The Influence of Religion and Spirituality in Psychotherapy: Research and Applications

Dear Colleagues,

Spirituality and religion have emerged from a contentious history in psychotherapy to become driving forces for health and wellbeing in modern psychological care. Due to an expansive literature attesting the capacity of spirituality and religion to influence mental health as well as create crisis and tension, psychotherapists cannot afford to be illiterate to the contours of their clients’ spiritual and religious lives. Scholars have made significant strides toward psychotherapies that are accommodative to clients’ spiritual strivings and grounded in the principles of evidence-based practice. At the same time, there are important questions that need attention from basic and applied research. Additionally, direction from wise guides is still needed to navigate a host of practical challenges to effectively intervene when a client’s spirituality or religion becomes a focus of psychotherapy. For this reason, the purpose of this Special Issue is to bring together a diverse set of voices from social scientists, psychotherapists, clergy (or designated teachers from within diverse traditions), and religious studies scholars to report empirical findings on the contribution of spirituality and religion to psychotherapy, develop novel or expand existing theoretical contributions, as well as provide practical strategies to effectively explore spirituality and religion in applied settings. I invite original papers that can include experimentally controlled studies, practice-based evidence, meta-analyses, systematic reviews, case studies, theory, and practical “how to’s” for working with spirituality and religion in psychotherapy. Some example topic areas that this Special Issue is specifically prioritizing are the following:

• The causal mechanisms of spirituality and/or religion in psychotherapy;
• The distinct role of spirituality and religion as contributors to psychotherapy outcomes;
• Spiritual and religious competence as a unique factor of psychotherapy competence;
• Multilevel intervention strategies that focus on enhancing a client’s spirituality in psychotherapy;
• Providing psychotherapy to religious minorities and emerging spiritual orientations (e.g., spiritual but not religious) as well as unstudied or marginalized populations;
• Interfacing effectively with allied professionals with a special focus on religious or spiritual leaders, teachers, and sages;
• The implications of spiritually oriented psychotherapy for religiously unaffiliated clients;
• Challenges or barriers to addressing spirituality and religion in psychotherapy such as religious transference or non-enthusiastic professional training or practice environments;
• Addressing spiritually and religion across the lifespan from child clients to older adult clients.

With these strategic priorities in mind, papers included in this Special Issue will make a lasting contribution to the field by navigating the existing horizons and discovering new paths to understanding and incorporating spiritualty and religion as integral components of the psychotherapy process.

Dr. Jesse Fox
Mr. Evan Copello
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Religions is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• spiritually integrated psychotherapy
• religion and spirituality in psychotherapy