Find a Mental Health Professional for Faith, Spirituality & Religious Concerns

About Faith, Spirituality & Religious Concerns support

Faith and spirituality are central to many people's lives and can be a profound source of strength, meaning, and community. They can also be a source of pain, particularly when religious experiences have included spiritual abuse, rejection from a faith community, conflict between religious beliefs and other aspects of identity (such as sexuality or gender), or a crisis of faith following trauma or loss. A person's relationship with their faith deserves to be taken seriously rather than pathologised or dismissed. Practitioners who work with faith and spirituality do so with respect for the individual's beliefs and do not seek to move people toward or away from religious practice. Therapy may help people navigate spiritual crises, process pain from religious communities, reconcile faith with other aspects of identity, or explore questions of meaning and transcendence. Some practitioners integrate spiritually sensitive approaches with evidence-based therapy. In Australia, pastoral counsellors and spiritual directors are available within many faith traditions. Some community health and counselling services offer spiritually sensitive support to people of all backgrounds. The Australian and New Zealand Association of Pastoral Care (ANZAPC) provides a directory of pastoral counsellors. Medicare does not subsidise pastoral care, but psychology or counselling sessions for related mental health concerns may be accessed through a GP referral.