Spirituality and Religion in Psychotherapy: Views of Brazilian Psychotherapists

Abstract

Twenty-seven Brazilian psychotherapists were interviewed about how religion and spirituality interface with psychotherapy. Transcripts of unstructured interviews were subjected to open analytical coding and categorization according to grounded theory. Two categories emerged. The first category, the more complex one, saw religion as a therapeutic challenge in that therapists must respect client religion, tackle clients' religious issues, and understand how therapists' own religion influences their behavior. The second category depicted religion as providing cultural resources, including healthy activities, teachings and social support, and spirituality as providing a broader sense of meaning. Therapists used clients' religion and spirituality as therapeutic aids. Therapists' own spirituality also served as an asset in improving their interventions and coping with the emotional strains of doing therapy. Applied to practice, the findings can help clinicians deal successfully with religious cultural competence issues and mobilize spirituality and religion according to their own and the client's needs and resources.