Helpful rationale and interventions for attending to spiritual and religious issues in psychotherapy

Interview with Elizabeth Irias, LMFT

  • Course Description

    Spirituality and religion are at the heart of patients' motivational system, their resource system, and their understandings of themselves, the world, and others. Working effectively with patient spirituality is a crucial ingredient in developing therapeutic alliances and helping people work toward change that matters to them. This presentation offers a rationale for attending to spiritual and religious issues in psychotherapy, an understanding of spirituality useful in working with a diverse population of patients, and two practical foundations for working with spirituality in the context of psychotherapy.

  • Learning Objectives

    Upon completing this course, participants will be able to: Describe spirituality and religion and the similarities/differences; Explain the rationale for attending to spirituality and religion in mental health treatment; Describe two foundational pillars of spiritually integrated psychotherapy


    Target Audience and Instructional Level
    This course is intended for psychologists, therapists, social workers, clinical counselors, and addiction counselors. Instructional level: Intermediate

  • How To Take This Course

    In order to receive a certificate of completion reflecting the associated CE credit hour, you must:
    #1: Have an active paid Clearly Clinical membership
    #2: Listen to the corresponding course podcast
    #3: Achieve a passing grade on the post-presentation test (the test has up to ten questions and you must earn a score of at least 80%; you are able to re-test)
    #4: Complete the requested course evaluation.

    Course elements (including the course audio, post-test, and requested course evaluation) can be completed on a computer or mobile device via your Clearly Clinical account.

  • Course Format

    This high-quality and interesting course contains a one-hour, non-interactive audio podcast presentation which is available for free via all major public podcast providers. You can also listen to and download the file via our course player.

  • Commercial Support

    There is no known commercial support or conflict of interest for this CE program, presenter, sponsor, instructor, or content. The instructor references their own resources as a potential option for further learning.

  • Certificate Access Details

    Once you've completed the course, your certificate will automatically populate in the 'Certificate' section of your account; it will also be emailed to you. Access to completion certificate will expire 365 days after issuance. Course certificates will be on file for ten (10) years from date of course completion.

  • Accommodations

    If you have special needs or need an accommodation, please email us at info@clearlyclinical.com and we will do our best to assist you.

Interviewer and Interviewee

Dr. Russell Siler Jones, LCMHCS

Spirituality/Religion Expert

Russell Siler Jones, ThD, LCMHCS, is a psychotherapist in Asheville, NC, Director of CareNet/Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist’s Residency in Psychotherapy and Spirituality, and Developer of ACPE’s Spiritually Integrated Psychotherapy Program. He is author of Spirit in Session: Working with Your Client’s Spirituality (and Your Own) in Psychotherapy.

Please visit him at RussellSilerJones.com/, ACPE Spiritually Integrated Psychotherapy (SIP) Program, and Spirit in Session: Working with Your Client’s Spirituality (and Your Own) in Psychotherapy

Elizabeth 'Beth' Irias, MS, LMFT

Interviewer & Clearly Clinical Founder

Elizabeth 'Beth' Irias (she/her) is a licensed Marriage & Family Therapist and the Founder and President of Clearly Clinical. She has specializations in Clinical Documentation, Best Practice, and Utilization Review, and works closely with clinical teams across the US as a trainer and national conference presenter; Beth was formerly an adjunct professor at Pepperdine University in the Graduate Psychology and Education department. Licensed in California and Oregon, she provides therapy via her private practice to young adult and adult clients, members of the LGBTQ population, and those with addictive disorders. She has two young children, a super cool spouse who helps out with Clearly Clinical's tech, and a rescue dog.

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