SENSITIVITY IN FAITH ISSUES is a beneficial and important therapeutic tool

Hathaway in an article on homepage of APA Division 36

"Just being sensitive to a possible role of religion in a client's life can broaden your evaluation and provide different solutions," he explains. "Being able to help a person connect with the variable of spirituality in their lives can be a beneficial and important therapeutic accommodation."

That heightened awareness of spirituality, or even taking it a step further by directly incorporating religion and spirituality--different but not mutually exclusive concepts--into therapeutic practices, is common for some psychologists. Moreover, the expansion of its use is leading to efficacy research, specific training and even tacit specialization.
Spirituality as a therapeutic strategy.

"Using religion as a therapeutic tool is a little controversial and still emerging," Hathaway says. "Techniques include use of prayer during a session, ways to direct clients to pray, spiritual journaling, forgiveness protocols, using biblical texts to reinforce healthy mental and emotional habits and working to change punitive God images."

For example, Hathaway uses spiritually guided forgiveness protocols to help clients deal with emotional problems that resulted from harm inflicted by friends or family members.

For more, see www.apa.org Division 36