Psychotherapy with religious and spiritual clients: an introduction

Worthington, Everett L.; Aten, Jamie D.

doi:10.1002/jclp.20561

Cited by 52 publications

(48 citation statements)

References 20 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Cultural humility and religious commitment. As stated previously, clients' selfrated religious commitment can influence the degree of fidelity and trustworthiness that they ascribe to their clinicians, and studies have shown that level of religious commitment can interact with cultural humility to impact therapy (Owen et al, 2014, Worthington & Aten, 2009). For instance, Owen and colleagues (2014) found that while clinician cultural humility was positively associated with therapy outcomes in general, it was of greater importance when clients were high in religious commitment.…”

Section: Intersecting Factor Relationshipsmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…on measures of religious commitment (more than one standard deviation above average) tend to interpret life events using a religious lens, and they demonstrate greater sensitivity to the religious perspective of their clinicians (Worthington, 1988;Worthington & Aten, 2009).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Highly religious clients report feeling threatened when they perceive their clinicians to be non-affirming, and they are more likely than less-religious clients to resist intervention or spontaneously terminate therapy (Wade, Worthington, & Vogel, 2007;Worthington & Aten, 2009). While negative clinician responses to client beliefs can weaken rapport with a broad range of religious clients, highly religious clients may take affront to both negative responses and commonly-used, neutral responses (Gockel, 2011;Knox et al, 2005).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A common therapeutic response such as "tell me about why my beliefs are important to you" may appear evasive to highly religious clients, and they may subsequently assume that the clinician will be unsupportive (Worthington, 1986;Thurston, 2000). Similarly, general statements such as "I consider all religions to be equally important" can be perceived by highly religious clients as a sign that the clinician will not appreciate the personal weight and importance of their belief system (Worthington & Aten, 2009). Researchers have noted that, even when clinicians offer ample support of client beliefs at a later point, early therapeutic ruptures may still result in resistance or termination (Thurston, 2000;Pargament et al, 2013).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Doctrinal dialogues: factors influencing client willingness to discuss religious beliefs

Judd

2019

Mental Health, Religion & Culture

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Religious beliefs are an important part of daily life for many individuals; however, these beliefs are often not discussed in therapy settings. As a result, clients and clinicians may encounter barriers to treatment and be unable to harness potentially beneficial aspects of the religious belief system. The current study investigated factors influencing client willingness to discuss religious beliefs with a therapist, with the factors of interest being perceived clinician cultural humility (PCH), religious outlier status (ROS), and religious commitment (RC). Participants in the current study (N = 535) completed measures assessing RC and ROS and viewed a five-minute clip depicting a therapy session in which the clinician was either high or low in cultural humility. They then rated their perceptions of clinician cultural humility and their willingness to discuss religious beliefs with the therapist depicted in the clip. It was predicted that PCH, ROS, and RC would each separately predict willingness to discuss and would significantly contribute to a full three-factor regression model. PCH was expected to be the strongest predictor in the full model, and significant interactions were expected between PCH and ROS and between PCH and RC. Results demonstrated that PCH and ROS significantly predicted willingness to discuss when considered separately, while RC did not. In the full model, PCH was both the strongest predictor and the only significant predictor, accounting for 36% of the variance in willingness to discuss. These results emphasize the importance of clinician cultural humility in establishing an open therapeutic environment. Moreover, they suggest that clients are more willing to discuss their religious beliefs with a clinician who is high in cultural humility than one who is not, regardless of more stable client factors such as religious commitment and religious outlier status. These findings have implications for training and clinical practice, as they suggest that cultural CLIENT RELIGIOUS BELIEFS Judd, Katherine, 2017, UMSL, p.3 humility may be more important than cultural competence in some therapy situations, particularly when working with religious clients.

show abstract

Section: Intersecting Factor Relationshipsmentioning

confidence: 97%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Doctrinal dialogues: factors influencing client willingness to discuss religious beliefs

Judd

2019

Mental Health, Religion & Culture

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…There are also several case studies applying spiritual or religious interventions from which we can learn, like Dwairy's (2009) case study of the effect of therapy with Arab-Muslim clients using culture analysis and metaphor psychotherapy. With so many spiritually oriented therapists (there are, for instance, 50,000 therapists in the American Association of Christian Therapists alone; Worthington and Aten, 2009), psychology offers many examples of forms and instruments, both for practice and research, that could be adapted for the conflict resolution field.…”

Section: Awareness and Disclosure Of Values (Lessons From Psychology)mentioning

confidence: 99%

God in the process: Is there a place for religion in conflict resolution?

Goldberg

Blancke

2011

Conflict Resolution Qtrly

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

There is a growing demand for religion and spirituality in conflict resolution processes. Is this dangerous or praiseworthy, and how should we respond? The authors reviewed literature from conflict resolution, psychology, and law. They conclude that faith, religion, spirituality, and values: (1) can have a safe place in the process; (2) need to be a subject of expertise for conflict resolvers; and (3) should be understood through the self-awareness work of being an ethical practitioner, regardless of their beliefs. The authors explore the implications of this for the selfdetermination of parties and the legitimacy of third-party roles.

show abstract

Religion and spirituality in therapeutic training in the UK: A survey of current and recent trainees

Hunt

2024

Couns and Psychother Res

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

BackgroundResearch indicates counsellors and psychotherapists receive little training around working with clients who present with religious or spiritual issues and feel unprepared to work with these clients.AimsThis paper presents part of the findings from an online survey that aimed to explore how trainee and newly qualified counsellors and psychotherapists, who identify as religious or spiritual, experienced undertaking therapeutic training in the UK.MethodThis online survey collected data on how much training participants received on their courses in religion/spirituality, how this training was delivered, how satisfied they were with their training, their knowledge base and skills around religion/spirituality, and what areas relating to religion/spirituality participants would like to see incorporated into therapeutic training. The survey data were analysed using descriptive statistics and thematic analysis.ResultsOver half of the participants received no training in this area, with a further third receiving minimal input. Participants reported low satisfaction rates with training received unless integrated throughout their course and identified specific knowledge gaps around religious/spiritual literacy, therapeutic skills, and awareness of religion and mental health research. Participants wanted more input on religion/spirituality in the training syllabus to increase their knowledge base and therapeutic competences.ConclusionThis research employed a non‐randomised sample, which limits the generalisability of these findings to a wider training population. Survey participants were also a highly religious/spiritual group, with 87% indicating they engaged in weekly religious/spiritual practices. Participants identified as Christian and White, and reported receiving person‐centred or integrative training.

show abstract

Psychotherapy with religious and spiritual clients: an introduction

Cited by 52 publications

References 20 publications

Doctrinal dialogues: factors influencing client willingness to discuss religious beliefs

Doctrinal dialogues: factors influencing client willingness to discuss religious beliefs

God in the process: Is there a place for religion in conflict resolution?

Religion and spirituality in therapeutic training in the UK: A survey of current and recent trainees

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About