Smoking cessation and exercise promotion counseling in psychologists who practice psychotherapy

Little is known about health promotion within the context of psychotherapy. The present study assessed a sample of psychologists' attitudes and behavior with their psychotherapy clients regarding smoking cessation and exercise promotion counseling.

This is a cross-sectional survey study.

Surveys were mailed.

Licensed psychologists (1000) in Massachusetts were randomly selected to receive surveys. Psychologists practicing psychotherapy at least 5 h/wk were invited to participate. Out of 496 responses, 328 completed surveys were analyzed.

Two parallel surveys were developed for smoking (N = 154) and exercise (N = 174) assessing health promotion behaviors and attitudes.

Approximately 43% of respondents inquire about smoking and 53% inquire about exercise with new clients. Over 45% advise smoking clients to quit and 50% advise sedentary clients to exercise. Over 80% of respondents felt smoking and exercise should be addressed in psychotherapy; however only 41% of smoking and 65% of exercise respondents felt confident in their counseling abilities. Lack of confidence, beliefs about relevance of smoking and exercise to psychological functioning, and beliefs that such personal choices should not be addressed in psychotherapy significantly predicted smoking cessation and exercise promotion behaviors.

Many respondents are engaging in health promotion with their psychotherapy clients. Exercise promotion is occurring more frequently and is viewed more favorably compared with smoking cessation counseling. Health promotion attitudes are associated with counseling behaviors. Limitations include self-selection bias and small sample size.