The religious and spiritual aspects of clinical practice: A neglected dimension of social work

The Role of Religion and Spirituality in Social Work Education and Practice

“…First, participants were asked to respond to two positions that are often offered as rationales for including such content in the social work curriculum (Canda, 1989;Delgado & Humm-Delgado, 1982;Goldstein, 1983;Joseph, 1987;Loewenberg, 1988;Marshall, 1991;Meystedt, 1984) . The first rationale presents an argument for including religious and spiritual content because of its re levance to multicultural diversity:…”

Naming the spiritual: The hidden dimension of helping

“…This broad definition is supported in the social work literature (Joseph, 1987;Canda, 1989;Lantz & Pegram, 1989;Sheridan & Bullis, 1991;Miley, 1992), and is the fundamental tenet of existential philosophy. Existentialists believe that perceived meaninglessness is the most frequent and profound human difficulty, and that failure to address issues of meaning results in mental health problems of all sorts.…”

''Fret No More My Child… for I'm All Over Heaven All Day'': Religious Beliefs in the Bereavement of African American, Middle-Aged Daughters Coping With the Death of an Elderly Mother

“…Placing religious beliefs within the broad psychosocial context of individuals, therefore, becomes important to the competency of human service professionals. The knowledge would enable them to accurately assess functional versus dysfunctional behaviors or, at the very least, distinguish between pathological defenses and cognitive frameworks that are manifestations of subgroup memberships (Joseph, 1987;Lowenberg, 1988). Sensitivity to the clients' religious beliefs has been found to enhance the interventions of helping professionals.…”