You don’t have to be religious to receive spiritual care. I understand “spirituality” to encompass all of the different ways that we make meaning and imbue our lives with purpose and passion. There is no situation that is “too intense,” “too shameful,” or “too ugly” to receive spiritual care support. We all deserve care, especially though life’s most painful transitions.
In addition to my work as a gender doula, I have several years of experience working as a hospital chaplain to individuals and families. I’m available to provide support to anyone experiencing disconnection, loss, or uncertainty who desires spiritual care. This could be due to illness, death, the COVID-19 pandemic, or any of life’s other major changes and challenges.
As a chaplain at King County’s Harborview Medical Center (Seattle, WA), the only certified Level 1 adult and pediatric trauma and burn center in Washington State, I served hundreds of individuals from diverse religious traditions who were experiencing acute loss, trauma, and crisis, as well as those with chronic illness. My assigned units included the Medical and Cardiac Intensive Care Unit (MCICU) and the Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit. I am also trained as a death doula through A Sacred Passing (Seattle, WA).
You may find it meaningful to work with me as a spiritual care provider is you or a loved one:
- have had someone close to you die, or is currently dying
- have experienced suicide loss
- have lost a pet
- have a diagnosis of an acute, chronic, and/or terminal illness
- struggle with substance use
- live with mental illness
- have experienced spiritual trauma or abuse
- feel lost or aimless, and want to build connection to self, to your community, and the sacred
Your rootedness has invited me to wonder, what am I rooted in and how is this rootedness manifesting in my care for self and others? You have made it more okay for me to listen to/work with my body than try to work against it or push my body too hard.
— Vanessa