Integrating Religion and Spirituality into Mental Health Care, Psychiatry and Psychotherapy
Journal Title: Religions - Year 2011, Vol 2, Issue 4
Abstract
Integrating spirituality into mental health care, psychiatry and psychotherapy is still controversial, albeit a growing body of evidence is showing beneficial effects and a real need for such integration. In this review, past and recent research as well as evidence from the integrative concept of a Swiss clinic is summarized. Religious coping is highly prevalent among patients with psychiatric disorders. Surveys indicate that 70–80% use religious or spiritual beliefs and activities to cope with daily difficulties and frustrations. Religion may help patients to enhance emotional adjustment and to maintain hope, purpose and meaning. Patients emphasize that serving a purpose beyond one‘s self can make it possible to live with what might otherwise be unbearable. Programs successfully incorporating spirituality into clinical practice are described and discussed. Studies indicate that the outcome of psychotherapy in religious patients can be enhanced by integrating religious elements into the therapy protocol and that this can be successfully done by religious and non-religious therapists alike.
Authors and Affiliations
René Hefti
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP25218
- DOI https://doi.org/10.3390/rel2040611
- Views 352
- Downloads 14
What Are the “Long Nostrils” of YHWH?
The mention of YHWH’s “nostrils” (ʾapayīm) in the Bible is classically interpreted as a metonymy of the face and/or a metaphor for anger. The reference to their length and even to their elongation, however, rules out any...
Distal and Proximal Religiosity as Protective Factors for Adolescent and Emerging Adult Alcohol Use
Data from emerging adults (ages 18–29, N = 900) in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication Study was used to examine the influence of childhood and emerging adult religiosity and religious-based decision-making, an...
Incoherent Subjects, Incomplete Lives: The Limits of Spiritual Autobiography in Spain
For many years Teresa de Ávila’s Libro de la vida was considered an exceptional work of literature, in both senses of the word “exceptional”. The work of Isabelle Poutrin, Francisco Durán López and others has made us q...
Teaching Augustine’s On the Teacher
This paper examines the merits of introducing undergraduates to the philosophical thought of Augustine by means of his short dialogue On the Teacher.
Existential and Virtuous Effects of Religiosity on Mental Health and Aggressiveness among Offenders
Although prior research tends to show that religion has a salutary effect on mental health and a preventive effect on crime, studies explaining the religious effect, particularly those on offenders, have been limited....