Reflections on spirituality, health, and human flourishing from The Well, A Center for Hope and Healing
Katherine Forbes-Smith, DNP, FNP-BC
Founder and President, The Well, A Center for Hope and Healing
Nearly twenty years ago, the vision for The Well began to take shape. Rooted in my personal faith and informed by my experiences in healthcare, I began to imagine a place where healing could be approached more comprehensively—one that recognized the interconnectedness of physical, emotional, relational, and spiritual well-being.
When The Well opened its doors in 2011, we were guided by a conviction that health involves far more than the absence of illness. We believed that meaningful healing required attention to the whole person and that overlooking the spiritual and relational dimensions of human experience could mean overlooking important aspects of health and well-being.
At the time, our vision was shaped less by an established body of scientific research and more by faith, clinical experience, and an emerging understanding of what it means to be truly well. I believed God was leading me toward this work, although I couldn't have anticipated how profoundly my own experiences and personal struggles would deepen my understanding of the very principles upon which The Well was founded.
Learning to Trust
Around the time the vision for The Well was beginning to unfold, I was navigating a particularly anxious season of my own life. I was a young mother with three little girls, and despite being a healthcare professional who understood the science of medicine, I struggled with a tremendous amount of fear. I had experienced several miscarriages, painful reminders that even when I did everything I knew to do, I couldn't always control the outcome. And then I was diagnosed with Long QT syndrome, a potentially life-threatening genetic heart condition that carried implications not only for my own health, but for my children, who each had a 50% chance of inheriting it.
I was terrified. Not only of what might happen to me, but of what might happen to them. I remember one particular afternoon when my husband had taken the girls to soccer practice. I was home alone, overwhelmed by worry about whether my children might have this condition and whether they should even be playing soccer.
I found myself sitting on the kitchen floor by the door, sobbing. I cried out to God, asking Him to comfort me, to help me find some peace in the midst of circumstances I couldn't control. Eventually, I gathered myself together before the family returned home. Not long after they walked through the door, my oldest daughter, Ava, who was five years old at the time, came running into the kitchen in tears. She sat down on the floor, in the exact same spot where I had been crying just an hour earlier. I was startled. Ava rarely cried, and I couldn't imagine what had happened to upset her so much. Through her tears, she held up her little finger. She had a splinter.
Now, as a family nurse practitioner, removing splinters was something I knew how to do. What felt terribly frightening to my little girl was something I knew I could easily take care of. I remember looking down at her and saying, "Ava, don't be afraid. Don't you know who I am? I'm your mother. I can take care of this. You don't need to be afraid."
And in that very moment, I sensed God, looking down on me in the same spot where I had been sitting just an hour before, speaking those same words back to me.
"Katherine. Don't be afraid. Don't you know who I am? I'm your loving Father. I can take care of this. Just as you can take care of your daughter's splinter. Do not be afraid."
I have never forgotten that moment. The peace that followed was beyond logic. Nothing about my medical diagnosis had changed. There were still questions to answer, risks to understand, and decisions to make. But something had changed within me. I felt a peace that I hadn't been able to find through all my worrying, researching, and attempts to control the unknown.
This was one step in a long journey of beginning to understand that trusting God didn't mean I would never experience suffering or that everything would turn out exactly as I hoped. It meant I didn't have to carry the weight of every unknown by myself, and that despite my circumstances, I could experience freedom from fear and anxiety. That experience became an important part of my own spiritual journey. And as the vision for The Well continued to unfold, it became an important reminder that I held close. Starting The Well required stepping into uncertainty. There were so many things I couldn't predict or control. But I was learning that faith wasn't necessarily about knowing what would happen next. It was about trusting the One who was inviting me to take the next step.
The practice of trusting God was becoming part of my own healing. And, in many ways, it was also becoming part of the foundation of The Well.
A Meaningful Connection at Harvard
Fast-forward nearly twenty years.
Yesterday, that same little girl who came running into my kitchen with a splinter attended a conference at Harvard University titled Christianity and Public Health. Ava now serves as the intake coordinator at The Well while pursuing her Master of Public Health degree at Gordon College. The conference brought together scholars, clinicians, students, and practitioners to explore the relationship between Christian faith, public health, and human flourishing.
There is something deeply meaningful to me about this connection. The little girl whose fear became an unexpected lesson in trusting God is now studying public health and engaging with researchers who are asking serious scientific questions about the relationship between spirituality and health.
As Ava shared her reflections afterward, I was struck by how encouraged she was — not simply by what she learned, but by the number of people and institutions interested in these questions. Having grown up around The Well and now working within its mission, Ava has long understood the importance of caring for the whole person. The relationship between spirituality and health isn't a new concept to her. It's part of the environment in which she was raised and something she has come to value personally and professionally. What surprised her was discovering just how many people beyond her own familiar circles were asking similar questions.
Much of what she heard presented as new or emerging research reflected ideas that have shaped The Well's approach to care for years. And while the scientific investigation of these questions is still developing, there was something affirming about discovering that the conversation was taking place well beyond our own little corner of the world. What had long been important within her own experience was also becoming the subject of serious academic inquiry.
But what encouraged me most about Ava's reflections was her enthusiasm for the research itself. She wasn't simply excited that scientists might validate something she already believed. She was excited that people were willing to ask the questions, design thoughtful studies, and follow the evidence wherever it might lead— even if the findings challenged their assumptions.
I love that. It reflects the kind of intellectual curiosity and humility that I believe should characterize both good science and thoughtful faith. Ava was also encouraged by the work being done across the country to address health disparities and inequities. At a time when conversations about healthcare can feel so politically charged and discouraging, she came away with a renewed sense of hope. Her excitement was contagious. And as I listened, I found myself reflecting again on the journey of The Well. We began with a vision rooted in faith and a conviction that healing must include the whole person. Nearly twenty years later, a new generation of public health professionals is helping to advance the scientific conversation around many of these same ideas.
One of the leading voices in this field is Dr. Tyler VanderWeele, an epidemiologist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and director of Harvard's Human Flourishing Program. His work explores a question that I find both scientifically fascinating and deeply human:
What helps people truly flourish? Not simply survive. Not simply avoid disease. But live lives characterized by meaning, connection, purpose, healthy relationships, and well-being. It is a question that feels remarkably close to the heart of The Well.
What Science Is Telling Us About Spirituality and Health
For much of modern medical history, spirituality has been treated as something largely separate from healthcare-a matter of personal belief rather than something worthy of serious scientific investigation.
That is changing. In 2022, a multidisciplinary team of researchers, including Dr. VanderWeele, published an important systematic review in JAMA, one of the world's leading medical journals. The researchers examined hundreds of studies exploring the relationship between spirituality, serious illness, and health outcomes. Their findings led an expert panel to recommend that healthcare professionals give greater consideration to spirituality as part of patient-centered care (Balboni et al., 2022).
The research is encouraging. Studies have found that regular participation in religious communities is associated with lower rates of depression, certain suicidal behaviors, substance misuse, and mortality. Spirituality and religious participation have also been associated with greater meaning, purpose, life satisfaction, and social connection.
In a separate 2017 review, VanderWeele found that participation in religious communities was associated with multiple dimensions of human flourishing, including physical and mental health, happiness, close relationships, and a sense of purpose. Interestingly, the associations were generally stronger for communal religious participation than for private spiritual practices or religious identity alone. Researchers believe several pathways may contribute to these relationships, including social support, shared values, healthier behaviors, a sense of belonging, and the ways spiritual beliefs help people make meaning of difficult experiences.
Of course, we need to be thoughtful about how we interpret these findings. Much of the research identifies associations rather than proving that religious participation directly causes better health. Spiritual experiences are complex, and not all religious experiences are positive. Spirituality is not a guarantee against illness, nor is faith a substitute for appropriate medical or psychological care. But these findings are significant. They suggest that the spiritual dimension of human life deserves a place in serious conversations about health and well-being. And for those of us who have spent years working at the intersection of faith and healthcare, that is deeply encouraging.
We Are More Than Our Symptoms
As a healthcare clinician, I have spent much of my professional life working within a medical system that is extraordinarily skilled at diagnosing and treating disease. I am profoundly grateful for evidence-based medicine, scientific discovery, and the remarkable advances that have improved and saved countless lives. But I have also seen the limitations of a healthcare model that can become so focused on what is wrong with the body or mind that it has little time to ask what is happening in the person's life or soul. What gives this person hope? What relationships sustain them? What losses are they carrying? What do they believe about themselves, their purpose, or their worth? Where do they find peace? What role, if any, does faith play in how they understand their suffering?
These are not insignificant questions. They are often central to how a person experiences illness, responds to treatment, navigates adversity, and moves toward healing.
I think back to that afternoon on my kitchen floor. My cardiac diagnosis was a medical reality. It required appropriate evaluation, monitoring, and care. My fear was also real, and it affected how I experienced daily life, how I thought about my future, and how I cared for my children. But the peace I experienced that afternoon came through a spiritual encounter that helped me understand my circumstances differently. It didn't eliminate the medical reality. It changed my relationship to the uncertainty.
My faith didn't need to change my diagnosis in order to change my experience of living with it.
And that distinction matters. I have come to believe that excellent healthcare should not require us to choose between scientific understanding and spiritual meaning. Science helps us understand the extraordinary complexity of the human body and mind. Our spiritual lives help us wrestle with questions of identity, purpose, suffering, hope, and what it means to live well. Both deserve our attention.
Why Spirituality Is Foundational to The Well
This is where the mission of The Well is distinctive. We are a Christian organization, founded on the belief that every person has inherent dignity and worth and is created for relationship, meaning, and wholeness. Our faith informs how we understand healing and how we approach the people entrusted to our care. But integrating spirituality does not mean assuming that everyone who comes to The Well shares our beliefs. Nor does it mean introducing religious practices into every clinical encounter. It means recognizing that spirituality can be an important part of the human experience and creating space for it to be acknowledged and explored when it is meaningful to the person receiving care. For some, that may mean integrating Christian faith, prayer, or spiritual reflection into their therapeutic journey. For others, it may mean exploring questions of meaning, identity, purpose, grief, forgiveness, or connection. And for some, spirituality may not be something they wish to discuss at all. We honor that, too. Our responsibility is not to impose a particular spiritual experience or outcome. It is to offer excellent, ethical, evidence-based care in an environment where the whole person is welcomed, respected, and valued.
Over the years, we have had the extraordinary privilege of walking alongside people through some of life's most difficult seasons. We have witnessed healing that is difficult to capture in a clinical note or measure with a standardized assessment. We have seen people rediscover hope when they thought it was lost, find meaning in the midst of suffering, experience freedom from burdens they had carried for years, and begin to flourish in ways they hadn't imagined possible. Not every story has been one of complete healing or resolution. We know that faith does not exempt anyone from illness, suffering, or loss. But we have seen how spiritual care, when offered alongside excellent clinical treatment, can create space for something deeply meaningful: a renewed sense of hope, belonging, purpose, and peace.
Integrating spirituality isn't simply another service we offer at The Well. It is part of how we understand the person sitting in front of us.
We believe that people deserve care that recognizes both the complexity of their needs and the fullness of their humanity. And that conviction has shaped The Well from the very beginning.
A Reflection on Faith, Science, and the Practice of Trust
One of the things I appreciate most about the emerging research on human flourishing is that it challenges us to think beyond the traditional measures of health. We have become very good at measuring symptoms, diagnoses, treatment response, and disease burden. These measures are essential. But what about hope? Meaning? Peace? Belonging? Purpose? What about the ability to experience joy in the midst of difficulty, to remain connected to others through suffering, or to discover that life still holds meaning when circumstances cannot be changed? These are also important dimensions of human well-being.
I am reminded of the words in 3 John 1:2:
"Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers."
I love the way this verse holds together physical health and the well-being of the soul. It is not a promise that faith will keep us healthy or free from suffering. Rather, it reflects a concern for the whole person.
I think again about that little girl on my kitchen floor. What seemed like such a small moment became an important lesson that has stayed with me through years of uncertainty, growth, and change. The practice of trusting God has never been about having all the answers. It has been about learning to recognize His presence in the midst of the questions. And nearly twenty years later, I am still learning. And perhaps one of the unexpected gifts of this journey is watching the next generation take these questions further.
Ava's experience at Harvard reminded me that the vision God places in our hearts may have implications far beyond what we can see or imagine at the beginning. What started as a dream for a small community of people seeking healing has become part of a much larger conversation about what it means for individuals, families, and communities to flourish. And as a result, I find myself hopeful. Hopeful because thoughtful researchers are willing to investigate the relationship between spirituality and health with scientific rigor. And hopeful because I believe faith, compassion, and scientific discovery each have something important to contribute to the pursuit of healing.
At The Well, we will continue to follow that original vision, holding fast to our commitment to excellent clinical care while making room for the spiritual lives of those we serve. Because we believe that healing is about more than getting better. It is about restoration, connection, hope, and the possibility of becoming whole. And that is a vision worth continuing to pursue.