Treating the Whole Person: UMB Researcher Takes Spiritual Awareness Training for Mental Health Professionals Global
Years ago, when a woman struggling with depression and several chronic health conditions sought treatment from Michelle J. Pearce, PhD, professor at the University of Maryland School of Graduate Studies (UMSGS), Pearce asked a simple question during their first session: “Is religion or spirituality a part of your life?”
The patient said no.
But several sessions later, the woman revealed something very different. Her faith was central to her identity, and she believed God was punishing her through her illnesses. That belief, and the spiritual struggle it created, were at the root of her depression.
Because Pearce had raised the subject during their first meeting, the woman eventually felt comfortable sharing what was troubling her. Pearce shifted the focus of their sessions to address the patient's spiritual struggles alongside her depression.
“Once we began addressing what she believed was happening in her relationship with God, everything began to change,” Pearce recalled. “Her depression improved, but just as importantly, she was able to rebuild a relationship with God that had been such an important part of her life.”
Michelle J. Pearce, PhD, professor at the University of Maryland School of Graduate Studies, is leading an international initiative to help mental health professionals better understand and address spirituality’s role in patient care.
For Pearce, a clinical psychologist whose research focuses on the intersection of spirituality, religion, and health, the experience illustrates why mental health professionals need to understand this dimension of their patients' lives — and what can be missed when they don't.
Now, through a three-year, $3 million grant from the John Templeton Foundation, Pearce is helping bring that approach to mental health professionals around the world.
From Research to International Training
Pearce will lead the international expansion of Spiritual Competency Training in Mental Health (SCT-MH), an evidence-based program she co-developed with Kenneth I. Pargament, PhD, and colleagues. The initiative is part of a larger project led by Daniel Gutierrez, PhD, of Virginia Commonwealth University.
“When clients come to therapy, they bring all of themselves,” Pearce said. “They bring their beliefs, values, and worldviews. If spirituality or religion is important to them, whether as a source of strength or struggle, clinicians need to be comfortable talking about it.”
The training teaches mental health professionals to recognize how spiritual and religious experiences can influence well-being, ask appropriate questions, and respond without imposing their own beliefs. It prepares clinicians to work with people across religious, spiritual, and secular worldviews.
The international initiative builds on nearly a decade of work that began in 2017, when the John Templeton Foundation invited Pearce and other researchers to help address a gap in mental health education.
Pearce and Pargament initially developed an online training program for practicing clinicians. They later expanded the curriculum to graduate students at 20 universities across the United States, integrating it into existing psychology, counseling, and social work courses.
Across multiple studies, participants demonstrated improvements in measures of spiritual competency, including attitudes, knowledge, and skills.
“We were able to show that this training works,” Pearce said. “The next question was whether we could take what we'd developed and make it useful to clinicians in other parts of the world.”
Adapting Training Across Cultures
A 2025 planning grant allowed Pearce's team to work with international experts to determine how the curriculum would need to change. Their feedback revealed differences extending well beyond language.
Some partners wanted research findings and clinical examples that reflected their own countries rather than the United States. Others identified terminology and even therapy-room settings that did not reflect their experiences. Canadian collaborators, for example, emphasized the need to address Indigenous perspectives.
“We knew we couldn't just take a program developed in the United States and assume it would work everywhere,” Pearce said. “Our international partners are the experts in their own cultures. They're helping us determine what needs to change.”
The new funding will support the development and evaluation of five culturally adapted versions of the online course, involving teams in Canada, Spain, South Korea, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, and Puerto Rico.
Each version will include interactive lessons, video case studies, and assessments designed to help clinicians apply what they've learned. By 2029, researchers expect to determine whether the adapted programs improve spiritual competency among participating mental health professionals.
In addition to Pearce and Gutierrez, the project team includes Joseph Currier, PhD, of the University of South Alabama; Kenneth I. Pargament, PhD, of Bowling Green State University; Nicole Silverio, PhD, of the University of South Carolina; and David Rosmarin, PhD, of Harvard Medical School and McLean Hospital.
Kenneth H. Wong, PhD, dean of UMSGS, said the initiative reflects the University's commitment to translating research into better patient care.
“UMB’s commitment to research advances care in many ways including improving how health professionals are educated. Dr. Pearce and her colleagues have shown that clinicians can learn to address the spiritual and religious concerns that matter to their patients’ care. Their findings give educators evidence to guide what they teach and better prepare clinicians to care for the whole person. This international collaboration takes that work further, bringing UMB research to more communities while learning from partners how to adapt the training to the people they serve.”
For Pearce, the project's significance extends beyond professional education. She hopes it will help create a clinical environment in which patients feel comfortable discussing whatever matters most to them.
“I want patients to know they have permission to talk about the important things in their lives, including religion and spirituality,” she said. “Whether their therapist is a person of faith or not shouldn't matter. They should know they can talk about it, that it will be respected, and that it can be part of their treatment.”
