ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Consciousness Research
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1546444
This article is part of the Research TopicSpirituality and Religion: Implications for Mental HealthView all 55 articles
A Phenomenological Analysis of the Spiritual Development of Psychotherapists Who Work with Sexual Violence Survivors
Provisionally accepted
John Mitchell Waters1*
Abigail Holland Conley2- 1Belmont University, Nashville, United States
- 2Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, United States
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In this phenomenological study, we examined the faith development experiences of religiously and spiritually diverse counselors and psychotherapists who work with survivors of sexual trauma. Through semi-structured interviews with eleven participants, the researchers identified two main themes: 1) transformative faith experiences and 2) religion as a barrier. The findings of this study highlight the intricate relationship between spirituality and faith development that counselors navigate when engaged in the challenging work of supporting survivors of sexual violence over extended periods.
Keywords: Counseling, faith development, Qualitative, Phenomenology, Trauma, Religion, spirituality, sexual violence
Received: 16 Dec 2024; Accepted: 23 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Waters and Conley. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: John Mitchell Waters, Belmont University, Nashville, United States
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