Honors Theses and Capstones

Date of Award

Spring 2025

Project Type

Senior Honors Thesis

College or School

COLA

Program or Major

Psychology

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

First Advisor

Joan Glutting

Abstract

Religion and spirituality have been shown to have positive effects on physical and mental health in recent years. Despite this, research suggests religion and spirituality as characteristics of clients to be overlooked in modern secular psychotherapy treatments. This study investigated mental health outcomes from psychotherapy related to the perceived integration of religious and spiritual beliefs. A survey was administered to and taken by 178 University of New Hampshire students on the web-platform Qualtrics to investigate client psychotherapy experiences and their perception of how their religious and spiritual beliefs and values were integrated. The research conducted for this study points to potential ethical reasonings and recommendations for religious and spiritual integration due to their importance as characteristics potentially pertaining to successful therapy outcomes. This effect was explored for a stronger correlation to clients with greater conviction of their beliefs. The relevance of perceived belief congruence between client and clinician and its effect on perception of therapy success was also investigated.

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