Religion in the psychotherapy office

A client visited my office for the first time shortly after the Christmas holidays and found in my waiting room a pamphlet about Advent.He asked me about half way through our first interview, "Is this a religious place?'I said surprised, "What?""Are you Christian or something?"I said, "No, this is a private counseling office. I am not religiously affiliated.""Oh," he said, "Good."I was still uncertain about what had precipitated his question and concern. Later when I went out to my waiting room, I found the Advent pamphlet and a brochure about marriage encounter,Retrouvaille for couples considering divorce which is run by a Catholic group and wondered whether these materials had contributed to his concern.I said further to my client that my office is not religiously affiliated, and I don't discuss religion with clients unless they bring it up. He seemed reassured and the topic was dropped and we moved on to other things.I was trained in thebio-psycho-social model of Dr. George Engel which Dr. Engel developed in the late 60s and early 70s. Since the original formulation some practitioners have added "spiritual" so that we now have the "bio-psycho-social-spiritual" model.How is spirituality connected to mental health? A great deal of research has demonstrated that people with a spiritual life live longer and happier. This being the case, a good psychotherapist is attentive to the client's spiritual life as the client experiences and conceives it.Spirituality is different from r...
Source: Markham's Behavioral Health - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Source Type: blogs