David H. Rosmarin, PhD

David H. Rosmarin, PhD, ABPP

McLean Hospital Title
Harvard Medical School Title
  • Associate Professor of Psychology, Department of Psychiatry

Biography

David H. Rosmarin, PhD, 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 received his PhD in clinical psychology from Bowling Green State University under the mentorship of Kenneth I. Pargament, PhD, and he completed a pre-doctoral internship and post-doctoral 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 100 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 in CNN, NPR, Scientific American, the Boston Globe, the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Times.

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Research Focus:

Dr. Rosmarin approaches spirituality/religion as a clinician-scientist. He innovates effective methods for clinicians to address spiritual and religious issues in the practice of evidence-based care. He also evaluates models of how and why spirituality/religion might be functionally linked to mental disorders in both positive and negative ways.

Dr. Rosmarin’s full-length practice text, “Spirituality, Religion, and Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy: A Guide for Clinicians,” provides theoretical foundations as well as step-by-step guidance for practitioners. Based on this foundational work, Dr. Rosmarin has developed several clinical protocols, including spiritual psychotherapy for inpatient, residential, and intensive treatment (SPIRIT), which allows for provision of spiritually integrated care within acute psychiatric settings. SPIRIT has been provided to over 5,000 patients at McLean Hospital, offered by more than 20 clinicians. Findings from several recent studies show that the approach is well tolerated by clinically, religiously, and demographically diverse patients.

Dr. Rosmarin has also developed several psychometric measures to assess spirituality/religion. His approach in this line of work simplifies assessment of this domain, so that practitioners and scientists can quantify aspects of spiritual/religious life that are clinically relevant to mental health and distress. Some of his measures have been translated into Farsi, Spanish, and Hebrew.

Dr. Rosmarin is the co-editor of the “Handbook of Spirituality, Religion & Mental Health, 2nd Edition,” an authoritative volume that summarizes the past 20 years of clinical science on this topic. His own research has identified that faith in a spiritual being is associated with improved treatment outcomes for depressed patients, and such effects are mediated by trust in the treatment process. Conversely, spiritual struggles (e.g., belief that one is being unfairly punished by God) predict greater anxiety, as mediated by greater intolerance for uncertainty and ambiguity.

A subset of Dr. Rosmarin’s research has focused on cultural psychiatry within the Jewish community. He has evaluated patterns of symptoms and treatment, the effectiveness of cognitive behavior therapy, the relevance of spiritual struggles, and the prevalence and impact of sexual abuse among Orthodox Jews.

Dr. Rosmarin’s research and clinical work have received over $5,000,000 in support.

Personnel:
Collaborators:
  • Moses Appel, PhD, Hofstra University
  • Aaron Cherniak, PhD, Mayanei Hayeshua Medical Center
  • Brent P. Forester, MD, MSc, Tufts Medicine
  • David G. Harper, PhD, McLean Hospital
  • Suzanne Hollman, PsyD, Divine Mercy University
  • Harold Koenig, MD, Duke University School of Medicine
  • Poornima Kumar, PhD, McLean Hospital
  • Cheri Marmarosh, PhD, Divine Mercy University
  • Ken Pargament, PhD, Bowling Green State University
  • Steven Pirutinsky, PhD, Touro College
  • Diego A. Pizzagalli, PhD, McLean Hospital
  • Matthew D. Sacchet, PhD, Massachusetts General Hospital
  • Marisa M. Silveri, PhD, McLean Hospital
  • Jennifer T. Sneider, PhD, McLean Hospital
Selected Publications:

Rosmarin DH, Bigda-Peyton JS, Kertz SJ, Smith N, Rauch SL, Björgvinsson T. A test of faith in God and treatment: the relationship of belief in God to psychiatric treatment outcomes. Journal of Affective Disorders. 2013;146(3):441-6.

Rosmarin DH, Koenig HG, Pargament KI. Spirituality and mental health: Challenges and opportunities. Lancet Psychiatry. 2020;2;S2215.

Rosmarin DH, Salcone S, Harper DG, Forester B. Predictors of patients’ responses to spiritual psychotherapy for inpatient, residential, and intensive treatment (SPIRIT). Psychiatric Services. 2021;72(5):507-513.

PubMed search for Dr. Rosmarin

Books

Book cover - Handbook of Spirituality, Religion, and Mental Health

Handbook of Spirituality, Religion, and Mental Health, 2nd Edition
edited by David H. Rosmarin, Harold G. Koenig
(Elsevier, 2020)

Book cover - Spirituality, Religion, and Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy

Spirituality, Religion, and Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy: A Guide for Clinicians
by David H. Rosmarin
(Guildford Press, 2018)

Education & Training

Degrees:
  • 2001 BA, York University
  • 2003 MA, University of Toronto
  • 2010 PhD, Bowling Green State University
Fellowship:
  • 2010-2011 Pre-Doctoral Internship, McLean Hospital/Harvard Medical School
  • 2011-2012 Post-Doctoral Fellowship, McLean Hospital/Harvard Medical School
Board Certifications:
  • 2011 Licensed Psychologist, Board of Registration of Psychologists, Commonwealth of Massachusetts
  • 2011 Licensed Psychologist, State of New York
  • 2016 Clinical Psychology, American Board of Professional Psychology
  • 2017 Licensed Practicing Psychologist, New Jersey State Board of Psychological Examiners, State of New Jersey

Contact

Phone: 617.855.4413
Office Address: Belmont campus - Service Building, Room 140C