O LUGAR DE VALORES RELIGIOSOS E A ESPIRITUALIDADE NA TERAPIA COMPORTAMENTAL

Abstract

The third wave of behavioral therapies drew the attention to the clients values, and how they give meaning to their life, as well as to the importance of the therapist as a person and to his or her subjectivity. The present research follows through on the same path and goes on investigating how the behavioral therapist deals with his own religious/spirituals values in psycotherapy. A theory is built based on data from interviews with nine behavioral therapists. Four major categories were identified forming the theory that in therapy, (1) the therapist must accept the values of the client, and (2) should not teach his or her own values, even though (3) the therapist must always be aware that his or her own values are implicitly present, (4) and can, in particular circumstances, be essencial to explicitly guide the actions of the therapists. Thus, in the behavioral therapists' experience it is clear that the therapist must be confortably present with his or her values in the therapeutic process, being prepared to explore the way in which the client gives meaning to the experience of the therapy and its spiritual/religious dimension when this is advantageous to its progress, without imposing his or her own values. The client's values must determine the goals and guide the therapeutic process while the therapist s values only must become explicit given specific therapeutic intentions or ethical considerations. In conclusion, the interviewed behavioral therapists believed that they must be clearly aware of their values without making them explicit. At the same time, they consider it to be important that the therapeutic process is conducted according to the clients values.