Fostering Well-being: Spirituality and Creativity in Clinical Practice

Abstract

Well-being is the fruit of the development of maturity of character. Well-being can be fostered through spiritual development involving the search for self-transcendent meaning in a clinical approach that is creative and person-centered. Since Plato’s Chariot Allegory, well-being is understood not as the absence of impairment, but as a dynamic complex of adaptive systems and causes. In line with both Greek philosophy and neuroscience, the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI) is an evidence-based model of personality in which maturity of character is the expression of the creative profile (that is, the combination of high self-directedness, cooperativeness and self-transcendence). The development of a creative profile with strong intrinsic conviction about what is spiritually meaningful is the key to flourishing and resilience despite stressful life events and ultimate situations like suffering and death. Consequently, person-centered therapists can develop their own spiritual awareness and creative perspective in order enhance their effectiveness in fostering the well-being of their clients in clinical practice.