Spiritual Connections in Social Work: Boundary Violations and Transcendence

This keynote address presents insights from diverse spiritual perspectives for transcending interpersonal, cultural, and religious boundaries in the process of spiritually sensitive social work. It presents definitions of spirituality and religion, considers possible boundary violating and harmful impacts of inappropriate social work approaches to spirituality, and introduces contemporary trends in connections with spirituality in social work. Themes to inspire boundary transcendence are introduced, including transformation, liminality, harmony between opposites, and death of the self. Finally, some implications for social work arising from mental clarity are offered.