Religious commitment and the construal of sources of help for emotional problems

Religious commitment as an influence upon seeking help for psychological pr oblems has not received the same level of research attention as variables s uch as sex, ethnicity and cultural background. The construing of members of a group of committed UK Christians was investigated, regarding their recei ving such help from a variety of different helpers, professional and non-pr ofessional, secular and spiritual. Each participant was asked to interpret the factors statistically identified from construct and element relationshi ps in a repertory grid that they had completed. Their commentaries formed t he data for a qualitative thematic analysis, which gave rise to four main t hemes. From these, a tentative model is discussed. Possible implications fo r the acceptance of service provision by the substantial minority groups of religiously committed people in the UK are considered in the light of this model-and in the light of the further research that would be needed to est ablish it.