"Giving closeness when words are not enough" - Clinical pastoral care at Zollikerberg Hospital

How do you support patients in existential crises, e.g. after a stressful diagnosis or before a serious operation?

Patients in hospital not only have a history of illness, but also a history of life and suffering. A serious illness often shatters their self-image. Questions about one's own identity - who am I when I am dependent, weakened or in need of care? - often come to the fore.

Pastoral care in hospital initially means open relationship work. It is a careful endeavour to really get to know a person - with their joys and pains, their happiness and unhappiness, the highs and lows that have shaped their life and led to their current situation. It is also about helping the patient to develop a sense of their own story and to follow it.

My presence, my inner being, is central to the conversation. It has an effect on contact, creates trust and is a prerequisite for genuine interest and attention. Listening should be free of your own ideas, preferences and judgements - in other words, completely unbiased. And ultimately, listening is not just about being present with your ears and mind, but also with your heart. This means not only perceiving information, but also empathising with it. This empathy, our human touchability, creates a connection with the inner world of my counterpart.

A key question that I ask myself as a counsellor is not: "What should I say or do?" but rather: "How do I create enough space for the person's story to be heard?" Pastoral care is the humble yet challenging task of opening up a protective space in which a person can deal with their pain and suffering without fear and confidently search for new paths despite confusion.

Rituals such as communion for the sick also have a supportive effect here as a strengthening way of feeding the sick. A psalm prayer or a blessing places what has been entrusted to you in a wider context of meaning. Because I can trust in the biblical promise "Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them" in my conversations.

Relatives are also often under great pressure. How do you respond to them - and what can you do in such situations?

The approach of empathic dialogue described above is also the same for relatives. True to the motto: "A sorrow shared is a sorrow halved."

Are there typical misunderstandings about your work in hospital that you often encounter?

Fortunately, I have not yet been confronted with such misunderstandings in my practice.

How do you maintain space for presence, silence and personal encounters in the busy hospital routine?

In contrast to other professional groups such as physiotherapy, as a hospital chaplain I don't have any time or target-oriented guidelines for conversations. This takes the pressure off and enables genuine encounters. Patients usually talk about the issues that are most important to them at the moment anyway.

I endeavour to be present with an open, attentive and empathetic attitude. This is supported by my daily contemplative meditation - a prayer practice in which I can surrender the conversations entrusted to me to the power of God. For me, it is a form of beneficial spiritual hygiene. I can also trust in this power of love and creation in my encounters. This is very relieving, because it is not just my own effort that counts.