Invited Speaker 1: Kadam Lucy James

The Medicine of Altruism: A Buddhist Perspective

Kadampa Meditation Center

The impact of altruism on both mental and physical health has been well documented in many Buddhist texts and is now increasingly backed up by Western scientific research. This session will explore how loving-kindness and compassion hold the power to heal, and introduce a Buddhist meditation technique, called taking and giving, or "tong len", that has been used as a medical remedy for centuries. At the conclusion of this program participants will be able to (1) Demonstrate that the practice of compassion has the ability to heal the body, (2) Utilize compassion to relieve mental and physical pain, and (3) Practice an ancient Buddhist technique for controlling symptoms of ill health

 

Invited Speaker 2: Dr. Kevin Masters

Issues in Research on Religion/Spirituality and Health: What Does a Cultural Perspective Have to Offer?

University of Colorado Denver

This session will provide a historical context for research on religion/spirituality and health including emphasis on changing trends and tensions that often arise in this work. Particular emphasis will be provided regarding current findings and topics in need of further exploration and possible ways to explore these topics. Consideration of religion and spirituality as having distinct cultural components will be offered as a potentially useful way to organize research in this area and lead toward precision behavioral medicine.

 

Invited Speaker 3: Dr. Amy Wachholtz

The Role of Religion and Spirituality in Preventing and Treating Addiction

University of Colorado Denver

Religion and spirituality can play and important role for an individual at-risk or currently struggling with addiction.  However, this role may be adaptive or maladaptive.  In this presentation we will review both sides of the issue using empirical research.  We will also address key components that have been empirically shown to create positive, healthy environments for patients looking to use their R/S resources in the context of addiction treatment.

 

Invited Speaker 4: Dr. Jean Kristeller

The Role of Mindfulness in Spirituality and Health

Indiana State University

Religion and spirituality can play important roles for an individual struggling with health-related issues, from obesity to cancer. Mindfulness and meditative practices are understood to engage spiritual well-being within religious contexts; increasing evidence is showing their value in this regard more broadly, including within secular contexts. This presentation will review both the theoretical and conceptual foundations for these effects in relation to health, and research providing the evidence base for these effects. An overview will also be provided of the clinical application approaches shown to be effective, and potential clinical issues.

 

Invited Speaker 5: Dr. Gina Brelsford

Spirituality and Stress in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit: Implications for Couples’ Relationship Functioning and Co-Parenting

Pennsylvania State University Harrisburg

Alongside the typical challenges that come with the birth of a child, the appearance of a fragile, sick infant and changes to the parental role can cause significant emotional distress in parents who have a child in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) (MacIntosh, Stern, & Ferguson, 2004). Many parents are unprepared for their infant’s hospitalization and develop concerns about the potential for long-term negative outcomes for their child. Initially, not being able to hold the infant causes parental emotional distress, and later, due to the infant’s potentially unstable condition, a variety of difficult emotions such as anxiety, depression, or PTSD can emerge (Seideman, Watson, Corff, Odle, Haase, & Bowerman, 1997). This emotional distress can impact parents’ ability to emotionally bond with their infant and respond to her/his needs. These difficulties coupled with prolonged mother-infant separation, frequent lack of privacy during infant care, and lack parental support in the NICU can exacerbate stress while in the NICU and have implications for parenting post-NICU discharge. Thus, it is clear that parents’ experiences in the NICU often results in elevated stress levels, anxiety, and depression (Greene, Rossman, Patra, Kratovil, Janes, & Meier, 2015). Parents’ emotional difficulties can also cause concerns about parenting confidence and the co-parenting relationship, which includes being able to adequately meet the physical and emotional needs of the infant, post-discharge (Harris, Gibbs, Magin-Heimos, Pineda, 2018). Religious and spiritual worldviews contextualize parents’ life experiences in both theistic (i.e., God or gods) or non-theistic ways (i.e., general spirituality not tied to a deity; Mahoney, 2010). Our previous work in the NICU has shown that when parents feel God has abandoned them or when they feel angry at God that they experience poorer family cohesion and increased use of denial, which is a maladaptive coping strategy (Brelsford, Ramirez, Veneman, & Doheny, 2016). We have also found that spiritual struggles with meaning are related to increases in parents’ depression and anxiety (Brelsford, Doheny, and Nestler, 2019). However, there is a paucity of research exploring NICU parents’ spiritual and religious worldviews and struggles in relation to their co-parenting and relationship functioning. Family-integrated NICU care places an emphasis on the family unit as a method of increasing the quality of care for the neonate (He et al., 2018), but few short-term interventions exist to address parental distress and confidence. Interventions stemming from a psychospiritual framework may be especially appropriate for NICU parents given the increased risk for death and/or life-long health problems necessitating their infant’s NICU placement. The psychospiritual perspective, which includes both psychological and spiritual aspects of health and wellness, can positively impact parents’ ability to cope with stressors while in the NICU and bolster positive perceptions of their ability to parent a fragile newborn. Thus, in this talk I will discuss findings related NICU parents’ spirituality and stress in relation to their relationship functioning and co-parenting. I will also avenues of psychospiritual support for NICU parents. 

 

Invited Speaker 6: Dr. Connie Svob

The Role of Religiosity/Spirituality in Families at High Risk for Depression: A Three-Generation Longitudinal Study

Columbia University

Background: About forty years ago we began a study of the offspring of depressed (high-risk) and not depressed (low-risk) parents, matched for age and gender, from the same community. We interviewed all of their biological children, blind to the clinical status of the parents. Over the years, we returned to re-interview the families at baseline, 2, 10, 20, 25, 30, 35, and 40 years. As the years went by and the sample grew up, we also interviewed the third generation, the grandchildren. As technology became available, we included electroencephalography (EEG) and measures of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in order to better understand the mechanisms of risk. At the 10-year follow up, we included measures of religion and spirituality – namely, personal religious/spiritual importance and frequency of religious service attendance. We included these measures in all subsequent waves, including a more extensive follow up of religious beliefs at the 35-year follow up. Issues of Focus: This talk will describe the study design and highlight the key findings of the role of religious/spiritual belief and practice in the transmission and endurance of depression using clinical and biological approaches. Methods: We will describe study findings based on clinical measures, as well as physiological measures that employed magnetic resonance imaging. Results: Taken together, the findings suggest that religiosity/spirituality is protective against depression in high-risk individuals at both clinical and physiological levels. Implications: The findings suggest religiosity and spirituality interact with both culture and biology in their impact on depression.

 

Invited Speaker 7: Dr. John Salsman

Religion, Spirituality, and Cancer: Evidence, Challenges, and Opportunities in an Era of Patient-Centered Medicine

Wake Forest School of Medicine

Religion and spirituality (R/S) serve important roles in the experience of patients with cancer throughout the continuum of care. Research describes the salutary effects of R/S as well as occasions where R/S are associated with poorer health outcomes. In this presentation, the evidence base for the role of R/S in cancer will be reviewed, challenges to the growth of work in this area will be discussed, and opportunities for integration into patient-centered care will be identified.