Religious and/or spiritual practices: extending spiritual freedom to people with schizophrenia.
BACKGROUND
It continues to be a challenge to define and utilize spirituality in client-centred occupational therapy practice. Dialogue about spirituality is especially problematic for occupational therapists working with people with schizophrenia.


OBJECTIVE
To explore the meaning of religion and/or spirituality for people living with a diagnosis of schizophrenia.


METHODS
Nine community-based individuals with schizophrenia engaged in interviews about the meaning of religion and/or spirituality and demonstrated self-defined spiritual practices. Phenomenology, hermeneutic theory, and a symbolic interactionism framework provided methodological and analytic guidance.


RESULTS
Participants employed religious and/or spiritual practices to cope with schizophrenia symptoms and make meaning of their lives. Individuals used multiple systems of meaning to explain their experiences. Religious and/or spiritual agency, an individual's sense of freedom to choose among the spiritual options, renewed their sense of empowerment.


CONCLUSIONS
Therapists can engage in spiritual negotiation with clients by using well-worded empowering questions toward a common goal of life enhancement.
Vancouver Community Mental Health Services, 520 West 6th Avenue, Suite 200, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, V5Z 4H5. africanshaz@gmail.com
Sharon
S
Smith
Melinda J
MJ
Suto
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009788:Occupational Therapy; D012067:Religion; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D029181:Spirituality