Spirituality, Healing and Existential Care

Practice Innovation in education, research and therapeutic care

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Practice Innovation in education, research and therapeutic care

Overview

Spirituality has been approached from a variety of perspectives in healthcare acknowledging its social, cultural, religious, political, linguistic, humanistic and phenomenological aspects. The plethora of meanings and different associations of the term spirituality for different people generates confusion and lack of clarity among healthcare professionals. This, in turn, leads to problems in incorporating spirituality into education and practice. Recognising the centrality of ontological development to this area Dr Gulnar Ali (2017) has developed a reflective framework for health practitioners and educators about spirituality, which also addresses existential and cultural issues within a broadly humanistic framework: Self-exploration through Ontological, Phenomenological, Humanistic, Ideological, and Existential Expressions (SOPHIE).

A few case studies on integrating spiritual and existential care aspects in health education, clinical and community practices are also presented in this paper to showcase a few success stories on applying SOPHIE as a practice methodology to approach spiritual and existential care needs in both education and care practices.

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Heal Yourself- On Existential care and Connecting Within!

British Science Festival September 11, 2024

Join us at the @BritishScienceFestival 2024 to try out SOPHIE- a tool developed by Dr. Gulnar Ali.

An interactive workshop showcasing research findings using the SOPHIE framework in diverse contexts 2021-24.
Register: https://britishscienceassociation-tickets.ticketsolve.com/share/1173648508

WINGS: Wellness Interventions for Nurses’ growth and selfcare study at Purdue University, US and UEL, UK

During the pandemic, a quasi-experimental study was designed to empirically test the effectiveness of SOPHIE intervention among palliative care nurses in the US. Along with the SOPHIE framework, the study also included the Nurses’ Psychological Trauma (NPT) model (Foli, et al., 2021). Our study included N=94 nurses working in palliative care settings including long-term care, nursing homes and hospice settings. The intervention included four weekly blog writing with pre and post-surveys. Findings showed significant improvement in the subjective wellbeing of nurses. Narrative analysis of the four weekly blogs and post-blog feedback demonstrated self-reflexivity on the part of participants. Participants shared blogs were helpful as it provided them a valuable opportunity to generate self-awareness and the ability to share traumatic experiences while creating avenues for personal growth and well-being. Our preliminary data suggest that the SOPHIE tool is an effective tool for self-reflexivity and creating pathways for self-care and wellbeing.

Infographic about WINGS: Wellness Interventions for Nurses' growth and selfcare

SOPHIE as Reflexive practice in Higher Education

Undergraduate students in psychosocial studies and community work were encouraged to learn an open reflexive enquiry while relating humanistic psychology to their own professional development and competencies in counselling and therapeutic skills across their three-year undergraduate course at UEL. Students were facilitated to relate their existential quest and meaning-making patterns by reflecting upon relationship patterns and mindfulness about their own spiritual and existential, emotional needs using SOPHIE.

Infographic about SOPHIE

SWAN: Self-healing and Wellbeing interventions through Existential Advocacy and Narrative inquiry

SWAN - A Knowledge Exchange Funding project by the University of East London from Dec 2022 to July 2023. SWAN project is developed by Dr Gulnar Ali with undergraduate students in psychosocial studies and community work at the University of East London to propose practice innovation for marginalised communities, across East London. Newham Poetry Group (NPG) was recruited as an LGBTQ community group for this pilot CPD programme. More such interventions and CPD workshops were requested by the participants to expand the spirit of caring and knowledge sharing with professional expertise and research-informed wellbeing practices.

Existential Growth

The solution lies in what is already there but not yet realised: the ability to have the meaning that is being created. Ownership is a unifying perspective that brings the fragments of discrimination into a home—a place where they belong to a larger whole. Owning is a choice, acknowledging oneself as the source of all meaning and accepting the responsibilities and possibilities that arise from that choice…Writing about traumatic events can help ease the emotional stress of negative experiences… I feel good when I reflect on the trauma I've been through and connect and heal through SOPHIE …

- WINGS study participant

Reflexivity

It was amazing to see people who wanted to participate. I was surprised by the fact people were working on being aware of their psychological and social issues and how this affected their well-being. I thought people would be more reluctant. It was very empowering that they were able to share their experiences and knowledge. About myself... it was empowering: listening to others sharing and helping each other helped me to be softer with myself and not punish myself for my traumas.” 

- Reflective log: Student A - SWAN project

Who we are

Dr Gulnar Ali

PhD, MSc, MA, BA, FHEA, RN, Nurse Leader (Sigma-Global Nursing Excellence)
Senior Lecturer in Psychosocial Studies and Community Work
Dept. of Psychosocial Studies
School of Education and Communities
University of East London
United Kingdom
Email: g.ali@uel.ac.uk

  • Areas of Expertise: Mental health, Medical Anthropology, Transcultural Psychiatry, Nursing Education

Dr Gulnar Ali is a Senior Lecturer in psychosocial studies and community work at the University of East London. Gulnar has been recognised as a Master Practitioner (highest professional practice award) in mentoring and supervision by the European Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC), UK and a Fellow with the Royal Society of Public Health (FRSPH) and with the Higher Education Academy (FHEA), UK.  Dr Ali is also a registered Nurse Leader with the Rho-Delta Chapter- of Sigma Theta Tau International Nursing Society. As an Educationalist  Gulnar’s academic and professional background ranges from 25 years of teaching and research experience in Islamic Studies, Medical Anthropology, Spirituality, Existential Philosophy, Transcultural psychiatry, and mental health nursing. Dr Ali diligently blends ontological and humanistic perspectives into trauma-informed practices.  She is passionate about expanding the notion of care by integrating spiritual and existential perspectives into health education and clinical care. Based on her PhD research (2013-2017), Gulnar has developed a reflective framework: SOPHIE (Self-Exploration through Ontological, Phenomenological, Humanistic, Ideological and Existential Expressions). Gulnar has been awarded several research grants to apply SOPHIE as a therapeutic intervention and a reflexive tool to approach spiritual and existential care needs in professional practices. Dr Ali is actively engaged in teaching, doctoral research supervision, and global research partnerships with different universities across the United Kingdom,  USA, India and Pakistan. Dr Ali is a regular speaker at national and international conferences concerned with the development of innovation in nursing education and community mental health practices. Gulnar has 25+ publications, co-authored book chapters, and has been an invited speaker at several national and international conferences.

  • Wattis J, Rogers M, Ali G, Curran S (2021). Spiritually Competent Practice and Cultural Aspects of Spirituality. In: Spiritual Dimensions of Advanced Practice Nursing: Stories of Hope (Advanced Practice in Nursing). Edited by M. Rogers, Springer. ISBN-10: ‎ 3030714632.
  • Ali G. and Lalani, N. (2020). Approaching spiritual and existential care needs in health education: Applying SOPHIE (Self-exploration through Ontological, Phenomenological, Humanistic, Ideological, and Existential Expression), as practice methodology.  Religions.  11, 451; doi:10.3390/rel11090451 

Dr Nasreen Lalani

PhD, MScN, RN
Assistant Professor,
Fellow, Teaching for Tomorrow
Faculty Associate, Center on Aging and the Life Course
President Delta Omicron Chapter-Sigma
School of Nursing, 502 N University Street, Rm #208, 
West Lafayette, IN 47907
o: 765-494-5547
Email: lalanin@purdue.edu

  • Areas of Expertise: Nursing, Palliative care, Mental Health

Dr Lalani has over 25 years of global nursing and health experience from the US, Canada and Pakistan. She is currently working as an Assistant Professor at Purdue University, IN, US. Her work focuses on developing equitable healthcare solutions to improve palliative care access and services as well as to promote caregivers’ self-care, well-being and quality of life particularly among rural and underserved minority populations. During the pandemic, Dr Lalani along with her team developed a ‘SOPHIE’ intervention - a self-reflexive blog writing tool to prevent trauma and promote resilience and subjective well-being of palliative caregivers in hospice and home care settings. 

Dr Lalani has also developed several palliative and end-of-life care educational training modules to facilitate final conversations among providers, patients and families at the end of life. Besides, Dr Lalani also has expertise in post-disaster community resilience and recovery. She offers Psychological First Aid training and psychosocial services programmes for disaster-affected communities in collaboration with the Red Cross and other community agencies. Being the President of the Sigma Nursing Chapter in her region, she has networked and collaborated with the global nursing community to extend her research and knowledge about self-care and spiritual well-being. Dr Lalani’s work has been presented at several national and international conferences and has been published in peer-reviewed journals, books and newsletters.

  • Lalani N. and Ali G. (2021). Stories of Hope: A case study on Palliative care from Pakistan. In: Spiritual Dimensions of Advanced Practice Nursing: Stories of Hope (Advanced Practice in Nursing). Edited by M. Rogers, Springer. ISBN-10: ‎ 3030714632.
  • Lalani, N., Duggleby, W, & Olson, J. (2021). I need presence and a listening ear: Perspectives of spirituality and spiritual care among healthcare providers in a hospice setting in Pakistan. Journal of Religion and Health. 60(4), 2862–2877. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-021-01292-9.

Dr Kawther Hamash

PhD, RN
Assistant Professor in Nursing
WellStar School of Nursing (WSON)
Kennesaw State University
Email: Khamash@kennesaw.edu

  • Areas of expertise: Oncology Nursing, Palliative care, Symptom Clusters, Pain management, Symptom management, and Nursing education.

Dr Kawther Hamash is an Assistant Professor of Nursing at the WellStar School of Nursing (WSON) at Kennesaw State University. With over 15 years of national and international nursing experience, Dr Hamash has become an expert in symptom management, palliative care, and pain management in oncology and hospice cancer patients, as well as nursing education. Her research has been focused on symptom clusters and management in breast cancer patients from diverse cultural backgrounds, resulting in a significant body of work published in peer-reviewed journals. Dr Hamash has also collaborated with other researchers on teaching-related research articles. She has presented her work at local, national, and international conferences and has established international research teams in the US, UK, Oman, and Jordan. Dr Hamash continues to contribute to the nursing profession, serving in various leadership and volunteering roles. Currently, she is involved in SOPHIE, a research project aimed at promoting the resilience and subjective well-being of nurses and palliative caregivers.

Dr Gulnar Ali sat at a table with three female graduate students.

Dr Gulnar Ali with graduate students in Psychosocial Studies and Community work. Students as Research Assistants on global study projects. Ras: Aracely Ines Jimenez, Yolanda Edo Figas and Kati Tikkanen.  Funded by: Impact Case study Grant/Seed Grant Award, EDUCOM- UEL

Projects

1. SWAN - Self-healing and Well-being interventions through Existential Advocacy and Narrative inquiry - Applying SOPHIE as a practice methodology. A Pilot Case Study on Post-natal Mothers Based in East London, UK (2024).  Seed Grant Award, EDUCOM - UEL.

PI: Dr Gulnar Ali - University of East London, UK; Co-I: Ruksana Beigi; Dr Angie Voela - UEL, UK; Dr Nasreen Lalani - Purdue University US, Dr Kawther Hamash, Kennesaw State University, USA;  Dr Salima Sulaiman- Brock University, Canada. Collaborator: Dr Gulnaz Virani - University College Cork, Ireland; Nazmin Begum - Bart Health NHS Trust, UK. 

2. Promoting Resilience and Post-traumatic Growth in Cancer Survivors and their carers, using SOPHIE as therapeutic intervention (2024-2025).

PI: Dr Kawther Hamash - Kennesaw University, USA. Co.I: Dr Gulnar Ali, UEL, UK. Dr Nasreen Lalani, Purdue University, USA.

3. Exploring Mental Health Professionals' and Mental Health Service Users' perceptions of spirituality and the concepts of spirituality. A Global study across Canada, the United States of America, Malta and Australia (2024-2025). 

PI: Dr Patricia Carlisle - Queen's University Belfast Northern Ireland, Dr Melanie Rogers, University of Huddersfield, UK. Collaborator: Dr Gulnar Ali, UEL. 

4. Advanced Practice Nurses’ Perceptions of Spirituality - A Global Study (2021-2024).  

Investigators: Dr Gulnar Ali - UEL, Professor Melanie Rogers, University of Huddersfield, UK. CN NP/APN Network and several universities across the globe. RAs: Yolanda Edo Figas and Kati Tikkanen. Funded by: Impact Case Study Grant Award, EDUCOM - UEL.

5. Mentoring in Health care practice education (2021-2024). 

Investigators: Mehtab Jaffer, Dr Nagham Rizwi, Dr Saleema Gulzar, Dr Tazeen Ali, Aga Khan University, Pakistan. Collaborators: Dr Gulnar Ali, Dr Michael Snowden and Dr Jamie Halsall from the University of Huddersfield, UK. 

SWAN Workshop - Touch and Music based activities, March 2023 at UEL - UK

Expertise

Our research studies have developed a validated holistic approach to address and advocate for spiritual and existential care needs in research, clinical practice, community settings and education. Health professionals often struggle to address and approach existential and spiritual care needs underlying any trauma and loss, since there is no shared vocabulary.

We are experts in offering CPD training and conducting research studies focusing on Spirituality, Transcultural Psychiatry, Existential care, Post-Traumatic Growth, Resilience, Empowerment, Healing Consciousness, Reflexivity and Self-care.

E-resources and toolkits

  1. Existential health - Dr Gulnar Ali (YouTube)
  2. Spirituality and Existential Wellbeing | Dr Gulnar Ali (Facebook page)
  3. SOPHIE - A framework to approach and address Spiritual care needs - Dr Gulnar Ali (YouTube)
  4. Self-care and Mental Health – Dr Gulnar Ali (YouTube)
  5. Coffee with Cupcakes - On Self-compassion Dr Gulnar Ali (YouTube)
  6. Key attitudes, and actions can help students maintain well-being, Purdue Today - Dr Nasreen Lalani 
  7. Finding joy in connecting with and serving others - Dr Nasreen Lalani 

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