Religion and Mental Health: Exploring Both Harm and Healing
Religion is a topic that comes up often in my therapy practice. For some, there is a questioning of whether religious practice and affiliation have been a positive or negative influence in their life or in the lives of their loved ones. As with many topics in therapy, my answer here is “it depends”. This is often a nuanced topic impacted by a variety of factors, including personality traits, fit between personal and organizational beliefs, race, gender identity, sexual orientation, family and organization structure, and more. For some, religious experience can foster a strong sense of belonging, healing, and hope. For others, similar experiences can contribute to or exacerbate feelings of shame, anxiety, and isolation. As we explore these questions, we’ll look at some of the qualities that might contribute to experiences being harmful or healing.
The Need to Belong
As social creatures, humans are wired for connection. It is no surprise then that a true sense of belonging is a key piece in conversations of help and harm.
Religious groups can strengthen cohesion and commitment, but these same dynamics can also create tension when individual needs, beliefs, or identities diverge from group expectations. When religious communities foster connection and acceptance, they can be tremendous sources of support and strength in the lives of individuals. When belonging feels conditional or overly focused on in-group/out-group dynamics, however, it can become much more complicated.
For many of the folks I work with who are navigating a faith crisis or transition, the sense of community is both one of the greatest strengths of their religious experience and one of the hardest things to lose. When their beliefs and practices were largely in line with their religious community, a sense of connection often felt built in and affirming. As their beliefs began to shift, however, some have described those same relationships feeling less certain, with what once felt like dependable support becoming more tenuous.
This can create a difficult tension between fitting into group expectations and honoring one’s authentic sense of self. How individuals and communities navigate that tension may play a significant role in whether religious experiences feel supportive, harmful, or somewhere in between.
What is required of the individual in terms of belief and behavior to fit group expectations?
How much of the individual sense of self aligns with the group norms?
How much space and tolerance exists in the group for individual beliefs and behaviors that are different than the group norms?
How does the individual view themselves in light of these tensions between self and group identity? How does the group view these differences?
Does the individual have other sources of support?
These are all possible questions that can be helpful to explore when thinking about the potential healing and harmful effects of religious communities, beliefs, and practices as they relate to our need for belonging.
The Need for Meaning
Humans are meaning-making creatures. We naturally search for explanations, purpose, and stories that help us make sense of ourselves and the world around us. Religious traditions often provide answers to some of life's biggest questions: Why are we here? What happens after death? How should we live? What gives life meaning?
These frameworks can provide comfort, direction, coherence, and resilience. However, they can also create tension when an individual's experiences, values, or beliefs begin to shift.
As part of a normal human developmental process, our meaning-making systems and values tend to shift and morph over time. For many, this tension between individual belief and standard beliefs held by the religious organization can create a whole new kind of stress. For many people, the challenge becomes reconciling evolving personal beliefs with the teachings and assumptions of their religious community.
For some, this is viewed as a natural and normal part of development that beliefs shift over time and that navigating this tension of individual and group belief is just a normal part of the process. For others, they might start to question themselves and their faithfulness, their desirability in their higher power’s eyes, and their worth to be spiritually connected. For some still, they may wonder if they can even trust their own ability to think, question, and make meaning. Curiosity can start to feel like a threat. In some communities, when questioning is treated as evidence of weakness, rebellion, or spiritual failure, individuals may begin to not only question their conclusions but their ability to grow, explore, and make sense of their own experiences.
Some questions that may help in reflecting on factors that can influence the potential for harm or healing in how belief systems are approached:
What does the religious community (and, if applicable, the family system) teach about discrepancies between a standard set of beliefs and an individual’s beliefs?
How are questions and doubts handled within the community and by the religion’s leaders?
How does the individual do with holding the ambiguous tension between potentially conflicting beliefs or meanings?
Is there space for someone to shift from a literal belief system to a more symbolic system of belief?
The Need for Comfort During Suffering
Suffering is universal. Grief, illness, disappointment, betrayal, uncertainty and loss are all parts of the human experience. Religious communities, practices, and beliefs often offer support in dealing with these and other human challenges. Through ritual, prayer, pastoral care and companionship, and beliefs about the future and the nature of suffering, many people find resources to help them endure challenges and continue moving forward with optimism.
These human experiences are often messy and bring with them layers of complicated emotions. While religious practices and tools can be tremendous resources for some in navigating these challenges, for others, they can add additional pressure when someone feels like they need to approach their suffering in a prescribed way. When someone doesn’t find relief, they may question if they are doing something wrong, doing something to deserve this pain. They may feel that they shouldn’t experience certain emotions or only certain tools are appropriate to use.
Some reflection questions to consider when reflecting on potentially harmful or helpful environments for approaching suffering:
What are considered appropriate practices for handling painful life experiences? What happens if someone finds other approaches more helpful?
How are difficult or conflicting emotions viewed and approached?
Is there space for struggle and ambiguity or pressure to quickly resolve?
How does the individual respond when rituals don’t work as they had hoped?
Conclusion
As noted, religious experience can bring with it a mix of strength and pain. No two people experience religion in exactly the same way, adding to the complexity of the topic. Not meant as a comprehensive or prescriptive framework, we explored a few ways in which religion interfaces with needs for belonging, making meaning, and navigating suffering.
My hope is that we can navigate these challenging topics with care and curiosity. For some, religious beliefs and communities remain important sources of comfort, resilience and connection. For others, they represent some of the deepest sources of pain. Both experiences deserve to be treated with compassion.
Whether you would like to draw on your religious resources in therapy, are navigating a faith transition, or need support working through painful religious experiences, I’d be happy to talk with you about whether working together might help you move toward your goals. As a therapist trained in Spiritually Integrated Psychotherapy, I work with clients from a variety of religious, spiritual, and nonreligious backgrounds in exploring these important aspects of their lives.