A therapy group on spiritual issues for patients with chronic mental illness.
The author describes experiences gained over 18 years of conducting a therapy group for chronically ill psychiatric patients that focuses on spiritual beliefs and values. The group is held in a day treatment center and is attended by both men and women, whose ages have ranged from 22 to 60 years. Staff concerns that discussion of religious and spiritual material would foster patients' delusional ideation or strengthen their defenses and be counterproductive to treatment or that patients could not tolerate diverse systems of beliefs have not been borne out. Such groups foster tolerance, self-awareness, and nonpathogenic therapeutic exploration of value systems. Group rules contributing to its success are tolerance of diversity, respect of others' beliefs, a ban on proselytizing, and open membership.