Atlas›Domain XIII · Contemplative & religious disciplines›Guide 274
Guide XIII-274

Bahá'í obligatory prayer and the Nineteen-Day Fast

Bahá'u'lláh
A 35 · L 52 · M 1312 interventions in the Trinity explorer
Client cardCompare
[source: …] where a claim comes from[uncertain] not confirmed in a primary source[synthesis] the writer's reconstruction

1. Introduction

Version followed: the Kitáb-i-Aqdas of Bahá'u'lláh in the authorised English translation published by the Bahá'í World Centre, especially its "Synopsis and Codification of the Laws and Ordinances" (sections IV.A on obligatory prayer, IV.B on fasting) and its explanatory Notes; Shoghi Effendi's statements as quoted in those Notes and in Directives from the Guardian; the compilation The Importance of Obligatory Prayer and Fasting (Universal House of Justice, May 2000); and a letter written on behalf of the Universal House of Justice dated 23 February 2000. Clinical material: the DSM-5-TR Cultural Formulation Interview (APA), IOCDF guidance on scrupulosity, and eating-disorder sources listed below.

This is a religious observance, not a therapy. Bahá'í writings pair two personal duties. The first is a daily obligatory prayer: the believer chooses one of three prayers revealed by Bahá'u'lláh, says it alone after washing the hands and face, and faces the Qiblih, Bahá'u'lláh's resting place at Bahjí near 'Akká [source: Aqdas Synopsis IV.A.6; Notes 3, 7, 8, 19, 34]. The second is the annual Fast: abstaining from food and drink during daylight in the Bahá'í month of 'Alá, which follows the Intercalary Days and ends at the Naw-Rúz festival [source: Synopsis IV.B.2–3; Note 25]. Both bind believers from the age of maturity, fixed at fifteen, and both carry exemptions [source: Synopsis IV.A.3–4, IV.B.4–5]. This guide describes the Fast only as Bahá'í institutions publish it. It gives no fasting schedule or length for anyone to follow.

How change happens, as the tradition states it: Bahá'u'lláh calls prayer and fasting "two wings to man's life" [source: Importance compilation, III]. Shoghi Effendi calls the Fast "essentially a period of meditation and prayer, of spiritual recuperation" and a symbolic reminder of abstinence from selfish desire [source: Note 25]. 'Abdu'l-Bahá calls the physical fast "a symbol of the spiritual fast" [source: Importance compilation, XXVI]. These are religious accounts. They are attributed to the tradition here, neither asserted nor dismissed.

The therapist does not teach, lead or judge the observance. The therapist's work runs alongside it: understanding what it means to this client, assessing it culturally, adjusting treatment around it, sending health questions to the client's doctor, screening for eating disorders and scrupulosity, and working with Bahá'í institutions when the client asks [synthesis]. The other daily Bahá'í practices (reading the writings, repeating "Alláh-u-Abhá", the Nineteen Day Feast and study circles) are covered in 275.

2. Framework

Who authorises the observance. Bahá'u'lláh's laws, as authoritatively interpreted by 'Abdu'l-Bahá and Shoghi Effendi, and the Universal House of Justice for matters the texts leave open [source: Importance compilation, XXIV; UHJ letter 23 Feb 2000]. Observance of obligatory prayer and fasting is "solely a matter of personal conscience". Institutions do not enforce it, unlike laws such as marriage [source: UHJ letter 23 Feb 2000]. The prayers are said individually, not in congregation. The one exception is the Prayer for the Dead, which one person recites while the others stand [source: Notes 10, 19]. Bahá'í communities are administered by elected Local and National Spiritual Assemblies [source: UHJ letter 23 Feb 2000 refers to National Spiritual Assemblies]. The Faith has no ordained clergy [uncertain: not verified].

The observance as published (descriptive, not prescriptive).

  • Obligatory prayer: choose one of three prayers; each has its own appointed time, defined in the Synopsis and Notes [source: IV.A.6–7; Note 5]. Ablution of hands and face comes first. If water is unavailable or harmful, a short verse is said instead [source: IV.A.10.d; Notes 16, 34]. In danger, a prostration and a verse stand in for each missed prayer [source: IV.A.12].
  • Fast: abstinence from food and drink between sunrise and sunset in the month of 'Alá. It applies from fifteen until seventy [source: IV.B.2–4; Note 25].
  • Exemptions, as the Synopsis states them:
    • Obligatory prayer: those who are ill; those over seventy; women in their courses, who instead perform ablutions and repeat a revealed verse [source: IV.A.4].
    • Fast: travellers (journeys of more than nine hours, or more than two on foot, with rules for stopovers and for arriving home during the Fast); the ill; those over seventy; women "who are with child"; nursing women; women in their courses (as above); and those doing heavy labour. Those in heavy labour are advised to use the exemption with "discretion and restraint" and to eat frugally and in private [source: IV.B.5; Note 31].
    • Illness: Note 14 records that in ill health it is "not permissible" to observe these obligations. Those weak from illness or age are exempt [source: Note 14]. Bahá'u'lláh says the Fast is ordained "for those who are sound and healthy" [source: Importance compilation, XXI].
    • Exemptions are not prohibitions. The Universal House of Justice describes them as exemptions and leaves it to the believer's wisdom whether to use them [source: Note 20].
    • Doctors: the Synopsis lists, among the laws, "To consult competent physicians when ill" [source: IV.D.3.s].

Phases of the therapist's work. No source gives phases or session counts for therapy alongside this observance. The following sequence is [synthesis]:

  1. Engagement and assessment (any time): meaning, Cultural Formulation Interview (CFI), health and eating-disorder screen, scrupulosity screen. Move on when you know the client's practice, the role it plays, and any risks.
  2. Pre-Fast planning (in the weeks before 'Alá, if the client fasts or is weighing whether to): accommodation, referral to the doctor, a plan for any eating-disorder risk, and the client's own enquiry into exemptions. Move on when the doctor or treatment team has advised and the client has a plan they own.
  3. During the Fast: brief check-ins, scheduling adjustments, watching for warning signs. Escalate to the doctor or ED team if warning signs appear.
  4. After Naw-Rúz: review what helped, any guilt or scrupulosity, and the plan for next year. Regular obligatory-prayer issues (scrupulosity, guilt, timing) are handled whenever they come up.

3. Guiding principles

  • The client's conscience governs observance. Observance is personal conscience, not institutional enforcement [source: UHJ letter 23 Feb 2000]. Practical: never urge the client to observe or to skip. Explore and support their own discernment.
  • The therapist is not a religious authority. Practical: do not interpret Bahá'í law or rule on exemptions. Point the client to the texts and their own institutions [synthesis].
  • Health first, as the tradition itself states. The Fast is ordained for the sound and healthy, and the law directs believers to competent physicians [source: Importance compilation, XXI; Synopsis IV.D.3.s]. Practical: send every medical question about fasting to the client's doctor. Send every medication question to the prescriber.
  • No prescribing of fasts. Practical: give no lengths, schedules, meal plans or targets. Nutrition planning belongs to a doctor or dietitian [synthesis].
  • Exemptions are permissions, not verdicts. [source: Note 20] Practical: help clients see that using an exemption is itself provided for in the law. Do not pressure them to use one either.
  • Screen for eating disorders every season. Religious fasting can trigger or worsen an eating disorder in predisposed people [source: Akgül et al. 2014]. Practical: ask about restriction, bingeing and purging before each Fast.
  • Separate devotion from compulsion. Healthy practice fits the person's values. OCD is driven by fear [source: IOCDF]. Practical: assess function, not frequency alone.
  • Use the client's own words and sources. Practical: use the CFI and the client's own terms ("obligatory prayer", "the Fast", "'Alá", "Naw-Rúz") [source: CFI; synthesis].
  • Attribute, don't adjudicate. Practical: speak of what the writings say, not of whether they are true [synthesis].
  • Collaborate only with consent. Practical: contact Bahá'í institutions or community members only at the client's request, with a signed release [synthesis].

4. Intervention inventory

No source gives session counts or durations for any of these. Each is a therapist task carried out alongside the observance. The procedures are [synthesis] unless a source is tagged.

4.1 Exploring the observance's meaning in the client's life

  • Purpose / when: at intake, whenever prayer or the Fast comes up, and before 'Alá. The aim is to learn what the practice means to this client, rather than assuming.
  • Steps:
    1. Ask whether the client observes obligatory prayer and/or the Fast, and how they came to it (raised Bahá'í, enrolled as an adult, a family of mixed faiths).
    2. Ask what the practice gives them, in their own words: nearness to God, discipline, identity, community, renewal. Reflect the tradition's framing only if the client uses it, for example the Fast as a time of "spiritual recuperation" [source: Note 25].
    3. Ask about strains: guilt over missed prayers, family pressure, health limits, or doubt.
    4. Note how the practice links to the presenting problem: as a resource, a stressor, or both.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Some people find the Fast a time of renewal. Others find it hard in some years. What is it like for you?" / "Which of the obligatory prayers do you usually say, and what does that moment in the day mean to you?"
  • Watch for: the client checking whether you approve. Answers that sound like duty only, with no meaning (possible scrupulosity or depression). Signs it is working: the client talks about the practice freely and connects it to their goals.

4.2 Cultural Formulation Interview with the spirituality module

  • Purpose / when: a structured cultural assessment at intake, or when religion seems central to the problem. The core CFI has 16 questions across four areas: the cultural definition of the problem; perceptions of cause, context and support; cultural identity; and coping, help-seeking and the clinical relationship. It should not be the only basis for diagnosis [source: APA CFI].
  • Steps:
    1. Give the core CFI using the client's own words for the problem.
    2. If Bahá'í practice is salient, add Supplementary Module 5, "Spirituality, Religion, and Moral Traditions". It covers four areas: identity and affiliation (including belonging to more than one tradition), the tradition's role in daily and family life, personal practices and their importance, and the tradition's relation to the problem. That last area includes help from community leaders, texts and prayer, and any distress, discrimination or conflict over religion [source: APA CFI Supplementary Modules].
    3. If relevant, add the Cultural Identity, Social Network and Coping and Help-Seeking modules [source: ibid.].
    4. Paraphrase the items. Do not reproduce or alter the instrument outside APA's permissions [source: APA CFI].
    5. Write a short cultural formulation that covers how prayer and the Fast work as resources or stressors.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Are there practices like prayer or fasting that help you cope, or that have become harder with this problem?"
  • Watch for: forcing a single-tradition label (some clients come from Muslim, Christian or mixed backgrounds). Persecution or discrimination tied to religious identity: ask, don't assume. Working looks like a formulation the client recognises as accurate.

4.3 Accommodation in scheduling and treatment

  • Purpose / when: for any observant client, especially during 'Alá.
  • Steps:
    1. Ask which obligatory prayer the client says and when. Each prayer has an appointed time window [source: Synopsis IV.A.7; Note 5]. Avoid booking sessions that collide with it, or offer a short pause and a private space if the client wishes.
    2. Before 'Alá, ask whether the client will fast. If so, ask which session times suit their energy and concentration, and offer telehealth or shorter sessions where your service allows.
    3. Don't offer food or drink during fasting hours. Don't schedule food-based exposures or group meals then.
    4. Plan homework that does not depend on eating patterns. Move intensive treatment phases if the client asks.
    5. Note Naw-Rúz and other holy days on the treatment calendar.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Would a different time work better while you're fasting? We can also leave room if your prayer time falls during our session."
  • Watch for: the client not asking out of politeness. Accommodation that drifts into the therapist arranging the client's religious life. Working looks like fewer missed sessions and the client feeling respected.

4.4 Health screen and routing to the doctor

  • Purpose / when: before each Fast, for any client with a medical condition, pregnancy, nursing, older age, heavy physical work, medication, or psychiatric instability.
  • Steps:
    1. Ask in general terms about health conditions, pregnancy or nursing, current medications, sleep, and the demands of their work.
    2. Tell the client that the tradition itself exempts the ill, pregnant and nursing women, those over seventy, travellers, and those in heavy labour, and says the Fast is meant for the healthy [source: Synopsis IV.B.5; Note 14; Importance compilation, XXI]. Present this as information, not a ruling.
    3. Send all medical questions to the client's doctor: whether to fast, risks with their condition (for example diabetes, kidney disease, pregnancy), and hydration. Send all medication questions (timing, missed doses, effects) to the prescriber. Give no advice yourself. Cite the law's own direction to consult competent physicians if the client finds that helpful [source: Synopsis IV.D.3.s].
    4. With consent, share mental-health information relevant to the doctor's decision, such as lithium treatment, recent self-harm or eating-disorder history.
    5. Write down the client's decision and the doctor's advice. Review it during the Fast.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Whether fasting is safe with your condition is a question for your doctor, and the writings themselves send people to physicians when ill. Shall we plan how you'll raise it?"
  • Watch for: fasting despite medical advice out of guilt (see 4.6 and 4.7). Dizziness, fainting, mood swings or sleep disruption reported in session: prompt a medical review. Abrupt mood change in a client with bipolar disorder: urgent prescriber contact.

4.5 Eating-disorder screening and planning

  • Purpose / when: every client, before each Fast. Religious fasting can trigger or worsen eating disorders in predisposed adolescents [source: Akgül, Derman & Kanbur 2014]. It can also serve as cover for restriction or purging [source: National Alliance for Eating Disorders].
  • Steps:
    1. Screen for current or past restriction, bingeing, purging, compensatory exercise, rigid food rules and weight preoccupation. Use a validated screener your service licenses, without reproducing items here.
    2. If there is any history or current symptom, ask about medical and nutritional stability and medications. Involve the full team (physician, dietitian, psychiatrist) before any fast [source: National Alliance].
    3. Explore motive: spiritual meaning, connection and belonging, or control, secrecy and restriction [source: National Alliance].
    4. If the client decides not to fast, or the team advises against it, suggest they talk with a trusted Bahá'í adviser or their Spiritual Assembly, who may affirm the decision. Point to the tradition's own exemption for illness [source: National Alliance; Synopsis IV.B.5].
    5. Explore non-food ways to keep the spirit of the season if the client wants them: prayer, reading the writings, service, reflection. The tradition itself frames the Fast as symbolic of a spiritual fast [source: Importance compilation, XXVI; National Alliance on non-food alternatives].
    6. If a modified observance goes ahead under medical supervision, the dietitian and doctor set the eating plan, not you. Agree warning signs and a stop rule in advance [source: National Alliance].
  • Example language (illustrative): "When you think about the Fast this year, how much of the pull is about closeness to God, and how much is the eating disorder's voice?" / "The writings exempt people who are ill. Your recovery counts."
  • Watch for: a return to calorie counting, bingeing after the fast ends each day, fasting used as purging, "good/bad food" thinking, guilt around communal meals, signs of dehydration or electrolyte problems. Refeeding risk in those with severe restriction needs medical management [source: National Alliance]. Signs it is working: the client separates the spiritual purpose from the disorder's demands.

4.6 Supporting the client's own enquiry into exemptions

  • Purpose / when: when a client is unsure whether an exemption applies (illness, pregnancy, nursing, travel, heavy labour, age) or feels guilty using one.
  • Steps:
    1. Clarify that deciding whether a religious exemption applies is not your role. Your role is to support the client's own discernment and to make sure medical facts come from their doctor.
    2. Help the client find the primary texts: the Synopsis IV.A.4 and IV.B.5, and Notes 14, 20 and 31 in the authorised Kitáb-i-Aqdas. Suggest they consult their Local or National Spiritual Assembly if questions remain [source: UHJ letter 23 Feb 2000 says National Assemblies hold references for answering such questions].
    3. Reflect the tradition's own framing: exemptions are provisions within the law, left to the believer's wisdom [source: Note 20]. The law asks observance "to the extent possible" unless there is an insurmountable obstacle or great danger [source: Importance compilation, IV].
    4. Explore the feelings behind the question (shame, fear of community judgement) using 4.7.
  • Example language (illustrative): "You're asking whether you're allowed to stop. That's a question for you, your doctor and, if you want, your Assembly. What I can help with is the guilt that comes with it."
  • Watch for: the client wanting you to rule, which pulls you into a religious-authority role. Reassurance-seeking loops, which suggest scrupulosity (4.7). Working looks like the client reaching their own decision and feeling settled with it.

4.7 Scrupulosity (religious OCD) around prayer, ablution and the Fast

  • Purpose / when: when observance becomes fear-driven: repeating the obligatory prayer or ablutions until it feels "right", doubting whether a prayer counted, intrusive blasphemous thoughts during prayer, excessive confession-like reassurance seeking, or fasting despite a clear exemption out of fear. These presentations are [synthesis] applied to Bahá'í practice. IOCDF describes compulsions as excessive prayer or confession in general [source: IOCDF].
  • Steps:
    1. Assess for OCD with a standard interview. Distinguish values from fear: healthy practice fits the person's beliefs, while OCD conflicts with them [source: IOCDF].
    2. Use psychoeducation: OCD "latches onto" what matters most [source: IOCDF].
    3. Treat with ERP, the first-line treatment, alongside medication assessment by a prescriber [source: IOCDF]. Build a hierarchy around the feared uncertainty. Examples: saying the prayer once without repeating, doing a single ablution, not checking whether the prayer was "valid". Exposures must stay within the client's faith and never ask them to break its tenets [source: IOCDF].
    4. With consent, consult a knowledgeable Bahá'í adviser or Spiritual Assembly to learn what the tradition actually requires, so ERP targets compulsions rather than observance. Useful anchors: there is a single ablution of hands and face, with a substitute verse when water is unavailable or harmful [source: Notes 16, 34]; the believer chooses one prayer [source: Synopsis IV.A.6]; and the tradition rejects self-inflicted hardship beyond the Book's laws, prohibiting asceticism [source: Importance compilation, XVI; Synopsis IV.D.1.y].
    5. Include exposure safety steps: informed consent to tolerating distress, a client-paced hierarchy, and no exposures that conflict with medical advice (for example a fasting-related exposure in a client with an eating disorder).
  • Example language (illustrative): "The prayer asks for your heart, not for a perfect performance. OCD is the one demanding a tenth repetition. What would it be like to say it once and let the doubt stay?"
  • Watch for: the therapist being used for reassurance, and religious advisers unknowingly giving reassurance. Plan this together with them. Working looks like falling time spent on rituals, prayer becoming meaningful again, and less distress.

4.8 Guilt, spiritual struggle and moral injury

  • Purpose / when: when a client cannot observe (illness, a demanding job, a pregnancy, lapses in faith) and feels they have failed God or their community. Also when they feel betrayed by community responses.
  • Steps:
    1. Separate appropriate religious regret, which the client may want to bring to prayer, from excessive shame or depressive guilt.
    2. Explore the client's image of God and of the law. Note the tradition's statement that the Fast should be motivated by love of God, not "fear of Thy wrath" [source: Importance compilation, Prayer for the Fast I]. Use this only if the client finds it meaningful.
    3. For moral injury (acting against deeply held values), use a values-based, self-compassion or moral-repair approach as your training permits [synthesis].
    4. If the client wishes, involve a trusted Bahá'í friend or adviser in reconnecting with community.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Missing the Fast this year sounds like it carried a lot of weight. What do you think God asks of someone in your situation, and what does the guilt ask?"
  • Watch for: depression, suicidal thinking (assess using current standard practice), and withdrawal from the community. Working looks like reduced shame and a renewed relationship with the practice on the client's terms.

4.9 Grief, ritual and community support

  • Purpose / when: bereavement; the client's first Fast or Naw-Rúz after a loss; isolation (the only Bahá'í in a household, a new arrival, exempt and left out of shared meals).
  • Steps:
    1. Ask how the community marks death. The Prayer for the Dead is the one congregational prayer [source: Notes 10, 19]. Ask what the client took part in and what was missing.
    2. Explore the seasonal rhythm. The Fast and Naw-Rúz can bring connection, or sharp reminders of loss.
    3. Help the client plan support: community gatherings, devotional meetings, family rituals, and contact with the Local Assembly if desired.
    4. For exempt clients, plan ways to take part in the season without fasting (4.5 step 5).
  • Example language (illustrative): "This will be your first Naw-Rúz without your mother. How would you like to mark it, and who could be with you?"
  • Watch for: complicated grief and anniversary reactions. Working looks like the client using rituals and community as support.

4.10 Collaboration with Bahá'í institutions, advisers and chaplains

  • Purpose / when: only when the client asks. Uses include scrupulosity (4.7), exemption questions (4.6), eating-disorder support (4.5) and reconnection with community.
  • Steps:
    1. Get written consent that names the person or body (for example the Local Spiritual Assembly or a Bahá'í hospital chaplain) and the information to be shared.
    2. Keep roles clear. The religious body speaks to religious questions. You speak to the clinical picture in general terms. The doctor speaks to medical questions.
    3. Ask what the tradition requires, and share the clinical plan only as far as needed. Keep a record.
  • Example language (illustrative), to the adviser: "With [client]'s permission: they have obsessive doubts about whether their prayers count. It would help to hear what the Bahá'í writings require, so the treatment doesn't ask anything of them that conflicts with their faith."
  • Watch for: confidentiality leaking into a small community. Advisers unknowingly reinforcing compulsions. The client feeling pressured into contact. Working looks like consistent messages from all sides.

4.11 Children and adolescents

  • Purpose / when: a client under fifteen who wants to fast or pray as adults do, or an adolescent nearing or just past fifteen.
  • Steps:
    1. Note that the obligations begin at maturity, fixed at fifteen [source: Synopsis IV.A.3, IV.B.4]. A younger child is not bound by the law.
    2. Screen for eating disorders with particular care. Akgül et al. describe Ramadan fasting as a possible trigger in predisposed adolescents. This is Islamic data and is not evidence about Bahá'í fasting [source: Akgül et al. 2014].
    3. Involve parents or guardians and the young person's doctor. Respect the young person's assent and the guardian's consent.
    4. Follow local safeguarding procedures if a child is pushed into fasting or harmed [synthesis].
  • Example language (illustrative): "You'll be fifteen next year. What do you hope the Fast will mean for you?"
  • Watch for: fasting used as weight control, and family conflict over observance.

4.12 Managing the therapist's role and self-disclosure

  • Purpose / when: throughout. This applies especially if you share the faith, belong to the same local community, or hold strong views about religion.
  • Steps:
    1. Do not act as a religious teacher, interpreter of law or adviser. Refer such questions to the client's institutions.
    2. If you are Bahá'í, think about dual-relationship risks in a small community: meeting at Feasts or at Assembly meetings. Discuss boundaries early.
    3. Limit self-disclosure about your own observance to what serves the client.
    4. Follow your profession's ethics code on competence, multiple relationships and respect for religion [synthesis]. Professional spiritual and religious competencies have been published, for example by Vieten et al. 2013 [uncertain: not verified].
  • Example language (illustrative): "I'm not the right person to say what the law requires. I can help you think it through and find who can answer it."
  • Watch for: the client deferring to you on religious matters. Your own beliefs, or lack of them, colouring the formulation.

5. Handling problems

The sources say little about therapy problems specific to this observance. Unless a source is tagged, this section is [synthesis].

  • Client insists on fasting against medical advice. Don't argue theology. Restate that the decision rests with their conscience, that medical safety comes from their doctor, and that the writings themselves exempt the ill and say the Fast is meant for the healthy [source: Note 14; Importance compilation, XXI]. Agree on warning signs and an escalation plan. If an eating disorder or acute risk is present, follow your service's medical-risk and ED-risk protocols, which may override accommodation.
  • Client wants you to say whether they are exempt. Decline the religious ruling warmly (4.6). Offer the primary texts and their Assembly, and the doctor for the medical facts.
  • Eating disorder disguised as devotion. Watch for secrecy, extending restriction beyond the observance, fasting outside 'Alá or below fifteen, and weight talk. Name the pattern without challenging the faith: "I can see the devotion. I also see the eating disorder using it." Involve the ED team [source: National Alliance; Akgül et al. 2014].
  • Scrupulosity looks like piety, and the client resists ERP as irreligious. Use the IOCDF framing: discomfort during ERP signals resisting OCD, not breaking religious tenets [source: IOCDF]. Offer a consultation with a Bahá'í adviser (4.10).
  • Non-adherence to treatment during 'Alá (missed sessions, fatigue, poor concentration). Plan ahead (4.3): lighter homework, flexible scheduling. Review after Naw-Rúz rather than treating it as resistance.
  • Rupture over a perceived bias (the client thinks you disapprove of fasting, or that you are pushing religion). Name it and ask directly. Repair by restating the client's autonomy and your role (4.12).
  • Overwhelm or mood crisis during the Fast. Contact the prescriber and doctor promptly. Reduce demands in therapy. If the client is unwell, remind them that the tradition does not ask the ill to fast [source: Note 14]. Do a risk assessment by current standards if suicidal thinking appears.
  • Conflict in a family of mixed observance (a Bahá'í spouse fasting while others don't, or parents pressing an adolescent). Use the Social Network and Cultural Identity CFI modules [source: APA CFI Supplementary Modules]. Hold family sessions with consent.
  • Small-community confidentiality fears. Discuss limits of contact. Never contact community members without written consent.
  • Distress in prayer itself (intrusive thoughts, unusual experiences). Obligatory prayer is brief and recited, not a meditation-absorption practice. Still, assess for OCD, trauma intrusions or psychotic symptoms without pathologising ordinary religious experience. DSM-5-TR includes a code for a religious or spiritual problem (Z65.8). Published research on adverse contemplative experiences (Lindahl et al. 2017, PLOS ONE; Farias et al. 2020, Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica) concerns meditation practices and is not specific to this observance [uncertain: not verified].
  • Persecution-related trauma or religious discrimination reported by Bahá'í clients from some countries. Assess with the CFI's question on discrimination [source: APA CFI Supplementary Modules] and use trauma-focused care as indicated. The specific historical context is [uncertain: not verified].

Sources

Primary and clinical sources:

Also cited [uncertain: not verified]: Vieten et al. 2013 (spiritual and religious competencies); Lindahl et al. 2017, PLOS ONE; Farias et al. 2020, Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica; the APA Ethics Code; the DSM-5-TR code for a religious or spiritual problem (Z65.8).

← Previous · XIII-273Yazidi pilgrimage to LalishNext · XIII-275 →Bahá'í daily practices and Ruhi circles