Running head: Hw420 Creating wellness

Spiritual Assessment
Jennifer L. Meyer
Kaplan University

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Spiritual Assessment

What is a Spiritual Assessment?

A spiritual assessment is a process used to identify an individuals spiritual needs and
resources, what impact their beliefs have on their body, mind and spiritual health, what barriers
they might have to using spiritual resources and help us understand the role of spirituality in
someones life. The assessment should not be viewed as a judgment, it should be viewed as a
positive source of insight and support.
Research has shown that spirituality is good for physical and mental health. Spirituality
means different things to different people, but the essential meaning of spirituality refers to a
persons core beliefs, how they relate to and treat others, and how they perceive the world around
them.
Kenneth I. Pargament and Patrick J. Sweeney defined spiritual wellness as the capacity
to: (1) identify ones core self and what provides life a sense of purpose and direction; (2) access
resources that facilitate the realization of the core self and strivings, especially in times of
struggle; (3) and experience a sense of connectedness with diverse people and the world
(Pargament, 2011)
A Spiritual Assessment
1. Do you feel a spiritual connection to anyone or anything outside of yourself? Examples:
A higher power, nature, the universe, community, family, humanity, the greater good. This
is a good springboard question to find out the individuals general feelings and level of
spirituality.

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2. Do you have a belief system? Examples: religion, spiritual, atheist. This clarifies the
previous question a little bit more by determining if there is a specific community that the
person might be a part of. It also helps delineate what traditions and practices are
common to the belief system and how it might affect the individual.
3. How important is your belief system to you? Many people place great importance on their
belief system, attending worship services regularly, and highly active within their belief
systems community. Many others who indicate their association with a particular belief
system may also be non-practicing, or not as active within the belief system.
4. Do you participate in a community with others that share your beliefs? Sharing a belief
system with a community bolsters its effectiveness and likely increases the level of
activity within the belief system. A community can also provide a strong system of
support in times of need.
5. What gives meaning and purpose to your life? A belief system may be a factor in an
individuals life, but it could be something else entirely that give their life meaning and
purpose, children and family for example. The baseline of what gives a persons life
meaning and purpose say a lot about how they live their lives. If the individual is not able
to determine what gives their life meaning and purpose, it could be a sign that they need
to explore some deeper questions about who they are, why they are here, and what they
are meant to do.
6. How often do you participate in activities that build the human spirit? Examples:
worship services, meditating, giving to charity. Spirituality does not always mean an

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association with a religion, for some it is inner reflection and enlightenment, for others it
is humanity and the greater good for the universe that gives them a feeling of spirituality.
Participating in activities that build the human spirit is important to spirituality whether
associated with religion or not, because these activities satisfy the soul.
7. Do your beliefs help you cope and provide support for you during times of stress? We all
go through stressful times and being able to draw on faith or beliefs during these times
can be an enormous source of strength and comfort. If someone really struggles to find
hope or comfort when they are stressed, it could help them to revisit their belief system or
faith to find the support they need, or perhaps turn to something new.
8. Do your beliefs or values influence your moral and ethical decision making? Life choices
can be tough. Many people turn to their religion or belief system for support and answers,
but if that is not helping them make good choices then again, revisiting or renewing faith
in their belief system or finding something new might provide the moral support and help
they need to make good decisions.
9. Do your beliefs inspire you to reflect about who you are and who you are becoming?
Inner reflection is an important piece of spirituality that many people are missing. Lives
are busy and who has time? Taking the time to get to know your inner self on a deeper
level can help you discover what is truly important to you and what gives meaning and
purpose to your life.
10. Have you ever had a life-changing experience, something that affected of changed your
spirituality or beliefs? Examples: a mystical unexplainable experience, a spiritually

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clarifying experience, or a near-death experience? This question may give insight to

whether an individual is open and receptive to the idea of a world beyond the five senses
(Seaward, 2013).
The Spiritual Assessment at Work The Interview
Do you feel a spiritual connection to anyone or anything outside of yourself? No, not really.
Do you have a belief system? Examples: religion, spiritual, atheist. I was raised in the Lutheran
church, so I guess I would say Im Lutheran.
How important is your belief system to you? I make my kids go to Sunday school but I usually
just drop them off there, I dont attend church myself. I suppose if its important enough for them
to go, maybe I should be setting a better example and go too.
Do you participate in a community with others that share your beliefs? We belong to a church,
but we arent very active in it, other than having the kids go. I dont know many of the other
people that go there, probably because we dont attend. We dont participate in any other extracurricular church activities like potlucks or fundraisers.
What gives meaning and purpose to your life? My kids and my family. Thats what gets me out
of bed every day. To provide for them, to love them, to help mold the kids into good people.
How often do you participate in activities that build the human spirit? Examples: worship
services, meditating, giving to charity. I have a pretty large-scale fundraiser that I organize every
year for cancer. Ive participated in fundraising 5ks. I guess I never thought of them as building
the human spirit, though. Just building funds and awareness.
Do your beliefs help you cope and provide support for you during times of stress? Somewhat, but
not a lot. I know people that just let it go to God and that seems to work for them. I think I
need to feel more in control than that. Id like to have something like that, though, that I could
turn to, that would make me feel better. Sometimes I get stressed and feel like falling apart.
Do your beliefs or values influence your moral and ethical decision making? Im a good person,
I have strong moral values and beliefs just because of the way I was raised, not necessarily
because I was raised in a certain religion. Seems like most religions have the same basic values
of being good, kind, giving, etc. So I guess I could be Christian or Buddhist or Jewish and I think
Id still be a good person with pretty much the same morals and values.
Do your beliefs inspire you to reflect about who you are and who you are becoming? Not at all. I
really dont think about stuff like that. I think about who my kids are and who theyre becoming.
My life seems pretty full of stuff and things that have to get done, I think I know who I am, dont
I?

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Have you ever had a life-changing experience, something that affected of changed your
spirituality or beliefs? Examples: a mystical unexplainable experience, a spiritually clarifying
experience, or a near-death experience? Wow, no. Did this just get weird? I mean, I guess I had
some dreams about my Mom after she died that I thought were kind of, I dont know, like she
was sending me a message and telling me that everything was going to be alright. But those are
just dreams, probably affected by the events of the year and what I wanted to hear.
Results
What I found most interesting about this interview was how the questions themselves
were already provoking some thoughts about improving spirituality. The questionnaire can give
me ideas about what I could suggest to this person about making changes to enhance and
improve their spiritual wellness, which would in turn enhance and improve their mental and
physical health. It was significant to me that the questions I asked were causing this individual to
ask questions of themselves, right there during the interview. This indicates to me that the
process of change towards a spiritual awakening has already begun.
Based on the answers in this interview, I sensed that the individual was skeptical but
starting to see a little light, seeing that there was potential for more. I would recommend this
person starts out on the spiritual path in gradual increments, as they seem both skeptical and
busy. I would begin with suggesting tow things. First, instead of just dropping the kids off at
Sunday school they should try attending church. They may discover its not for them and thats
fine, but giving their church and the people there a chance is something fairly easy to do. Second,
meditation for both stress relief and some inner reflection, using some guided meditations via
YouTube or a smartphone application.
I initially thought that I would delete the final question about the life changing, mystical,
near-death experiences because that seemed to shut down the interviewee. They seemed to think
that things had gone from spiritual to supernatural, and thats not the way I would have like to

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end the interview. After rereading the answer to the question, I decided to leave it in. The
individuals initial reaction was somewhat negative, but the follow-up, although sounding
skeptical, leads me to believe that they believe that there is something to those dreams. The fact
that this person brought it up at all tells me that they think there is deeper meaning to the dreams,
and perhaps they were seeking some confirmation that it was not just a dream. There would
certainly be comfort in knowing that Mom is doing well wherever she is and everything really
will be alright.

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Pargament, K., & Sweeney, P. (2011). Building spiritual fitness in the Army: An innovative
approach to a vital aspect of human development. American Psychologist, 58-64.
Seaward Brian Luke (2013). Health of the human spirit: spiritual dimensions for personal health
(2nd Ed.). Jones and Bartlett