The Therapeutics of Counselling Religious Clients: Intake and Assessment

This is the first of a series of articles exploring the unique interface between religion and psychotherapy. At issue is the paucity of clinical research and therapeutic application exploring not only effective methodologies for counselling clients of diverse religious backgrounds, but how to integrate religious beliefs with best practices. It is the premise of this author that religion has become a pariah, avoided by many mental health providers hiding behind “value neutrality,” unexplored transferential dynamics with religion as well as the belief that religious values are mutually exclusive with psychological principles. These misconceptions are especially present in the case of clients who present in counselling with extremely dogmatic and exclusive theological views that make the requisite quality of self-exploration necessary for progress difficult. This article will introduce an assessment tool geared toward not only collecting pertinent information regarding a client’s religious beliefs, but will help the therapist build a therapeutic alliance during the initial phases of therapy with devoutly religious clients through the use of specific catchment areas designed to integrate faith values with therapeutic outcomes.