Abstract: The article aims to analyze how the Brazilian state has sought to regulate religious practices in therapeutic communities (TCs) and how these organizations react to this process. For this, we analyzed the national regulations of TCs in Brazil and carried out a case study on the state of São Paulo. The methodology consists of a bibliographic review, document analysis, and interviews. Our main argument is that the spirituality category is co-constructed through interactions and conflicts, being an institutional fit that, while allowing the maintenance of religion as one of the tripods of the treatment proposed by TCs, also ensures them a character of religious plurality, opening space for state funding.
Keywords:
therapeutic communities; spirituality; religion; public policy; institutionalization.