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Posted with permission from Psychotherapy Networker magazine, copyright, Psychotherapy Network, Inc.
The old notion that religion and spirituality interfere with therapy is being replaced by the recognition that, because they’re inextricably entwined with people’s identities and mental health, they ought to be an important part of therapy. A study of 37,000 Canadians, reported in the September issue of Canadian Journal of Psychiatry by psychiatrist Marilyn Baetz of the University of Saskatchewan, sheds new light on this intertwining and supports their inclusion in therapy.
In her study, Baetz separated religion from spirituality to study the relationship of each to mental health. She split people into two groups, those who attended religious services regularly and those who said that spiritual values played an important role in finding meaning in their lives and in dealing with and understanding their everyday difficulties. Her findings about the religious group supported previous research indicating a relationship between religious attendance and positive mental health. The religious group had lower rates of depression, panic, and mania. But the spiritual group had higher rates.
The study takes a small step toward answering questions about the role of religious beliefs that the research hasn’t yet been able to answer. Does something about religion promote mental health, or do happier people gravitate to religion? Conversely, does spiritual exploration create psychological unrest, or result from it? If religion has positive benefits, what is it that works: The supportive community? The belief in some kind of meaning or promise of transcendence? The feeling that there’s an open door through which a god shines healing power?
Baetz’s disparate findings about religion and spirituality suggest, she says, that less depressed, socially anxious, or manic people may find it easier to get to religious services, which is why they classify themselves as religious rather than spiritual. Conversely, the insecurities of living with psychiatric disorders may, she says, “initiate or intensify a search for meaning, strength and understanding of life’s difficulties”–a journey often undertaken in the relative solitude of spirituality, rather than in the communal experience of religion.
By clarifying the relationship between religion, spirituality, and mental health, her study has important clinical implications. Although people who describe themselves as spiritual are more likely to be depressed or have panic and bipolar disorders, Baetz founds that they also rate their spirituality interests as highly important. If their spiritual quest figures in their attempt to cope, she says, therapists can use their spirituality to help them understand and reframe their difficulties. “We should be open to exploring their spiritual side,” she insists, “and not assume it’s unimportant.”
References:
Baetz. Marilyn, Bowen, Rudy, Jones, Glen, and Koru-Sengel, Tulay (2006). “How spiritual values and worship attendance relate to psychiatric disorders in the Canadian population,” Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 51 (11), 654-661.