Afterword: Linking spirituality and social work: Five themes for innovation

Abstract

Summary. This article suggests five themes to guide continued innovation in professional efforts to link spirituality with social work in a manner that is consistent with commonly held professional commitments. First, the mission to promote human fulfillment needs to be expanded to include the concepts of mutual benefit, transpersonal self‐realization, and well‐being for all. Second, professional concern with human diversity needs to embrace spiritual diversity and its implications for transcultural understanding. Third, the value of self‐determination should take into account a transpersonal understanding of the self, including the rights of religious and spiritual groups’ self‐determination and the complementarity of freedom and responsibility. Fourth, theory and conceptual frameworks for social work practice need to address a truly holistic view of the person‐in‐environment, including transpersonal and deep ecological perspectives. Finally, the helping relationship itself needs to be revisioned in terms of spiritual sensitivity.

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