Client Preferences for Religious/Spiritual Integration and Matching in Psychotherapy

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the preference strength of religious/spiritual (R/S) and non-R/S clients for R/S integration in psychotherapy. Participating clients (N = 1,007) were asked to complete two discounting tasks to assess for preferences for an R/S match with a therapist and for the inclusion of R/S techniques in treatment. The R/S participants (n = 667) expressed a significant desire for both a therapist match (d = 0.74) and technique inclusion (d = 0.59) at high levels. In contrast, the non-R/S participants expressed much stronger preferences for working with a non-R/S therapist (d = 0.95) than for R/S technique inclusion (d = 0.31). Interestingly, the non-R/S clients more strongly desired a non-R/S therapist than R/S clients desired an R/S therapist (d = 0.29). While institutional religiosity and individual spirituality were correlated with both types of preferences among R/S clients, they were only correlated with preferences for technique inclusion among non-R/S clients. Clinical implications for R/S integration in psychotherapy and future research directions are discussed.