Disaster Spiritual and Emotional Care in Professional Psychology: A Christian Integrative Approach

In this article, I introduce a Christian integrative approach to disaster spiritual and emotional care in professional psychology. I also contextualize the subfield of disaster intervention within my view of how integration overall will develop in the future. Practice guidelines for integrative disaster spiritual and emotional care are offered, as well as a series of diverse examples of faith-based disaster interventions. Theological and integrative implications are also raised, as well as thoughts on how disaster spiritual and emotional care will contribute to the future of integration. My family and I had moved to South Mississippi just six days before Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast. We had just moved from the Chicago area and did not have phone service or a decent television signal, so we were unaware of the ever so rapidly and dangerously increasing storm that was headed our way. We attended a large church just down the road from where we lived. After the warm welcome and greetings that followed the bellowing choir's opening praise song, the pastor walked solemnly to the podium. With his jaw squared away, in a slow southern draw, he began his message by saying, "If you remember Camille, you know what I'm about to say." My wife looked at me and asked, "Who is Camille ?" to which I replied jokingly, "She must be in the Old Testament." Unfortunately, we quickly learned about Hurricane Camille and were soon introduced to her counterpart, one of the worse natural disasters to ever strike our nation, Hurricane Katrina. Within a few weeks, I found myself active in studying and joining the community response to address the overwhelming spiritual and emotional needs left behind in the wake of the storm, and have been active in this area of work ever sense. Since that time, through various roles and capacities, I have been active in responses to a number of other disasters, such Hurricanes Rita and Gustav, H1N1 pandemic, 2010 Mississippi Delta and 2011 Alabama Tuscaloosa Tornadoes, Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, Japan Tsunami, and New Zealand and Haiti Earthquakes. It is against this backdrop that I introduce a Christian integrative approach to disaster spiritual and emotional care. However, before doing so, I want to contextualize the subfield of disaster intervention within my view of how integration overall will develop in the future. Contextualizing Disaster Intervention within the Future of Christian Psychology It appears that Christian integrationists are becoming more socially aware and action oriented in responding to social injustices and in responding to the root causes of social problems. If we are going to truly attempt to tackle societal systems that cause oppression and suffering, then we must also adopt a broader community approach to our work. I believe the practice and study of disaster intervention rooted in faith has the potential to make significant contributions to the field of integration by stretching our professional identify and by enhancing our professional capabilities and skill set. I would argue that society and the Church need more Christian psychologists who are prepared to provide disaster spiritual and emotional care to help address the challenges and suffering of those affected by disaster. Moreover, I believe that lessons learned from disaster circumstances can give us insight and enhance our work with a wide range of clients (not just disaster survivors). Following are a few examples of ways I see integrationists uniquely contributing to disaster intervention in the future, and conversely, examples of ways I see disaster intervention uniquely contributing to integrationists. Christian psychologists engaged in disaster spiritual and emotional care will be uniquely positioned not only to he able to identify a community's weaknesses but also strengths which can be leveraged for healing in the wake of catastrophe as well as leveraged for the long-term spiritual and emotional resilience of a community. …