Spiritual Competency Training in Mental Health (SCT-MH)

Written By ScienceSites

Principal Investigator:  Drs. Michelle Pearce, Kenneth Pargament, Joseph Currier, & Serena Wong

Spirituality and religion are core areas of diversity and psychological functioning that are often overlooked in training of mental health providers. We are delighted to make freely available our empirically supported curriculum materials for developing spiritual and religious competencies in mental health care to overcome these gaps. These hybrid (online and face-to-face) course resources are now all available to all graduate mental health programs. 

Curriculum Materials

You are welcome to integrate these materials into an existing course or to create your own course devoted to teaching spiritual competency in mental health. The Instructor Guidebook will give you suggestions on how to do both, along with sample syllabi. 

The curriculum is designed so that instructors do not have to be experts in incorporating spirituality/religion in mental health care themselves. The online course features didactic videos, and the Instructor Guidebook contains suggested discussion questions and activities. These resources allow instructors of any level of expertise to integrate this curriculum effectively and easily into one of their existing courses. 

  • Online Spiritual Competency in Mental Health (SCT-MH) course on edX Edge (free access for all instructors, students, supervisors, and administrators). 

  • Detailed Instructor Guidebook to guide teaching and class discussions and activities. 

  • Training Videos to learn how to teach this curriculum. 

  • Sample Syllabi for integrating the curriculum into your course or developing a course exclusively devoted to these issues (See Guidebook Appendices).

  • Faculty Peer Mentors who have taught using these materials whom you can access for support.

Before teaching the SCT-MH material, we encourage you to do the following:

  1. Watch the two training videos developed to help instructors learn how to integrate the SCT-MH curriculum into their courses. 

  2. Take the SCT-MH online course (on edX Edge). See the Guidebook for access instructions. The course will take about 8 hours to complete, and you can start and stop as you like. 

  3. Read the Guidebook to familiarize yourself with how you might integrate this material into your course/curriculum. 

  4. Consider reaching out to one of the instructors who have integrated these materials into their course for advice and support. You can engage with your faculty peer mentor during the planning and teaching phases of SCT-MH (See Faculty Peer Mentors).

We’d be delighted to answer any questions about using these materials. You can reach us using our contact information below:

Settings

  • Graduate school courses

  • Internship or Practicum sites

  • Faculty or Professional development

  • Continuing Education

Populations

  • Individuals

  • Couples

  • Family

  • Groups

  • Community or Public

Evidence

Our national multisite, multidisciplinary study found that graduate students who participated in a course that integrated these training materials, representing 15% of the entire course’s content, had a significant increase in their spiritual competency scores (Pearce et al., in preparation). Specifically, after engaging with the hybrid multimedia curriculum, students demonstrated greater attitudes, knowledge, and skills for responding optimally to spiritual and/or religious aspects of clients’ lives. This training program meets a key clinical need and accreditation requirement for multicultural competency and ethical practice. Similar changes in spiritual competency have been shown for mental health providers who participated in SCT-MH (Pearce et al., 2019; 2020; Salcone et al., 2023)

Pearce, M.J., Pargament, K.I., Oxhandler, H., Vieten, C., & Wong, S. (2019). A novel training program for mental health providers in spiritual competencies. Spirituality in Clinical Practice. 

Pearce, M.J., Pargament, K.I., Oxhandler, H., Vieten, C., & Wong, S. (2020). Online training program improves providers’ spiritual competencies in mental health care. Spirituality in Clinical Practice, 7(3), 145–161. 

Pearce, M.J., Pargament, K.I. Currier, J., & Wong, S. (in preparation). Integrated course content improves graduate students’ spiritual competencies in mental health care. 

Salcone, S., Hinkel, H., Currier, J., Pearce, M.J., Wong, S., & Pargament, K.I. (2023). Evaluation of a spiritual competency training in mental health (SCT-MH): A replication study with mental health professionals. Professional Psychology Research and Practice.

Testimonials from faculty and students

“I wish more professors and supervisors spoke freely about religion, politics, or sex education as they are topics that all counselors will face at one point or another in their career. It is beneficial to future counselors to be prepared with some basic foundation of knowledge about the topics rather than being blindsided halfway through therapy.” — Graduate Student

“Before taking this training I would never explore the topic around spirituality or religion with clients. After taking this training, although there is a lot more training and practice and learning I need to do, I can say that I feel comfortable enough being able to bring up this topic to clients and learn to integrate it as effectively as I can to help their treatment plan goals have a higher success outcome.” — Graduate Student

“So loved this experience—it not only gave my students confidence, but it empowered and validated me as well—in my teaching, but also in my practice, and research! …It has invigorated my career!” — Faculty Member 

“This is content every clinician should be exposed to, regardless of specialty or level of understanding of religion/spirituality.” — Faculty Member

“I look forward to teaching the material again and having the rest of my faculty take the trainings.” – Faculty Member

Faculty Peer Mentors

The following faculty members have experience integrating and teaching the SCT-MH curriculum in one of their courses. They would be happy to provide support and advice to instructors who would like to do the same in one of their courses. You might be best served by choosing a faculty peer mentor that teaches within your discipline. 

Psychology

Evangelina Alonso, PhD
Albizu University
ealonso@albizu.edu

Anthony Isacco, PhD
Chatham University
aisacco@chatham.edu

Nancy Liu, PhD
University of California Berkeley
nancy.liu@berkeley.edu

Gina Magyar-Russell, PhD
Loyola University Maryland
gmmagyarrussell@loyola.edu

Edward Selby, PhD
Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey
edward.selby@rutgers.edu

Craig Warlick, PhD
University of Southern MIssissippi
craig.warlick@usm.edu

Social Work

Rachel Burrage, PhD
University of Hawai’i at Mano
rburrage@hawaii.edu

Brian Droubay, PhD
Utah State University
brian.droubay@usu.edu

Erin King, PhD
University of West Florida
eking1@uwf.edu

Elizabeth Russell, PhD
The College at Brockport (SUNY)
erussell@brockport.edu

Vincent Starnino, PhD
Indiana University
vstarnin@iupui.edu

Sha-Lai Williams, PhD
University of Missouri - St. Louis
willamsshal@umsl.edu

Counseling

Kacie Blalock, PhD
Louisiana State University Shreveport
kacie.blalock@lsus.edu

Kevin Curtin, PhD
Alfred University
curtink@alfred.edu

Jessica Haas, PhD
University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley
jessica.haas@utrgv.edu

Danny McCarty, PhD
University of South Alabama
mccarty@southalabama.edu

Heather Smith, PhD
New Mexico Highlands University
HLSmith@nmhu.edu

John Super, PhD
University of Central Florida
jsuper@ucf.edu

Ma. Teresa Tuason, PhD
University of North Florida
ttuason@unf.edu

Dogukan Ulupinar, PhD
Long Island University
dogukan.ulupinar@liu.edu

Keywords 

Training; religion; spirituality; competencies; mental health

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