The Wayne E. Oates Institute is a Connected Learning Community exploring spirituality and health as a way to advance integrative care for the whole person. The Oates Institute is a non-profit educational organization made up of caregivers from the medical, spiritual and counseling communities providing a forum for joining together as an interdisciplinary dialogue toward understanding the relationship between spirituality and the healing process.

My father is a clergyman.  Through the years he has faced many of the issues Wayne Oates described in his first published work, The Christian Pastor. This influence was seminal.  In our home, I heard Christian spiritual truths from an early age and, to the extent that our common humanity allows, my parents embodied this. My father engaged in pastoral counseling before the term was used and over time I noticed something quite distinct – many of the problems facing him needed tools in addition to spiritual counsel. For instance, why do people do the things they do? Sometimes, this question could only be answered through scientific inquiry.

As I embarked on a career in psychiatry, I was counseled by well meaning believers to not enter the field – “It will destroy your faith”, they said. However, that did not happen, my faith was not destroyed.  Instead I experienced a growing recognition that all truth is God’s truth.  When clinical psychiatry verified an observation about the human condition, my faith was enhanced.

As a psychiatrist specializing in the problems of children, adolescents and families, I have come to see that all humans need: a secure trusting attachment to others, clear and effective limits on behavior, and an independent identity.  One does not need to look too far into the teachings of the Judeo-Christian tradition to see these views supported.

I have worked primarily in secular settings.  Just as Wayne Oates taught seminarians and clergy that they needed to consider the psychological needs of others, I have worked to equip psychiatrists to consider the spiritual component of their patients' lives, and specifically the patient’s world view. Both clergy and psychiatrists confront human problems, and the truths that equip such work must be the same, although the language varies. I am honored to be the recipient of this year’s Oates Award and I look forward to sharing my work with those who follow in the Wayne Oates’ tradition.

You may hear Allan M. Josephson, M.D. speak on Thursday, October 8, 2009,  at the Wayne Oates Annual Forum and Oates Award Dinner, 6:00 pm, Broadway Baptist Church.  The event sponsor for the evening is Norton Healthcare and the Oates Award is co-sponsored by Long Run Baptist Association and the Oates Institute.  For more information or to register for the Annual Forum go to: www.oates.org or call 502-459-2370.

Make your reservation(s) now