The roles of client religion, counselor religiosity, and spiritual competence in counselors' clinical judgment

Abstract

The present study explored the roles that clients' religious beliefs, therapists' spiritual/religious beliefs, and therapists' attitudes toward spirituality and religion may play in how therapists conceptualize a prospective client case. The study also explored the role that the construct “spiritual competence” played in moderating the relationship between therapists' attitudes toward spirituality and religion and factors related to their clinical judgment of the client's concerns. One hundred seventy-six therapists and doctoral students were randomly assigned to read one of four vignettes differing only on the client's spiritual/religious beliefs and practices (Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, or an unstated religious preference). In order to account for various forms of clinical decision-making, a MANCOVA was used with dependent constructs of psychopathology, attribution for the problem, and prognosis. A separate MANCOVA was conducted in order to determine whether the interaction of client religious orientation (religious vs. unidentified religion) and counselor spiritual competence (high vs. low) would be related to different clinical judgments.