Religious‐issues group therapy

Abstract

The long‐standing success of a Spiritual Beliefs and Values Group supports the potential value of discussing spiritual issues and challenges the assumption that religious concerns voiced by people with serious mental illness should be considered pathological.

Gilead revisited: Faith and recovery.

“…Over half reported that their church community played a positive role in their coping. Efforts to find ways to build collaboration with faith communities in providing recovery support and ongoing fellowship (Kehoe, 1998) should be maintained and increased. Most importantly, our participants continued to remind us, as we found so clearly in our initial work, the critical importance of being part of a caring community.…”

The integration of religion and spirituality in group therapy: Practitioners' perceptions and practices

“…In addition to these controlled clinical trials, the use of religiously-and spirituallyintegrated group treatments have also been examined using non-controlled designs. Several spiritually-integrated group treatment protocols have been created for individuals with severe mental illness (e.g., Kehoe, 1998;Lingdren & Coursey, 1995;O'Rourke, 1997;Phillips et al, 2002;Sageman, 2004). Using a pre-test post-test design, Lindgren and Coursey (1995) found that participants in the treatment program increased in perceived spiritual support following treatment.…”

Religious and spiritual issues in group counseling: Beliefs and preferences of university counseling center clients and therapists

“…Since then, numerous descriptive articles and a small number of empirical articles have focused almost exclusively on psychoeducational groups (Avants, Beitel, Margolin, 2005;Lindgren & Coursey, 1995;Phillips, Lakin, & Pargament, 2002;McCorkle, 2005;Revheim, Greenberg, & Citrome, 2010;Richards, Owen, Stein, 1993;Rye & Pargament, 2002;Tarakeshwar, Pearce, Sikkema, 2005;Worthington, 2004). A search of the literature located seven articles that described psychotherapy groups that specifically addressed religious and spiritual concerns (Cole & Pargament, 1998;Genia, 1990;Kehoe, 1998;O'Rourke, 1997;Richards, Berrett, Hardman, & Eggett, 2006;Zinnbauer & Camerota, 2004).…”

“…Most attempts to incorporate discussion of religious and spiritual issues into counseling groups have occurred within the contexts of treatment centers for the mentally ill (Kehoe, 1998;Lindgren & Coursey, 1995;O'Rourke, 1997;Phillips et al, 2002;Revheim et al, 2010). Other articles provided descriptions of psychoeducational groups designed for homogenous populations, such as adults coping with addiction, HIV, cancer, disordered eating, social anxiety, and romantic partner betrayal (Avants et al, 2005;McCorkle et al, 2005;Richards et al, 2006, Rye & Pargament, 2002, Rye et al, 2005Tarakeshwar et al, 2005).…”

“…A prime example of an effort to address these issues in group therapy with a severe mental illness population is found in a descriptive article by Kehoe (1998), who has been leading a religious-issues therapy group since the early 1980s. She emphasized that this group is not a vehicle for co-leaders to teach religious or spiritual concepts nor is it a place to suggest how religious or spiritual practices might be useful to clients.…”