What is it about?
Religion and spirituality are important aspects of human diversity that should be explicitly addressed in multicultural competence training for psychologists. This article summarizes the background of this issue, including research establishing 16 religious and spiritual competencies (attitudes, knowledge, and skills) that we propose all licensed psychologists should demonstrate in this domain. We also introduce a set of interview questions for clinicians to use in clinical practice.
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Why is it important?
While multicultural training is routinely included in doctoral level psychology coursework and internship programs, it rarely includes specific training in religious and spiritual diversity. Polls of the American public indicate that religion and spirituality are important in most people’s lives, and hundreds of studies demonstrate empirical links between religion/spirituality and psychological health and well-being. Furthermore, there is evidence that clients would prefer to have their spirituality and religion addressed in psychotherapy. However, religious and spiritual issues are typically neither discussed in psychotherapy nor included in assessment or treatment planning. Given the importance of SRBBPs to most clients, their relevance to psychological well-being, their role in access and adherence to care, and their involvement in mental health related behaviors, it is important to establish similar competencies for adequately addressing R/S and their intersectionality with other forms of diversity in psychology training. Our recommendation is that explicit training in spiritual and religious competencies should be included in pre- and post-doctoral training for psychologists, included in licensing exams, and that a formal set of clinical practice guidelines for attending to spiritual and religious diversity should be developed and adopted by the Association.
Perspectives
Having worked on this arena for decades, we were excited to write this article for American Psychologist, summarizing our perspectives on the need for training in spiritual and religious competencies. It was especially important for us to recommend a practical way for psychologists to be able to address these important domains of most people's lives by including the SSOPP interview.
Cassandra Vieten
University of California San Diego
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Spiritual and religious competencies in psychology., American Psychologist, January 2022, American Psychological Association (APA),
DOI: 10.1037/amp0000821.
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