F3RT1 - Can Religious Faith Be Incorporated into Schema Therapy to Increase Resilience?
Tracks
Track 5
Innovation
| Friday, May 31, 2024 |
| 2:30 PM - 4:00 PM |
Overview
Round table
Details
If the presenter suggests breaking into groups then you should access the Breakout Foyer HERE
Objectives/Background
85% of the world's population is estimated to identify with a religion. However, there can be a disparity between the prevalence of religiosity in a country’s general population and its population of psychologists and psychotherapists. For example, Delaney et al (2007) found that in the USA, 75% of the public but only 35% percent of psychologists surveyed agreed that their approach to life is based on their religion. As additionally, religious and spiritual issues and resources are rarely covered in therapy training, we suggest that it is likely that many therapists do not feel equipped to integrate religious clients’ faith into the therapy they offer. Yet this may be an untapped resource that is highly relevant to many clients; empirical studies now point up the role that religious faith plays in increasing psychological wellbeing and resilience (e.g., Koenig, 2012).
Some studies attempt to unpack why this is (e.g. Schwalm et al 2021; Cutland, 2000). Distinctions have also been made in the literature between positive and negative religious coping. One study found that positive religious coping reflects a secure relationship with a transcendent force, a sense of spiritual connectedness with others, and a benevolent worldview (Pargament, 2011). Whilst various elements of faith can be important, based on personal and clinical experience as well as research (e.g., Leman et al 2018), Round Table Discussion’s theistic panellists regard attachment relationship with God as central. However, in Buddhism this is not the case and different mechanisms such as fostering a sense of responsibility and agency may be relevant (see e.g., Laurent et al 2021). Practices such as meditation, gratitude and a sense of belonging in a faith community may also be important, irrespective of the specific faith.
Tara, Ahmed, Oksana and Arinobu are experienced in actively incorporating aspects of Christianity (Protestant and Catholic), Islam and Buddhism into Schema Therapy with religious clients. They work in different cultural contexts: the UK, the Middle East (UAE and Egypt), Ukraine and Japan.
Method
Panellists will share their perspectives on incorporating clients’ faiths into Schema Therapy assessment, formulation and change methods, referring to research findings where relevant. They will describe examples of how faith has strengthened and empowered clients’ Healthy Adult modes and increased resilience through Schema Therapy methods. They will also address how aspects of faith may impede the development of resilience and present in maladaptive schemas and modes.
Part-way through the session the audience will be invited to form small groups to discuss and reflect on the topics have been raised. There will then be ample opportunity for the audience to ask questions to address issues and generate further discussion of relevance to them.
Results/Conclusion
We aim to equip delegates with greater understanding of and ideas regarding how clients’ religious faith can be actively incorporated into Schema Therapy to enhance healthy need-meeting and bolster the Healthy Adult, resulting in increased resilience and schema healing. Delegates will also grow in their awareness and understanding of different cultural contexts and the relevance of these in developing resilience.
Objectives/Background
85% of the world's population is estimated to identify with a religion. However, there can be a disparity between the prevalence of religiosity in a country’s general population and its population of psychologists and psychotherapists. For example, Delaney et al (2007) found that in the USA, 75% of the public but only 35% percent of psychologists surveyed agreed that their approach to life is based on their religion. As additionally, religious and spiritual issues and resources are rarely covered in therapy training, we suggest that it is likely that many therapists do not feel equipped to integrate religious clients’ faith into the therapy they offer. Yet this may be an untapped resource that is highly relevant to many clients; empirical studies now point up the role that religious faith plays in increasing psychological wellbeing and resilience (e.g., Koenig, 2012).
Some studies attempt to unpack why this is (e.g. Schwalm et al 2021; Cutland, 2000). Distinctions have also been made in the literature between positive and negative religious coping. One study found that positive religious coping reflects a secure relationship with a transcendent force, a sense of spiritual connectedness with others, and a benevolent worldview (Pargament, 2011). Whilst various elements of faith can be important, based on personal and clinical experience as well as research (e.g., Leman et al 2018), Round Table Discussion’s theistic panellists regard attachment relationship with God as central. However, in Buddhism this is not the case and different mechanisms such as fostering a sense of responsibility and agency may be relevant (see e.g., Laurent et al 2021). Practices such as meditation, gratitude and a sense of belonging in a faith community may also be important, irrespective of the specific faith.
Tara, Ahmed, Oksana and Arinobu are experienced in actively incorporating aspects of Christianity (Protestant and Catholic), Islam and Buddhism into Schema Therapy with religious clients. They work in different cultural contexts: the UK, the Middle East (UAE and Egypt), Ukraine and Japan.
Method
Panellists will share their perspectives on incorporating clients’ faiths into Schema Therapy assessment, formulation and change methods, referring to research findings where relevant. They will describe examples of how faith has strengthened and empowered clients’ Healthy Adult modes and increased resilience through Schema Therapy methods. They will also address how aspects of faith may impede the development of resilience and present in maladaptive schemas and modes.
Part-way through the session the audience will be invited to form small groups to discuss and reflect on the topics have been raised. There will then be ample opportunity for the audience to ask questions to address issues and generate further discussion of relevance to them.
Results/Conclusion
We aim to equip delegates with greater understanding of and ideas regarding how clients’ religious faith can be actively incorporated into Schema Therapy to enhance healthy need-meeting and bolster the Healthy Adult, resulting in increased resilience and schema healing. Delegates will also grow in their awareness and understanding of different cultural contexts and the relevance of these in developing resilience.
Speaker
Dr Tara Cutland Green
Consultant Clinical Psychologist
Schema Therapy Associates
Can Religious Faith Be Incorporated into Schema Therapy to Increase Resilience?
Biography
Dr Tara Cutland Green is a Clinical Psychologist who was trained by Jeffrey Young in 2008. She now offers Schema Therapy, supervision and training across a range of countries. Tara and Dr Gill Heath co-direct Schema Therapy Associates’ certification programme; produced the Schema Therapy Toolkit training video set; and authored the chapter ‘Schema Therapy’ in the The Handbook of Adult Clinical Psychology (2016, Carr & McNulty). Tara, with Anna Balfour, also wrote the chapter ‘Assessment and Formulation in Schema Therapy’ in Creative Methods in Schema Therapy (2020).
Tara has a longstanding interest in the relationship between psychology and Christian faith. Her doctoral research explored how committed Christians’ faith affected how they experienced, coped with and sought help for psychological distress.
She has worked in the NHS across different locations in the UK, in a Personality Disorders service in New Zealand and currently runs a private practice from Yorkshire.
Dr. Arinobu Hori
Director
Hori Mental Clinic
Can Religious Faith Be Incorporated into Schema Therapy to Increase Resilience?
Biography
Dr Arinobu Hori is a psychiatrist and author of the book "Sins and Crimes of Japanese Narcissism" (in Japanese, 2016). He is the Director of the Hori Mental Clinic, Special Assistant Professor, Department of Disaster and Comprehensive Medicine, Fukushima Medical University
Dr Ahmed Hanafy Mahmoud
Principal Clinical Psychologist , Trainer, Supervisor, Advanced Schema Therapist
Schema Therapy Egypt
Can Religious Faith Be Incorporated into Schema Therapy to Increase Resilience?
Biography
Ahmed Hanafy Mahmoud, Ph.D. is Founder of the Egyptian Institute of Cognitive Therapies, Founder of Schema Therapist Egypt and Principal Psychologist at Maudsley Health Abu Dhabi, UAE. He is a Clinical Psychologist with 18 years of experience with adults. His main interests are in Addiction Rehabilitation, Personality Disorders, PTSD and Complex Trauma, Sexual Disorders and OCD. He specialises in CBT and Schema Therapy, is certified by the ISST as a Trainer - Supervisor and Advanced therapist and was trained (in 2016) and is currently supervised by Prof. David Edwards. Ahmed has participated in many workshops and lectures about Schema Therapy and CBT in the mental health conferences in Egypt and UAE, and awareness programs all over Egypt on Addiction Rehabilitation and prevention. He has many publications in the field of clinical psychology (a book, 3 papers, a book revision and a translation of a book on Schema Therapy into Arabic).
Oksana Martsyniak-Dorosh
Academy of CBT
Can Religious Faith Be Incorporated into Schema Therapy to Increase Resilience?
Biography
Dr Oksana Martsyniak-Dorosh is a Clinical Psychologist living in Lviv, Ukraine. Her doctoral dissertation is "The meaning of life and self-image in overweight and obese women", which was supervised by K. Popelski (Viktor Frankl's student and the creator of the TND test of the meaning of life). She is associate professor (2008 – present) at the University in Lviv; professor at the Theological Institute of Saint Archbishop Joseph Bilczewski (2008 – present) and in 2018 founded the Academia CBT (Ukraine). She likes to get to know different countries, people and to travel and embroider tapestries.
