Development of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) education for clinical psychologists: An example from Indonesia

Abstract

The inclusion of education about complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) into health education has occurred among the conventional health professions, but not for clinical psychologists. Clinical psychologists, as health professionals, need to have CAM knowledge in order to provide psychoeducation about CAM to their clients based on the latest scientific research. This novel cross-sectional research aimed to explore CAM-related educational needs among Indonesian clinical psychologists based on their knowledge of CAM and attitude towards knowledge of CAM. The participants were 318 clinical psychologists (M_age = 33.94 years, SD = 8.21; 87.7% females) who completed an online survey. In general, participants self-reported a lack of CAM knowledge. CAM education, especially in regards to the risks of CAM use, was strongly needed in psychology curricula and its continuing education. Findings of this study show that professional psychology associations may need to regulate CAM integration in psychological services; and educational institutions teaching psychology may consider delivering CAM education using experiential learning methods. Asian nations could consider the recommendations in this study due to their similarity with Indonesian culture and history of education within the field of psychology.

Keywords:

• Cultural competency
• professional psychology
• training and education
• clinical psychology
• complementary and alternative medicine

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Acknowledgments

Data of this study is part of a larger study on CAM among clinical psychologists in Indonesia (the first author’s doctoral thesis). The authors thank the Indonesian Clinical Psychology Association (IPK Indonesia) for the permission to collect data and Zafira R.N. Shabrina for the proofreading of the manuscript draft.

Disclosure statement

All authors have no conflict of interest to declare.

Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author (AL) upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

The first author is supported by Indonesia Endowment Fund for Education Scholarship (LPDP RI) for the doctoral degree at the University of Queensland [20150122082410]. The views expressed are the authors’ own.