Project News
Professor Frederic C. Craigie, Psychologist, Maine-Dartmouth Family Residency, and Associate Professor of Community and Family Medicine, Dartmouth Medical School, USA
Fred is also Visiting Associate Professor, Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine, University of Arizona College of Medicine.
This seminar was held 4pm–5.30 pm, Abbey House, Seminar Room B and Professor Craigie spoke on the following themes:
Heart, Soul and a few Techniques:
A Conversation about Spirituality in Health Care
A very substantial body of literature attests to the significance of various spiritual perspectives and practices for health and well-being. Increasingly, the conversation has turned to the specifics of how the resources of spirituality may be incorporated in person-centered medicine. Drawing upon empirical research and collected field observations, this paper describes a three-fold model in which the personal centeredness and groundedness of clinicians, the clinical encouragement of patients’ spiritual resources, and the organizational cultivation of spirited leadership and “soul” work in concert to support healing and wholeness for patients and clinicians alike. We will pay particular attention to themes of transcendence (helping people to let go of uncontrollable life experiences) and purpose (helping people to identify and give expression to personal life values).
Frederic C. Craigie, PhD
Professor Simon Dein, Honorary Clinical Professor, School for Medicine and Health
This seminar was held on Thursday 15th March. Dr Pauline Watson attended the seminar and offers the following reflections:
On 15 March, Professor Simon Dein led a seminar on Judeo-Christian Experience and Psychopathology. Professor Dein is a psychiatrist and anthropologist, who works as a liaison psychiatrist and honorary consultant in palliative care in a hospice. He is currently researching the phenomenology of religious experience, particularly the frequency with which people hear the ‘voice of God’ as a part of their experience. In his research, this was reported more commonly than might be imagined. He is interested in the possible meaning and source of such experiences. He made reference to William James’s work which he felt still shed helpful light on conversion and other religious experience.
Professor Dein’s talk was very interesting and stimulating. It was made vivid by the use of clinical examples from his research. It looked at an area of experience which many psychiatrists would be sceptical about and would rather avoid. His lecture led not only to a good theoretical debate but also to a discussion of some enlightening personal experiences.
Professor Douglas Davies, Professor of the Study of Religion.
This seminar was held on February 16th. Professor Davies was involved in founding the Project for Spirituality, Theology & Health here in Durham and is an internationally acknowledged expert on death and life studies. A profile of Professor Davies can be found here.
Current PhD student at Durham University, Catherine Racine, offers the following reflections on the recent seminar:
Have you ever imagined yourself as dead? Professor Douglas Davies has, and to hear him speak passionately on the implications of the rising interest in woodland burial sites in England is to seriously reconsider your own burial options. Davies’ seminar offers a fresh and liberating perspective on burial that places relationality and transformation at the centre. Part ecumenical, part secular, part ecological, this movement started a scant two decades ago in 1992, and has seen the emergence of 249 sites across England since then. Read the rest of this entry »
Our new MA/MSc programmes in Spirituality, Theology & Health will commence in Michaelmas 2012. These programmes provide a unique opportunity for inter-disciplinary and inter-professional study in this field. They form a good basis both for theological reflection on professional practice and also an introduction to research methods for those who are thinking of working towards a PhD or DThM. To find out more please click on the Courses tab above and also see further information on the Department of Theology & Religion website.
13-16 September 2010 — Durham, England
Spirituality, Theology & Mental Health: Myth, Authority & Healing Power will begin an ongoing dialogue between theology, anthropology, psychiatry and philosophy, and will be of interest to academics and practitioners (including religious ministers and counsellors) in these areas. It will address issues such as the importance of religion and spirituality in psychiatric treatment of mental illness and the necessity of treating the whole person, and form an ongoing mutually critical engagement between theology and psychiatry. These and related issues will be explored both through academic papers and also through praxis-based workshops such as meditation workshops.
Read the rest of this entry »
A working collaboration with the Project for Spirituality, Theology & Health at Durham University has now been agreed and will include a research consultancy with Professor Chris Cook, Project Director. Staff in Birmingham and Durham are very much looking forward to working together. It is hoped that this arrangement will include collaborative research between Birmingham and Durham, as well as joint applications for external grant funding and future joint publications on spirituality and mental health.
Read the rest of this entry »
Eds. Chris Cook, Andrew Powell, Andrew Sims, Royal College of Psychiatrists Press, London, 2009
Spirituality & Psychiatry is a new book published by the Royal College of Psychiatrists. Emerging from the work of the Spirituality and Psychiatry Special Interest Group at the Royal College of Psychiatrists, it considers the relevance of spirituality to clinical practice in psychiatry. It is edited by Chris Cook (current Chair of the Special Interest Group and Director of the Project for Spirituality, Theology & Health at Durham University) along with two past Chairs of the Special Interest Group (Dr Andrew Powell and Professor Andrew Sims). Further information, and the opportunity to purchase the book, is available from the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ website.
The Project for Spirituality, Theology & Health has recently received confirmation of a grant to be awarded over three years from the Guild of Health. The Guild has been working in the field of Christian healing and wholeness for over a century and has a concern, shared with the Durham Project for Spirituality, Theology & Health, to bring together medical professionals and clergy in exploring practices of spiritual healing and the understanding of well-being. We look forward to working closely with the Guild over the coming years.
