The Contribution of Hagiotherapy to Addiction Treatment: a Patient's Perspective.

BACKGROUND: Hagiotherapy, a therapeutic method for addiction treatment implemented by Remeš (1998) in the Bohnice Psychiatric Hospital, is based on group existential psychotherapy and dealing projectively with sacred (biblical) texts. This paper describes the contribution of hagiotherapy to addiction treatment from a patient's perspective. AIMS: The aim is to outline the principles of this method, as well as finding and describing the common aspects of the patients' experience during the therapy sessions within their inpatient treatment in the Bohnice Psychiatric Hospital. DESIGN AND MEASUREMENTS: The research used an individual questionnaire. An analytical method was used to evaluate the questionnaires. PARTICIPANTS: The research sample consisted of 20 respondents - 16 males and four females. RESULTS: Group meetings are very popular, which indicates the increasing desire to deal with values and morally significant questions. It has turned out that although patients understand what is good and what is evil, they wish to be encouraged in their values and moral attitudes. CONCLUSIONS: Hagiotherapy, which was used with patients in this group, was intended to treat their alcohol addiction or other types of addiction. The Bible turned out to be a suitable therapeutic tool because of its spiritual profundity and the wisdom of its texts. The respondents perceived hagiotherapy as a favourable variation in their treatment. During the sessions they could speak openly without any fear of expressing their opinions. The patients enjoyed participating in the sessions as they saw them as a positive step in their treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]