Psychotherapists' spiritual, religious, atheist or agnostic identity and their practice of psychotherapy: A grounded theory study

Abstract

In this present grounded theory study, 16 experienced psychologists, who practiced from varied theoretical orientations and came from diverse religious/spiritual/nonreligious backgrounds, explored their personal religious/spiritual/nonreligious identity development journeys, their experiences with clients' religious/spiritual content in psychotherapy sessions, and how their identity may have influenced the way they interacted with religious/spiritual material during sessions. Results revealed that psychologists' spiritual/religious/nonreligious identity is conflicted and complex and that their academic and clinical training did not provide sufficient opportunity to examine how this may affect their therapeutic work. A tentative grounded theory emerged suggesting that psychologists both identified with and were activated by clients' spiritual/religious conflicts and their internal experiences about the spiritual/religious content, both of which presented significant challenges to therapeutic work.

Deciding what belongs: How psychotherapists in New Zealand attend to religion and/or spirituality in psychotherapy

“…Whilst research by Magaldi‐Dopman et al. () has elicited some similar categories, such as “challenges” that include “conflicts,” the findings discussed in this paper outline a comprehensive theoretical process that has not been elicited in any previous work.…”

“…() reported the influence of therapists’ theoretical orientation in their interactions with clients’ RS, whilst Baetz, Griffin, Bowen, and Marcoux () found that it was clinicians’ own RS beliefs, rather than practice guidelines, which “predicted inquiry into their patients’ spirituality” (p. 265). Findings from previous research implied the concept and impact of therapists’ perspective in their decisions (Baetz et al., ; Magaldi‐Dopman et al., ). However, the forming of perspectives and their numerous strands, as conceptualised in Florence's () research, contributes new knowledge to the field.…”

“…However, it has been widely acknowledged that education in RS issues, including fostering therapists' awareness of their own RS perspectives, is lacking in therapist education/ training programmes (Barnett & Johnson, 2011;Bartoli, 2003Bartoli, , 2007Florence, 2009;Greer, 1995;Lukoff & Turner, 1998;Scott, Garver, Richards, & Hathaway, 2003;Shafranske, 1997;Tummala-Narra, 2009). Clinician research participants commented that a paucity of professional education influenced their ability to address clients' RS concerns (Kahle, 1997;Magaldi-Dopman, Park-Taylor, & Ponterotto, 2011;Rossey, 2002). Although "Psychotherapists are trained to take a nonjudgmental stance and be aware of their biases [in their therapeutic practice]" (Verbeck et al, 2015, p. 103), it may be difficult for them to be aware of their biases concerning RS if this area is not included in psychotherapy education.…”

Caring in a Small Urban High School

“…I used a qualitative grounded theory approach to gather and analyze the data (Foss & Waters, 2007;Glaser, 2011;Glaser & Strauss, 1967;Magaldi-Dopman, Park-Taylor, & Ponterotto, 2011).…”

Psychiatric Nurses’ Self-Rated Competence

“…Sweden is a multicultural country with different religious beliefs as well as non-religious identities or spiritualities. Magaldi-Dopman, Park-Taylor, and Ponterotto (2011) indicated by grounded theory that therapists' discussions of spiritual/religious material instigated in themselves anxiety and defensiveness, or energized them. The therapists were disturbed by their own strong emotions and felt that their own education had neglected spiritual/religious training.…”