Utilizing Religious and Spiritual Material in Clinical Care: Two Cases of Religious Mourning

This article integrates a way of thinking about the origin of religiosity with how religious and spiritual resources get utilized in adaptation to a significant life stressor. It provides an example for clinicians of using spiritually integrated psychotherapy to help patients appreciate and nurture resources that they may be reluctant to share with health care practitioners. The novelty of certain religious experiences, especially in the context of acute and severe loss, is rarely addressed in the professional education of most mental health practitioners. Some religious experiences are characterized as "paranormal" and are often dismissed in professional education as mystical or unscientific. This may make certain types of religious coping less valuable and accessible to people in extreme need.