Photo Essay: Spiritual Care at Cleveland Clinic

Hospital chaplains at Cleveland Clinic bring a big tool kit when they meet with patients and families. When they are invited to a room, they know they might be meeting people who are frightened, in pain, worried or in crisis. So the chaplains bring a listening ear. They can lead prayers, say blessings and offer healing touch techniques.

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Fundamentally, as Chaplain Brent Raitz sees it, the team supplies simple yet crucial presence for people who may feel they have, at least temporarily, lost control over their own lives. “In chaplaincy, it’s about showing up,” Raitz says. “It’s not about running people. Sometimes it means letting a patient kick you out of the room because you’re the only person that they can kick out of the room, and it restores a sense of power when everything else seems beyond their power.”

Under the direction of the Rev. Amy Greene, Dmin, Cleveland Clinic’s Center for Spiritual Care provides clinically trained chaplains, holistic nurses and family liaisons to support patients, families and employees through a variety of means. Hospital chaplains come from many faith traditions and meet people along all points of the faith spectrum. The center is also accredited for clinical pastoral education, providing training through weekly sessions as well as summer intensives and a residency program.

“Our work – even before Covid-19 – was and will always be to go where others may fear to tread. We are drawn, through calling and training, to know what to do when there seems little left to do,” says Greene. “Addressing things like dread, fear and grief is hard. We don’t try to cheer people up with hackneyed platitudes. Rather, we stand firm in the painful moments with them, not letting it overwhelm us, and providing a palpable reminder that they are not totally alone in their distress. It may seem like nothing, but countless people have told us otherwise. In an ocean of despair, even a drop of comfort is welcome.”

Throughout much of 2021, Cleveland Clinic photographers Lisa DeJong and Annie O’Neill spent time with members of the Spiritual Care team as they went about their healing work. The images here provide just a glimpse of the breadth of what they do within a system dedicated to support health in every sense of the word.