Depression, Psychotherapy, and Hispanic Immigrant Charismatic Catholics in the U.S.

The article engages the topic of the religious values of Hispanic immigrant charismatic Catholics, or carismáticos, and how these values manifest when carismáticos suffer from chronic depression. Their religious values prompt carismáticos to understand chronic depression as spiritual misalignment, which in turn prompts spiritual realignment and religious healing as the most effective means to address this mental illness. As a result, the carismáticos’ religious experiences lead them to conclude that psychotherapy is ultimately ineffective. While the carismáticos are beginning to make room for psychiatric medicine, they still perceive psychotherapists as holding values that irretrievably conflict with charismatic religious values. Engaging Bergin’s 1980 article “Psychotherapy and Religious Values,” this current article shares Bergin’s concern regarding the rift between religious values and psychotherapist’s values, and suggests the need for a more communal, religious approach to psychotherapy amongst practitioners of charismatic Catholicism.