Healing Illnesses and Injuries of Our Spirit

Physical Health Care

In Western cultures, we have a fairly well developed care of physical illness and injury. The germ-based, industrialized paradigm has produced a wide-spectrum of effective antibacterial, anti-viral, and anti-fungal medicines. 

The machine-based paradigm of the human body has produced a wide-spectrum of effective reparative, replacement, and transplant surgeries.

Mental Health Care

Western approaches to care of mental illness and injury are still very young. They struggle under the social idominance of materialism, "hard science", social stigmata, and religious beliefs. Even so, much has been learned about the human mind and how to care for and heal it.

Care of the Human Spirit

When we consider care of illnesses and injuries of the human spirit, we are in the conceptual phase at best. There are mountainous obstacles to overcome in order to make progress.

We have no general consensus of what the human spirit is or even if it exists. We tend to speak of the human spirit as a metaphor, religious belief, synonym for mind, or concept of metaphysics or spirituality.  

We have no list of identified illnesses and injuries of the spirit.

We have no protocols for providing therapeutic care of the ill or injured human spirit.

Neither have we identified what a well and healthy human spirit looks like and what nurtures, strengthens, sustains, and prevents its illness and injury.

More pointedly, we have -

No definition of spirit

No science of spirit

No therapy of spirit

No practices for developing and sustaining a healthy and strong spirit

The Heart of My Work

The heart of my work is to care for the human spirit and lead the way in defining the human spirit, and developing a science, therapy, and spirit-centered way of living.

What is Thumotherapy?

Thumotherapy (from thumos and therapeuein the Ancient Greek words for "spirit" and "to attend, serve, take care of") is the art and science of serving the health and well-being of the spirit in all living beings. It is spiritual care understood as the therapeutic care of spirit.

Since thumos, spirit, is that which makes alive, the scope of thumotherapy includes all living beings.

While the focus of thumotherapy is the spirit, it affects the whole being of the one cared for and those with whom the one cared for is connected, including the thumotherapist. 

The ultimate goal and purpose of thumotherapy is to improve the quality of life of all living beings by serving the optimal health and well-being of their spirits.  

Since each spirited being is unique, thumotherapy for each spirited being is unique. It is a process co-created by the living beings engaged in doing it. Since it is a co-creative process, it is an art. It is also a science in that it is informed by thumology, the ongoing study of spirit.

Caring for Your Spirit: It's Up to You

I cannot care for your spirit for you. No one can. Your spirit is yours to care for. We all need you to care well for your spirit. 

I cannot tell you how to care for your spirit. No one else can either. Your spirit is unique. The difficult work of learning how best to care for your spirit is your work to do. We all need you to do your own work.

Sharing

However, I can help. I can share with you what little I have learned up to this point in my life. Perhaps something I share will help you in your own journey of discovery.

All I ask in return is that you help me. Share with me what you have learned. Perhaps something you share will help me.

One Example

So, for example, I have found it helpful to keep a log of what affects and changes my spirit. Specifically, I find it helpful in learning how to care for my spirit to identify what helps and what harms my spirit.

My log has the following categories:

My five physical senses: What do I see, hear, smell, touch, and taste that helps or harms my spirit? 

Actions: What do I do that helps/harms my spirit? 

People, places, things: Who helps/harms my spirit? What places help/harm my spirit? What things help/harm my spirit?

Events: What events help/harm my spirit?

Thoughts: What thoughts help/harm my spirit?

Imaginings: What do I imagine that helps/harms my spirit? 

Memories: What memories help/harm my spirit when I review them?

Getting Started

To get started, take small steps.

Take no more than 30-45 minutes to use the categories above to make your initial list of what helps and harms your spirit

 

Determining Our Thumic Norm, Part Two

Sample Applications

Determining our thumic norm is helpful in at least three ways. First, once we determine our thumic norm, we have a baseline with which we can compare it with other possibilities and decide if we can and want to work on changing our thumic norm.

For example, we might determine that our thumic norm is high, extroverted, troubled and changing. We can then examine the consequences that we experience with our thumic norm and decide if we want to make some changes.

Secondly, determining our thumic norm makes it possible for us to better identify conditions of our spirit that are not our norm. 

For example, if our thumic norm is somewhat low, somewhat introverted, well, and constant and it changes to, say, more extroverted and troubled, we have something to pay attention to.

Thirdly, determining our thumic norm makes it possible for us to compare our norm with our circumstances and assess if our norm and our circumstances are congruent or not. When they are congruent, we are likely to be effective in our circumstances. When they are incongruent, we can determine if we can adapt or not. If we can adapt, knowing our thumic norm and what our circumstances require, gives us insight into how we need to adapt. Knowing how we need to adapt helps us determine if we are willing and able to do so.

For example, is our thumic norm is high, introverted, well, and constant but our work requires us to be high, extroverted, well and changing, then we have some decisions to make. How long can we sustain the demand? Can we effectively set boundaries on our work and do our job from our thumic norm? Do we need to change jobs?

A Session With Me

I established a holistic health discussion group that meets once a month at the local public library. At yesterday's meeting the woman who was our presenter for the day and I were talking as we waited for others to arrive.

After hearing me answer her question about what I do, she asked, "So, what is session with you like?" Here's my answer:

As session with me is like having a confidential conversation with someone who cares deeply about the things you care most deeply about.

I believe in you. I believe that you have life-affirming desires in your heart that no one else has. They are yours alone to fulfill and no one else but you can fulfill them. 

We all need you to fulfill the life-affirming desires of your heart. However, doing so is not easy. It's very difficult. 

So, if the purpose of life is for each one of us to fulfill the life-affirming desires of our hearts, then sessions with me are about providing a safe, confidential place for you to talk about what you're working on. Sessions with me are about me listening to you, encouraging, supporting, and challenging you to fulfill the life-affirming desires of your heart.

Two Basic Questions of Thumotics, Part Two

"How are you spirited?" is the qualitative question. Our spirit admits different qualities. For example, our spirit can be sweet or bitter, loving or mean, cold, cool, warm, hot, free or inhibited, expansive or constrained. Our spirit can be troubled, angry, frustrated, grieving, calm, joyful, sad, passionate, erotic, aloof, proud, and of a wide range of other qualities that we could identify.

Like the quantity of our spirit, the quality of our spirit can change from one moment to the next. It can be changed by either internal or external factors. Internally, our own thoughts, self-talk,  imaginings, interpretations, choices, and actions can change the quality of our spirit. Externally, what others say and do, our circumstances, and the events of our life can change the quality of our spirit.

It is the work of thumology to study and increase our knowledge and understanding of the many different qualities of spirit. It is the work of thumotherapy to provide the therapeutic care and healing of the qualities of spirit that hinder living a full and healthy life.  

Professional Care of Spirit, Part 3

Having clear definitions of spirit, care of spirit, and the role of the spiritual care professional makes it possible to discuss the attitude, skills, and knowledge needed by a spiritual care professional. A spiritual care professional must be-

Passionate about understanding and caring for one's own spirit and that of others.

Skillful in establishing rapport and a therapeutic presence, active listening, observing the spirit, assessing conditions of spirit, setting goals of care, implementing interventions that help the spirit, evaluating and revising interventions, documenting the care, and collaborating with other healthcare professionals.

Knowledgeable about the history of the concept of spirit, especially the Ancient Greek concept of thumos, the nature of spirit, anatomy of the spirit, activities of the spirit, various conditions of the spirit, how not to harm the spirit, effective interventions that are helpful for the spirit, evaluating the outcomes of interventions, and how the interventions of physical and mental health can affect the spirit.

With these basic competencies a spiritual care professional can begin practicing sound, basic spiritual care.

Professional Care of Spirit, Part 2

Defining "Spirit" and "Care of Spirit"

Unfortunately, we have no general consensus on the definitions of spirit, spiritual, or spirituality.  Consequently, we also have no general consensus on what "care of spirit" is.  

This problem is illustrated in the article "Spirituality Unplugged" by Unruh and Versnel published in the Canadian Journal of Occupational Therapy, 69:5-19, 2002. The article presented the authors' comprehensive literature review which found 92 different definitions of spirituality. Imagine the state of physical and mental health care if we had no general consensus on the definitions of body and mind.

I propose that we define "spirit" as "that which makes alive."  There are several good reasons for defining spirit this way. 

First, it has deep roots in Western civilization. It goes back at least as far as Homer and his frequent use of the word thumos. Thumos was translated into Latin by the word "spiritus" from which we get our word "spirit."

Secondly, defining spirit as "that which makes alive" clarifies what "care of spirit" is and what a healthcare professional caring for spirit actually does. "Care of spirit" is "helping with the health and well-being of spirit." A healthcare professional who provides care of spirit, provides therapeutic care for that which makes us alive. 

Thirdly, clarifying care of spirit clarifies what it means in healthcare to care for the whole person- body, mind, and spirit. We have a general consensus on what it means to care for a person's body and mind. With this definition of spirit it is possible to have a general consensus on what it means to care for a person's spirit.

Fourthly, this definition removes care of spirit from a religious context and puts it in a human context. Understanding the human spirit in a human context makes it possible to develop a science of spirit and a therapeutic care of spirit informed by that science. I propose the word "thumology" to refer to the scientific study of spirit. And the word "thumotherapy" to refer to the therapeutic care of spirit.

Finally, defining care of spirit as "helping with the health and well-being of spirit" distinguishes it from "care of souls" which is traditionally what clergy and chaplains provide. 

Professional Care of Spirit, Part 1

Professional Care of Body, Mind, and Social Health

In modern Western civilization  we have explicitly identified groups of highly trained professionals devoted to helping us with our physical, mental, and social health. Medical doctors, nurses, and others help us with our physical health. Mental and behavioral health professionals help us with our mental health. And social workers help us with our social well-being.

No Professional Care of Spirit

However, we have no explicitly identified group of highly trained professionals who help us with the health and well-being of our spirits. This is a serious problem. How can we provide high quality bio-psycho-social-spiritual care that is person centered, when we have no highly trained health care professionals who care for our spirits? 

What about Clergy and Chaplains?

Some might say that clergy or, more specifically chaplains, are highly trained professionals who help us with our spirits. I disagree.

Clergy and chaplains help us primarily with religious matters or, more generally, matters of faith. That is what they are trained to do. They are experts is in the religion they were ordained to serve. They might have additional training to help with existential concerns, but that is at best secondary in their training.

 

To help us with our religious, spiritual, and existential issues is just that: to help us with our religious, spiritual, and existential issues. That is why we accept (or decline) clergy and chaplain visits. However, such help does not necessarily help us with the health of our spirit. It depends on how we define spirit.

NOTE: In Part 2 I will discuss my proposed definitions of spirit and care of spirit.

Whose Responsibility is Your Spirit?

I'm talking about the health and well-being of your spirit. Whose responsibility is it?

Responsible For

To be responsible for something is to be able to respond for it, to speak on its behalf.

Do you speak for your own spirit?

Have you relinquished that responsibility to others? 

Can anyone else speak on behalf of your spirit?

I alone speak for my spirit. My spirit is my responsibility. No one else can be responsible for my spirit.

Responsible To

However, being responsible to is a different matter.

To be responsible to is to be able to respond to another.

I am able to respond to my own spirit for how I treat it. When I treat my own spirit well, I respond accordingly. When I treat my own spirit badly, I respond accordingly.

I am also able to respond to you and every other living being for how I treat your spirit. When I treat your spirit well, you respond accordingly and I am able to respond back.

Likewise, when I treat your spirit badly, you respond accordingly and I am able to respond back.

We're not responsible for each other's spirit. However, we are responsible to each other for how we treat each other's spirit.

Holding Each Other Responsible

I am responsible to you and everyone else for the health and well-being both my own and your spirit.

You're responsible to me and everyone else for the health and well-being of both your spirit and everyone else's.

I will hold you responsible.

Will you hold me responsible?

Indications for Thumotherapy

The condition of our thumos, our spirit, naturally varies through the course of our day. We can be mildly hypothumotic at the beginning of the day. We can go through periods of athumoticity. We can also have periods of hyperthumocity, especially when we are engaged in an activity that is important to us and has a feeling of urgency about it.

Variations in our spiritedness through the course of our day, week, year, and life are normal. They are not indications that we would benefit from thumotherapy.

The key indicator that we would benefit from thumotherapy is when we are troubled in spirit to the point that it interferes with living our life as we desire. When we are so hypothumotic that we do not have enough spiritedness in us to get out of bed and go about our day, so hyperthumotic that we cannot sit still, focus, and finish a task, or so athumotic that we're neither here nor there, we do well to receive care for our spirit along with our body and mind.

Additional indicators that we would benefit from thumotherapy include the various types of dysthumia: 

Malthumia, ill- or mean-spiritedness 

Cyclothumia, cycling- spiriitedness

Disthumia, diffused-spirit, spread out, scattered

Melanothumia, dark-spiritedness

Photothumia, light-spiritedness

Stenothumia, constricted-spiritedness

Pyknothumia, dense, contracted- spiritedness

Schizothumia, split-spiritedness

I will discuss the above dysthumic conditions in upcoming posts

The Need for Professionals Who Care for Our Spirit

Not everyone can effectively diagnose and treat us when we suffer with physical disease. It takes many years of intense study, rigorous training, and varied experiences to do so. Likewise, not everyone can effectively diagnose and treat us when we suffer with mental or emotional disease. It takes many years of intense study, rigorous training, and varied experiences to do so.

Why do we think it takes less to effectively diagnose and treat us when we suffer with diseases of our spirit? Do we even acknowledge the existence of diseases of our spirit? If not, why not? If so, why do we think that religious professionals such as priests, pastors, rabbis, imams, or other types of religious professionals are qualified to care for our spirits? They're religious professionals.

The expertise of religious professionals is their particular religion, it's sacred writings, history, doctrines, beliefs, moral code, and rituals. They're also trained to be administrators of the faith communities they serve. Religious professionals are experts in religion. They help the adherents of their religions be faithful adherents of their religion.

Some religious professionals do receive some training in psychology and counseling or guidance. Some go through Clinical Pastoral Education. Some become Licensed Pastoral Counselors. As a result they differ little from secular counselors. More importantly, most religious professionals receive no such training much less training in how to assess and treat our spirit. Religious professionals do not study and are not trained to care for our spirits.

Some might say that religious professionals are the experts qualified to care for our spirit. They assume that spirit is within the realm of religion. I disagree. Religion is the realm of religion and has no exclusive rights on our spirit. In my view, every one of us has a body, mind, and spirit. Spirit is essential not to religion but to being human.

We need medical professionals to care for our bodies. We need mental health professionals to care for our minds. We need religious professionals to care for those of us who are religious. And we need spirit care professionals to care for our spirit. I think this is an idea whose time has come: We need professionals who intensely study the human spirit, are rigorously trained to care for our spirit, and have richly varied experiences in doing so.