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This paper describes a national survey of Master of Social Work (MSW) program leaders’ religious and spiritual beliefs and practices across the United States. Of the 257 eligible MSW programs prima...

Over the last several years, there has been a growing interest in clients’ views toward integrating their religion and spirituality (RS) into mental health treatment. However, most of these studies have been limited to small samples and specific populations, regions, and/or clinical issues. This article describes the first national survey of current mental health clients across the US regarding their attitudes towards integrating their RS in treatment using a revised version of the Religious/Spiritually Integrated Practice Assessment Scale-Client Attitudes, version 2 (RSIPAS-CAv2) with a sample of 989 clients. Our findings indicate mental health clients have overwhelmingly positive attitudes regarding integrating their RS into mental health treatment. Additionally, we explored what background characteristics predict clients’ attitudes toward this area of practice and found the top predictor was their intrinsic religiosity, followed by whether they had previously discussed RS with their current provider, age, gender, organized and non-organized religious activities, belief in God/Higher Power, and frequency of seeing their mental health provider. The reliability and validity of the RSIPAS-CAv2 was also explored and this scale is recommended for future use. Implications and recommendations for practice, research, and future training efforts are discussed.

This article describes the development, validation, and responses to the first administration of the Religious/Spiritually Integrated Practice Assessment Scale-Client Attitudes (RSIPAS-CA). A total of 1,047 U.S. adults responded to an online survey administered by Qualtrics, which included the RSIPAS-CA for secondary analysis. Of those, 245 indicated they were either current or former mental health clients and thus were asked to complete a 10-item instrument assessing clients' attitudes toward integrating religion and spirituality (RS) in mental health treatment. A confirmatory factor analysis showed the current sample's data approached an adequate fit, and the instrument's reliability was considered very good (α = .89). Descriptive analyses indicated that clients have mixed views regarding who should initiate the discussion of RS, but a majority responded favorably toward integrating RS in practice. The article ends with a general comparison between client responses to the current survey and clinical social workers' responses to the practitioners' RSIPAS. It also discusses implications for research based on the scale development and implications for practice and education, based on client preferences.

This article describes the assessment of accredited or in-candidacy master of social work programs’ inclusion of a course on religion and spirituality (RS) in the United States. In June 2016, of th...

Objective This study was designed to describe and compare five helping professions’ views and behaviors regarding the integration of clients’ religion/spirituality (RS) in clinical practice. Method A cross-sectional design was used to survey 3,500 licensed clinical psychologists, nurses, marriage and family therapists (LMFTs), clinical social workers, and professional counselors across Texas. A total of 550 responded to this online survey, which included the Religious/Spiritually Integrated Practice Assessment Scale and background questions. Results Attitudes concerning the integration of clients’ RS did not differ by profession and were fairly positive. However, differences emerged regarding self-efficacy, perceived feasibility, and behaviors, with LMFTs reporting the highest scores for these subscales. Conclusion This is the first comparison of these five professions’ attitudes, behaviors, perceived feasibility, and self-efficacy regarding integrating clients’ RS. These encouraging results not only indicate helping professionals’ openness to integrating clients’ RS, but also highlight key differences in training, self-efficacy, views of feasibility, and implementation.

This article describes the qualitative responses from a national sample of licensed clinical social workers (LCSWs) on their views regarding integrating clients' religion and spirituality (RS) in practice. Two open-ended questions were asked to assess what helps or assists LCSWs in assessing and integrating clients' RS in practice and what hinders or prevents LCSWs from considering this area of clients' lives. A total of 329 responded to either item, with 319 responses to the first item and 279 responses to the second. The authors used open-coding procedures, developed a codebook to analyze the data, and reached consensus on each response. Overarching themes that emerged from LCSWs' responses to what helps them consider this area included personal religiosity, education, and having an RS-sensitive practice. Regarding what hinders RS integration, LCSWs reported that nothing hinders such integration; that it was not relevant; or listed various barriers, including a lack of training, client discouraging the discussion, or experiencing fear or perceiving RS as a taboo topic. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications for social work education and practice.

This article describes a national sample of social work field instructors’ responses to a cross-sectional survey of social workers’ orientation toward integrating clients’ religion and spirituality into practice and compares their responses with those of nonfield instructors. Four hundred sixty-nine social workers, including 69 MSW field instructors, anonymously responded to an online version of the Religious/Spiritually Integrated Practice Assessment Scale. Field instructors reported high levels of self-efficacy, positive attitudes, and few barriers to integrating clients’ religion and spirituality, yet fewer reported engaging in behaviors related to this area of practice. Compared with nonfield instructors, few differences emerged across items; however, field instructors reported higher behavior subscale scores, compared with nonfield instructors. Implications and future considerations for social work field education are discussed.

Objective: This article describes the validation of the Religious/Spiritually Integrated Process Assessment Scale (RSIPAS) across five helping professions. The RSIPAS was originally developed to measure clinical social workers’ self-efficacy, attitudes, perceived feasibility, behaviors, and overall orientation toward integrating clients’ religion and spirituality in practice. Method: The current study examines the internal consistency and criterion, discriminant, convergent, and factorial validity of this instrument with a sample of clinical social workers, psychologists, nurses, counselors, and marriage and family therapists in Texas ( N = 550). Results: Findings support the reliability (α = .95) and various forms of validity, with an improved fit in the factor structure among this more diverse sample. Conclusions: The RSIPAS may be used among these five helping professions to identify training needs or evaluate training efforts related to the integration of clients’ religious or spiritual beliefs in mental and behavioral health treatment.

Purpose: This study assessed the feasibility of virtual reality (VR) exposure as an assessment and treatment modality for youth with social anxiety disorder (SAD). Methods: Forty-one adolescents, 20 of which were identified as having SAD, were recruited from a community sample. Youth with and without SAD were exposed to two social virtual environments—party and public speaking—and two neutral virtual environments. Results: All youth reported significantly higher ratings on the Subjective Units of Distress Scale (SUDS) during the party and public speaking scenarios compared to the two neutral environments, while youth with SAD reported significantly higher SUDS in the public speaking and party environments than those without SAD. Youth also demonstrated acceptable levels of presence and immersion in the VR environments. Discussion: VR exposure treatment appears to be feasible for youth with SAD, highlighting the need for further research on its development.

Helping professionals’ religious and spiritual beliefs and practices have been reported as important components in the consideration of clients’ religion/spirituality (RS) in mental and behavioral health treatment. However, no study to date has simultaneously examined and compared five helping professions’ RS beliefs and practices, including psychologists, social workers, counselors, nurses, and marriage and family therapists. The current study is a secondary analysis of 536 licensed helping professionals in Texas to answer the following questions: (1) What levels of intrinsic religiosity and frequency of religious activities exist across these five professions, and how do they compare?; (2) To what extent do these five professions consider themselves religious or spiritual, and how do they compare?; and (3) What are the religious beliefs and practices across these five professions, and how do they compare? Results indicated significant differences across the five professions with regards to their religious affiliation, frequently used RS practices and activities, degree to which each profession self-identifies as spiritual, as well as intrinsic religiosity. A general comparison between helping professionals’ responses with the general population’s RS is also discussed. Implications based on these findings, as well as recommendations for future studies are included, particularly given the recent movement toward transdisciplinary clinical practice.

A growing body of research is beginning to identify characteristics that influence or are related to helping professionals’ integration of clients’ religion and spirituality (RS) in mental health treatment. This article presents Namaste Theory, a new theory for understanding the role of mental health practitioners’ RS in clinical practice. Using Glaser’s (2008) formal quantitative grounded theory approach, this article describes an emerging theme in the author’s line of work—particularly that practitioners’ intrinsic religiosity is significantly related to their consideration of clients’ RS—and explores the findings of related, interdisciplinary studies. The Hindu term, Namaste, meaning, “the sacred in me recognizes the sacred in you”, provided a framework to explain the emerging theme. Specifically, Namaste Theory introduces the concept that as helping professionals infuse their own RS beliefs/practices into their daily lives, deepening their intrinsic religiosity and awareness of what they deem sacred, they tend to consider and integrate clients’ RS beliefs/practices, and what clients consider sacred as well. In order words, as the helping professional recognizes the sacred within him or herself, s/he appears to be more open to recognizing the sacred within his/her client. Future directions for research, as well as practice and education implications, are discussed.

Objective: This article describes the development and validation of the Religious/Spiritually Integrated Practice Assessment Scale (RSIPAS). The RSIPAS is designed to assess social work practitioners’ self-efficacy, attitudes, behaviors, and perceived feasibility concerning the assessment or integration of clients’ religious and spiritual beliefs in clinical practice. Methods: After establishing content validity of the RSIPAS with a group of nationally known experts in the area of religion/spirituality and behavioral health, a national sample of master’s social workers ( N = 482) was randomly selected to assess the scale’s internal consistency, criterion validity, discriminant validity, and factorial validity. Results: Findings support the scale’s reliability (α = .95), criterion validity, discriminant validity, and factorial validity. Conclusions: The RSIPAS may be a useful instrument for elucidating current views and training needs among social work practitioners or to evaluate the outcomes of training or educational programs that provide content on religion and spirituality in the practice context.