Outcomes of a practice-based evidence study of spiritually integrated psychotherapy in a mental health setting

ABSTRACT

A practice-based evidence approach was used to evaluate client outcomes within a Catholic-affiliated mental health treatment setting. Measures included the Clinically Adaptive Client Outcome Measure, the Clinically Adaptive Therapist Session Checklist, and a therapist questionnaire, including the Religious/Process Assessment Scale. One-way analyses of variance (ANOVAs) with repeated measures were used to assess change in client outcomes over three therapy sessions. Multivariate ANOVAs were used to examine differences in client outcomes by gender and race, and to explore which therapeutic processes were most effective. This study helps advance the empirical evidence based for therapies that integrate attention to spirituality.

KEYWORDS:

• Spiritual interventions
• spiritually integrated psychotherapies
• mental health
• practice based evidence research

Acknowledgments

This study was supported by a grant from Brigham Young University, awarded to a research team at the National Catholic School of Social Service. The grant was part of a big data project supported by the John Templeton Foundation.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. To reduce burden on our sites by keeping the survey battery as brief as possible, we excluded the work/school subscale of the CA-COM, as well as the critical incident questions.

2. Our analyses included the first three sessions at which each client/therapist duo provided process and outcome data. Throughout this paper, T1 refers to the first session, T2 refers the second session, and T3 refers to the third session.

Additional information

Funding

Research reported in this publication was funded by a grant from Brigham Young University, awarded to a research team at the National Catholic School of Social Service. The grant was part of a big data project supported by the John Templeton Foundation;Brigham Young University (as funded by the John Templeton Foundation) [The reported work was completed as part of the Bringing Integrated Psychotherapies into the Health Care Mainstream grant competition, led by the Bridges Consortium at Brigham Young University and funded by the John Templeton Foundation [Subaward #18-0503].];