This topic has been said here in the forum, many opinions were expressed by qualified psychologists. The number of participants and discussions showed sensitive to this issue, so the purpose of this article to revisit the topic of religion in psychology under different angles of view.
The common opinion that the psychologist should not project their own beliefs on the client and especially to preach his religious cult. However, great importance is given to personality psychologist, in contact with which engages the customer, and we can't separate it from the set of tools and methods that selects a psychologist on the basis of their own values. The concept of religiosity has a pretty wide understanding in society, but we can conditionally divide the people on religious, atheists, and believers do not consider myself any denomination. Let's deal with terminology. Religion means the restoration of relationship with God ( lat. religare or re liga) with the help of certain methods that may vary in different denominations. Faith in a particular religious way often comes through other religious personalities, saints, religious preachers, their personal experience, as well as through our own internal searches and "enlightenment". The most common religious teachings monotheistic, based on acceptance of one God, and mainly distributed in Russia, the countries of the West, in the East, and preserved in India. Therefore, in our country, if we say that man is religious, we mean that he believes in the existence of one God alone. Now let's imagine that stems from this "religion". Overall similarities of all major religions say that all creation is a very intelligent and powerful Person who cares about all living creatures that "without His will not a blade of grass move". That all living entities are parts and have the same spiritual nature, but infinitely small and their nature - to serve the Lord on the basis of love. And thus it is possible to cognize the primordial love of God to us. And this realization is the goal of a religious man's life. Methods of service can be varied: common to many faiths - is the chanting of the Holy names of God, worship and prayer, hearing and reading Scripture, mindfulness, temple worship, pilgrimage to Holy places. In India, for example, in the temples are the deity - specific forms of God, different moods. It is dressed in beautiful clothes, offering food, singing and dancing for Him. This worship may differ from that of the Christian with its festive and joyful emotions. There is also a more detailed description of what God looks like, his qualities and activities, how does the spiritual world beyond the material.

Thus, the religious man sees in all living beings whether human or cow spiritual nature. He clearly realizes that death is inevitable, and that will continue continue. He does not perceive life as a one-time thing, he understands that we live life affects our present and future. That all our actions whether we believe it or not, there will be consequences. All our unhappiness is the result of our own wrong actions, and that happiness is right, and this is based on the set of the most ancient of the divine laws, which are designed to protect our consciousness and return home, back to Godhead. Other consequences of our lives are determined by karma (ind.) or sins (Christ.). That threatens with hell, the animal form of life, or conversely the opportunity to visit Paradise. There is even a detailed description of these habitats.
And such a man will end up more responsible in relationships with others, and, as a rule, religious people call on a God to help someone else to not assume the consequences of wrong human actions through communication with him, but become a tool in the hands of God.

But what if a religious person and a psychologist The basis of any relationship, and even with God - is freedom of choice, which has not been canceled. But often the person in the first place it is important to get the necessary experience of acceptance, trust, care and love. This therapeutic process has its own characteristics, because the client enters into a relationship, speaking in religious terms, with "pure" personality, not podverganie "bad" habits and tendencies that have experience and strength in rejecting what for others is the meaning of life, with experience of renunciation and the experience of spiritual happiness, who does not envy and is not proud. Usually the person quickly feels this is a special "field" of the therapist, there is a resonance with the deep structure of personality (in religious terminology - soul). So it happens that people stop drinking, change your lifestyle, despite the fact that a psychologist did not give any review or tutoring. Just a person has developed a taste for happiness, a pure taste, it can not become a "Holy", but from something it was easier to refuse.

Speaking of "religious man" and "religious psychologist" of course, I talked about the approximate characteristics of such a personality and share the same principles. I also didn't want something to discriminate against "secular" psychologists, recognizing their professionalism and the actual assistance they provide to people! To summarize, every person in any way he chooses his psychologist, based on his personality, quality and professionalism, religious or atheist, and always have the right to opt out of specific interaction.