A Multi-Site Study of Christian-based Spiritually Integrated Psychotherapy: Focus on East Asian Canadians
Wai Lun Alan Fung, MD, ScD, Research Professor, Tyndale University College and University of Toronto
The important roles of spirituality/religion in mental health and care have increasingly been recognized. For instance, the World Psychiatric Association had published a Position Statement on Spirituality and Religion in Psychiatry (Moreira-Almeida et al, 2016). Nonetheless, there is a relative paucity of research literature on how spirituality is integrated into ‘real-world’ psychotherapy practice – and previous research has been limited by relatively small sample sizes.
With $1.8 million funding from the John Templeton Foundation, an international grant competition was held in 2017 by Brigham Young University, titled ‘Enhancing Practice-Based Evidence for Spiritually Integrated Psychotherapies: An Interdisciplinary Big Data Project’ http://bridgesconsortium.com/. A total of 22 teams internationally were awarded fundings to participate in this project – and together they have formed the ‘Bridges Practice-Research Network’, and they contribute to establishing a “big database” on the outcomes of spiritually integrated psychotherapies. The overall objective is to use practice-based research designs to investigate how mental health professionals routinely use spiritually integrated psychotherapy approaches as they work with clients who are struggling with emotional, spiritual, and relationship problems.
The authors of the currently proposed presentation are the principal investigators of one of these 22 teams – and the only team based in Canada. In particular, our study has aimed at investigating the processes and outcomes of Christian-based spiritually integrated therapy among East Asian clients in the Greater Toronto Area, as well as the influence of hypothesized demographic and clinical variables on these relationships. Research studies on how cultural variables influence spiritually integrated psychotherapy have been scarce – especially for the East Asian cultures.
Our study has taken place over a 12-month period at 3 treatment centres in Toronto that provide Christian-based spiritually integrated psychotherapy. Data have been collected from both therapists and clients utilizing structured questionnaires at baseline as well as throughout the therapy process. Both East Asian and non-East Asian therapists and clients have been recruited, for comparison purposes.
Some key research questions for our study include:
1) What types of spiritual approaches and interventions do mental health professionals use in their practices during the course of treatment?
2) When and how often do mental health professionals use spiritual approaches and interventions during the course of treatment?
3) How effective are spiritual approaches and interventions with different types of clinical issues and clients?
The influences of the above by therapist and client characteristics such as diagnosis/presenting issue, ethno-racial identity, importance of spirituality, as well as Asian cultural values etc have also been investigated.
In this presentation, the authors will present on the background, methodologies and key findings from this study – based on data from more than 30 therapists and 200 clients. Clinical implications will be discussed. Results highlights from the big data project will also be presented.
To our knowledge, this ‘Bridges Consortium’ is the first of its kind in studying spiritually integrated psychotherapy across multiple sites internationally utilizing a practice-based research approach and standardized instruments, and our team has uniquely contributed data on East Asians living in the Western World.
With $1.8 million funding from the John Templeton Foundation, an international grant competition was held in 2017 by Brigham Young University, titled ‘Enhancing Practice-Based Evidence for Spiritually Integrated Psychotherapies: An Interdisciplinary Big Data Project’ http://bridgesconsortium.com/. A total of 22 teams internationally were awarded fundings to participate in this project – and together they have formed the ‘Bridges Practice-Research Network’, and they contribute to establishing a “big database” on the outcomes of spiritually integrated psychotherapies. The overall objective is to use practice-based research designs to investigate how mental health professionals routinely use spiritually integrated psychotherapy approaches as they work with clients who are struggling with emotional, spiritual, and relationship problems.
The authors of the currently proposed presentation are the principal investigators of one of these 22 teams – and the only team based in Canada. In particular, our study has aimed at investigating the processes and outcomes of Christian-based spiritually integrated therapy among East Asian clients in the Greater Toronto Area, as well as the influence of hypothesized demographic and clinical variables on these relationships. Research studies on how cultural variables influence spiritually integrated psychotherapy have been scarce – especially for the East Asian cultures.
Our study has taken place over a 12-month period at 3 treatment centres in Toronto that provide Christian-based spiritually integrated psychotherapy. Data have been collected from both therapists and clients utilizing structured questionnaires at baseline as well as throughout the therapy process. Both East Asian and non-East Asian therapists and clients have been recruited, for comparison purposes.
Some key research questions for our study include:
1) What types of spiritual approaches and interventions do mental health professionals use in their practices during the course of treatment?
2) When and how often do mental health professionals use spiritual approaches and interventions during the course of treatment?
3) How effective are spiritual approaches and interventions with different types of clinical issues and clients?
The influences of the above by therapist and client characteristics such as diagnosis/presenting issue, ethno-racial identity, importance of spirituality, as well as Asian cultural values etc have also been investigated.
In this presentation, the authors will present on the background, methodologies and key findings from this study – based on data from more than 30 therapists and 200 clients. Clinical implications will be discussed. Results highlights from the big data project will also be presented.
To our knowledge, this ‘Bridges Consortium’ is the first of its kind in studying spiritually integrated psychotherapy across multiple sites internationally utilizing a practice-based research approach and standardized instruments, and our team has uniquely contributed data on East Asians living in the Western World.