Introduction
Spiritual care and education require empathy and healthy relational boundaries grounded in warmheartedness for self and others. Empathy includes caring about and taking the perspective of others’ experiences, values, beliefs, and practices. Healthy relational boundaries include respect for differences in spirituality. Empathy and relational boundaries work in tandem to ensure helpful, rather than harmful, spiritual care.
Group dynamics shape spiritual care and the learning process, requiring one to learn and offer care in and among groups. Understanding theories of group dynamics will grow one’s relational capacity and be a necessary component of spiritual care. This will enable one to be aware of the variety of roles that are played in groups and one’s habitual roles in groups. Additionally, one will gain experience in facilitating group processes as appropriate to one’s context.
Fulfilling these outcomes will help one identify and evaluate how empathy, relational boundaries and group dynamics are integral to spiritual care.
Finally, students who learn and offer care in and among groups will grow in their relational capacity and can bring this increased skill to their spiritual care. Concurrently, they will gain greater understanding about how group dynamics relate to spiritual care contexts.
Outcome 1: Empathy
| Level IA | Level IB | Level IIA | Level IIB |
|---|---|---|---|
| IA.9 Demonstrate knowledge of and initiate use of empathy in spiritual care contexts. | IB.9 Articulate how one uses empathy when providing spiritual care. | IIA.7 Demonstrate one’s use of empathy when providing spiritual care. | IIB.7 Evaluate one’s use of empathy when providing spiritual care. |
Outcome 2: Relational Boundaries
| Level IA | Level IB | Level IIA | Level IIB |
|---|---|---|---|
| IA.10 Demonstrate knowledge of and initiate use of healthy relational boundaries in spiritual care contexts. | IB.10 Articulate how one uses healthy relational boundaries in spiritual care contexts. | IIA.8 Demonstrate healthy relational boundaries in spiritual care contexts | IIB.8 Evaluate one’s ability to maintain healthy relational boundaries in spiritual care contexts |
Outcome 3: Group Dynamics
| Level IA | Level IB | Level IIA | Level IIB |
|---|---|---|---|
| IA.11 Demonstrate an understanding of group dynamics as it relates to spiritual care encounters and the learning process. | IB.11 Identify group dynamics theories as they relate to providing spiritual care and one’s learning process. | IIA.9 Demonstrate one’s ability to describe and explore roles in group dynamics. | IIB.9 Evaluate one’s ability to facilitate and function within group processes. |
| IIA.10 Demonstrate one’s ability to facilitate group processes as appropriate to one’s context. |