The impact of a home-based spirituality teaching programme: qualitative exploration of participants' experiences

Context: A growing body of research reports that spiritual well-being plays a significant role in mental wellness. Findings from a completed randomized controlled trial (RCT) indicate that a home-based, eight-week spirituality teaching programme lowers mood disturbance and increases quality of life. In this qualitative exploration the authors set out to understand how participants perceived the programme's impact. Methods: This descriptive, qualitative exploration employed face-to-face, in-depth interviews with 13 individuals from Calgary, Canada. Participants were self-referred clients suffering from emotional distress and purposively sampled from the study population of the previously conducted RCT. Interviews consisted of open-ended questions that focused on how the spirituality teaching programme may have affected mood. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and a thematic analysis was undertaken by three of the authors. Results: Clients described how their mood and life changed throughout and subsequent to the spirituality teaching programme. The following six thematic categories were identified: (1) expansion of spiritual beliefs; (2) changed life perspectives; (3) calmness/mental clarity; (4) relief of mood disorder symptoms; (5) improved relationships; (6) renewed physical energy. Interviewees perceived the first three themes, expanded spiritual beliefs, changed life perspective and calmness, as the core changes that led to improvements in interpersonal relationships, mental health and physical energy. Conclusion: The findings suggest that the programme used with these participants impacts on mood by expanding spiritual beliefs and by shifting perspectives of life situations, in terms of both oneself and others. Spiritual teachings and practices could be an innovative and valuable adjunct intervention to improve mood. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.