'At a Glance' Religious & Spiritual Competency for Psychotherapists
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A new client sat across from me telling me her story and reasons for wanting therapy. As she explained her feelings of hopelessness her emotional state began to deteriorate. When I asked her how long she had these feelings she said it began long ago when she realized she was doomed to an afterlife of torment so terrible she couldn’t bear thinking about it. She began to cry uncontrollably, almost hyperventilating. She said she couldn’t bear this life, and was scared of taking her own life because she would find no relief in death.
When she began to calm, I gently probed into her belief of the afterlife. She explained that her Mormon upbringing taught that there are three levels of afterlife, and that she was certain she would be sent to the worst level to live her human suffering and misery for all eternity. I thought to myself, “I wish I had gotten to the point in my thesis that explained the Mormon belief of the afterlife. It sure would come in handy right now.”
It is my opinion that beliefs and religious teachings are transmitted through the family and begin early in the lives of many people. A result is an interweaving of religious beliefs, ethnic and cultural family dynamics, and personal development to form worldviews. I believe this also is true for those who may not participate in formal or organized religion but have strong spiritual beliefs that may have been passed down from generation to generation. To understand the individual it is imperative to understand their earlier and present environment.
Many people’s lives are immersed in religious and spiritual beliefs. Polling data from the 2001 ARIS study indicates that: 81% of American adults identify themselves with a specific religion. The title of Diane Eck’s book makes an accurate and eye opening statement: “A New Religious America: How a ‘Christian Country’ has become the world’s most religiously diverse nation” (Eck, 2001).
So I welcome you to “At a Glance” manual for religious and spiritual competency for psychotherapists and all mental health practioners. I began writing this manual for my own personal use when I was half way through my Master’s degree in Counseling and Psychology. Prior to my MA studies I had attended an Interfaith Seminary Program for four years where I developed a broad and strong understanding of the vast and diverse landscape of religion and spiritual beliefs. Now faced with the newly revealed landscape of the human mind and psyche, I wanted to have a deeper understanding of the implications religious and spiritual teachings have on an individual’s psychology.
Since religious/spiritual teachings are interwoven into the psyche, understanding belief systems improves the ability to communicate with clients.
It didn’t make sense to rack my brain trying to remember the important points of various religious and spiritual traditions. And reaching for one of the numerous books on religious and spiritual traditions wasn’t feasible. Therefore this manual is designed as a quick, at a glance, reference and reminder of what various traditions believe and teach.
This manual is not designed to teach religion. Nor is it a substitute for developing strong multicultural competence. It only proposes a guide to working with spiritual and religiously diverse clients. Its function is to give the therapist a brief “heads up” regarding a clients religious teachings, views, specific issues to be aware of, and technique suggestions to assist therapists when working with clients from various traditions.
The included information can also be used as a compass for religious/spiritual beliefs that are not represented. It can hopefully steer the reader in the right direction of inquiry. My hope is that you the reader will reflect carefully and critically when reading and then, through incorporation, develop a personal framework that is congruent with your values, professional commitments and ethics, and areas and theories of practice.
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About the Book
This book was written to assist anyone working in the helping professions. Its easy-to-use format provides the important foundational information about a client’s religious/spiritual background, and has already helped numerous professionals toward their goal of multicultural competency.
Reaching Multicultural competency can be an ominous on-going task for a helping professional. The author realized that even though she had focused her studies on multicultural and religious/spiritual diversity, she needed a way to remember specific details. Thus, she conceived of this book as a way to assist herself and others who work with multicultural clients. This book offers an easily accessible, quickly readable overview of the religious and spiritual views of many traditions. It provides a brief look at various categories especially important to a helping professional, including: view of a deity, marriage, birth control, male/female roles, therapy, medication, euthanasia, etc. It also contains a brief historical overview of each tradition.
About the Author
Reverend Janine d’Haven has focused her ministry and her psychotherapy practice on a diverse population for several years serving and honoring multicultural clients. She is an Interfaith Minister who studied all faith traditions as if they were her own. Reverend d’Haven holds Master Degrees in both Counseling and Psychology and Divinity. She is also an Interfaith Spiritual Director. In addition, she teaches multicultural competencies from a religious and spiritual perspective to helping professionals. She is an advisor for graduate and undergraduate students at a private college in the Southwest.