A. E. Bergin (1985) studied the religious values and beliefs of mentalhealth professionals and the relationship of those values to the counseling process. This study replicated Bergin's research with a sample of professional counselors. Differences werefound in each of 10 beliefs areas and 10 values areas between the totalsample in bothstudies. Within-group differences revealed greater similarities between professional counselors and social workers and marriage and family therapists and greater differences between counselors and eitherpsychologists or psychiatrists. Implications for counseling and counselor trainingare discussed. Bergin (1980) cited a poll conducted by the American Institute of Public Opinion, which estimated that 90% of the American population hold strong religious beliefs. Kroll and Sheehan (1989) reached the same conclusion following an extensive review of the literature, noting that over 90% of the American population affirm a belief in God. One third of the respondents in a Gallup poll indicated that religion was an important aspect of their lives, whereas another one third noted that while not the most important, religion was a very important part of their lives (Gallup, 1985). Gallup and Castelli (1989) found that 8 of 10 individuals valued their religion.
It is clear that religious values are important to a large segment of the population. It is not surprising, then, that many people consider such values to be an important part of needed therapy when problems arise (Bergin, 1985; Bergin & Jensen, 1990). The role of religion in psychological adjustment, while not well understood, appears to be significant (Masters, Bergin,