A Theoretically and Clinically Grounded Model for Spiritual Healing in a Palliative Care Context: Clinical, Ethical, and Theological Perspectives on Harvey Chochinov’s Dignity Therapy
John Berkman, PhD, University of Toronto
Jennifer D Moore, MD, University of Toronto
Moderator: Warren Kinghorn, MD, ThD, Duke Divinity School
The publication in 2012 of Harvey Chochinov’s Dignity Therapy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012) is the culmination of more than a decade of publications through which Chochinov has helped define the currently accepted core competencies and standards for a palliative end-of-life care. There is clearly a spiritual dimension to Chochinov’s work, but he sees the benefits of the therapy as extending to people regardless of their specific religious (or lack thereof) convictions. A key part of Chochinov’s work is to give a focus and specific meaning to the notion of ‘dignity’, a term widely used but rarely defined or explained.
This panel features two panelists who will give different but complementary perspectives on Chochinov’s work. The first presentation will be a case study of the clinical use of dignity therapy among cancer patients in a major North American medical centre and teaching hospital. The first presenter is a clinical professor of medicine who is doing the case study as part of the work of dignity therapy research group at this medical centre. The case study will seek to analyze the benefits of dignity therapy, not merely anecdotally from a particular case study, but as a ‘telling example’ which also represents the results from a large number of case studies done as part of the research group. The first panelist will also discuss the extent to which Chochinov’s therapy provides a unique opportunity for physicians and/or other health care professionals to heal spiritual/religious distress in the end-of-life context.
The second panelist, a professor of theology and ethics, will discuss ethical and theological questions that arise both from Chochinov’s theoretical and empirical presentation of dignity therapy and the empirical results from the many case studies that have been done. Of particular interest will be Chochinov’s explicit (and also implicit) understanding of dignity, and the extent to which this shapes the contours of the therapy. This presentation will also analyze Chochinov’s challenge to the medical establishment about the possibilities of moral and spiritual growth at the end of life, and why this therapy constitutes an integral healing practice for dying patients.
After each panelist presents, the two panelists will briefly respond to each other before turning to general discussion with the audience.
Jennifer D Moore, MD, University of Toronto
Moderator: Warren Kinghorn, MD, ThD, Duke Divinity School
The publication in 2012 of Harvey Chochinov’s Dignity Therapy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012) is the culmination of more than a decade of publications through which Chochinov has helped define the currently accepted core competencies and standards for a palliative end-of-life care. There is clearly a spiritual dimension to Chochinov’s work, but he sees the benefits of the therapy as extending to people regardless of their specific religious (or lack thereof) convictions. A key part of Chochinov’s work is to give a focus and specific meaning to the notion of ‘dignity’, a term widely used but rarely defined or explained.
This panel features two panelists who will give different but complementary perspectives on Chochinov’s work. The first presentation will be a case study of the clinical use of dignity therapy among cancer patients in a major North American medical centre and teaching hospital. The first presenter is a clinical professor of medicine who is doing the case study as part of the work of dignity therapy research group at this medical centre. The case study will seek to analyze the benefits of dignity therapy, not merely anecdotally from a particular case study, but as a ‘telling example’ which also represents the results from a large number of case studies done as part of the research group. The first panelist will also discuss the extent to which Chochinov’s therapy provides a unique opportunity for physicians and/or other health care professionals to heal spiritual/religious distress in the end-of-life context.
The second panelist, a professor of theology and ethics, will discuss ethical and theological questions that arise both from Chochinov’s theoretical and empirical presentation of dignity therapy and the empirical results from the many case studies that have been done. Of particular interest will be Chochinov’s explicit (and also implicit) understanding of dignity, and the extent to which this shapes the contours of the therapy. This presentation will also analyze Chochinov’s challenge to the medical establishment about the possibilities of moral and spiritual growth at the end of life, and why this therapy constitutes an integral healing practice for dying patients.
After each panelist presents, the two panelists will briefly respond to each other before turning to general discussion with the audience.