Living the Questions: Is It Ethical to Pray with Your Patients?

by Earbin Stanciell,MD | January 08, 2013 1:46 PM EST

I offer my patients two avenues or tracts to follow in my practice. One I call the wholeness tract and the second that I named the traditional tract. The traditional tract consists of what we would call the garden variety medication/ psychotherapy treatments. The wholeness tract involves addressing spiritual issues such as prayer and forgiveness along with some aspects of the traditional tract. A patient may opt out or into each tract at anytime during treatment. When I conduct a new patient eval I explain to my patients these two options if they are what I consider cognitively capable of engaging in the spiritual aspect of treatment. If a patient is to impaired to understand I automatically provide conventional treatment until a later date when that patient is in a better mental state to choose. I have these options written into a handout and include this information when patients sign consent for treatment. I have learned that patients appreciate the option to include the god of their understanding and religious tradition in their treatment.

by Frank Hosszu | September 07, 2010 8:30 PM EDT

I pray with/for patients after asking them if they would like me to and their response is, "yes."
We generally tend to forget that when a person goes into hospital or care, that they don't just have physical ailments, pain and disease, disabilities, mental health issues etc,  they also have spiritual needs and these need to be addressed also if and when appropriate. 

Frank Hosszu

by Sharon Winters | June 18, 2010 8:31 AM EDT

Prayer is communicating with God.   I pray for my patients always, in that I pray for guidance in helping me be supportive, healing, directive, comforting, and most of all edifying.  Of course, I am a Christian, so I believe in prayer.  I manifest my beliefs through my actions.  I don't preach, pontificate, lecture. or sermonize.  The power of prayer is amazing.  This situation is one in which the psychiatrist was either agnostic or atheist so that what was happening when the woman asked for him to pray with her, is that he was only being a good listener, which is very important but not  the same as "praying with her".  I guess it doesn't really matter what we call his response.  She would be praying with God and the pschiatrist would be listening and acknowledging her suffering and embracing her hope.  No different than if the patient and psychiatrist agreed to have her write a letter to someone important to the lady such that she could communicate her feelings and hopes.  The difference is in whether the psychiatrist does not believe in God, in which case, he would feel he was participating in the woman's delusion!  In any case, none of this is an ethical issue in my opinion.

by kenneth tuzzi | June 17, 2010 8:16 PM EDT

i believe it is ethecal to pray with a client, as long as the client asks. also i would let the client know that they should pray with their reverened or family not their therapist. only praying with her because of the current situation.

by Bogdan Sasaran | June 17, 2010 10:35 AM EDT

No.