Table 1

Sample of didactic sessions offered to psychiatry residents in 2002

First year residents
Session 1Panel: definitions, concepts, beliefs and practices of the world's major religious traditions
Session 2A survey of mental health research on religion and spirituality
Session 3Taking a religious/spiritual history
Session 4Healthy spirituality versus psychopathology
Session 5Religious/spiritual issues encountered in working with mentally ill homeless people
Session 6Religious/spiritual development through the life cycle
Session 7Working with interpreters
Session 8Collaborating with clergy in the clinical care of psychiatric patients
Second year residents
Session 1Exploring diversity: DSM-IV cultural formulation and beyond
Session 2What is culture?
Third year residents
Session 1A brief history of the psychiatry-religion interface
Session 2Transference, counter-transference and more
Session 3Panel: spiritual psychotherapists
Session 4Religious/spiritual and ethical issues at the end of life
Session 5The role of culturally based healers and care providers
Session 6The impact of cultural differences between physician and patient
Session 7“Who is this individual?” Putting knowledge into practice
Fourth year residents
Session 1Religion, spirituality, sexuality, marriage and divorce
Session 2Religion/spirituality in the treatment of substance abusing patients
Session 3Religion/spirituality in the treatment of gay/lesbian patients
Session 4Integrating spirituality into psychotherapy: clinical vignettes
Session 5Existential inquiry