On Becoming a Spiritually Competent Psychotherapist

"My previous posts provided three evidence-based reasons why mental health professionals may wish to incorporate issues of spirituality into treatment. Empirical Finding: Religious involvement is most often predictive of better mental, social, and behavioral health. Implication for Practice: Religious involvement and spiritual beliefs and practices are resources that can be used in treatment to enhance coping, healing, and recovery. Empirical Finding: Some forms of religiosity are unhealthy and may cause or contribute to psychological and relationship problems."

"Implication for Practice: Clients' unhealthy religious beliefs and practices may need to be addressed and worked through during treatment to resolve their presenting problems and clinical issues. Empirical Finding: Spiritually integrative psychotherapies are effective, sometimes more effective than secular forms of treatment. Implication for Practice: Psychotherapists may wish to seek training and competency in spiritually integrated psychotherapy. In this post, I will describe what I mean by a spiritually competent psychotherapist."

Spiritual competence requires understanding and respecting diverse religious and spiritual beliefs. Spiritually competent therapists generalize multicultural attitudes and skills to religious and spiritual domains. Religious involvement often predicts better mental, social, and behavioral health and can be utilized as a clinical resource to enhance coping, healing, and recovery. Some forms of religiosity can be maladaptive and may contribute to psychological or relationship problems that require clinical intervention. Spiritually integrative psychotherapies have demonstrated effectiveness, sometimes exceeding secular treatments. Therapists are encouraged to seek continuing education and training to develop competency in spiritually integrated psychotherapy.

Read at Psychology Today