At the Intersection of Spirituality and Mental Health

Dr. David H. Rosmarin explains the relevance of spirituality to mental health and discusses nondenominational spiritual coping techniques to find inner peace that help us get through our darkest times and carry forward with us.

During turbulent times, many people turn to spirituality to find inner peace and calm amidst chaos. Spirituality is not limited to religion alone, since it can be found in secular contexts and experienced during even the most mundane daily activities.

According to research studies, patients want spirituality and religion integrated into their mental health care. Many people even cite spirituality as a main component in their successful treatment.

Audience Questions

Dr. Rosmarin talks about the connection between spirituality and mental health and how it can help you and your loved ones during difficult times. He also answers audience questions including:

• How would you describe spirituality?
• The connectivity that you’ve referred to regarding interpersonal relationships, does that actually extend to other species?
• Do you have any suggestions for somebody to find peace, particularly if they are a younger person who has prematurely lost a spouse or loved one in the middle of incredibly stressful, already challenging times?
• Say an individual wrestles with agnosticism, how would you suggest embracing the idea of spirituality?
• If somebody is interested in feedback or they’re experiencing interactions during this time that are particularly negative and they’re trying to maintain inner peace, how do they help manage the gut instinct that the feedback or interactions they’re having, if it’s not great, that they’re based in bias?
• How would you fight back against your gut instinct to always assume the worst even when it most likely isn’t true?
• If we recognize that somebody that we care about is struggling to find inner peace, struggling with a mental health condition, and could truly benefit from talking to professional, how do you suggest approaching this in a compassionate way and maybe even incorporating spirituality into the conversation?
• How would you assess whether religious practice has been either helpful or harmful to an individual’s mental well-being?
• How do you suggest looking for a therapist who is open to incorporating spirituality into patient care?

The information discussed is intended to be educational and should not be used as a substitute for guidance provided by your health care provider. Please consult with your treatment team before making any changes to your care plan.

About Dr. Rosmarin

David H. Rosmarin, PhD, ABPP, 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 supervises the provision of spiritually integrated services in clinical programs throughout the hospital’s divisional structure and collaborates with laboratories to study the clinical relevance of spirituality to anxiety, mood, psychotic, substance use, and other disorders.

Learn more about Dr. Rosmarin.

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