Difficulties in integrating spirituality into psychotherapy.
The boundary between spiritual and psychotherapeutic issues is not well defined; indeed, the two may be interwoven. A patient's sense of a therapist may closely relate to the patient's assessment of the therapist's spirituality, and a therapist's recognition of the differences between psychopathological and spiritual beliefs may depend on a recognition of his or her own belief system. Changing the profession's approach to this issue is made difficult by 1) a traditional sense within many schools of psychotherapy that spirituality is outside the sphere of appropriate investigation and knowledge; 2) discomfort with personal spiritual issues in educators and trainees; 3) decreased emphasis on aspects of the therapist as important factors in patient outcome; and 4) decreased use of intensive supervision for psychotherapy in some training programs.
Schultz-Ross
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University of Hawaii, John A. Burns School of Medicine, Honolulu 96813, USA.
Gutheil
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D006801:Humans; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D011613:Psychotherapy / Q000379:methods*; D012069:Religion and Psychology; D013140:Spiritualism