Patricia Aldred
Spiritual Care and Guidance and Community Involvement Animator
Email: paldred@lbpsb.qc.ca
The Spiritual Care and Community Involvement Service offers
spiritual accompaniment to student facing the death of a loved one.
What is Spiritual Accompaniment?
The spiritual animator is an integral member of the school’s Student
Services team. They work as part of a multi-disciplinary team,
coordinating efforts with the professionals and administration to
better meet the needs of the student population.
The question of what type of relationship the spiritual animator has
with students is paramount in distinguishing his/her role in the
Student Services team and their professional boundaries with
students. In one to one interventions, the animator attempts to
address the spiritual, emotional and religious needs of the student
as these aspects of life contribute to and are part of the student’s
reality. Quality in spiritual animation means a service which is
available, accessible, spiritual in focus, and respectful of
particular expressions of faith and cultural traditions.
The role of the “accompanier” best captures what is the animator’s
relationship to the student body. This would mean the spiritual
animator would be trained in the area of active listening. It is
vital to simply be present during times of difficulty. The role of
the animator is not to mentor students according to his or her own
sense of what is right. The role of the animator is to listen, to
seek out students who are suffering and non-judgmentally accompany
them through their difficulty. This includes, but is not limited to
the areas of bereavement support, family crisis, self -esteem,
stress management.
As such, the spiritual animator’s role and responsibilities would
often overlap with other professionals including the Guidance
Counselor, Social Worker, Psychologist, Special Education
Technician, etc. As a member of the Student Services Team, the
animator would be able to coordinate his/her efforts with other
professionals and administration to better meet the needs of the
school community. It should be made clear that the spiritual
animator does not do long term counseling or therapy with students.
When a particular situation with a student comes up and is clearly
beyond the skills of the animator, it is the animator’s
responsibility to refer the student to a qualified professional with
the expertise appropriate to the situation.
Bereavement Support
Several support groups for bereaved students are also run in
collaboration with other members of the Pierrefonds Comprehensive
Student Services Team. The group is a confidential and voluntary
body with between 3 to 6 members that meets for six session.
The expectation is that the group would focus primarily on the
future and would help each member learn to move forward despite the
loss, the pain and the major changes each has experienced. Although
the group will explore painful issues surrounding bereavement, the
facilitators endeavour to ensure that such discussion be safe and
gentle. The group is sensitive to letting the individual students
set the agenda and no one is made to feel they have to say
something.
