A primer on spirituality and mental health.

Abstract

Clearly there is a connection between spiritual beliefs and healing in the traditional cultures of the world, and it is currently emerging within Western psychology.-Mary Fukuyama and Todd Sevig It is our belief that theory, research, and practice should be interconnected, especially when working with spiritual issues in therapy. In this chapter, we provide an overview of spirituality and mental health definitions, trends, and research to orient readers to the evolving body of professional psychology literature on spirituality. Although by no means exhaustive, this primer was written to lay a foundation for interpreting and applying the theoretical propositions and clinical practice strategies offered in the following chapters. SPIRITUAL CONTEXTThe meaning of the word spirituality has been the source of great debate among mental health professionals, as numerous definitions have been proposed, compared, and critiqued (Zinnbauer, Pargament, & Scott, 1999). Zinnbauer and Pargament (2005) proposed that "spirituality is defined as a personal or group search for the sacred. Religiousness is defined as a personal or group search for the sacred that unfolds within a traditional sacred context" (p. 35). Spirituality is regarded as a broader construct than religion, although both are multidimensional and have common characteristics. Reflected in

Religious competence as cultural competence

“…That said, there are signs of change in this domain. For example, the American Psychological Association has recently published a number of books exploring the meaningful integration of spirituality into therapeutic practice (e.g., Aten & Leach, 2008 ; Plante, 2009 ). Other new textbooks also include meaningful material on religion and mental health (e.g., Kay & Tasman, 2006 ).…”

Altruism and “love of neighbor” offer neuroanatomical protection against depression

“…Standard assessment of each patient’s spiritual worldview and related perspective on suffering is integrated into intake as part of the SPIRIT program at Harvard Medical School, McLean Hospital and then leads to treatment planning for both inpatient and outpatient settings ( Rosmarin et al, 2019 ). Aten and Leach (2009) have published a thorough resource for spiritually integrated treatment at each phase in the arc of care that integrates both transcendent practice and relational spiritual connections. Sandage et al (2020) have published extensively on models of relational spirituality (RSM) per se as the foundational frame and focus of treatment.…”

Spirituality and quality of life in women with breast cancer: The role of hope and educational attainment

“…While we used a measure of spirituality reflective of perspectives broadened beyond the dominant socio-cultural perspective, we recognize that the Malay culture is prescribed the Islamic religion at the state level which reduces the ability to separate these often closely related constructs. While religiosity and spirituality are often associated, they can be expressed independently (Aten and Leach, 2009). The cross-sectional design makes it impossible to infer causality between spirituality and overall QoL.…”