Professional Training and the Place of Religiosity/Spirituality in Clinical Practice: Reflective Encounters with Psychology Undergraduates
spirituality; religiosity; professional training; group reflection; existential psychology
During periods of crisis, people often intensify their religious practices or seek spiritual meaning for their suffering, which may emerge in psychological care settings. This research project is a qualitative investigation grounded in a dialogical and collaborative phenomenological method, aiming to develop a model of reflective meetings with undergraduate psychology students focused on welcoming and managing religious and spiritual issues in clinical practice. The study plans to include 30 students enrolled from the fifth semester onward in psychology programs at public or private institutions. After signing an informed consent form, participants will complete a sociodemographic and academic questionnaire and write a personal narrative. Organized into three groups, they will take part in an initial focus group to assess their perceptions and knowledge regarding the relationship between spirituality/religiosity and mental health, as well as their understanding of the limits and potential of their professional role in this context and their learning expectations. Subsequently, they will participate in four online group meetings of a reflective nature, grounded in a phenomenological-existential approach, conducted as workshops aimed at the co-construction of knowledge on the themes under study. These reflective meetings are intended to help future professionals become more open and confident when addressing the religious and spiritual experiences of those they assist. To evaluate the process and outcomes of the program, after each meeting and at the end of the activities, students will be invited to reflect on their main learnings, reflections, and (dis)satisfactions in the group exchanges. The discussions from the focus group and reflective meetings will be audio-recorded and fully transcribed. Data analysis will follow a phenomenological understanding, organizing the phenomena into hermeneutic circles to observe how they relate and move toward constructing meaning from experience. Although it is expected that participants will feel more prepared to address religious and spiritual issues in psychological care throughout the meetings, the researcher must remain attentive to the unexpected, seeking to grasp the various meanings that may emerge during the experiences.