Integrating Purpose Research into Spiritual Care Practices

Spiritual care comes in multiple forms and is carried out using various practices; however, at the root of this care is helping people feel that life is meaningful. In turn, spiritual care has been shown to promote well-being and health across contexts. However, limited attention has been paid to whether spiritual care may help also individuals in their development and maintenance of a personal purpose in life. The current article provides a roadmap for considering purpose more fully within frameworks of spiritual care, as well as how spiritual practices can help individuals at different stages of purpose development. We outline how spiritual care may be employed to assist individuals in identifying purposeful activities in daily life, as well as how it may catalyze them toward clarifying their broader purpose in life. In so doing, we hope to demonstrate the importance of distinguishing purpose from meaning when discussing spiritual care as spiritual practices can play distinct roles in promoting well-being across both.