Date of Conferral

2023

Degree

Ph.D.

School

Psychology

Advisor

Ethel Perry

Abstract

The intersection of sacred healing and medicine was pronounced during the COVID-19 pandemic as researchers found that physicians experienced more difficulty during medical encounters when they did not understand and collaborate with patients’ sacred healing beliefs. As such, the purpose of this narrative qualitative study was to gain an understanding of people’s descriptions of sacred healing by asking participants to share their sacred healing stories at different stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. Antonovsky’s salutogenic model was selected as the theoretical framework, as it described people with a higher sense of coherence tend to have higher health outcomes in the face of illness and threats; along with Mazumdar and Mazumdar’s conceptual framework around sacred spaces in the home and Silva et al.’s sacred healing motivations framework when traveling to sacred sites for healing. Eleven participants were recruited, and their stories were captured and analyzed with a hybrid form of inductive and deductive analysis. Each participant described a significant sacred healing event, and a main narrative theme structure was derived from it along with themes found over the course of the pandemic. The main sacred healing story structure themes included a healing crisis followed by intercession by other and then the ascension of self, followed by spiritual study, transformation/purpose, sacred healing lifestyle, and reaching out to others. The positive social change that can emanate from this research is providing the medical community and people at large with a better understanding of sacred healing while also capturing historical documentation of people’s sacred healing stories during a global pandemic.

Download

Included in

Psychology Commons

Share

 
COinS