Name: Michael Crouch
1. Age: 58
2. Place of birth or youth--Imboden, Arkansas (birth), Pocahontas, Arkansas
(youth)
3. Religion of youth--Baptist
4. Current religion--Unitarian Universalist
5. My personal spirituality entails a belief in the power of positive and
negative human energy and activity to generate galvanizing effects in
onself, another individual, or in small or large groups of people. Extreme
examples include spiritual healing, acts of heroism, and mob violence.
6. My personal spiritual practices include internal self-affirmations,
self-inspirations, prayer equivalents (wishing good for others and asking
Higher Power help in striving for goodness), Tai Chi, yoga, and playing and
singing music.
7. I understand illness in many different ways, including: genetic
misfortune, adaptive and maladaptive biological adjustments to internal and
external change (including aging), and learned behavioral responses to
interpersonal and environmental stressors. I do not envision Higher Power
causation for illness. Similarly, illness can be imbued with many meanings,
including the gift of humility, as contrast for better appreciation of one's
healthy, as warning to slow down or improve health habits and self care, as
catalyst for acknowledging one's vulnerability, frailty, and mortality, and
as rehearsal for aging and dying.
8. I view healing as the process of becoming as whole and healthy as one is
capable of becoming in a given situation and a particular stage of life,
given one's endowments, encumbrances, and past history. I'm not sure if I
believe in the notion of cure as conventionally defined (return to prior
state of health following the resolution or eradication of an illness or
disease). I think what is often called a cure is really more like arriving
at a new unique state of health that is hard to compare with one's
"pre-morbid" state. I think the apparently same type illness can enhance one
person's sense of subsequent health in ways that are hard to articulate,
while diminishing another person's sense of health in similarly nebulous
fashion.
9. I hold open the possibility of some kind of Higher Power energy
contributing to healing or cure. I have no direct experience with such an
effect and am quite uncomfortable intellectually and emotionally with
"God-wrought miracle" explanations. This may be a leftover of my "Recovering
Baptist" heritage.
10. In recent years I have gotten comfortable with occasionally discussing a
patient's spirituality and religious beliefs in the context of their health.
The most recent example was a woman I saw last week, who was separated from
her husband, who was behaving erratically and probably having an affair.
Although no longer Catholic (now Presbyterian), she had not been able to let
go of her inculcated belief that divorce was unacceptable and was almost
morally wrong. I suggested that she might benefit from considering the
possibility that a belief that had been consistent with her health and
welfare for most of her life might have now become maladaptive for her
current circumstances and might be in need of careful reflective
reassessment (with the help of a counselor--lay or pastoral).
11. My spiritual perspective includes (on rare occasion) facilitating a
healing ceremony for an individual or family, and (occasionally) suggesting
the possibly applicability of a healing ceremony or ritual to a patient
struggling to accept or adapt to life or health changes. I recommend the
following books to patients who express interest.
Achterberg, J., Dossey, B., & Kolkmeier, L. (1994). Rituals of healing:
Using imagery for health and wellness. New York: Bantam Books.
Butler B (Ed.) (1996). Ceremonies of the heart: Celebrating lesbian unions.
Seattle, Washington: Seal Press.
Hammerschlag, C.A., & Silverman, H. (1997). Healing ceremonies: Creating
personal rituals for spiritual, emotional, physical and mental health. New
York: Berkley Publishing Group.
Immer-Black, E., & Roberts, J. (1992). Rituals for our times: Celebrating,
healing, and changing our lives and relationships. New York: HarperCollins
Publishers, Inc..
Johnson, D.R., Feldman, S.C., Lubin, H., & Southwick, S.M. (1995). The
therapeutic use of ritual and ceremony in the treatment of post-traumatic
stress disorder. Journal of Traumatic Stress 8:283-298.
Mahdi, L.C., Meade, M., & Christopher, N.G. (Eds.). (1996). Crossroads: The
quest for contemporary rites of passage. Chicago, Illinois: Open Court
Press.
Paladin, LS. (1991). Ceremonies for Change: Creating personal ritual to heal
life's hurts. Walpole, NH: Stillpoint.
Walker, B.G. (1988). The woman's dictionary of symbols and sacred objects.
San Francisco, CA: Harper & Row.
Weed, S.S. (1999). Menopause and beyond: The wise woman way. Journal of
Nurse Midwifery 44:267-279.

12. Have you ever had a healing experience? Please describe.
Yes. I conducted a healing ceremony for a family whose child I had
delivered, who was critically ill with bilateral diaphragm eventration. It
was the best thing I have ever done as a healer, including all of my 20+
year conventional medical career efforts. I wrote an article about it in
2002 that was initially accepted, then rejected by Families, Systems, and
Health. I'm still trying to figure out whether to resubmit it (what journal
would consider it?) or rewrite it as a lay magazine piece (which would be
extremely different).

-----Original Message-----
From: gary_gianini@... [mailto:gary_gianini@...]
Sent: Wednesday, December 01, 2004 12:53 PM
To: STFM-Spirituality@yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: [STFM-Spirituality] Changes



1. Gary Gianini
2.West Hartford, CT
3. Congregational
4. Unitarian-Universalist
5. Humanist mixed with Judeo-Christian and some far Eastern religious
beliefs
6. church services, meditation, faith in action-social conscience
7. Initially I ask if there is something I did or didn't do-Absolutely NOT
God caused, believe in some randomness.
8. I believe there is healing power in positive value based
actions/thoughts-individually and group-does not mean cure -more state of
being that one is Ok/in tune with values and doing the right thing no matter
what the outcome physically
9. Not sure.
10. see 7
11. not really
12. no

Gary Gianini M.S.W., M.S.
Coordinator-Behavioral Science
Family Practice Residency
Middlesex Hospital
Middletown,CT 06457


-----Original Message-----
From: spkliewer [mailto:kliewers@...]
Sent: Tuesday, November 30, 2004 4:18 PM
To: STFM-Spirituality@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [STFM-Spirituality] Changes




Greetings
I have made a few changes to the listserve rules.
First, although only members can post at this point, I have removed
the moderation features, which means people can post messages
without approval. If we begin to get irritating stuff, or spam, I
will change it back, but am hoping this will improve access and
generate more activity.

Second, I have change the reply from "reply to sender" to "reply
all". In this way conversations won't die a quick death once they
have begun.

A few commnets. JFP recently had an issue (August) with a number of
articles on Spirituality and Medicine. Please check.

Also, I am distributing a narrative questionnaire to get a better
feel for how people view spirituality and health. If any of you
would like to answer the following questions, I would appreciate
getting your persective. Feel free to send your answers directly to
my OHSU email if you desire a bit of privacy.....

Name:
1. Age:
2. Place of birth or youth
3. Religion of youth
4. Current religion
5. Please describe your personal spirituality (This may be connected
to, or practiced within the context of your religion, or may be
independent)
6. Personal spiritual practices (prayer, bible reading, Torah,
meditation, other reading, group experiences, etc.)
7. How do you think (or theologize) about illness? In other words,
what is the meaning or value of illness (just something that
happens, God causes, etc.)
8. How to you think (theologize) about healing or cure?
9. How do you view the role of God/Divine/Sacred in terms of
healing or cure?
10. What is the role of your spirituality in terms of healing or
cure?
11. Does your spiritual perspective include any healing rituals or
practices?
12. Have you ever had a healing experience? Please describe.

Thanks to all of you.
I hope we can get people sharing "ideas that
work" "questions" "issues" or whatever. WE are in this together

STEVE
Co-Chair
Group on Spirituality






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