Religious Therapists

Non-religious Therapists

Both the religious and the non-religious groups perceived the interaction with group members as a source of safe and enabling encounters.

“Moreover, I really admired the girls who shared their places, aspects of sexuality, and how they connected and all. The girls in the group also enriched me with their knowledge, examples, and references. The girls, as I said before, were diverse, so I learned something from each of them. This is how a group’s dynamics and development are created.”

The religious therapists viewed the encounter as an intercultural encounter.

The non-religious therapists viewed it as an interpersonal encounter.

“No-one lashed out from his inner world of values that contradicts what the teammate just said. There was listening, there was mutual completion. The team was very high quality. People tried to, you know, respect each other’s opinion. The fact that we were not all in the same field, in the same profession, also contributed a lot and helped a lot… About how religious people look at sex and sexuality. How do non-religious people see sex and sexuality? So this diversity was very important, religious-non-religious.”

“Today I experienced it so this is what I believe: a religious person who seems to be rooted in the values of religion, this issue should be learned from a religious person. I do not usually say this, it takes a lot of cultural sensitivity… so I think that a supervisor who brings this to our public should take this field first and study this subject within the public. What are the religious positions that educate the public around these charged issues, what is considered allowed and what is forbidden, what exists and what does not. What is happening in this religious public, what are the concepts…if it is about masturbation, if it is about homosexuality, modesty, thoughts, all sorts of things. It is important to come with a knowledge base, you have the knowledge base on sexuality and we have a knowledge base (on religiosity).”

“…Later on, I think the most important thing I got was the ability to talk about sex and sexuality more openly. First of all with myself, between myself, and also with other people and with patients. which, I must say, was quite new to me.”

The religious therapists dealt with intercultural conflict and differences in values.

The non-religious therapists viewed the interactions as a means of modeling.

“Suddenly someone meets us and does not know the baggage we bring and guides it in a very different way that very much eliminates what we are, what we come with, not culturally sensitive to it, there is no dialogue between the worlds…”

“I had a really good time with the very enabling atmosphere you created. And I think also in the kind of…something very relaxed, very open, very accepting, very non-judgmental. And with the fact that you were very honest about yourself, what shrinks your stomach, what is less, what it arouses…like…the expectation is not that, okay, now the paedophile will come and I’ll have fun working with him.”

In both groups, the supervisor was perceived as a source of knowledge and acceptance, with the ability to create an atmosphere that would lead to a change in perceptions and attitudes.

“And I talk a lot about ‘modeling’, so I think you brought a lot of accessibility to this language through modeling…and meeting you like that opened up possibilities for dialogue about it.”