Despite social work's foundational roots in faith-based initiatives and moral philanthropy, the secularization of the field has led to the privatization of religious beliefs. This study explored the extent to which Christian faith is seen as a legitimate dimension of social workers' identity. Local authority Christian social workers in England were interviewed. Thematic analysis showed that social workers view their practice as aligned with liberation theology but experience reticence to articulate their faith at work, such reticence being influenced by professional norms grounded in individualism, implicit bias toward other faiths and none, and how their churches view their profession. Our research challenges the presumed dichotomy between personal faith and public professionalism, contending that faith-informed practice can enrich relationships between colleagues and the people they serve.
As climate events intensify, understanding how spiritual capital fosters resilience in Islamic contexts is crucial for social work. This research explores the role of religion in influencing and mediating responses to natural hazards in Oman. This qualitative study examines the currents of lived Islam that take explicit stances on questions related to natural hazards. It employs interviews with 42 participants, including social workers, religious guides, employees of non-governmental organizations, and people affected by natural hazards. Drawing on extensive primary data, the findings suggest that climate events can impact communities in diverse ways, often resulting in distinct experiences for individuals within the same neighborhood. Based on spiritual capital and resilience, the impacts of climate events and individuals' responses vary by level of capital. Spiritual capital significantly influences how individuals respond to natural hazards, underscoring the importance of integrating all aspects of human nature with a spiritual dimension in Islamic societies. It emphasizes that natural hazards convey messages that, when correctly interpreted, can enhance faith and stability. Education, practice, and policy implications have been identified, including the development of social work curricula that incorporate spiritual capital and the integration of spiritual support into disaster resilience frameworks.
This article presents findings of a study designed to explore the perceptions of clinical therapists and those involved in pastoral care, in their work with LGBQ+ Orthodox Jews. A focus is placed on the strategies clinicians and those in other therapeutic roles employ to help these individuals navigate the complex balance of sexuality and faith. While this study focuses on a specific religious group, findings may offer insight to professionals working with individuals from other conservative faith traditions. The data on which this paper is based come from individual interviews held with a convenience sample of clinicians and those serving in pastoral roles, who have experience working with Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox LGBQ+ clients. Study participants offered insight about what it means to practice clinically with this population. The result was a series of rich narratives that revealed how clients navigate the tension between religious commitments and sexuality. Implications of study findings are discussed, highlighting the importance of practice approaches that center on accompanying clients on a journey rather than solution-focused interventions. Respondents emphasized that progress ought not be framed by how well clients integrate their two identities, or how close they are toward disclosure, but rather how well they tolerate psychosocial tension.
Islamophobia has become a pervasive feature of contemporary life, shaping Muslim experiences. Despite its relevance to social work's commitments to social justice, it remains marginal and weakly theorized in mainstream scholarship. This article argues that this marginality reflects disciplinary knowledge formation rather than a simple research gap. A scoping review of Web of Science and Scopus - indexed social work journals found that only 33 of 42,152 articles explicitly addressed Islamophobia. Qualitative analysis shows it is often treated as background context rather than a structural form of racialized governance. Addressing anti-Muslim racism requires critical reflection on social work's epistemological foundations.
Spiritual abuse within intimate partner violence (IPV) is increasingly acknowledged across sociological, psychological, and pastoral literatures, yet it remains conceptually fragmented in practice. This paper argues that the difficulty lies not in identifying harm, but in how dominant frameworks separate power, meaning, and authority when coercion is enacted through the sacred. As a result, survivors' experiences may be partially recognized while the binding role of religious obligation and moral authority remains insufficiently examined. Using the term spiritually mediated coercion, the paper identifies a pattern in which coercive control is enacted through sacred meaning, religious authority, and moral obligation, so that compliance is experienced as spiritually necessary rather than merely relational or strategic. Through a critical conceptual analysis of sociological, social work, psychological, and pastoral frameworks, the paper identifies shared interpretive limits that fragment this form of harm across domains. In response, four conceptual requirements are articulated for ethically recognizing and responding to spiritual abuse: symbolic literacy, authority mapping, structural recognition of spiritual injury, and tolerance for sacred rupture. The paper concludes by outlining implications for research, professional training, and institutional response when the sacred itself functions as a mechanism of coercive control.
Mental health stigma within conservative Christian communities creates significant barriers to professional care-seeking, shaping help-seeking behavior in ways that leave many individuals without adequate support for serious mental illnesses (SMIs) such as depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Rooted in doctrinal beliefs that frame psychological distress as spiritual weakness or moral failing, this stigma does not disappear through clinical intervention alone. Rather, culturally competent practice must work within the context of existing stigma to facilitate engagement with mental health services and mitigate the barriers stigma creates. This paper proposes an integrated conceptual framework combining transpersonal theory, hope theory, and Internal Family Systems (IFS) that equips social workers to support conservative Christians in accessing care despite stigmatizing beliefs. Transpersonal theory frames mental health challenges as pathways for spiritual growth, aligning psychological care with the community's core values. Hope theory emphasizes goal-setting, agency, and perseverance, resonating with Christian commitments to redemption and faith. IFS provides tools to address internal conflict, fostering self-compassion and reconciling faith identity with mental health needs. Collaboration with clergy and faith-based organizations is central to the framework, creating pathways for referral and shared language between pastoral and clinical care. Training social workers in faith-sensitive practices and developing mental health literacy among clergy are essential implementation strategies.
Religiously observant Jewish clinicians hesitate to add spirituality in therapy with religious clients for fear of imposing their beliefs, inadequate training, and the lack of established professional standards, even when it has been shown to increase wellbeing. This article investigates these barriers and provides an example of a case study whereby the clinician effectively integrated spirituality resulting in better outcomes. Spiritual interventions that match the client's culture led to better therapeutic relationships and treatment results. This article advocates spiritual competence training in social work education while requesting guidelines to help clinicians perform spiritual integration ethically and effectively.
This article presents a revised faith-inspired praxis of love framework, developed through a multiple-site case study of three community-based organizations in southern Ontario that intersect with social work through field education, referral networks, and collaborative partnerships. Drawing on interviews, participant observation, and document analysis, the study examines how practitioners rooted in faith traditions shaped by Christianity express love in practical, everyday ways. Three central elements (i.e. faith, love, and praxis) capture core motivations, while seven operational elements (i.e. reciprocal relationships, shared affection, hospitality, human frailty, shared responsibility, nonviolence, and positive change) illustrate how these motivations are enacted in practice. While the framework has relevance across helping professions, this article engages it primarily as a contribution to social work discourse, exploring its productive tensions and convergences with social work ethics, relational practice, and social justice commitments. The framework is proposed as a conceptual tool to support dialogue between faith-motivated and secular practitioners, and to advance understanding of love as a principled, relational foundation for ethical helping practice.
This qualitative study explored the meaning, process, and outcomes of collective mindfulness. Current mindfulness research and practice centers around individualist models of care, missing dimensions of religious communities and collectivist cultures. Nine mindfulness practitioners self-identifying with collectivist ethnic and cultural backgrounds participated in in-depth semi-structured interviews. Interviews explored participants' experiences with individual and group mindfulness practices, cultural influences, and definitions of collective mindfulness. Data analysis employed an iterative, inductive thematic analysis approach that embodied the collectivist spirit of the study through collaborative team processes. The research team maintained monthly meetings throughout data collection and analysis phases, conducting formal constant comparison analysis followed by collective dialectic conversations to create and share themes. Three major themes emerged: (1) Collective mindfulness involves intentionally cultivating awareness with others for the sake of the group; (2) Mindfulness practice often reflects Western individualist values, while collective mindfulness both reflects and challenges these values depending on cultural norms; and (3) Collective mindfulness cultivates enhanced care for others, empathy, compassion, co-regulation of mood states, and desire to meet community needs. Findings suggest collective mindfulness may provide sacred corrections to individual collectivist models that align with social work values to promote communal well-being.
Mental illness has predominantly been viewed through a spiritual lens in Ghanaian communities. This study employed a descriptive phenomenological approach to explore the question of whether Ghanaian clergy's experiences in the United States changed their view and approach to mental illness, and the factors responsible for the change. The participants were from the Pentecostal and Charismatic denominations. The findings showed that participants' views about the causes and treatment of mental illness have evolved due to their experiences in the United States, as reflected in these themes: (1) Clergy acquires mental health literacy from church organized seminars, internet search and church member medical professionals (2)A shift in the approach to mental illness, (3) Mental health literacy increases a positive approach to mental illness, (4) Treatment Resources availability changes approach to mental illness, (5) Humane treatment reduces stigma about mental illness (6) Unchanged views about mental illness. The conclusion is that social workers need to collaborate with the clergy and focus on promoting mental health literacy among the clergy, intensify their advocacy for adequate mental health treatment resources, and enhance humane treatment for people with mental health conditions to promote their well-being and human rights.
Fourth Industrial Revolution has triggered widespread social change with specific moral, social, and spiritual implications. This paper presents a historical overview of earlier industrial revolutions as a framework for understanding the dual dynamics of the Fourth Industrial Revolution generated by artificial intelligence. It emphasizes the opportunities for advances in health, education, and employment, as well as the threats to equality and privacy, and the potential for the concentration of power in opaque systems. Drawing on the historical analysis of earlier industrial revolutions and informed by the lens of Conflict Theory, this paper suggests that technological revolution and the expansion of AI should be cast as a social problem that is reshaping power relations, intensifying structural inequalities, and increasing the vulnerability of marginalized populations. Social work can play a prime social, moral, and spiritual role that is deeply rooted in the profession's core values. Social workers, and the profession as a whole, need to act proactively in response to the major detrimental social and technological transformations brought about by the Fourth Industrial Revolution. This includes defending human rights, addressing emerging social injustice, and protecting vulnerable populations whose autonomy, resource access, and ways of life are already being affected by AI-driven transformations.
The article utilizes a directed qualitative content analysis to examine how humanistic theoretical constructs can be applied to the parable of the Good Samaritan. Drawing on existentialist, transpersonal, and constructivist psychological domains that inform humanistic social work, the analysis explores the para-ble's relevance for contemporary practice. Sub-themes includ-ing situated freedom, responsibility, spirituality, transcendence, compassionate social action, political consciousness, and perso-nal meaning are identified through both manifest and latent analysis of the narrative. The discussion considers how the humanistic dimensions of the Good Samaritan parable relate to current grand challenges in the social work profession. The findings suggest that the parable offers a valuable illustration of humanistic principles that can inform and enrich social work practice. This analysis is limited to deductive analysis that is directed by the themes emerging from the Handbook of Humanistic Psychology - a field that influences Humanistic Social Work.
Spirituality is widely recognized within social work as a significant dimension of human experience and an important resource in trauma recovery. Yet the ethical integration of spirituality into trauma-informed clinical practice remains conceptually underdeveloped, particularly regarding power asymmetries, authority sensitivity, and spiritual worldview dynamics. Trauma-informed care emphasizes safety, collaboration, trust, and empowerment - principles that may be compromised if spiritual content is introduced without careful attention to professional boundaries, consent, and cultural humility. This conceptual article advances a power-conscious framework for ethically engaging spirituality in trauma-informed clinical social work. Drawing on contemporary social work scholarship on spiritual competence, trauma theory, and professional ethics, the paper examines how vulnerability, authority, and meaning-making processes intersect in spiritually integrated care. Clinical decision-making considerations, assessment implications, and referral cautions are discussed. The article argues that spiritually integrated trauma-informed practice requires explicit attention to power and ethical safeguards to prevent re-traumatization, value imposition, and spiritual harm while supporting client autonomy and meaning-making.
This study explores the barriers child welfare professionals encounter when attempting to engage in spiritual practices recommended by their organizations. Using thematic analysis of qualitative responses from a larger mixed-methods project of 304 child welfare professionals, seven primary barriers emerged: busyness and competing responsibilities, internal obstacles, organizational culture and structure challenges, contextual constraints, resource limitations, and caregiving demands. These findings highlight the complex personal and organizational dynamics that shape spiritual engagement in child welfare settings. Results underscore the need for organizational policies, leadership support, and feasible structures that enable spiritual practices, with implications for enhancing resilience, well-being, and professional quality of life among child welfare workers.
