Journalists don't often talk openly about their own sense of spirituality, however that might be defined. The experience perhaps of meaning in their work beyond the day-to-day? Their faith — whether or not it involves an organised religion? A sense of purpose?

The International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (ISTSS) now has a Special Interest Group for those interested in the link between trauma and spirituality. But journalists? In the news business, scepticism shading into cynicism is in effect part of the job description.

So it was with not a little trepidation that the Dart Centre in Europe brought 18 mainly British and American journalists together on March 5 for a day-long exploration of Journalism, Trauma and Spirituality at the new Frontline Club in London.

Experience in the group ranged widely, including staff reporters and freelancers, video and print journalists and journalism trainers. One had spent years reporting the Vietnam War; others had reported for long periods from Afghanistan and African war zones.

Another came from a career dedicated to crime reporting undercover in the East End of London — and there were journalists too who now do straightforward reporting jobs on London newspapers.

But however hardened the hacks, the day - facilitated by Canon David Meara of St Brides Church in Fleet Street, and by Robin Shohet of the Findhorn Foundation in Scotland — ended with a powerful sense of shared experience and purpose.

“It was an extraordinary day,” said one veteran news correspondent with decades of experience under his belt.

“It opened my eyes to a variety of issues,” said another participant, “from the spectacles we wear while reporting, to coping mechanisms. It made me realise that I am not alone in the way I feel about the world I live in as well as my job as a […] journalist.”

Another, a trainer in journalism who'd been particularly sceptical about this “flakey” subject, commented how helpful it had been to discover how many serious journalists think about these issues — “strong evidence,” she said, “to include this dimension in courses and teaching materials.”

Said another: “It demonstrated that the previously unmentionable linkage of journalism and spirituality is in fact of fundamental importance.”

If not the first time that journalists have been brought together to talk explicitly about spirituality, it was certainly a most unusual event — and one participant, a well-known broadcasting correspondent, noted that just the first five minutes of sharing experiences had made the day worthwhile for him.

It was a day of exploration rather than training or teaching, with journalists talking to each other in confidence, without therapists or observers.

And although the day unfolded with relatively little explicit reference to trauma, let alone the science of emotional distress, it was an important lesson in how to create processes and spaces which support journalists in their own experience and reporting of human distress.

The themes in the various discussion groups were strikingly similar: Truth and Passion; Mission and Integrity; Tenacity and Curiosity; Messenger and Channel; Witness, Beauty and Connection; but also, at times, Cost and Impotence.

Specifically, one group came up with a list of ways they'd found to make meaning of their work, and to cope under conditions at times of extreme stress:

•  Physical exercise and attention to wellbeing;

•  Ritual and humour — for example the lighting of candles, but also the use of black humour when confronted by death and tragedy;

•  Community, and the value of the “pack”;

•  Relationships — felt especially powerfully by those without a long-term partner;

•  Meditation and prayer;

•  Being in “flow” or “in the zone” — a recognition that journalism can at times take the practitioner right out of him or herself;

•  Humility — and handing over responsibility for something you can't change;

•  Story-telling — the cathartic and therapeutic value of witnessing tragedy but being able to tell the story to others;

•  Craft and professionalism;

•  And, finally, the knowledge that there are therapists and mental health professionals available in the background when needed — but not too early and not for everyone.

There was a strong concluding interest in taking these themes forward, and allowing others to join what might become a continuing group.

Participants — and those reading this report — are encouraged to contribute to the debate by writing or telling us (this is after all what the Personal Stories on this site are largely about) of their own experiences.