Join us for a day of exploring what has been, until recently, a neglected and even shunned domain of client inquiry in clinical practice. You’re invited to help bring our field into alignment with professional codes of ethics imploring us to provide culturally sensitive services. Together we’ll learn about, discuss and experience ethical practices to assess and integrate clients' religious and spiritual beliefs and traditions into their mental health therapy.
Many
professional care providers, including mental health therapists,
intentionally avoid topics of religion and spirituality in clinical
practice. Attitudes of secular clinicians often range somewhere between
what Garzon (2011) describes as a “don’t ask, don’t tell” attitude to
one of outright disdain for the area of inquiry. Some therapists,
however, converse openly with clients about their spiritual and/or
religious beliefs. They embrace this aspect of human identity as a cornerstone of the foundation for the work they do with clients. Most would agree these therapists are few and far between, practicing behind closed doors. Where do you fall on this continuum of attitude regarding spirituality and religion in mental health care?
The field’s historical aversion to exploring this intimate domain of human identity is often explained by the antagonistic precedent set by many early leaders in psychology. Freud viewed religious beliefs as “illusions, fulfillments of the oldest, strongest and most urgent wishes of mankind” referring to clients’ beliefs as “obsessional neurosis” (Freud, Future of an Illusion, 1927/1961, p.30 and 43 respectively). Other leading behaviorists like Skinner, Watson and Ellis also found little value in the study or practice of religion and spirituality. They marginalized clients with such views by describing them as less evolved, psychologically unstable and even delusional (e.g., Ellis, 1971; Freud, 1927/1961 as cited by Plante, 2007).
Moreover, 20th century behaviorist psychology prided itself on being a “serious science” shying away from topics like religion and spirituality to “emphasize the rigorous scientific approach to both research and clinical practice” (Plante, 2007).
But times have changed. Psychology now recognizes religion and spirituality as important aspects of human diversity and this new awareness has influenced revisions to professional codes of ethics. According to Garzon, “the ethics codes of all professional mental-health organizations now include religion and spirituality as important components of culturally sensitive treatment” (2011). So why the gap in practice?
If increasingly recognized as an important aspects of one’s culture, similar to gender identity and sexual orientation, and if ethically obligated to provide culturally sensitive services, why is it we still routinely avoid assessing this aspect of human identity into our clinical practice? How can we work together to affect positive, ethical change in our field? One way is by allowing ourselves to explore and learn more about this dimension of being human.
“Dip your toe and ripple these still waters by joining us as we explore a variety of topics at the nexus of ethics, religion, spirituality and mental health therapy. Sound exciting? Stimulating? Even provocative? It’s sure to be all that and moreas we construct knowledge together, boldly going where few secular clinicians ventured. Together, we’ll learn about, discuss and experience ethical practices designed to respectfully access and integrate clients’ religious and spiritual beliefs and traditions into mental health therapy. According to Dr. Pargament, leading expert in the psychology of religion and spirituality, “There is, in short, good scientifically based reason to be more sensitive to religion and spirituality in clinical practice” (APA website, 2013).
Learning Objectives
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