Spotlight Series: Dr. Jesse Fox
This week we are highlighting Dr. Jesse Fox, PI for sub-project 2.
In his book Bringing Religion and Spirituality into Therapy, Dr. Fox and colleagues provide a step-by-step process to make sense of the interaction and overlap between religion, spirituality, and psychology. This process clarifies how to approach these topics as they relate to actual clinical practice. The book also outlines how to implement this process in different contexts such as research, clinical competency, and education.
Dr. Jesse Fox makes a guest appearance on the CXMH podcast to discuss spiritual bypass, or the tendency to use spirituality or religion to avoid something difficult. This can include excessive prayer, scrupulous piety, or platitudes to avoid painful memories, emotions, or tasks. Dr. Fox provides the example of using the platitude, “they are in a better place now” when attempting to comfort a grieving friend or family member. While this statement usually comes from a good place, it may not be sophisticated enough to help people with their grief. Dr. Fox says that these platitudes help people avoid feeling the pain of their friend or family member’s loss. Importantly, this can be helpful in the short term, the way that a painkiller may be helpful before receiving a surgery, but chronic spiritual bypass may prevent healing just as chronic painkiller use may cause other health problems.