Spirituality in marital therapy: A phenomenological approach

There is general agreement in social work literature today, that spirituality is a valuable but often under utilized and unrecognized resource for therapists in clinical settings. From within the context of marital therapy, this exploratory study seeks to understand the experience of spirituality that licensed clinical social workers have in their work with couples. As most married couples began their marriage with some type of sacred ceremony uniting them, it seems logical to bring that same sense of the sacred to marital therapy. Many models of marital therapy in common use today are amenable to the integration of spirituality and as this study indicates, many therapists consider themselves spiritual and incorporate spiritual themes and interventions in their work. Yet, some reluctance to identify and include spirituality directly still exists among therapists and clients alike. The findings in this study offer some direction in addressing this reluctance and suggest some implications for including spirituality more thoroughly in social work education and practice