Results of the Rech Conference Survey on Religious Faith and Professional Psychology

Abstract

The results of an extensive survey of the alumni of three doctoral- and four master's-level Christian graduate training programs in professional psychology are reported. The purpose of the survey was to assess how programs have done in training students in the integration of psychology and Christian faith. A total of 1,548 surveys were mailed out; a return rate of 41.3% limited the conclusiveness of the findings. The sample was found to be morally and religiously conservative; master's alumni were typically more conservative than were doctoral alumni. Alumni overwhelmingly identified themselves as evangelicals and reported a fairly high frequency of defined “religious behaviors.” Graduate training experiences had a moderately positive impact upon personal faith. Satisfaction with training in the task of integration was quite modest. Various measures indicated substantial commitment to the integration of Christian faith and the practice of professional psychology. Practitioners are most frequently eclectic, psychodynamic, cognitive-behavioral, or family systems in orientation. Frequency of use of specifically “religious” intervention techniques was low.

Therapists' Use of Religious and Spiritual Interventions in Christian Counseling: A Preliminary Report

“…For example, Shafranske and Malony (1990b) surveyed 409 clinical psychologists and found that greater involvement in organized religion correlated .27 with the use of religious and spiritual interventions. Jones et al (1992) conducted a survey of 640 doctoral-and master'slevel clinical psychologists (i.e., those who had master's degrees and those who had doctorates) who identified themselves as explicitly Christian in practice. These authors found that a composite of four religious behaviors (i.e., personal prayer and Bible study, church attendance, participation in church activities, and financial contributions to church) correlated .41 with the use of religious and spiritual interventions in counseling.…”

“…More recently, Prest et al (1999), in their survey of 52 student marriage and family therapists, found that 86.3% of the sample believed it was necessary to work with a client's spirituality if a therapist really expected to help the client. Although several studies have found that personal religiousness on the part of the therapist is associated with his or her beliefs regarding the use of religious and spiritual interventions in counseling (DiBlasio & Benda, 1991;Jones et al, 1992;Shafranske & Malony, 1990a), no study to date has examined therapists' professional beliefs, attitudes, and values regarding the use of religious and spiritual interventions in counseling with their actual use of those interventions.…”

“…One other factor that has been identified as being important to the religious faith of therapists, but that has not been examined in relation to therapists' use of religious or spiritual interventions in counseling, is the therapist himself or herself having been in counseling (hereinafter referred to as a "personal experience with counseling"). Jones et al (1992) asked 640 alumni of Christian psychology programs to rate the impact of 10 different graduate experiences on their personal faith. The most highly endorsed items were personal, individual counseling and peer relationships.…”

“…esearchers have begun to identify factors that are associated with therapists' use of religious and spiritual interventions in counseling. The R use of religious and spiritual interventions in counseling has been found to correlate with therapists' personal religious attitudes or behaviors (DiBlasio, 1993;DiBlasio & Benda, 1991;Hales, 1996;Jones, Watson, & Wolfram, 1992;Prest, Russel, & D'Souza, 1999;Shafranske & Malony, 1990a, 1990b and with therapists' training in religious issues (Forbes, 1995). When compared through meta-analysis, the difference in the strength of the correlation between therapists' personal religious attitudes or behaviors and their training in religious issues in relationship to their use of religious and spiritual interventions in counseling is not significantly different (Walker, Gorsuch, & Tan, 2004).…”

Spiritual interventions in psychotherapy: Evaluations by highly religious clients

“…A few research studies have investigated the reported use of religious interventions by psychotherapists (Ball & Goodyear, 1991;Jones, Watson, & Wolfram, 1992;Moon, Willis, Bailey, & Kwasny, 1993;Richards & Potts, 1995;Worthington et al, 1988). However, most of the available research evaluates the use of religious interventions from the perspective of clinicians.…”