Religion and Psychotherapy: Are they compatible and incompatible?
My religious experiences started as a young child being raised Greek Orthodox and Roman
Catholic. I did not have a voice in the choices, each of my parent chose that I was to be raised in
their religion, hence being raised in both. It did have its benefits around holidays, as example Easter
falls on different Sunday for Greek Orthodox and celebrate other holidays that Roman Catholics do
not celebrate. But as I got older, I digress from both and felt lost and overwhelmed by religion.
Then when I was in my late teens, a friend took me to Christian church service for Easter it was a
totally different experience from my religious past. It was open and fun and music was awesome
and people were having fun and smiling. The more I attended the more I felt at home. Being in a
charismatic church most my adult life I have seen a lot of things happen from small to big miracles
and healings. As I started my journey in getting my BA in psychology and religious studies and
then my MA in psychology, I learned the scientific part of psychology. In doing these past weeks in
reading Entwistle, his expressions and statements of different formats of psychology and theology
fit closes to my understanding of religious and psychology. This I believe for myself can be a little
tricky at times. When to combine the scientific portion of counseling with the Christian view points
and Holy Spirit in a session. I have learned to not only rely on the Holy Spirit and prayer but to be
mindful of where my clients’ beliefs and openness to receiving both lies. This is where I believe a
lot of people have struggled when coming to counseling. They are seeking comfort and
understanding and at times it lies on the spiritualty side of psychology more the scientific side. And
at times some clients come and need the psychology guidance and understand to help with there
healing foremost. But I have seen in most cases, that when a client starts the process of counseling
all aspect is affected and changed from when they first started to when they finish their sessions.
The origin of psychotherapy goes as far back in the time line to the use of a shaman,
medicine woman or man, and herbal healers and psychology was known before it was established.
One of the definitions of psychology, was formed in the sixteenth century and defined (1) Rollins
stated, “to designate the venerable discipline of research and reflection by philosophers and
biblical scholars on the nature, habits, and power of the human psyche, anima, or soul” Right after
this discovery, Phillipp Melanchton, who was Martin Luther’s protégé, a theologian, and biblical
scholar, pioneered the term Commentarius de Anima (Commentary on the Soul), which was to
differentiate psychology, which was the study of the human soul from the study of the spirit, which
at the time was to include angels, demons, and gods. During the 1600’s psychology was divided
into three parts in anthropology. The three parts were defined as psychology, somatology, and
hematology. Psychology is known as the science of mental processes and behavior. It is the
emotional and behavioral characteristics of an individual, group, or activity. While somatology is
recognized as the physiological and anatomical study of the body. And finally, hematology, is
identified as the general science encompassing the generation, anatomy, physiology, pathology,
and therapeutics of blood.
While, (2) Johnson stated, “throughout the past 100 years, unbelieving individuals in psychology
have been living out their lives in largely unconscious yet fundamental opposition to God, and the
field of psychology has been shaped to some extent by this underlying anti-spiritual agenda”. By
the twentieth century, psychology is started to revert in using a religious and psychology combined,
in ways to help people with mental health struggles that affect their spiritual walk. It is a way to
combine the clinical area with any religious background.
And now psychology is finding its roots back to being spiritually and clinically combined in
helping people in the twentieth and twenty-first Centuries. (3) The Diagnostic and Statistical
Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV), has acknowledges in the amendment to the fourth, that
religious or spiritual issues may be relevant to therapy. With this publication, it was breaking
ground for the psychiatrists, therapists, and doctors to state and use religion and spirituality as one
of their sources in helping their client in his or her road to a health mental lifestyle.
In today’s world spirituality, religion, and psychology are starting to be linked up together and
working side by side in healing people together, as well as learning to agree to disagree. (4)
Entwistle stated, “Christianity is much more than theology; it is an encounter with Christ that
redeems human lives..it is less a system of thought than it is a commitment to follow God with heart
and soul and mind that lays claim to all life. Most therapists have some type of religious doctrine in
God or a Higher Power and entwine it with their work in psychotherapy in helping their clientele
with the healing. It in turn gives the client reassuring that their beliefs and spirituality will be
respected. This gives the therapist an additional tool to refer to with trying to help their clientele to
recovery.
In doing this, the therapist respects the theological, psychological, faith, traditions, and spiritual
practices of their clients. With appropriate caution and the holding of boundaries, a therapist with a
spiritual or religious commitments can use a more easily use of formal resources. They can use the
spirituality or religion in the therapy, and be more understanding of a client’s gradual spiritual and
religious development. (5) Entwistle stated, “Long before psychology emerged as a scientific
discipline, questions about mind and behavior were considered by philosophy, religion, medicine,
and folk wisdom. Although we now define psychology as a science it is inevitable bound to
questions that are metaphysical as well as empirical in nature. “One of the big movements taking
place in the spiritual area of counseling is that many therapists are using the bible as a source of
truth and counsel. While God’s revelation to us make sense of our human experiences whether they
are good or bad, and combining them with psychology. It seems that society is searching for the
inner peace and true understanding of their trauma, addictions, self-esteem, and everyday life
events. They seem not to only want to have a healthy mentality but also a spiritual one as well. New
therapists in training or studying the field of psychology and counseling are exploring the
spirituality classes and combining it with their regular psychology studies. In doing this, it is
helping the therapist to understand the religion and psychology and gain a balance of both and to
combine them to helping their clients along their healing journey. With this new movement, we can
see that the field of psychology is starting to find its way of combining of religion and psychology
together in healing the hurt and confused.
References
1. Rollins, G. W. (1999). Soul and psyche. Minnesota: Augsburg Fortress. p.3
2. Johnson, Eric L. (1997). Christ, the lord of psychology. Journal of Psychology and
Theology. 1 (25)., p14.
3. American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental
disorders (4th ed.). Washington, D.C.
4. Entwistle, David N. (2021). Eugene, OR: Cascade Books 4th ED. ISBN: 978-1725262355
p. 3.
5. Moon, W. G. (2002). Spiritual direction: Meaning, purpose, and implication for mental
health professionals. Journal of Psychology and theology 30, (4), 264-275.
