Psychologists’ Graduate Training Experience and Attitudes in Religion and Spirituality

In a nationwide poll, 76% of the population of the United States identifies with a formal religion of some kind (Gallup Organization, 2021). Despite the prevalence of religion and spirituality (R/S) throughout the country, graduate programs appear to neglect training on this multicultural issue. The purpose of this paper is to better understand psychologists’ attitudes toward the quality and depth of their graduate training in R/S, determine how competent psychologists feel at managing discussions of R/S within psychotherapy, and recommend necessary improvements to graduate training in R/S. Data was collected using a 24-item, online survey, which was circulated throughout college newsletters and which used snowball sampling among the professional psychology community. A total of 60 psychologists’ surveys were included in this study. Findings suggested ambiguity of psychologists’ attitudes towards their graduate training. Psychologists requested better integration of R/S topics within multicultural coursework. Additionally, psychologists felt competent discussing R/S topics with clients despite the lack of training