In this study, therapists integrated spirituality with established approaches to couples therapy.

Hope, prayer, forgiveness, and listening to the heart were the most common spiritual interventions.

Couples experienced meaningful reductions in spiritual, psychological, and relationship distress.

Therapists respected clients' spiritual preferences rather than imposing their own.

Today, I share additional findings from the Enhancing Practice-Based Evidence for Spiritually Integrated Psychotherapies project, focusing on a study of spiritually integrated couples therapy published in the APA journal Psychotherapy (Ripley et al., 2022). The findings offer valuable insights for psychotherapists seeking to incorporate spiritual interventions into their work with couples. I thank Dr. Jennifer Ripley for permission to share the study's findings.

Spiritually incorporating couple therapy (SICT) has an expanding research base, yet relatively little is known about how therapists incorporate spirituality in routine clinical practice. Most previous studies have examined manualized treatments delivered in research settings rather than therapy as it naturally occurs in everyday practice. This study examined what actually occurs in SICT as practiced in clinical settings. SICT was defined as couples therapy that incorporates spiritual resources at the couple's request to address relationship concerns.

The researchers used a practice-based evidence design to observe how therapists naturally integrated spirituality into their work. Using an online assessment system, the researchers collected treatment process and outcome data on 65 couples, 29 therapists, and 402 therapy sessions. Couples and therapists were asked to complete baseline and weekly session surveys for at least the first six sessions. Many couples voluntarily continued beyond six sessions. Therapists completed reports after each session detailing the therapeutic approaches used, the spiritual interventions employed, and the issues discussed during therapy. Clients completed repeated measures of psychological distress, relational distress, spiritual distress, marital satisfaction, relationship efficacy, and emotional forgiveness.

Therapists and couples were recruited from five large counseling facilities and solo practices in Virginia and North Carolina that advertise SICT as a practice approach. Among the couples, 81 percent were married, 11 percent........

© Psychology Today