GWish - George Washington University Institute for Spirituality & Health

09/02/2026

There’s still time to bring spiritual care more fully into your health setting—wherever you are. Applications for the upcoming ISPEC™ Live Virtual Course are due September 10.

Delivered via livestream, ISPEC gives healthcare professionals practical tools to recognize and respond to patients’ spiritual concerns as an essential part of whole-person care.

To strengthen your own clinical practice and help advance spiritual care within your organization, ISPEC offers skills and a framework you can put into practice.

👉 Click below to apply by September 10

Interprofessional Spiritual Care Education Curriculum [ISPEC™]

08/17/2026

Great article co-authored by Dr. Christina Puchalski. Interested in how YOU can integrate spiritual care into your clinical practice? Join Dr. Puchalski and other faculty members for the Interprofessional Spiritual Care Education Curriculum 24-25 Sept. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s44470-026-00137-0 Click or DM for more information. https://tinyurl.com/3d2mfzxj

08/14/2026

Have you thought about the two-day ISPEC training , but still want to know more? Join Dr. Christina Puchalski and Chaplain Richard Bauer for a one hour information, question and answer webinar. Learn how you can better integrate spiritual care into your clinical practice adopting the generalist (clinician) — specialist (chaplain) model of spiritual care. Register here https://tinyurl.com/4789yasz or for more information: https://tinyurl.com/3d2mfzxj

Interprofessional Spiritual Care Education Curriculum [ISPEC™]

07/27/2026

Have you thought about the two-day ISPEC training , but still want to know more? Join Dr. Christina Puchalski and Chaplain Richard Bauer for a one hour information, question and answer webinar. Learn how you can better integrate spiritual care into your clinical practice adopting the generalist (clinician) — specialist (chaplain) model of spiritual care. Register here https://tinyurl.com/4789yasz or for more information: https://tinyurl.com/3d2mfzxj

05/30/2026

Understory is an inspiring movement of clergy and religious leaders who reflected in their role in impacting the future. Reflections on what it means to serve their congregants across all faiths to help them envision a world that is compassionate and caring. The GWish vision aligns with this growing movement.

The Understory Festival is a civic and spiritual gathering to rehumanize our common life in a time of cultural fragility.

05/29/2026

Dr. Christina Puchalski was honored to serve as a featured presenter at the 7th International Congress in Spirituality and Health (CONUPES 2026) in Juiz de Fora, Brazil.

As part of the congress, she delivered two keynote presentations and led additional workshops for faculty and students, contributing to an inspiring international dialogue on spirituality and health.

Founded by Professor Alexander Moreira-Almeida, CONUPES brings together clinicians, psychologists, researchers, educators, and students dedicated to advancing the integration of spiritual health into clinical care, education, and research. Throughout the conference, Dr. Puchalski was deeply moved by the extraordinary enthusiasm of participants and their authentic commitment to serving patients with compassionate whole-person care.

"The passion was remarkable," she says. "These colleagues are not simply interested in spirituality and health as an academic topic. They are actively seeking ways to integrate spiritual care into their own settings and to better serve and love the people entrusted to their care."
The congress highlighted the growing global momentum behind spirituality and health and the increasing recognition that caring for the human spirit is an essential component of healthcare.

05/29/2026

Dr. Christina Puchalski was honored to serve as a featured presenter at the 7th International Congress in Spirituality and Health (CONUPES 2026) in Juiz de Fora, Brazil.

As part of the congress, she delivered two keynote presentations and led additional workshops for faculty and students, contributing to an inspiring international dialogue on spirituality and health.

Founded by Professor Alexander Moreira-Almeida, CONUPES brings together clinicians, psychologists, researchers, educators, and students dedicated to advancing the integration of spiritual health into clinical care, education, and research.

Throughout the conference, Dr. Puchalski was deeply moved by the extraordinary enthusiasm of participants and their authentic commitment to serving patients with compassionate whole-person care.

"The passion was remarkable," she says. "These colleagues are not simply interested in spirituality and health as an academic topic. They are called to this work. They are actively seeking ways to integrate spiritual care into their own settings and to better serve and love the people entrusted to their care."

The congress highlighted the growing global momentum behind spirituality and health and the increasing recognition that caring for the human spirit is an essential component of healthcare.

05/27/2026

Dr. Christina Puchalski was honored to serve as a featured presenter at the 7th International Congress in Spirituality and Health (CONUPES 2026) in Juiz de Fora, Brazil. As part of the congress, she delivered two keynote presentations and led additional workshops for faculty and students, contributing to an inspiring international dialogue on spirituality and health.

Founded by Professor Alexander Moreira-Almeida, CONUPES brings together clinicians, psychologists, researchers, educators, and students dedicated to advancing the integration of spiritual health into clinical care, education, and research.

Throughout the conference, Dr. Puchalski was deeply moved by the extraordinary enthusiasm of participants and their authentic commitment to serving patients with compassionate whole-person care.

"The passion was remarkable," she says. "These colleagues are not simply interested in spirituality and health as an academic topic. They are called to this work. They are actively seeking ways to integrate spiritual care into their own settings and to better serve and love the people entrusted to their care."

The congress highlighted the growing global momentum behind spirituality and health and the increasing recognition that caring for the human spirit is an essential component of healthcare.

05/11/2026

A new international study published in the American Society of Clinical Oncology journal JCO Oncology Practice includes contributions from Christina M. Puchalski and reinforces a message she has championed for decades: spiritual care is an essential part of whole-person cancer care.

The survey included 670 oncology and palliative care clinicians across 55 countries. While 90% agreed spiritual care is important — and 92% said spiritual distress impacts patient outcomes — very few clinicians reported consistently screening for spiritual needs.

The study also found that most clinicians want more training in this area, reinforcing the growing recognition that caring for patients means caring for the whole person: body, mind, and spirit.

PURPOSESpiritual care is recognized by the WHO and consensus frameworks as integral to whole-person oncology care, yet its integration into practice remains limited. Global data on clinician beliefs, practices, and barriers are limited. The aim was to ...

04/27/2026

Among neuro-oncology patients, ICU recovery settings, high-risk community clinics, and many more innovative applications, GWish Scholars are advancing the integration of spiritual care into routine clinical practice.

Through the GWish Project, interprofessional clinician–chaplain teams develop and evaluate demonstration projects grounded in the Generalist–Specialist model of spiritual care. In this framework, clinicians incorporate spiritual screening and history into standard care, while board-certified chaplains provide comprehensive spiritual assessment and specialized support.

These initiatives contribute to a growing evidence base for spiritual care, examining implementation, outcomes, and scalability across diverse healthcare environments. Findings are shared through an ongoing Learning Collaborative, supporting dissemination of best practices and model refinement.

Collectively, this work advances the field toward recognizing spiritual health as an essential dimension of whole-person care.

As part of the GWish Project, we are inviting clinician/chaplain pairs to develop and conduct demonstration projects consisting of interprofessional spiritual care clinical models that can be tested in multiple health settings. Findings will then create pathways for future research, grants, and a la...