Clinicians, Patients and Divine Realities: An Exploration of How Mental Health Professional Understand Patients Experiences of Divine Realities - Hannah Waite

Summary:

In our society, when an individual discusses experiences of divine realities and they have a diagnosis of a severe mental challenge, these experiences are often categorised and understood as a symptom of illness. The proposed research explores the nature of these religious experiences from the clinicians perspective, by exploring how mental health clinicians perceive and understand patients’ experiences of divine realities.

The research will utilise semi-structured phenomenological interviews with twelve mental health clinicians working within the UK. The clinicians will be mental health professionals who work or have previously worked with patients with acute/severe forms of mental health challenges such as major depressive disorder, psychotic depression, bipolar disorder and/or schizophrenia. 

The focus of the research is to explore how clinicians understand experiences of divine realities in patients with major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder or schizophrenia. Are these experiences viewed purely as a facet or symptom of illness, and as such, are they  perceived as something that is negative and needs to be treated? Can they be understood as meaningful and positive experiences for certain individuals? Or, is there some meaningful combination of the two, in which the clinician can understand that these experiences of divine realities are indeed aspects of a patients diagnoses, but are equally meaningful religious experiences for the patient? 

The proposed research will tease out these questions and provide insightful and nuanced perspectives that seek to inform and impact treatment and understanding of patient experiences going forward.