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Using Spiritual Interventions In Psychotherapy: Practices, Successes, Failures, And Ethical Concerns Of Mormon Psychotherapists, P. Scott Richards, Richard W. Potts

Faculty Publications

Two hundred and fifteen (out of 300) randomly selected Mormon psychotherapists were surveyed and asked to indicate how frequently they use various spiritual interventions in psychotherapy and to describe successful and unsuccessful spiritual intervention case examples. The therapists indi- cated that they use a wide variety of spiritual interventions, including praying silently for clients, teaching spiritual concepts, encouraging forgiveness, and using the religious community as a sup- port. Many spiritual interventions were perceived by the therapists as potentially therapeutic. Pro- cess guidelines for using spiritual interventions were offered by the therapists, and ethical concerns (e.g., dual relationships, imposing values) were …