Faith-sensitive psychology integrates evidence-based psychological approaches with genuine respect for the client’s religious and spiritual values, beliefs, and community context. It does not require the psychologist to share the client’s faith — but it does require genuine respect and understanding of its role in the client’s life (Pargament, 2007).
We provide psychological support for:
Faith-sensitive psychological support may help when:
Spirituality and religious involvement are significantly associated with positive mental health outcomes — including lower depression, better coping, and greater resilience — when the religious environment is healthy (Koenig et al., 2012).
For people of faith, religion provides frameworks for meaning, moral decision-making, community, and coping — all of which are highly relevant to psychological wellbeing (Pargament, 2007). Psychological care that ignores or undermines this foundation is less effective and may feel invalidating.
Faith-sensitive care:
Spiritually integrated psychological therapy produces significantly better outcomes for religious clients than standard secular approaches (Worthington et al., 2011).
We provide evidence-based psychological care with genuine faith sensitivity:
Standard CBT adapted to incorporate the client’s religious beliefs, values, and practices as resources — rather than treating them as obstacles to cognitive change. Spiritually adapted CBT produces superior outcomes to standard CBT for religious clients (Worthington et al., 2011).
Scrupulosity is a form of OCD in which intrusive thoughts focus on religious or moral themes — fear of sin, blasphemous intrusions, excessive concern with confessing. ERP (Exposure and Response Prevention) adapted for religious content is the evidence-based treatment (Abramowitz et al., 2002).
For people who have experienced harm within religious institutions — spiritual abuse, coercive religious control, or exploitation by religious leaders — trauma-informed therapy that holds the complexity of preserving faith while healing from the harm of its misuse.
Supporting people navigating bereavement, suffering, or loss of faith within a Christian framework — including the ‘dark night of the soul’ and spiritual deconstruction — drawing on grief therapy and meaning reconstruction approaches.
Our psychologists approach faith with genuine respect. We will not attempt to change your beliefs — our goal is to help you flourish within the values and life that matter most to you.
Your first appointment is a space to share your faith background, your current difficulties, and what you hope to achieve. Your faith is welcome here.
You do not need to share your psychologist’s faith tradition for care to be genuinely faith-sensitive. What matters is genuine respect for your beliefs.
We see people from all Christian traditions — Catholic, Protestant, Pentecostal, Orthodox, and non-denominational — as well as people of other faiths seeking faith-sensitive care.
We offer appointments in-clinic at our Mooroolbark, Wheelers Hill, Reservoir, and Melbourne CBD locations, as well as Telehealth sessions from anywhere in Australia.
WorkCover, NDIS or TAC approved? YOU PAY NOTHING.
If your claim has been approved, we bill your funder directly. Zero out-of-pocket cost — no gap, no upfront payment, nothing.
Your faith is part of who you are. We’re here to support your mental health — and to respect everything that gives your life meaning.
Our psychologists are trained in a wide range of evidence-based approaches across many presentations. Browse our full directory of conditions and therapies we work with.
Abramowitz, J. S., Huppert, J. D., Cohen, A. B., Tolin, D. F., & Cahill, S. P. (2002). Religious obsessions and compulsions in a non-clinical sample: The Penn Inventory of Scrupulosity (PIOS). Behaviour Research and Therapy, 40(7), 825–838. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0005-7967(01)00070-5
Koenig, H. G., King, D. E., & Carson, V. B. (2012). Handbook of religion and health (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press.
Pargament, K. I. (2007). Spiritually integrated psychotherapy: Understanding and addressing the sacred. Guilford Press.
Worthington, E. L., Jr., Hook, J. N., Davis, D. E., & McDaniel, M. A. (2011). Religion and spirituality. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 67(2), 204–214. https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.20760
