Religion and spirituality in clinical practice: an exploration of comfort and discomfort among practitioners

ABSTRACT

This study explored whether license-holding mental health professionals exhibit comfort/discomfort in addressing religion and spirituality (RS) in practice. Through snowball sampling, 52 clinicians across different fields were recruited across Southern California. The participants were measured descriptively based on (a) comfort in their ability to integrate clients’ RS in treatment and (b) their comfort discussing clients’ RS strengths and struggles in treatment. Results revealed that, among practitioners, there was a 15–25% level of discomfort toward integrating and discussing RS in treatment. That is, between 75% and 85% of participants reported comfort in dealing with RS in practice. Licensed clinical social workers reported slightly lower discomfort level than other licensed professionals. However, Mann-Whitney U Test results revealed that field of practice (social workers versus non social workers) does not significantly correlate with comfort addressing and discussing RS in treatment. Implications of the findings were discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Religion
• spirituality
• licensed mental health professionals
• discomfort

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).