Religious and Spiritual Competency: A Training Necessity in Health Service Psychology?

Religious or spiritual beliefs and practices play an important role in many people's lives, shaping their self-perception, goals, and relationships. Because these beliefs can have both positive and negative effects on mental and physical health, encouraging graduate trainees in health service psychology to be aware of the potential influences of these factors can be beneficial. Attention to these issues during practicum can be useful in reinforcing trainee's developing skills and more general core competencies (i.e., open-ended questioning, listening empathetically, and respecting clients' beliefs and practices) while supporting patients' exploration and integration of religious and spiritual beliefs and practices in a way that is consistent with their optimal well-being and mental health. While infusion of religious and spiritual considerations into existing broad and general training as an aspect of providing culturally competent care is reasonable and appropriate, requiring training of all trainees that specifically targets spiritual or religious-based psychological practice poses practical (curriculum), ethical (boundaries), and potentially legal (conscious clause legislation) challenges. Following the acquisition of the necessary core foundational and functional competencies for psychological practice, individuals who self-select to deepen their expertise in spiritually competent psychological practice are likely to benefit from transcendent processes appropriate to advanced training in any cultural context: Deepen and enrich cultural knowledge, consult with cultural leaders as well as licensed psychologists in an ongoing and as-needed basis to reducing likelihood of boundary crossing and/or role confusion, and develop fluency in navigating culture-based value conflicts as they emerge within session.