A womanist approach to understanding and assessing the relationship between spirituality and mental health

Seeing the Forest and the Trees: Using Dynamic Systems Theory to Understand “Stress and Coping” and “Trauma and Resilience”

“…Consistent with many ethnic and indigenous beliefs, well-being, then, is the ability to fluctuate between continuity and flexibility to attain harmony and balance (Comas-Diaz, 2006;Constantine, Myers, Kindaichi, & Moore, 2004;Heath, 2006;Levers, 2006;Portman & Garrett, 2006). Similarly, illness or disorder can be viewed as an imbalance, a constriction into too much continuity (rigidity) or expansion into too much flexibility (crisis and chaos; Siegel, 1999).…”

Routes to transcendence: Disordered eating, substance abuse, and self-injury in young women.

“…This supports not only the theme of stigma, but those of public/private selves and isolation/connection. The theme of stigma is also supported by the work of Heath (2006). While Heath writes of stigma in respect to race, disability, sexuality, and other visible diversities, the women in this study are marginalized due to their problem behaviours; they are an invisible rather than a visible minority.…”

“…The womanist movement arose in reaction to the predominance of White, educated, middle-class women promoting feminism (Heath, 2006). This perspective represents the experiences of women of colour, abused and disabled women, women living in poverty, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered women, and others who have experienced oppressions to which White, middle-class women are typically not subject.…”

“…They also suggest that religious and spiritual communities actively address the issue of domestic violence and provide services to women within their communities. Heath (2006) examined the relationship between spirituality and mental health among Black women. Elucidating the fact that issues of gender, race, and class have been largely ignored in mental health research, Heath advocates a womanist research agenda to address Black women's mental health needs.…”

“…Distinguishing womanist spirituality from dominant conceptions of spirituality, Heath (2006) writes that:…”