Supporting Spiritual but Not Religious Residents
A practical, person-centered guide to understanding resident preferences and creating meaningful opportunities for comfort, reflection, connection, and purpose.
Spiritual support in senior living has traditionally centered on worship services, Bible studies, prayer groups, clergy visits, and religious holidays. These programs remain deeply meaningful to many residents and deserve thoughtful support.
They are not, however, the only ways residents find meaning, peace, hope, or connection.
Some residents belong to a faith community. Others have changed their beliefs over time, draw wisdom from more than one tradition, or describe themselves as spiritual but not religious. Still others identify as agnostic, atheist, humanist, uncertain, private about their beliefs, or simply uninterested in spiritual programming.
The Activity Professional’s role is not to define spirituality for residents. It is to learn what matters to each person and help create respectful access to the people, places, practices, and experiences they value.
Quick Answer: Supporting a spiritual-but-not-religious resident does not require unusual or mystical programming. It usually begins with ordinary, meaningful experiences such as nature, music, creativity, family, service, quiet reflection, personal values, remembrance, and opportunities for choice.
What Does “Spiritual but Not Religious” Mean?
There is no single belief system attached to this phrase. It is a personal description, not a denomination or a ready-made activity category.
According to Pew Research Center’s 2023–2024 Religious Landscape Study, 53% of U.S. adults describe themselves as both spiritual and religious, while 21% describe themselves as spiritual but not religious. Another 5% identify as religious but not spiritual, and 21% identify as neither.
Those numbers matter because they remind us that religious identity and spiritual identity overlap, but they are not interchangeable.
For one resident, spiritual well-being may mean receiving Communion or attending weekly worship. For another, it may mean sitting beneath a favorite tree, listening to meaningful music, creating art, helping someone else, discussing life’s larger questions, or staying connected with family traditions.
Source: Pew Research Center, Spiritual and Religious Self-Descriptions
Why This Matters in Senior Living
Moving into senior living can disrupt familiar routines, relationships, community connections, and access to meaningful places. Residents may also be living through illness, grief, changing abilities, or questions about identity and purpose.
Thoughtful spiritual support can help residents maintain continuity with the person they have always been. But that support must remain person-centered.
Federal nursing-home regulations require activity programs to be based on each resident’s comprehensive assessment, care plan, interests, and preferences. Residents also retain the right to choose their activities and participate in social, religious, and community life.
Meaningful Choice Works Both Ways
A resident who wants daily prayer deserves support. A resident who declines organized religion deserves the same respect. No resident should be pressured to participate, disclose personal beliefs, or accept a spiritual label.
Regulatory references: 42 CFR §483.24 and 42 CFR §483.10
Begin With the Resident—not the Label
A checkbox marked “religion” rarely tells the full story. A brief, respectful conversation can provide far more useful information for programming and care planning.
Ask About Meaning
What gives your life meaning?
What helps you feel peaceful or grounded?
What people, places, values, or traditions are important to you?
Ask About Support
Would you like help staying connected with a congregation or community?
Do music, nature, reading, art, prayer, service, or quiet time hold special meaning?
Are there activities or practices you prefer not to participate in?
Document the resident’s own words whenever possible. “Spiritual but not religious” is less useful to the team than a statement such as:
Resident finds meaning through gardening, family relationships, poetry, and quiet time outdoors. She declines group prayer and clergy visits but would like assistance accessing the courtyard and nature programs.
Preferences should be revisited after major illness, loss, a change in cognition, a move, or whenever the resident requests an update.
Calendar Club Monthly Activity System
Need fresh ideas that can be adapted around resident interests, abilities, culture, and personal meaning? Calendar Club gives Activity Professionals practical planning support, printable resources, and monthly inspiration.
Practical Program Ideas
Spiritual-but-not-religious programming does not need to feel foreign or overly abstract. Many familiar activities already support meaning, reflection, connection, and purpose when they are shaped around resident preferences.
Present these as choices—not as treatments or spiritual requirements.
Nature and the Outdoors
Offer garden walks, birdwatching, seasonal flowers, nature photography, sunrise or sunset viewing, indoor nature tables, plant care, or virtual national-park visits.
Music and Meaningful Memories
Invite residents to select music connected with important people, places, values, or periods of life. Allow residents to listen, reminisce, sing, move, or simply enjoy the experience.
Creative Reflection
Use poetry, painting, photography, journaling, collage, meaningful quotations, or familiar objects to explore themes such as home, courage, belonging, hope, friendship, and beauty.
Quiet Personal Time
Protect time and space for residents to read, pray, meditate, draw, knit, listen to music, look through photographs, watch nature, or sit quietly without being required to join a group.
Purpose Through Service
Support resident-chosen projects such as welcome notes, mentoring, garden care, charitable collections, community partnerships, recipe books, pet-support projects, or resident-led committees.
Legacy and Remembrance
Create life-story books, family letters, recorded memories, recipe collections, playlists, memory tables, seasonal remembrance programs, or opportunities to honor people and pets who mattered.
Keep the Programming Clear and Inclusive
Residents should understand what an activity includes before choosing whether to attend. A title such as “Quiet Reflection” becomes more useful when the calendar description explains:
Ten minutes of instrumental music followed by an optional conversation about things that bring comfort and peace. Residents may share, listen, or pass.
Do not advertise a program as secular and then introduce prayer or religious teaching without notice. Likewise, do not treat a faith-specific practice as a generic activity simply because it appears relaxing or interesting.
Simple invitation language helps protect resident choice:
- You are welcome to participate.
- You may share, listen, or pass.
- You may leave at any time.
- There is no correct answer.
Know Your Scope
Activity Professionals can provide opportunities for reflection, creativity, nature, service, connection, remembrance, and resident-selected spiritual or religious practices.
Counseling, trauma processing, treatment of complicated grief, interpretation of unusual experiences, and spiritual-crisis intervention should be referred to qualified clinical, social-service, chaplaincy, hospice, or resident-selected faith professionals.
Supporting Residents Living With Dementia
Dementia does not erase lifelong beliefs, cultural identity, or the need for comfort and belonging. As communication changes, residents may depend more heavily on staff and family history to help identify meaningful supports.
- Use familiar music, prayers, poetry, photographs, objects, scents, or nature images.
- Keep the experience short, calm, and unhurried.
- Demonstrate rather than relying on long verbal instructions.
- Allow residents to observe without requiring participation.
- Watch facial expression, body posture, movement, and vocal tone for signs of comfort or distress.
- Use smaller groups or individual visits when a large gathering is overstimulating.
- Respond to the resident’s present reaction rather than relying only on past affiliation.
Family members may provide valuable history, but a past religious identity should not automatically override the resident’s current preferences, comfort, or response.
Related reading:
Familiar Words as a Gentle Bridge in Memory Care
Turn Preferences Into Useful Documentation
Good documentation describes the resident’s preferences, the support offered, and the resident’s response. It should not make assumptions about someone’s spiritual progress.
Preference Statement
Resident describes herself as spiritual but not religious. She finds meaning in gardening, poetry, family relationships, and quiet outdoor time. She declines group prayer and clergy visits.
Progress Note
Resident chose a 20-minute courtyard visit and discussed flowers she grew at home. She appeared relaxed, initiated conversation, and requested another visit.
Related reading:
What Surveyors Really Look for in Activity Documentation
The Activity Professional’s Role
You do not need to become a spiritual teacher. Your role is to listen, observe, coordinate, adapt, protect choice, and create access.
A strong program may include worship services, clergy visits, nature experiences, music, poetry, creative projects, family traditions, service opportunities, legacy work, quiet spaces, remembrance programs, and support for residents who want none of these.
That question supports deeply religious residents, spiritual-but-not-religious residents, questioning residents, nonreligious residents, and those who prefer to keep their beliefs private. More importantly, it reflects the heart of person-centered activity practice: helping each resident continue to live as an individual rather than asking the individual to fit the program.
Related reading:
One Small Shift for More Meaningful Activities in Senior Living
Frequently Asked Questions
What does spiritual but not religious mean?
It is a personal description used by people who consider spirituality important but do not consider themselves religious. It does not represent one shared belief system or one standard set of practices.
What activities work well for spiritual-but-not-religious residents?
Useful options may include nature, music, art, poetry, quiet reflection, meaningful discussion, service projects, legacy work, and remembrance activities. Selection should always begin with the resident’s stated interests and preferences.
Should Activity Professionals lead spiritual counseling?
No. Activity Professionals can support reflection, meaning, creativity, connection, and resident-selected practices. Counseling, trauma treatment, complicated grief, and spiritual-crisis care should be referred to qualified professionals.
How should these preferences be documented?
Document what gives the resident meaning or comfort, what support the resident wants, what they decline, how the opportunity was provided, and how the resident responded.
