Introduction
Spirituality in Mental Health Practice
Current Study
Method
Participants
Variable | n | % |
---|---|---|
Gender | ||
Female | 85 | 70 |
Male | 36 | 30 |
Profession* | ||
Psychologist | 83 | 69 |
Pedagogist | 8 | 7 |
Doctor | 7 | 6 |
Theologist | 5 | 4 |
Sociologist | 4 | 3 |
Other | 13 | 11 |
N/A | 4 | 3 |
Psychotherapy school* | ||
Psychoanalytical/psychodynamic | 36 | 30 |
Systemic | 30 | 25 |
Gestalt | 20 | 17 |
Integrative (including the Christian approach) | 17 (5) | 14 (4) |
Cognitive behavioral | 15 | 12 |
School of Addiction Psychotherapy | 10 | 8 |
Humanistic/existential | 7 | 6 |
Ericksonian | 6 | 5 |
Other | 13 | 11 |
N/A | 5 | 4 |
Workplace | ||
Private practice | 41 | 34 |
Counseling center/hospital/clinic | 35 | 29 |
Private practice and counseling center/hospital/clinic | 45 | 37 |
Religious denomination | ||
Roman Catholic | 89 | 74 |
Greek Catholic | 5 | 4 |
Protestant | 4 | 3 |
Buddhist | 4 | 3 |
Without denomination | 17 | 14 |
N/A | 2 | 2 |
Procedure and a Research Tool
- Question 1 In your opinion, what is spirituality?
- Question 2 In your opinion, is spirituality identical to religion? Please explain your opinion.
- Question 3 Do you include clients’ spirituality in the diagnostic sessions? Please explain in more detail why you do this or not.
- Question 4 Do you include clients’ spirituality in the therapeutic sessions? Please provide us with some more detail why you do this or not.
- Question 5 If you include clients’ spirituality into your mental health practice, please describe typical techniques you use when working on the clients’ spirituality or note typical questions you ask about this topic.
- Question 6 If you include clients’ spirituality into your mental health practice, please describe your sources of knowledge and inspiration regarding this topic.
Approach to the Data Analysis
Trustworthiness of the Study
Results
Defining Spirituality (Question 1)
For me, spirituality is a bond or relationship between the human and God (the Absolute, the Fate, the Universe, etc.), people and the environment. (F, 41)
The quality that allows a human to overcome their material, bodily, and transient aspects. (M, 47)
The first idea: it is a fourth dimension, equally important as the biological, psychological, and social one. (F, 33)One of the dimensions of human psyche, concerning morality, conscience, philosophy of existence, and most of all, metaphysics. (M, 54)
Spirituality is a pursuit of one’s meaning of life and trying to act accordingly. It is connected with the attempt to answer the questions of where we come from, who we are, where we are going, and what we live for. It includes both theory, that is, looking for a vision to organize our life, and practice, which means engagement in specific spiritual practice to make our life meaningful. (M, 49)
Making one’s life richer and more profound thanks to timeless and general human values, applying them in one’s life. (F, 58)
I don’t know any satisfactory, precise definitions. I have the impression it is an obscure concept which each person understands in her or his own way. (M, 49)
Relationship Between Spirituality and Religion (Question 2)
Non-religious spirituality is possible, e.g., looking for transcendence and inspiration in existential dilemmas. Personally, I represent religious spirituality, but I can also see other ways to experience it. (M, 71)
From my experience, people who declare they are not religious sometimes have even more developed spirituality than people who belong to a religion. On the other hand, people who claim to be deeply devout sometimes have very shallow spirituality, limited to fear of breaking religious rules. (M, 41)
I understand religion in the context of a ritual, traditional, and cultural behavior, and spirituality as a personal, vivid experience of searching for the meaning. (M, 37)
It’s actually the same. When clients refer to the topic of spirituality, they talk about their religious beliefs and values. (F, 31)
Inclusion of Spiritual Issues in Diagnostic and Therapeutic Sessions (Questions 3 and 4)
I include it because I want to know how active this area is in the patient’s life. I want to know if I can refer to it and to what extent. I assume the spiritual area affects other levels of human functioning very much: it directly influences their mental life, but also physical functioning. (F, 52)I include it, because without it, my perception and understanding of the client would be incomplete. (F, 68)
The willingness to speak about it should be expressed by the patient first, because people who cannot find spirituality in themselves may feel worse or rejected by a therapist who brings up this topic. (F, 40)We only deal with these problems if the patient brings them up as something important. It is a very individual and intimate topic. If the patient mentions it more or less directly, then of course I do, but as a standard question in the interview it could be too intrusive. (F, 59)
Generally, I don’t work with spirituality because I only concentrate on clinical knowledge and experience. But there are exceptional situations, in which positive symptoms in psychotic patients may include religious content, or in other cases, excessive religiosity may seem to be a “disorder,” but it may actually be an expression of intensive mystical experiences. (M, 71)
I ask patients about their values, goals and dreams, and then topics connected with spirituality may arise. (F, 39)
I don’t diagnose the patient’s relationship with God. I think this is not why they come to me. (F, 49)Patients have mental, not spiritual problems. (M, 53)
I’ve never found any convincing theories, definitions, or instruments to assess spiritual health, or any evidence that such a concept is true. (M, 45)
Although it is an important sphere of life, and I would like to include it more often in my therapeutic work, my little professional experience [with it] often prevents me from doing so because I don’t have enough courage. Besides, this topic was not mentioned in any of the courses I did, so I would need some guidelines how to include spirituality in psychotherapy. (F, 38)
I don’t mention such content mostly because, in accordance with the ethical principles of psychotherapy, I cannot interfere in the person’s value system. (F, 49)
Techniques Used to Work with Clients on Spiritual Issues (Question 5)
I cannot describe the techniques, but I can talk about the areas of conversation. If my patient treats her work, which is the design and manufacture of jewelry, as a specific contact with herself and her Self (the unexplored part of herself that allows her to find the meaning of life) in the therapy, I talk to her about it and identify it as her resource, and I discuss with her how she can use it to a greater extent. (F, 41)
Psychodynamic interventions, life story work, dream analysis, psychodrama, visualization, psycho-drawing…a tale, a poem, a symbol. (F, 55)The subject of spirituality quite often occurs in work on dreams, metaphors, or techniques connected with artistic expression and personal creativity (drawing, music, poetry). (M, 31)
How much have spiritual or religious values shaped your life? How much did spiritual and religious values affect the problems (disorders) that have brought you to the psychotherapist? Have you been a member of a religious movement, community or group? If so, what is it and how important is it for you? (M, 66)
I inspire…and encourage them to read spiritual books, go on a spiritual retreat, participate in workshops and seminars led by spiritual and religious spiritual guides, and I teach or recommend to more interested patients specific techniques for deepening their spirituality. (F, 52)