Rights statement: This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Mental Health, Religion and Culture on 14/06/2019, available online: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13674676.2019.1606186
Accepted author manuscript, 455 KB, PDF document
Available under license: CC BY-NC: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Final published version
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
<mark>Journal publication date</mark> | 1/07/2019 |
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<mark>Journal</mark> | Mental Health, Religion and Culture |
Issue number | 3 |
Volume | 22 |
Number of pages | 18 |
Pages (from-to) | 261-278 |
Publication Status | Published |
Early online date | 14/06/19 |
<mark>Original language</mark> | English |
There is a lack of research examining the mental health of practicing mediums, yet the nature of mediumship work inherently presents a number of challenges to the mental health of practitioners. In this study, we aimed to gain an understanding of how mediums experience their mental health in relation to their mediumistic practice and how they recognise and respond to psychological difficulties experienced by their clients. Fourteen mediums from the North West of England took part in one-to-one interviews, which were transcribed and subject to interpretative phenomenological analysis. Four themes were identified: from past traumas to mediumistic identity; spirit makes sense, mental illness is chaos; being resilient but vulnerable; and ethical mediumistic practice. The research highlights the value of not dismissing or attempting to change appraisals of valued aspects of mediums’ anomalous experiences. However, the findings do indicate that support for exposure to clients’ difficulties might be helpful.