Don't Speak, Let Me Lie in Your Arms: Combined Psychotherapy and Spiritual Care for a Case With Fibromyalgia

摘要

A 65-year-old woman with late-onset fibromyalgia came to the pain clinic. She expressed excessive anxiety and helplessness for her pain condition but refused to take pain medicine. Therefore, we arranged psychotherapy and spiritual care for her. A clinical psychologist adopted cognitive-behavioral approaches in the therapy sessions. In addition, she received spiritual care from a pastoral counselor. She has made improvements and behavioral changes after therapy. The frequency of her coming to the clinic has also decreased. We see in this patient that incorporation of psychotherapy into spiritual care, or spiritual care into psychotherapy, is a workable caring mode. Chronic pain not only reduces a sufferer's quality of life but can also be decapacitating (Duenas, Ojeda, Salazar, Mico, & Failde, 2016). Guidelines for chronic pain suggest a multidis-ciplinary caring method that includes physical, psychosocial, and spiritual aspects (Institute for Clinical Systems Improvement, 2013). Spirituality encompasses the experience of connection to the self, others, and the sacred (Dedeli, & Kaptan, 2013). A person with spirituality has the tendency to adopt problem-focused coping or seek social support, both of which lead to a higher satisfaction with life and a better quality of life (Biccheri, Roussiau, & Mambet-Doue, 2016). The effectiveness of multidisciplinary care is often demonstrated in literature about fibromyalgia pain management (Luedtke et al.,2005). However, scant research places emphasis on the spiritual aspect in caring for this group of patients. Therefore, we here report a case of a patient with fibromyalgia who received extensive psychological and spiritual care in addition to routine multidisciplinary pain management.