Integrating Religion and Spirituality into Practice

As clinicians and academics who come from a faith background, we know and deeply value the dialogue between science and religion. In a recent article, Vieten et al. (2023) point out that there is significant data indicating that spiritual and religious backgrounds, including one’s personal beliefs and practices, are related to better psychological health. Vieten et al. further state that clients want to discuss their spirituality/religion and incorporate it into their treatment, and the authors rightfully note that religion and spirituality is also an issue of multicultural diversity. Significantly, however, they conclude that it is not clear how much mental health professionals view someone’s religion or spirituality as relevant to treatment.