1] When applying Bowen’s concept of differentiation, Schnarch and Regas have created an anxiety-tolerant therapy to help improve relationships. One of their points which resonates with my practice is “Tolerating Discomfort for Growth” which helps to persevere through hardship and recognize when efforts will have no more effect.[2] Demonstrating this competency will take much more than a theory or two but these are decent starting points to the topic.
[1] Wendy Cadge and Shelly Rambo, Chaplaincy and Spiritual Care in the Twenty-First Century: An Introduction (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2022), 178.
[2] David Schnarch and Susan Regas, The Crucible Differentiation Scale: Assessing Differentiation in Human Relationships, Journal of Marital and Family Therapy 38 (2012): 641.
PPS 1 is an important skill that could be explained in its own blog post. It connects to Bowen’s idea of “spiritual self-differentiation,” which helps chaplains understand and respect the unique experiences of the people they care for. Bowen’s theory is used in therapy by people like Schnarch and Regas to improve relationships. One idea they focus on is “Tolerating Discomfort for Growth,” which means learning to handle tough situations and knowing when it’s time to stop trying. This skill involves more than just theory, but these ideas are a good place to start.
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