Los Angeles, USA - For decades, religion and psychotherapy did not mix. Clinical psychologists kept spirituality and religion out of their practice, while some religious people looked askance at psychotherapy. Not anymore.
Some mental health professionals and religious workers are breaking out of their traditional ways to adopt holistic approaches -- looking to see what they can learn, unlearn and cull from one another to better serve people who come to them for help. Also evident is mutual respect.
At a recent national conference on spirituality and mental health in Burbank, about 400 people in caring professions and ministries spent a day talking about the importance of spirituality and religion in mental health. Speakers and attendees included psychotherapists, social workers and parish nurses, along with rabbis, Protestant pastors, and Catholic nuns and priests.
"Personally, I look up on Jesus as the great healer of our souls and bodies, but I am delighted to see this connection now of psychotherapy and religion," said the Right Rev. Alexei Smith, head of Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs for the Los Angeles Catholic Archdiocese. "It's wonderful."
With two plenary speakers and 10 experts conducting separate sessions -- topics included the classical Buddhist technique of "mindfulness" and the emerging practice of "positive psychology" -- there was something for everyone.
But one theme ran through "Spirituality and Mental Health: New Horizons, New Directions": People with solid spiritual foundations tend to be healthier and recover better when their lives turn for the worse.
"You never see this in textbooks," said plenary speaker and psychologist William Miller.
He cited substance abuse as one example. Apart from family history, spiritual or religious involvement is one of the most consistently documented "protective factors" guarding against substance abuse or dependence, he said.
Conversely, people entering treatment for drug addiction tend to show alienation from religion, low involvement in spiritual practices or unusually low rates of religious affiliation. Miller is regarded as a pioneer researcher on the use of spirituality in substance abuse treatment and recently retired as a professor of psychology and psychiatry at the University of New Mexico.
In the context of the conference, spirituality was viewed broadly -- encompassing not only religions, belief in God and higher power, but also thoughts, feelings, experiences and actions related to a search for the sacred.
"We have to be careful because religious and spiritual interventions can be misused or abused," said the Rev. Siang-Yang Tan, a professor of psychology at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena. "You have to use it carefully, ethically, professionally and gently."
Even when a therapist and client come from the same religious backgrounds, one cannot assume anything. Suppose a Christian therapist has a Charismatic client who wants to pray in tongues -- a practice that makes that therapist feel uncomfortable, Tan said.
"The best thing is to refer the client to a Pentecostal counselor," he said.
Regardless of their religious affiliation, or lack of it, therapists must be spiritually sensitive because an overwhelming majority of people believe in God, he said.
Surveys show that more than 90 percent of Americans say they believe in God, and about 80 percent describe themselves as Christians.
For the majority of religious people, he said, their religious and spiritual resources are important coping mechanisms.
A 2002 revised Code of Ethics of the American Psychological Association includes religion as an important human diversity factor, Tan said.
"For a long time, we've been talking about being sensitive to cultural issues," he said. "But how can you be culturally sensitive without being religiously sensitive? In almost all cultures, religion is a big part of the culture."