Advancing the Science of Spirituality and Mental Health

We use scientific methods to study the relevance of spirituality/religion to behavioral and emotional wellbeing and distress. Our ultimate goal is to generate novel methods to prevent and treat mental disorders.

Meet Our Team

Dr. David H. Rosmarin

PhD

Dr. Rosmarin (pronouns: he/him), is the director of the Spirituality and Mental Health Program at McLean Hospital and an associate professor of psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Rosmarin’s program of research examines the relevance of spiritual/religious issues to psychopathology and its treatment. He has published over 100 manuscripts, editorials, and chapters, and served as co-editor of the Handbook of Spirituality, Religion and Mental Health.

Dr. Caroline C. Kaufman

PhD

Dr. Kaufman (pronouns: she/her) is a postdoctoral fellow in the Spirituality and Mental Health Program at McLean Hospital and has a dual appointment at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Kaufman’s main research interests are in the intersection of trauma, alcohol use, and spirituality among first responders (i.e., law enforcement, firefighters, paramedics) and other groups exposed to adversity. She is interested in developing spiritually integrated treatments to address overlapping posttraumatic stress and alcohol misuse in psychiatric settings.

Sean Adam Minns

MA

Sean (pronouns: he/him) is a senior clinical research assistant in the Spirituality & Mental Health and Program at McLean Hospital. Sean combines art, science and technology to provide more accessible and culturally sensitive psychosocial treatment for behavioral health. In the Spirituality & Mental Health Program, he oversees the development and testing of the new DigitalSoul smartphone app, and assists with developing a video-based training course in Spiritual Psychotherapy for Inpatient Residential & Intensive Treatment (SPIRIT).

Mia Drury

BA

Mia (pronouns: she/her) is a senior clinical research assistant in the Spirituality & Mental Health Program, and the Geriatric Psychiatry Research Program at McLean Hospital. She manages several datasets to explore spirituality and mental health in collaboration with laboratories and clinical programs throughout McLean Hospital.

Poorvi Mandaym

MA

Poorvi (pronouns: she/her) is a clinical research assistant in the Spirituality & Mental Health Program at Mclean Hospital, as well as the Meditation Research Program at Massachusetts General Hospital. She assists with neuroscience studies on spirituality and mental health.

Dr. Steven Pirutinsky

PhD

Dr. Pirutinsky (pronouns: he/him) is a data scientist in the Spirituality & Mental Health Program at McLean Hospital, and an Associate Professor at Touro College Graduate School of Social Work (New York, NY). He oversees the development of a brief psychometric scale to assess spirituality for mental health science and clinical practice, and provides advanced statistical consulting for many other research projects.

Rev. Angelika A. Zollfrank

MDiv, BCC, ACPE, HEC – C

Angelika (pronouns: she/her) is an ordained minister, chaplain, and director of Clinical Pastoral Education within the Spirituality & Mental Health Program at McLean Hospital. She provides spiritual guidance and insight for our DigitalSoul and SPIRIT projects and serves as a liaison between our research team and the clinical staff at McLean Hospital.

Alissa Oleson

Rev. Alissa Oleson, MDiv

Alissa (pronouns: she/her) is an ordained minister in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in American and part-time chaplain at McLean Southeast. She provides guidance for our research projects and serves as a liaison between our research team and the clinical staff at McLean Hospital.

Collaborators

Brent P. Forester, MD, MSc

Chief, Division of Geriatric Psychiatry, McLean Hospital

Diego A. Pizzagalli, PhD

Director, McLean Imaging Center
Director, Center for Depression, Anxiety and Stress Research

Matthew D. Sacchet, PhD

Director, Meditation Research Program, Massachusetts General Hospital

Marisa M. Silveri, PhD

Director, Neurodevelopmental Laboratory on Addictions and Mental Health, McLean Hospital

David G. Harper, PhD

Associate Director for Research, Division of Geriatric Psychiatry

Cheri L. Marmarosh, PhD

Director of the Center for the International Study of Spirituality and Mental Health

Suzanne Hollman, Psy.D.

Divine Mercy University – McLean/Harvard Collaboration

Avijit Chowdhury, PhD

Postdoctoral Fellow, Meditation Research Program, Massachusetts General Hospital

Moses Appel, MA

Research Associate, McLean Hospital

Alumni

Sarah Salcone
Eleanor Schuttenberg
Alana Johnston

Media

More psychotherapists are incorporating religion into their practices

“Americans’ mental health is at the lowest point in history,” said David H. Rosmarin, an associate professor at ...

Psychiatry Needs to Get Right with God

In the early days of the pandemic, economist Jeanet Bentzen of the University of Copenhagen examined Google ...

Unlocking Inner Peace When the World Is on Fire

The current era—with all its tumult and confusion—has ironically created an unparalleled opportunity to cultivate ...

Current Projects

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Sample Publications

*Indicates a mentee

Rosmarin DH, Pirutinsky S, Park S, Drury M, Harper D, Forester B. Effects of religion on the course of suicidality among geriatric patients with mood disorders. Psychol Med. In Press.

Rosmarin DH, *Salcone S, Harper DH, Forester BF. Predictors of patient response to Spiritual Psychotherapy for Inpatient, Residential & Intensive Treatment (SPIRIT). Psychiatr Serv. 2021;72(5):507-513.

Rosmarin DH, Koenig HG, Pargament KI. Spirituality and mental health: Challenges and opportunities [comment]. Lancet Psych. 2021;8;92-93.

Rosmarin DH, *Salcone SG, Harper DH, Forester BF. Spiritual psychotherapy for inpatient, residential, and intensive treatment (SPIRIT). Am J Psychother. 2019 Sep 1;72(3):75-83.

Rosmarin DH, Forester BP, Shassian DM, Webb C, Björgvinsson T. Interest in spiritually-integrated psychotherapy among acute psychiatric patients. J Consult Clin Psychol. 2015;83:1149-1153.

Rosmarin, D. H., Kaufman, C. C., Ford, S. F., Keshava, P., Drury, M., Minns, S., Marmarosh, C., Chowdhury, A., & Sacchet, M. D. (2022). The neuroscience of spirituality, religion, and mental health: A systematic review and synthesis. Journal of Psychiatric Research.

Rosmarin DH, *Bigda-Peyton JS, Ongür D, Pargament KI, Björgvinsson T. Religious coping among psychotic patients: Relevance to suicidality and treatment outcomes. Psychiatry Res. 2013;210;182-187.

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CCKAUFMAN@MCLEAN.HARVARD.EDU

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