Outcomes of religious and spiritual adaptations to psychotherapy: A meta-analytic review

The use of spiritually oriented psychotherapies has increased dramatically during the past decade. This article reports a meta-analysis of 31 outcome studies of spiritual therapies conducted from 1984 to 2005 with clients suffering from a variety of psychological problems. Across the 31 studies, the random-effects weighted average effect size was 0.56. This finding provides some empirical evidence that spiritually oriented psychotherapy approaches may be beneficial to individuals with certain psychological problems (e.g., depression, anxiety, stress, eating disorders). Recommendations for future research in this domain are offered.