Don’t speak, let me lie in your arms: Combined psychotherapy and spiritual care for a case with fibromyalgia.


A 65-year-old woman with late-onset fibromyalgia came to the pain clinic. She expressed excessive anxiety and helplessness for her pain condition but refused to take pain medicine. Therefore, we arranged psychotherapy and spiritual care for her. A clinical psychologist adopted cognitive-behavioral approaches in the therapy sessions. In addition, she received spiritual care from a pastoral counselor. She has made improvements and behavioral changes after therapy. The frequency of her coming to the clinic has also decreased. We see in this patient that incorporation of psychotherapy into spiritual care, or spiritual care into psychotherapy, is a workable caring mode. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved)