Transforming Trauma: Episode 158

For many mental health professionals, exploration into a client’s relationship with spirituality is often left out or actively avoided.  Could honest and open discussions about a client’s spiritual perspective help them reconnect to themselves and others while also alleviating their symptoms of stress, anxiety, and depression?

On this episode of Transforming Trauma, host Emily Ruth is honored to welcome Harvard psychologist, author, and educator David Rosmarin, PhD., to explore the connection between spirituality and mental health, modern psychology’s aversion to the topic, and the ancient Jewish wisdom behind the connections paradigm.

“Since the dawn of psychotherapy, we’ve just shied away from these basic discussions, and it’s a real shame,” confides David, who has spent much of his professional life not only emphasizing but also providing clinical research on the connection between spirituality and mental health.  “It’s really not rocket science to address spiritual life as long as you have the right questions to ask and you’re willing to do so.” Orienting people to what’s most important in their life, what gives them the most meaning, and the most sense of connection, is a vital part of the therapeutic journey.

David is one of the leading voices in the psychology of spirituality and its application in mental health spaces. As director of the Spirituality and Mental Health Program at McLean Hospital, he oversees a multifaceted initiative to “meet the spiritual needs of patients by providing spiritually integrated care within multiple clinical programs throughout the hospital.” David is also an associate professor of psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, where he studies the relevance of spirituality to mental health and innovates methods for clinicians to address this area of life.

“When I started taking Psychology 101 and all the other undergraduate courses. I was really struck by the absence of discussions about spiritual and religious life. It really didn’t jive with my own experience,” recalls David, who has a rich spiritual and religious practice. David acknowledges that most of the field is a long way from embracing spiritual inquiry as a regular component of treatment. “There’s a huge disparity between professionals and academicians in terms of spiritual and religious life and that of patients coming in for services,” he says. “If you look at the data, more than 90% of Americans have at least some belief in higher power or something greater. When I give continuing education seminars and ask for a raise of hands of how many people have had a single hour of training in how to address spiritual and religious life, if 5% of the audience raises their hands, that’s a lot.”

David appreciates therapeutic modalities that bring attention to the basic human desire for a larger sense of connection, a theme that is central to the connections paradigm. “It’s the basic idea is that people have the opportunity in this world for connection with ourselves, with others, and, then, some sort of spiritual connection. When we are connected and have these relationships, we tend to thrive.”

Transforming Trauma appreciates David for expanding our understanding of the relationship between faith and mental health and inviting our community to think more deeply about our approach to spirituality in therapeutic spaces.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

Thriving With Anxiety: 9 Tools to Make Your Anxiety Work for You

The Connections Paradigm: Ancient Jewish Wisdom for Modern Mental Health

Spirituality & Mental Health Laboratory

Handbook of Spirituality, Religion, And Mental Health

GUEST CONTACT & BIO

Center For Anxiety

Dr. David H. Rosmarin is the director of the Spirituality and Mental Health Program at McLean Hospital and an associate professor of psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. He earned his PhD in clinical psychology from Bowling Green State University, completed a predoctoral internship, and then pursued a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School and McLean Hospital. Dr. Rosmarin studies the relevance of spirituality to mental health, and he innovates methods for clinicians to address this area of life. He has published over a hundred manuscripts, editorials, and chapters and served as co-editor of the Handbook of Spirituality, Religion, and Mental Health. Dr. Rosmarin’s work is regularly featured by the media and has appeared on CNN, NPR, Scientific American, the Boston Globe, the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Times.