The Relevance of Religion and Spirituality to Mental Health: A National Survey of Current Clients’ Views

Oxhandler, Holly K.; Pargäment, Kenneth I.; Pearce, Michelle J.; Vieten, Cassandra; Moffatt, Kelsey M.

doi:10.1093/sw/swab025

Cited by 26 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…Deliberately sampling religious participants and measuring religious salience and identity development may elucidate associations among religious identity and religious-based microaggression detection. This is a significant area of inquiry, as recent literature demonstrates religious and spiritual clients want these topics addressed in session (Oxhandler et al, 2021) and that accounting for and intentionally assessing client religious and spiritual functioning is relevant to general clinical outcomes (Vieten & Lukoff, 2021).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Detecting microaggressions toward a Muslim client in psychotherapy.

Winkeljohn Black,

Drinane,

Akef

2023

Professional Psychology: Research and Practice

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Microaggressions are an all too common occurrence in psychotherapy, and they lead to poorer therapeutic relationships and worse client outcomes. An important step in reducing therapist microaggressions toward clients is helping therapists to discern statements that contain microaggressive content. While the literature on microaggressions within the context of the therapy relationship has been growing in recent years, little attention has been paid to expressions of bias related to clients' religious identities. Moreover, there has been a continued rise of Islamophobia and anti-Semitism in the United States, and therefore, there is a need to understand and enhance therapist multicultural orientation related to clients who hold Muslim identities. The present study used a microaggression detection task (first used in Owen et al., 2018) to see whether participants (N = 48), predominately graduate students, could identify three microaggressions in an audio-recorded vignette of a therapist conducting a session with a Muslim client. Less than half of the participants (41%) identified all three of the microaggressions embedded in the vignette. Participants who identified more microaggressions rated the therapist in the vignette as less culturally humble and culturally comfortable and as having missed more cultural opportunities in the session. There were no differences between religious and nonreligious participants in identifying microaggressions. The results suggest that there is significant variability in whether people can detect microaggressions. Implications for training, including the importance of training on client's religious and spiritual identities and accounting for trainees' cognitive complexity, are discussed. Public Significance StatementThe present study found that therapists-in-training missed microaggressions (i.e., subtle, invalidating comments about a person's identity), as they occurred in an audio-recorded therapy vignette of a counseling session with a Muslim client. The findings suggest that more training in microaggression identification and understanding, especially regarding religious (i.e., Muslim) microaggressions, is needed.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Detecting microaggressions toward a Muslim client in psychotherapy.

Winkeljohn Black,

Drinane,

Akef

2023

Professional Psychology: Research and Practice

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“…Specifically, spiritual well-being improvement was highly correlated with improvement in tension and depression post-treatment, particularly for certain age groups. Not only may spirituality potentially assist in improved mental health for those with persistent mental disorders (Saiz et al 2021), but also for individuals seeing a mental health provider (Oxhandler et al 2021) and those in the general population (Brown et al 2013). Thus, this combination of improved spiritual well-being and improved mood may be important for overall well-being.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sound Healing: Mood, Emotional, and Spiritual Well-Being Interrelationships

Goldsby

McWalters

et al. 2022

Religions

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Psychosocial stress, tension, and depression are quite common in many parts of the developed world. Integrative medicine techniques which may potentially increase spiritual and emotional well-being may be useful in combating chronic psychosocial stress, as well as challenges with depression and excessive tension. The present observational study examines the effect of singing-bowl sound healing on emotional and spiritual well-being and particularly examines interrelationships between changes in spiritual well-being with changes in tension and depressed mood post-sound healing. Participants experienced a sound healing environment of vibrational musical instruments such as singing bowls (bell-like instruments), gongs, and other vibrational instruments. Sixty-two participants were examined in an observational study using singing-bowl sound healing. Emotional and spiritual well-being were examined by utilizing standardized questionnaires. Results revealed significant correlations between improvements in scores of spiritual well-being and reductions in scores of tension and depression post-sound healing. Moreover, effects varied by age of the study participants. Specifically, the association between spiritual well-being improvement and depression improvement was strongest for ages 31–40, while spiritual well-being improvement and tension improvement associations were strongest for ages 51–60. Implications for applying sound healing meditations as a potential low-cost, low-technology therapeutic technique are discussed for emotional and spiritual well-being.

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“…R/S has been linked to an increased sense of meaning, purpose, resilience, satisfaction and happiness (Abu-Raiya & Pargament, 2015; Pargament & Mahoney, 2009). A recent nationwide survey of 989 mental health care clients showed that 64.9% agreed that engaging in SRBBPs “improves my mental health,” and 64% viewed their R/S as relevant to their mental health (Oxhandler et al, in press).…”

Section: Religion and Spirituality Are Important Forms Of Multicultur...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Spiritual and religious competencies in psychology.

Vieten¹,

Lukoff²

2022

American Psychologist

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Religion and spirituality (R/S) are important aspects of human diversity that should be explicitly addressed in the field of psychology. The field has already included R/S in its definitions of multiculturalism, but while multicultural training is routinely included in doctoral level psychology course work and internship programs, it rarely includes specific training in R/S diversity. Polls of the American public indicate that religion and spirituality are important in most people's lives, and hundreds of studies demonstrate empirical links between R/S and psychological health and well-being. In clinical practice, there is evidence that clients would prefer to have their R/S addressed in psychotherapy. However, R/S issues are typically neither discussed in psychotherapy nor included in assessment or treatment planning. In research, religion and spirituality are often assessed with a single item on religious affiliation. Psychologists receive little or no training in R/S issues, in part because no agreed upon set of spiritual competencies or training guidelines exist. This article summarizes the rationale for including religious and spiritual competencies in psychology training and practice, reviews research establishing a set of religious and spiritual competencies (attitudes, knowledge, and skills) that we propose all psychologists should demonstrate, and provides practical recommendations for inquiring about religion and spirituality.

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The Relevance of Religion and Spirituality to Mental Health: A National Survey of Current Clients’ Views

Cited by 26 publications

References 27 publications

Detecting microaggressions toward a Muslim client in psychotherapy.

Detecting microaggressions toward a Muslim client in psychotherapy.

Sound Healing: Mood, Emotional, and Spiritual Well-Being Interrelationships

Spiritual and religious competencies in psychology.

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