RUNNING HEAD: QUESTIONNAIRE FOR SPIRITUAL PLANNING 1

Questionnaire for Spiritual Planning

Tracy Matney

Kaplan University

HW420 Creating Wellness: Psychological and Spiritual Aspects of Healing

Questionnaire for Spiritual Planning

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Religious beliefs have always been part of the healing process around the world. For those

who do not follow a specific religion, some sort of spirituality is usually seen. With globalization

and further open mindedness, connecting on a spiritual level can be difficult because people do

not know how others believe so it is always important to be respectful. For healthcare providers,

understanding the patients level of spirituality is important going forward in treatment ("Spiritual

Assessment - American Family Physician," n.d.). Spiritual assessment is a useful practice to

inspire change in others without telling them how to live their lives. The same set of questions

can be asked to the same individual at many different stages in their lives, which would show

people how they can change, how people minds can grow and deepen their understanding

towards others ("Taking A Spiritual Inventory," n.d.). In order to evaluate a persons current

spiritual states, I have created a questionnaire which reasons why they are important.

1. What is spirituality to you? The question is important to understand what the patient

understands about spirituality. Many people do not know what it means, while others

have vague expectations of what spirituality actually is.

2. How you decompress after a long day? The question allows the provider to understand

how the patient likes to relax. It can also show a persons mental state and anger levels.

3. What are your spiritual goals? The questions helps identify how much spirituality a

person is willing to accept into their lives. For many spirituality is not taken serious,

much like many not practicing a religion.

4. Do you practice any spiritual activities and how do they make you feel? Knowing if the

patient practices soul calming activities and how they make the person feel in important

for further care. Many times yoga and meditation are positive activities in helping a

person achieve peace.

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5. What are your core values? The question helps the provider understand how the person

really feels about themselves. How they carry themselves. Understanding his or her

values are important to them personally helps providers understand if love is more

important than humor in their lives.

6. How do you deal with negative emotions? The question informs providers of how the

person reacts when times get rough. Those who suffer from anger need more spiritual

guidance than those who are more organized in their minds.

7. Do you believe in mystical moments? Many people believe in miracles and divine

interventions. As a healer, knowing the patient has hope many times encourages

everybody around to have hope as well, even if the outcome does not look so well.

8. Do you love yourself? Although many people are quick to answer yes to this question,

the majority of those people are lying to themselves. When asking this question I believe,

it is not the answer in words that is to be believed but the reaction and body language that

accompanied by the answer that can really tell providers if the person actually loves

themselves.

9. What gives your life meaning? In getting to know the patients, providers must also know

what drives a person to get out of bed for on a daily basis. What drives them to keep on

going? This question is excellent for encouraging a person to continue on the right path

because of those things that provide a meaningful life.

10. How does this survey affect your thoughts on spirituality? Being asked questions on

personal believes often stirs up emotions they didnt know they had. It gets the person

thinking about what they really want. After answering these questions a person may be
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more interested in leading a more meaningful life, while others may feel it was a waste of

time.

I decided to interview my husband, Barry, who is a 15-year Navy Veteran Chief Petty

Officer. He is probably one of the most mentally and physically tough people I have ever

met, having served many deployments overseas. I know that Barry does not have any

religious beliefs anymore, He was raised in a non-domination family in Southwestern

Virginia. He has many times said that because of the things he has seen during war and how

the world seems to be becoming a much crueler world, I thought he would be an interesting

case on spiritual beliefs since we have never really discussed religion or spirituality. Barry is

now retired, but still works in the in the mines in Buchanan County.

1. What is spirituality to you? To Barry spirituality is what a person believes in. An inner

guided sense that keeps you moral in check. Barry states he doesnt believe in any type of

religion and although there were times he prayed during the war but believes that it was

luck and training that got him out of the bad situations.

2. How you decompress after a long day? Barry states he likes to keep a routine during the

day so that eliminates added stressors. He likes to wake up early, shower and make the

bed after he gets out of the shower and be in his truck to head to work and to be there 30

minutes early to get dressed and drink his coffee. Also after work he comes home

watches ESPN and start dinner.

3. What are your spiritual goals? Barry states right away that is not spiritual, but that he

does strive to be a good person and set examples. He wants to be able to take care of

those who cannot take care of themselves.

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4. What are your core values? Leadership is a very important core value to Barry. His

strong work ethic as a leader in the military for so many years has carried over into his

civilian life making him want to share his knowledge with others about his experiences.

He believes strong work ethics are values that help a person achieve success.

5. Do you practice any spiritual activities and how do they make you feel? Barry has

practiced meditation with me in the past. He jokes that many years ago he thought it was

only for Hippies, when he watched me do it. After giving it a shot he really enjoyed it

but not as an everyday activity. He felt relaxed both mentally and physically afterwards.

For Barry, working on his mustang are what keeps his mind and body at ease. He says he

believes that a positive work and keeping his hands and mind busy gives him positive

mind.

6. How do you deal with negative emotions? Not very well. Barry holds all his emotions in

making dealing with stress and anger very tough. Sometimes he bottles up his feeling

because he doesnt like confrontation and then explodes over the tiniest of incidents.

7. Do you believe in mystical moments? No. Barry does believe in a higher power but not

in any type of miracles or mystical moments. He states he does has never seen or felt a

mystical moment. He believes that a person creates his or her own luck and that could

just be an old Navy way of life.

8. Do you love yourself? Knowing Barry is a very smart mouth person, he laughed at this

question first, then looked down and made a thoughtful face. He said, yes! Sometimes I

believe him. Due to the fact he has made it through some tough times, knowing him

personally gives me the advantage of knowing that he is in a much better place mentally
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than he has been in the past. But there are times still that he does get down and blames

himself for several events that happen in the past.

9. What gives your life meaning? Without hesitation, Barry said his family are what keep

his drive going. He wants to provide for his family and set examples for his son. He also

works hard every day to continue to contribute to those who are serving and who has

served our GREAT Nation. First responders, military, drive his passion every day to

continue his meaning of life. He says living positive life style increases a persons self-

worth and self-esteem.

10. How does this survey affect your thoughts on spirituality? Barry stated this survey does

not change his views. He says that he did enjoy to interview for various reasons. He says

he liked that he got to slow down and really reflect on his own beliefs, not ever really

doing so before. He said he allow him time to think about how he really felt. He also then

stated that he liked the interview as his own self-reflection. Being able to think and

answer comfortably about taboo situations like spirituality increases his confidence about

future interviews.

After interviewing my husband, I was a bit surprised and happy I chose him. He and I

have two very completely different spiritual views but we still get along and understand each

others beliefs. For this reason, I believe this information is important for a practitioner.

Many patients would believe a greater being would heal their conditions, while others like

my husband would let modern medicine take over. Knowing this information help set up a

plan for treatment.

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Reviewing the survey, there are professional changes I would like to make, being that my

professional language is still developing. I feel as though it was an in-depth questionnaire

because even after 10 years of marriage I was still learning more about my husband that I

didnt know. Asking a friend or a complete stranger these same questions would tell a lot

about them just by the answers and the stories that they share while answering the question,

also by the body language while answering the questions.

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References

Seaward, B. L. (2013). Health of the human spirit: Spiritual dimensions for personal health.

Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.

The Spiritual Assessment - American Family Physician. (n.d.). Retrieved from

http://www.aafp.org/afp/2012/0915/p546.html

Taking A Spiritual Inventory. (n.d.). Retrieved from

http://www.caregiverslibrary.org/caregivers-resources/grp-end-of-life-issues/taking-a-

spiritual-inventory-article.aspx