Chaplain
While the setting in which a chaplain works will have specific responsibilities and duties, there are common activities and services that chaplains provide. These include, but are not limited to:
- Presence. The purpose of the presence is to establish a relationship of mutual trust and respect while remaining sensitive at all times to the interpersonal differences which may exist, as well as to the dignity of all individuals involved. The chaplain may – or may not – be viewed by the client as a representation of the Divine during a time of crisis.
- Support. The chaplain is trained in how to effectively gather and interpret information relative to a person’s spiritual, religious, existential, cultural, and emotional challenges and resources. He or she can then provide comfort within the scope of a person’s identified belief and value system and identify the individual’s available supports.
- Counseling. Most chaplains, in their clinical training, are able to provide Solution-Focused Brief TherapyLinks to an external site., which can be effective in appropriate situations. Chaplains also recognize their own professional limitations and facilitate referrals to appropriate counseling professionals such as social workers, psychologists, or other health services.
- Promote the well-being of others. Chaplains contribute to the problem-solving process based on their training, experience, and interaction with other members of the interdisciplinary team. They assist in the development of support plans for families of individuals who are experiencing difficulties and act as a liaison between various agencies as appropriate and necessary.
- Advocates for the spiritual practices that contribute to a person’s well-being. Regardless of a person’s religious, spiritual, existential, cultural, or lack
of belief system, chaplains ensure that accommodations are made, when appropriate and safe, for an individual to engage in practices or rituals that bring them comfort. Chaplains inform and advise their team members and superiors of needed accommodations for identified practices and/or rituals to occur. - Working as members of an interdisciplinary team. Chaplains do not work in a silo but are integrated members of the interdisciplinary team within their setting. It is imperative for chaplains to understand the role of each member as well as engage in the skills to work collaboratively on common goals for the person receiving their care.
Adapted from the Spiritual Care Association
The Key to Chaplaincy is Listening
In Professional Spiritual & Pastoral Care: A Practical Clergy and Chaplain’s Handbook (Roberts. Ed. 2012), Chaplain Bob Kidd’s concludes listening is his primary spiritually supportine role.
Kidd describes general principles for effective spiritually supportive listening:
- The first states that the chaplain “encourages the speaker to take all possible conversational initiative” (Ibid. 93).
- The second principle is that the chaplain remains mentally present. (Ibid. 93).
- The Chaplain is to “stay as objective as possible during conversations” (Ibid. 94).
Listening can be facilitated by
Open-ended questions A chaplain should be judicious in the use of open-ended questions, as it can come across as an unwelcome interview or probing if overused.
2. Buffering helps to soften the impact of intense emotional or difficult topics.
3.The understatement/euphemism technique is something to be alert for within the other person’s narrative, but also to use with intentionality on the part of the chaplain.
4. The tell-me-more / minimal encouragement skill is useful for the chaplain to use when inviting more interaction.
Kidd’s final categories includes the intense interaction responses: calling attention and hovering.
5. Calling attention should only be used once some trust and rapport are developed in the relationship between the chaplain and the person being served. This serves as the naming of the hard thing which has gone unnamed, and potentially unnoticed, by the other person. A chaplain needs discernment about when and how to deploy this skill.
6. Hovering “involves deftly broaching the intended subject for discussion, allowing the speaker to explore it as much as possible, and then gently bringing the conversation back when they stray off-topic” (Ibid., 101). It is important, as always, when using hovering for the chaplain to always respect the other person’s boundaries and cues.
Mixed With Empathy
Empathy is the listener’s desire and effort to understand the recipient of help from the recipient’s internal frame of reference rather than from some external point of view, such as a theory; a set of standards, or the listener’s preferences.
The empathic listener tries to get inside the other’s thoughts and feelings without losing their own thoughts and feelings in the process.
Empathy is the listener’s effort to hear the other person deeply, accurately, and non-judgmentally.
A person who sees that a listener is really trying to understand his or her meanings will be willing to explore his or her problems and self more deeply.
Empathy prioritizes understanding the other over being understood, postponing judgment, and extending compassion.
Finally Prayer
Father Mychal Judge was a little-known Franciscan friar ministering humbly to the disenfranchised and unloved on the streets of New York City… until September 11, 2001, when he suddenly became a global figure.
“Lord, take me where You want me to go
Let me meet who You want me to meet
Tell me what You want me to say and
Keep me out of your way.”
— Fr Mychal Judge
