Spiritual Care in Psychological Suffering: How a Research Collaboration Informs Integrative Practice highlights spiritually integrative research and demonstrates the evolution of a national partnership of psychologists and chaplains collaborating for optimal results. Interdisciplinary teams are the gold standard in spiritual care provision, and this book orients the purpose and promise of such collaboration for research and practice. Recent work in the psychology of religion and spirituality has emphasized the importance of relational spirituality, distinctions between harmful and helpful effects of religion and spirituality on mental health, and the relevance of spiritual struggles for psychological well-being; however, these dimensions have not been examined in the context of a collaborative and culturally diverse partnership, nor have they been comprehensively examined in psychologically distressed populations. This volume seeks to make an important contribution to the psychology of religion by providing an in-depth look at translating integrative research into integrative practice in a population that has experienced significant psychological suffering. It is hoped that insights from this volume will contribute the following: foster more rewarding chaplain-researcher partnerships; offer a deeper understanding of the intersections among spiritual experience, virtues, and psychological distress; and demonstrate approaches for inquiring about individuals' spiritual lives in the midst of psychological suffering.

This edited volume summarizes promising, evidence-based strategies clinicians can implement in their work with morally injured persons. Many service members transitioning to civilian life struggle with mental health issues. For some, these mental health issues revolve around moral injury - acts or experiences that contradict the individual's fundamental beliefs about the world, or how it ought to be. The book's expert contributors are researchers and clinicians who are leading efforts to define and assess moral injury, identify its potential mechanisms and outcomes, and develop and disseminate treatments to promote recovery and healing from morally injurious events Through the use of case examples, authors discuss promising theoretical models for conceptualizing moral injury, prominent conceptual and clinical concerns for addressing such injuries in clinical practice, and existing and novel intervention approaches.

Trauma represents a spiritual or religious violation for many people. Survivors attempt to make sense out of painful events, incorporating that meaning into their current worldview in either a harmful or a more helpful way. This volume helps mental health practitioners—many of whom are less religious than their clients—understand the important relationship between trauma and spirituality, and how to best help survivors create meaning out of their experiences. Drawing on relevant theories and research, the authors present a new conceptual framework, the Reciprocal Meaning-Making Model, demonstrating how it can guide both assessment and treatment. Through the use of case material, the authors examine a range of spiritual views, traumas, and posttraumatic reactions that are reflective of the population as a whole rather than targeting only specific religions or cultural perspectives. Given the lack of scientific literature on the topic, this book fills an important gap, and will appeal to clinicians and researchers alike.