Early trauma and serious mental illness: what role does spirituality play?

ABSTRACT

For many who experience serious mental illness, spirituality and religion can be common vehicles that provide a sense of coherence and meaning to life. However, in the presence of early trauma, spiritual and religious beliefs may be enhanced or destroyed, or never develop. This paper explores the relationship between spirituality/religion, early trauma, and serious mental illness. Three case examples from a qualitative phenomenological study are presented to illustrate spiritual and religious struggles that can arise and how a person can work through these over time to use spirituality and religion as positive resources for recovery. Tentative implications for practice are offered.

KEYWORDS:

• Early trauma
• serious mental illness
• spirituality
• recovery
• posttraumatic growth

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.