Page 103 - EMCAPP-Journal No. 4

Comment Anna Ostaszewska, Po-
land, Psychotherapist,
to „Religious coping and supervisor, European
Certificate of Psycho-
post-traumatic growth in therapy (ECP) Place
the course of a trauma therapy“ of praxis: Association
of Christian Psycho-
logists’ Psychological
Anna Ostaszewska
Centre. President of
the ACP Psychotherapy
Sexual abusing in childhood should never happen. A
Section. ACP President
child is dependent on others and needs safety to grow
in years 1995- 2009
up. The child experiences everything as a first time – this
is a lesson of life. Especially the relationship with close
adults teaches him/ her about who am I and how rela- ship with God, seeking spiritual connection and support)
tionships look. Childhood sexual abusing destroys self, have been related to improved mental health, increased
creates unbearable fear. The child creates his or her self stress-related growth, lower levels of mortality, and less
image and model of relationships on the basis of defence hostility in people struggling with major life events (e.g.,
mechanisms. The child’s experience is “nobody defends Koenig, Pargament, & Nielsen, 1998; Pargament, Koenig,
me, I am alone”. Tarakeshwar, & Hahn, 2001).
I was really touched by the statements made by Ms Ro- Definitions of religiosity and spirituality are already pre-
senheim in the quotation. “Why did God allow it?” “But sent in professional psychotherapeutic literature (Smith,
finally I knew that I was not alone. Jesus is at my side”. Bartz, Richards, 2007): “Religiousness has often been de-
And “How often I had the feeling of being alone. Really fined as adherence to an institutionalized system of be-
alone. But I am not”. I know such statements from my liefs, values, and activities based upon spiritual creeds,
psychotherapeutic praxis. I am always touched by such whereas spirituality refers to transcendent experiences
statements because I know the cases and I understand and understandings about God and/or other nonvisible
what does it mean. Other therapists also know it. The title characteristics of life and the universe (Kelly, 1995). Indi-
of the article “God, where are you?” (Nichole, Murray- viduals can be spiritual and religious, primarily religious
Swank & Pargament, 2005) presents similar question of but not particularly spiritual, or primarily spiritual but
many victims of sexual abuse. This article underlines that not religious.”.
spiritually - integrated therapeutic programs are helpful
in enhancing spiritual recovery from childhood sexual Bibliography
abuse. Falsetti, S. A., Resick, P. A., & Davis, J. L. (2003). Changes in religious
Maria Drechsler gives us an example of short-term thera- beliefs following trauma. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 16, 391–398.
py integrated with spirituality. Her client Ms Rosenheim Kelly, E. W. (1995). Spirituality and religion in counseling and psycho-
changed her religious attitude with no relationship with therapy: Diversity in theory and practice. Alexandria, VA: American
Counseling Association.
God to a spiritual attitude with a personal supportive re-
lationship with Him. She increased in positive religious Kennedy, J. E., Davis, R. C., & Taylor, B. G. (1998). Changes in spiri-
tuality and well-being among victims of sexual assault. Journal for the
coping. Scientific Study of Religion, 37, 322–326.
Religiosity as an institutional system may be not helpful
Koenig, H. G., Pargament, K. I., & Nielsen, J. (1998). Religious coping
in post-traumatic growth. But spirituality or religiosity and health status in medically ill hospitalized older adults. The Journal
understood as a personal relationship with God is helpful of Nervous and Mental Disease, 186, 513–521.
and it is one of main factors of happiness. This is the con- Nichole A., Murray-Swank N.A., & Pargament, K.I. (2005) God, where
clusion of professor Mayers’ research on happiness (May- are you?: Evaluating a spiritually-integrated intervention for sexual abu-
se. Mental Health, Religion & Culture , 8(3): 191–203.
ers, 1993, 1995, 1996). A personal relationship with God
is a source of inner security and power. Myers, D. G. (1993). The pursuit of happiness. New York: Avon Books.
There is research which confirms the results presented by Myers, D. G., Diener, E. (1995). Who is happy? Psychological Science,
Maria Drechsler (Smith, Bartz, Richards, 2007): In gene- 6, 10-19.
ral, many survivors of traumatic events rely on spiritu- Myers, D. G., Diener, E. (1996). The pursuit of happiness. Scientific
ality as a valuable coping resource, turning to God and American, 5, 54-56.
faith communities in difficult times (Pargament, 1997). Pargament, K. I. (1997). The psychology of religion and coping. New
In the words of one childhood sexual abuse survivor: York: The Guilford Press.
“God was the only one who was always there for me” Pargament, K. I., Koenig, H. G., Tarakeshwar, N., & Hahn, J. (2001). Re-
(Murray-Swank, 2003). Researchers have demonstrated ligious struggle as a predictor of mortality among medically ill elderly
patients: A two-year longitudinal study. Archives of Internal Medicine,
that survivors of sexual abuse frequently use spirituality 161, 1881–1885.
as an important coping resource (e.g., Falsetti, Resick, &
Smith, T. B., Bartz J., & Richards, S. (2007) Outcomes of religious and
Davis, 2003; Kennedy, Davis, & Taylor, 1998; Valentine spiritual adaptations to psychotherapy: A meta-analytic review. Psycho-
& Feinauer, 1993). In addition, spirituality may prove therapy Research, 17(6), 643-655.
helpful in the recovery process, as positive forms of re- Valentine, L. & Feinauer, L. L. (1993). Resilience factors associated with
ligious coping (e.g., developing a collaborative partner- female survivors of childhood sexual abuse. The American Journal of
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