Psychodynamic Psychotherapy, Religious Beliefs, and Self-Disclosure

Working psychotherapeutically with patients who hold particular religious beliefs or report psychological experience in religious language poses certain technical questions for the psychotherapist. It has been recently recommended that therapists self-disclose personal religious beliefs to patients upon request. The American Psychological Association Code of Ethics was the basis for this technical recommendation. In the current paper, the author contests a stance of self-disclosure as an ethical imperative, and asserts that theory precedes and informs technique. Psychodynamic theory, in particular, informs the author’s discussion of technique when working with religious themes in treatment. Theory, assessment, technique, transference, countertransference, and self-disclosure, frame the points of discussion.