Spiritual psychotherapy for inpatient, residential, and intensive treatment

Abstract

In this article, a clinical protocol for delivering a flexible, spiritually integrated cognitive-behavioral therapy, entitled spiritual psychotherapy for inpatient, residential, and intensive treatment (SPIRIT), is presented, and its implementation is described. The protocol, including general guidelines, materials, and training processes for clinicians, was developed and then implemented with 1,468 unique adult patients with acute psychiatric conditions presenting at 11 specialized clinical units of a large academic psychiatric facility. The authors have shown the feasibility and clinical utility of providing spiritually integrated psychotherapy to a heterogeneouspatientpopulation,byanequallydiversestaff, within a large psychiatric center. SPIRIT holds promise in providing spiritually integrated care to patients with acute psychiatric conditions.