ABSTRACT
This chapter highlights the clinical relevance of spirituality after violent death by providing a brief description of various spiritual beliefs about death followed by specific funeral and memorial practices. It outlines techniques and exercises for spiritual/clinical stabilization for moderating distress, diminishing the trauma of the dying narrative, and reconnecting with meaning and living through a group intervention. For many people, spiritual faith feels like the one constant they can cling to when their loved one has been ripped from them. Most of the more than 200,000 Native Americans who live in the United States are deeply spiritual, with no intention to separate out the spiritual from the natural. If a mental health caregiver wishes to become more spiritually sensitive, the place to begin is to identify one’s own spiritual values and beliefs.
