Testing a relational spirituality model of psychotherapy clients’ preferences and functioning

Spiritually integrated psychotherapies in real-world clinical practice: Synthesizing the literature to identify best practices and future research directions.

“…Curiously, our review showed that measures of spiritual seeking have rarely been included in psychotherapy studies, suggesting a tendency in the literature to privilege spiritual dwelling. In practice-based studies that do measure both constructs, spiritual dwelling and seeking have been found to be positively correlated with each other among mental health clients (Sandage, Jankowski, et al, 2020), whereas nonclinical studies have sometimes found a negative association (Johnson et al, 2008). Holding the seeking-dwelling dialectic tension well may be partially explained by patients' experience of their clinician's sensitivity to diversity, which was associated with positive outcomes beyond the influence of the alliance.…”

“…has found SERT struggles to be positively correlated with spiritual seeking (Sandage, Jankowski, et al, 2020), suggesting that struggles can activate a quest for transformative evolution, or leave patients feeling demoralized and stuck. How patients and their communities interpret such struggles could moderate this effect: attributing personal failure (e.g., sin, lack of faith) likely intensifies distress, while addressing oppressive influences (e.g., homophobic theologies, religious abuse) may facilitate new understandings of the sacred.…”

“…Among those identifying as pagan, agnostic, or atheist, SERT influences in their family and community may continue to exert a significant impact (often implicit and/or reactionary) on how they see themselves, others, and the world, which is important to attend to in assessment and case formulation. Practice-based evidence lends further insight: When asked about the relevance of discussing SERT concerns in order to resolve the issues that brought them to therapy, 76% of patients endorsed the relevance of spiritual issues, 56% cited religious issues, and 83% noted issues of meaning/purpose (Sandage, Jankowski, et al, 2020). It is worth noting that about one in six clients did not indicate a preference here, which requires diversity sensitivity among clinicians.…”

“…This body of literature helps make the case for the clinical legitimacy of SIPs in mental health treatment and the possibility of enhanced impact on areas of spiritual functioning that can be important to many patients. Moreover, a growing body of research shows that patients’ psychosocial functioning can be influenced in both salutary and deleterious ways by SERT-related struggles at individual, family, and systemic levels (Pargament & Exline, 2021; Sandage, Jankowski, et al, 2020), which broadens the clinical relevance of SERT dynamics in treatment.…”

Handbook of Positive Psychology, Religion, and Spirituality

“…Although common, R/S struggles can lead to chronic distress and mental disorders, if unaddressed . Practice-based research has found R/S struggles are linked to spiritual seeking (Sandage, Jankowski et al, 2020), suggesting R/S struggles can activate a quest You have nearly reached the end of this Handbook of Positive Psychology, Religion, and Spirituality. In this final chapter, we highlight key themes that emerged across the Handbook and identify several deficiencies in theory and research uncovered along the way. We also propose the unification of positive psychology and the psychology of religion/spirituality (R/S) into an integrated field-the positive psychology of R/S-to address these deficiencies.…”