Religious and spiritual beliefs, practices, professional attitudes and behaviors of clinical and counseling psychology interns

It is important for clinicians to address religious and spiritual matters in their psychological treatment. Personal religious and spiritual beliefs can have a significant impact on the consideration of religious and spiritual issues in psychotherapy. The religious and spiritual views of clinicians form as a function of general development and may be influenced by graduate education and training. The current study sought to determine the religious and spiritual attitudes, beliefs, and practices of doctoral students in clinical and counseling psychology, their views on religious and spiritual clinical interventions, and the effect of graduate education and training on both of these factors. One hundred forty-four interns completed the 48-item survey, which was developed by Edward Shafranske and Kenneth Pargament, primary investigators of the “Religious and Spiritual Attitudes and Practices of Clinical and Counseling Psychologists and Graduate Students in Clinical and Counseling Psychology Project” (2010). Over 65% of participants in the current study reported that religion is not very important in their life, and over 41% reported that spirituality is very important in their lives. Half of participants stated that they consider themselves to be spiritual, and less than 10% described themselves as religious. However, personal religiosity and spirituality did not appear to affect attitudes towards or usage of religious and spiritual interventions. Graduate education and training did not appear to affect personal religious and spiritual views. It may be that the age cohort in the current study has reached a stage of faith development that is less affected by external factors. Their apparent openness to alternative modes of spirituality other than traditional religion contributes to their awareness of and willingness to consider religious and spiritual interventions