When evaluating suicidal patients, it is often indicated to ask them about their religious beliefs about suicide because many patients believe that their spiritual or religious beliefs1 are closely linked to their mental health (Yamada et al., 2020). For example, some patients in significant emotional distress say they would not kill themselves because their religion […]
Psychotherapists strive to provide their clients with the best treatment possible, something highly dependent on our ability to achieve high standards of competence. An important aspect of one’s clinical competence that has received increasing attention in recent years is multicultural competence. It is recognized that a psychotherapist cannot be clinically competent without being multicultural competent […]
My name is Erin, and I am working towards my doctorate degree in counseling psychology. I was drawn to this field because of my interest in the complex identities that shape the human experience. Each identity we hold creates a unique perspective through which we view the world. In some aspects, our identities are easily […]
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Christians with Depression by Michelle Pearce, PhD is a phenomenal guide to treating religious clients suffering from a depressive episode. It not only provides an evidence based treatment model, but exemplifies the importance of compassion and respect for the client and their values and beliefs that they bring to therapy. Although […]
Adapted excerpt from “Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Christians with Depression: A Practical, Tool-Based Primer” book in preparation. Buy your copy here: https://www.templetonpress.org/book/cognitive-behavioral-therapy Does Religion Belong in Psychotherapy? This question is posed by a lot of mental health practitioners. Here’s the short answer: If religion is important to our clients, religion will be part of psychotherapy whether […]
Download a free accompanying Power Point presentation from Dr. Barnett here: Integrating_Religion_and_Spirituality.ppt It may be easy for psychotherapists to overlook or avoid addressing our clients’ spirituality and religion in psychotherapy. Such issues may not have been addressed in our training and thus may not be seen as relevant to our clinical work with clients. After all, we […]