Spiritual Direction and Deaf Spirituality: Implications for Social Work Practice

Abstract

Spirituality’s relevance to the field of social work has grown through its expansion in literature, research, and practice over the past two decades. While studies in spirituality of diverse human groups abound in social work literature and research, there is a dearth of reported investigations on spirituality in the Deaf community. In this article, results of a mixed method research study that explored the spiritual director’s spiritual and technological experiences, coupled with an examination of the spiritual directees’ experiences, are presented and discussed. Based on findings from thematic analyses of the study, language, and culture were two relational features of spirituality that was congruent with the literature review in Deaf studies. Implications for the social work profession with its holistic approach and emphasis on cultural competency with clients are discussed. While the spiritual and technological experiences of the spiritual director and spiritual directees provided insight that may impact professional practices in the helping professions in the field of deafness, it is suggested that research in social work continue to study spirituality in the Deaf community in order to better understand their spiritual needs and develop culturally appropriate and spiritually sensitive practices.

KEYWORDS:

• spiritual direction
• heuristic inquiry
• case study design
• Deaf culture
• content validity index