An exploration of the relationship between clinical psychologists' religious beliefs and their clinical practice with older adults

This study explores the relationship between the Clinical Psychologists' religious
beliefs and their clinical work with Older Adult clients.
Literature Review: The literature review draws attention to the importance of the
religiosity of Clinical Psychologists who work with Older Adult clients. This is in
contrast to previous research, which has tended to focus on the religious beliefs of
clients. Likewise, previous research has focussed on adults, neglecting Older Adults
as a clinical group. The need for research addressing the influence of the clinician's
religiosity is identified.
Method: The approach is Grounded Theory methodology (social constructionist
revision). A method in-between the 'abbreviated* and 'full' versions is used, with
negative case sampling built into the design through the recruitment of four
respondents who described themselves as religious and four as non-religious. The
approach is justified using epistemological and empirical arguments.
Analysis: Textual descriptions and embedded quotations are used to present four
super-ordinate, and eight sub-ordinate, categories describing the relationship between
respondents' religious beliefs and their clinical practice with Older Adults. Findings
are summarised by the titles of super-ordinate categories, as follows: "The issue of
the compatibility or incompatibility of religion and Clinical Psychology"", "Disclosure
to colleagues: anticipated embarrassment", "The relationship between the Older
Adult client's religious views and the Clinical Psychologist's religious views" and "The relationship between the Clinical Psychologist's own religious views and their
clinical practice with Older Adults". Diagrams are constructed to demonstrate the
relationships between categories, as identified by respondents. A resultant main
diagram is derived and shown.
Discussion: A simplified version of the main diagram is presented, distilling
categories generated by analysis into 'distal' and 'proximal' factors. Implications for
clinical practice and for future research are discussed in the context of this tentative
model. Credibility checks and limitations are reviewed and conclusions drawn.

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