Religion and spirituality within counselling/clinical psychology training programmes: a systematic review

ABSTRACT

In recent years, there have been increasing efforts to attend to religious and spiritual issues within clinical/counselling psychology. However, there is limited research demonstrating how successfully such content is integrated into existing training programmes. This investigation sought to review primary research literature related to training in religion and spirituality within accredited training programmes. Six studies were identified which met the inclusion criteria of this review and data were extracted for analysis using a thematic analytic technique. Five main themes were generated: training modalities, specialised training, systematic implementation, perception of religion and spirituality, and research support. Findings suggest that religious issues are being neglected within current programmes, although there is evidence that this is being reconciled through increasing levels of training.

KEYWORDS:

• Counselling psychology
• clinical psychology
• training
• religion
• spirituality
• systematic review

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Simon Jafari is a third-year doctoral counselling psychology trainee at the University of Manchester. He has a passion for religious and spiritual principles within psychology. His present research is focused on exploring counselling psychology trainees’ experiences of working with religious clients.