Principles of incorporating spirituality into professional clinical practice

Incorporating spirituality into contemporary professional clinical practice has become more common in recent years most notably with the popular interest of mindfulness meditation, mindfulness based stress reduction, and yoga in particular. However, many other spiritual and religiously based assessment and treatment approaches have also been successfully utilized with a great deal of evidence-based research to support their use and effectiveness. The purpose of this brief article is to outline several guiding principles for those professionals interested in integrating spiritual and religious wisdom and approaches into their professional clinical practices in the spirit of diversity and multiculturalism sensitivity and respect. Psychology has a long way to go to overcome biases and prejudice in this area but there are many excellent principles and resources available to help ensure that our clients receive state-of-the-art and effective evidence-based professional services that treats them, regardless of their religious and spiritual interests or background, with dignity, respect, and professionalism