God- Oriented Spiritual Psychotherapy: A multidimensional approach (Protocol Validation)

Integrating spirituality and religion into psychotherapy has become significant for patients (Oxhandler, Pargament, Pearce, Vieten, Moffatt, 2021). Because it seems that religious and spiritual beliefs are individual identities and central to personal worldviews (Duggal, Sriram, 2022). Although spirituality as a healthy dimension has always been the interest of psychologists, it is not seen as a fundamental mechanism in psychotherapy. According to Hayes Cowie (2005), a skeptical attitude toward religion remains prevalent in many areas of traditional psychology. At the same time, some have attempted to utilize spirituality/religion (S/R) during psychotherapy (such as Richards, 2005, Richards and Bergin,1997 2004, Richards, Scott; Bergin, Allen, 2005, Pargament,2007, Koenig, 2015, 2023). The psycho-spiritual method based on religion may be able to increase the psychological health of adherence through self-healing (Anganthi, Nisa, Uyun, 2019). As spirituality and religion remain key identity factors for some clients, counseling programs should incorporate them into their schedules (Evans and Nelson, 2021). In a variety of studies, the spiritual components and needs often focus on mental health. Some unifying principles include searching for meaning and ultimate purpose, connecting with others or with a transcendent, finding hope in the midst of despair, and being able to reconcile or forgive (Puchalski, 2008). Spiritual values such as hope, faith, and altruism can help people deal with adversity and cope with suffering and illness. Religions provide people with a language of hope and ways of understanding their suffering (Puchalski, O’Donnell, 2005). Spirituality is the dynamic and inherent dimension of humanity (Puchalski, 2014). There is evidence that clients would prefer that their spirituality and religion be approached through psychotherapy (Vieten, Scammell, Pilato, Ammondson, Pargament, Lukoff, 2013; Dimmick, Trusty, Swift, 2022). Thus, research highlights that S/R is identified as relevant and worth discussing in counseling (Harris, Randolph, Gordon. 2016). One important aspect of many believers’ R/S is how they view and relate to God (Davis, Granqvist, Sharp, 2021). Historically, a variety of psychologists have spoken about the importance of spirituality and religion in psychotherapy (for example, Jung and Alport), and recently there have been studies on the use of different religions such as Islam in the treatment of psychological clients ( Janbozorgi Janbozorgi; 2021., Koenig, 2015, 2023). Following the Iranian client s request for spiritual intervention, the observations and clinical exams left a lot of questions in front of us. For instance, the issue here was that people are religious but not spiritual. Or their R/S has no function as needed. Does this go back to the type of relationship and the person s knowledge of God? Is the image of God the most important issue? Then, how can R/S intervention lead to inner purification and a healthy and appropriate relationship with God? God-oriented spiritual psychotherapy (God-OSP) is based on clinical experiences. It has developed during recent years to answer these questions and to help clients with anxiety and mood disorders (Janbozorgi, 2019). But how has this model of therapy, been developed, what is its clinical effect on patients, and does it have the necessary credibility from the viewpoint of experts?