Religion In Therapy Ethics

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Religion and spirituality have never been simple subjects to handle. It must be taken with a grain of salt in every aspect of discussions. When considering religion in therapy, it has been a tricky subject matter to work with without violating boundaries or harming clients. In the past, there was no religious middle ground or understanding in therapy, it was “conducted on a predominantly secular landscape where most therapists challenged religious beliefs” (Rosenfeld, n.d, p. 191). It should not be so difficult to find a therapist that will work with you if you have religious beliefs, a difficulty such as therapists who do work with religion or therapists who do not work with religion, because religion is not a scarce practice. In fact, a survey …show more content…

There are numerous steps a therapist must take to prevent imposing their own beliefs on a client. Before the professional relationship between the therapist and the patient is created, the psychologist must consider their own religious beliefs and if belief is held that it may impede the effectiveness of therapy, they must disclose the information to the client (Barnett & Johnson, 2011) as per the APA ethics code standard 5.01. The psychologist must not falsely advertise their religious stance or avoid stating it is they believe it to be a problem with the client. A general guideline for employing religion in therapy is to not do so unless the client has expressed interest in such practice, the client’s religious relationship is already established, and if the therapist is competently trained with such matters (Rosenfeld, n.d). It is obvious that there is no need to discuss religion or spirituality in sessions if the clients has no interest in doing so, but is just expressed by the therapist themselves which would lead to imposing their values on the client. When religion is to be included, then it is recommended that the respect is shared between the both of them “to capture the desirable therapeutic relationship of trust, equality and negotiation… [that] accepts patients’ views as valid and important… and helps to prepare them for further decision making opportunities” (Rosenfeld, n.d, p. 195). Through such an understanding, no harm will come to the client and no ethical violations will be

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