Assessing African American spirituality with spiritual ecomaps

While there is increasing awareness that spirituality is a central dimension of human existence, there are few assessment instruments that operationalize spiritual strengths in a clinically useful manner. Further, instruments tailored specifically for African Americans, the population for whom spirituality may be most salient, have been almost completely lacking in the literature. Correspondingly, this paper develops a diagrammatic assessment instrument, spiritual ecomaps, for assessing African American spirituality. After delineating the theoretical components of a spiritual ecomap, practical suggestions are given for the instrument's use, including a number of possible interventions that flow from the assessment process. A case study is provided to familiarize the reader with the instrument. The paper concludes by offering suggestions for using the instrument for other populations in a culturally sensitive manner.