What is it about?

To our knowledge, this is the largest study ever conducted in the world on religiosity/spirituality (R/S) among psychologists and its impact on clinical practice. It interviewed 4,300 psychologists from all over Brazil to elucidate the R/S characteristics of psychologists; second, how they understand and integrate R/S aspects into their clinical practices.

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Why is it important?

It is often assumed that psychologists are generally atheist or hostile to religion. But this is not what this study found. Main results: • Only a minority do not believe in God (9.4%) or in life after death (20%), and a considerable portion believes in reincarnation (39%). • 1/3 attend religious services at least once a week (34%). • More than half (54%) engage in some personal R/E activity daily, such as prayer, reading, or meditation. • Around 2/3 want to improve their knowledge of R/E (68.3%), believe that religion is beneficial for mental health (62%), that R/E is relevant to treatment (65%), and that God or a higher power influences patients' health (62%). Psychologists with master's or doctoral degrees were more likely to deny beneficial effects and report more negative effects of R/S on mental health. They were also less willing to learn about the subject.

Perspectives

This show how prevalent and complex is the R/S among psychologists. Is defies any simplistic description or analysis. These findings might also suggest a gap in scientific training, which might not be addressing existing scientific evidence on R/S, as well as the persistence of an anti-spiritual bias that was common in many intellectual and scientific circles in the 20th century.

Alexander Moreira-Almeida
Research Center in Spirituality and Health (NUPES), School of Medicine, Federal University of Juiz de Fora (UFJF), Brazil

Read the Original

This page is a summary of: Psychologists’ religiosity and spirituality and their impact on clinical practice: A Brazilian national survey., Spirituality in Clinical Practice, February 2026, American Psychological Association (APA),
DOI: 10.1037/scp0000412.
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