Addressing Suffering and Flourishing in Psychotherapy

Can psychotherapy do more than just reduce symptoms? Can therapists help people find meaning and purpose in life?

Symptoms of mental health disorders have long been targeted with great success in psychotherapy. However, the biomedical model's focus on disease symptoms and functioning has tended to outweigh therapists' view of their clients' overall lives. Does psychotherapy actually help people become happier? Does it help them forge healthier relationships with others, or experience greater meaning and purpose in life? 

In this book, editors Steven J. Sandage and Jesse Owen examine the relationship between psychotherapy outcomes and human flourishing and well-being. Contributors use a positive psychology framework to investigate spirituality, multicultural and social justice perspectives, and ethical considerations related to suffering and flourishing in psychotherapy. The book is clinically focused, with an emphasis on the assessment and measurement of suffering and flourishing, the use of particular therapeutic approaches (including CBT, relational, humanistic, acceptance/commitment, and AEDP therapies), and therapist factors linked to client flourishing. Chapters also include tips for clinical training aimed at improving client well-being and purpose. 

Introduction

Part I. Background and Conceptual Frameworks

• Chapter 1. Suffering, Flourishing, and Relational Virtues in Psychotherapy: Definitions and Conceptual Connections
  Steven J. Sandage and Jesse Owen
• Chapter 2. Therapists' Perspectives on Integrating Flourishing into Treatment
  Emma Freetly Porter, Jeremy Coleman, and Sree Sinha 
• Chapter 3. Multicultural and Social Justice Perspectives on Virtues in Psychotherapy
  Joel Wong, Jonathan Kang, Wing Ng, and Karen Tao 
• Chapter 4. Spiritual and Religious Diversity, Suffering, and Flourishing
  Laura E. Captari, Saliha Kozan, Laura B. Stein, and Pratyusha Tummala-Narra 
• Chapter 5. The Ethics of Attending to Virtues in Psychotherapy
  Peter J. Jankowski and David M. Goodman

Part II. Assessment and Measurement of Virtue and Flourishing

• Chapter 6. Measuring Flourishing in Psychotherapy via Relational Virtues
  Emma Freetly Porter, Sabina Musliu, Claudia Trudel-Fitzgerald, and Jasmine Davis 
• Chapter 7. The Relational Virtues Engagement Measure: A New Clinical Measure of Virtues
  Elise J. Y. Choe, Don E. Davis, and Peter J. Jankowski 
• Chapter 8. Clinical Assessment of Spirituality, Virtue, and Flourishing: Implementation Findings with Clinicians
  Sarah A. Crabtree, Kristen R. Hydinger, Steven J. Sandage, and David Rupert

Part III. Psychotherapeutic Approaches

• Chapter 9. The Unified Protocol: A Transdiagnostic Approach to Increasing Positive Affect, Cultivating Psychological Flourishing, and Promoting Broader Wellbeing
  Todd J. Farchione, Laura L. Long, Daniella Spencer-Laitt, Lauren S. Woodard, and Claudia Trudel-Fitzgerald
• Chapter 10. Suffering, Virtue, and Flourishing in Contemporary Relational Psychotherapy
  Steven J. Sandage, Laura E. Captari, Sarah A. Crabtree, David Rupert, and George S. Stavros
• Chapter 11. Humanistic Psychotherapy, Agency, and Flourishing
  William J. Whelton and Heidi M. Levitt 
• Chapter 12. Integrating Humility and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy: Inflecting Values with a Little More Virtue
  Don E. Davis, Stephanie Winklejohn-Black, Rory McDermott, Yejin Lee, Aaron McLaughlin, Jamian Coleman, Shauna Bowes, and Stacey McElroy-Heltzel 
• Chapter 13. The Seamless Transformation of Emotional Suffering into Flourishing: Flourishing in AEDP Psychotherapy and Clinical Research
  Diana Fosha and Shigeru Iwakabe

Part IV. Therapist Factors and Clinical Training

• Chapter 14. Humility as a Determinant of Therapist Effectiveness
  Michael J. Constantino, Alice E. Coyne, Heather J. Muir, and Averi N. Gaines
• Chapter 15. Therapist Effects of Flourishing and Burnout: Enduring Concepts, Contemporary Considerations
  Shane Trujillo, Chloe Rogers, Jasmine Davis, and Jesse Owen 
• Chapter 16. Therapist Flourishing and Clinical Organizations
  Brad Shuck and Jesse Owen
• Chapter 17: Flourishing-Centered Supervision: Integrating Multicultural Orientation and Cultural Fortitude for Transformative Practice
  Karen W. Tao
• Chapter 18. The Promotion of Flourishing in Mental Health Care Through Implementation Science
  Averi N. Gaines and Cassidy A. Gutner

Conclusion: Summary and Future Directions

Steven J. Sandage, PhD, is the Albert and Jessie Danielsen professor of psychology of religion and theology at Boston University School of Theology with a joint appointment in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences. He is also the research director and senior staff psychologist at the Danielsen Institute. Sandage is the coauthor of 9 books and over 200 articles or chapters, and his research has been funded by the Lilly Endowment, the John Templeton Foundation, the Fetzer Institute, and the Peale Foundation. He has over 30 years of clinical experience in a variety of settings and has also taught in graduate therapy training programs for most of that time. He is a licensed psychologist with clinical specializations including couple and family therapy, multicultural therapy, and spiritually integrative therapy. 

Jesse Owen, PhD, is a professor of counseling psychology and associate dean for research for the Morgridge College of Education at the University of Denver. He is a licensed psychologist specializing in couple therapy and multicultural therapy. He maintains a private practice in Denver and serves as the lead psychologist at Lifelong Inc. Additionally, he is research director for CelestHealth, senior research advisor for SonderMind, and editor for the journal Psychotherapy. At the University of Denver, Dr. Owen leads the Relationship and Psychotherapy (RAP) Lab, where his research focuses on psychotherapy processes and outcomes, therapist expertise, multicultural orientation (MCO), and relational interventions, including couple therapy. He has coauthored three books and contributed to over 225 publications and book chapters.