Spiritual Coping and its Types

Abstract

The spectrum of forms of social-psychological help to people that are being in a crisis situation is growing. Experiencing a crisis impacts all sides of human life — mental, bodily, social, familial — and almost always puts a person in front of spiritual questions. For professionals and volunteers that take part in this work it is essential to understand the spiritual dimension of the experiencing process. A process of spiritual or religious coping is described in foreign literature on clinical psychology, counseling and pastoral care as one of the tools for coping with crisis, that among others serves the goal of adaptation. But theoretical and empirical data shows that it is only one of the types of spiritual coping, which seems to be appropriate to call "instrumental". Aside from it the "value" and "synergetic" types of coping can be singled out — they differ from the instrumental one in their goals, mechanisms, attitude towards reality and other characteristics. The knowledge of different kinds of spiritual coping can enrich the practice of psychological help, counseling and pastoral care.