A clinician's manual for religious and spiritual integration: A guide to therapeutic implementation

Integrating Christian spirituality and religion into the therapy process has been shown to be therapeutic and extremely useful to promote mental healing and emotional health during treatment (Kahle & Robbins, 2004; Kiesling, Sorell, Montgomery, & Colwell, 2006; Koenig, 1997; Sanders, 1998; Watson, Milliron, Morris, & Hood, 1995). While clients directly benefit from using religion, faith, and spirituality as an intervention and strength, therapists are often ill equipped to provide this type of treatment (Hage, 2006; Richards & Bergin, 2005). Furthermore, the field of psychology historically has neglected to fully address or discuss issues regarding spirituality and religion in psychotherapy in relevant literature and in psychological training programs (Eck, 2002; Hage, 2006; Richards & Bergin, 2005; Tan, 2003) A workbook-training manual was created for this dissertation clinical application to provide materials and education to therapists on incorporating spirituality and theology into psychotherapy and as an attempt to remedy the indicated problems. This manual was reviewed by 10 professionals in the field of integration to determine its usefulness and effectiveness. Many of the reviewers reported that the manual was understandable, easily accessible, and organized. Though most agreed, reviewers varied in their opinion as to whether they would recommend the manual to others and if it contained useful information. The reviewers' feedback was then considered for revisions of the manual.