Some people come to psychology through the questions that ordinary frameworks have trouble holding.

What does it mean to live well after loss? How does a person change at the level of identity, not just behavior? What happens when someone reports an experience that feels real to them and falls outside what conventional clinical language can describe?

These questions sit at the edge of psychology as it is usually taught. They are also at the center of a master's degree in spiritual psychology.

Spiritual psychology is the study of human experience through the dimensions of meaning, consciousness, development, and transformation. It draws on transpersonal psychology, the psychology of religion and spirituality, depth psychology, and the broader contemplative traditions that have studied human inner life across centuries. A graduate program in this field prepares students to work with these dimensions in research, clinical practice, education, coaching, and other applied contexts.

This article walks through what spiritual psychology is as a field, what a master's program in it typically includes, what the research suggests about spirituality and mental health, and how to think about whether this kind of graduate study is the right fit.

Spiritual psychology explores meaning, consciousness, and the inner dimensions of human experience.

The Roots of Spiritual Psychology in Transpersonal Psychology

Spiritual psychology has its strongest academic foundation in transpersonal psychology, a field that emerged in 1968 to study dimensions of human experience that conventional psychology often left at the margins.

Glenn Hartelius's twenty-year review of definitions in the field describes transpersonal psychology as a transformative psychology of the whole person. The field studies states of consciousness, developmental models that expand beyond conventional ideas of self, and the kinds of experience often called spiritual: self-transcendence, peak experiences, contemplative states, and personal transformation.

This matters for spiritual psychology because it gives the field its academic ground. A master's program in spiritual psychology belongs near depth psychology, consciousness studies, and human development as a serious area of inquiry.

The questions transpersonal psychology asks are recognizable to anyone who has paid attention to their own inner life:

• What changes in a person when meaning shifts at a foundational level
• How do contemplative practices, reflection, and sustained inquiry affect psychological development
• What is the relationship between ordinary waking consciousness and the broader range of states humans report
• How does development continue beyond the conventional adult ego structure

These are old questions, given a more rigorous frame.

What Spiritual Psychology Actually Studies

The psychology of religion and spirituality, alongside transpersonal psychology, gives spiritual psychology its broader academic terrain.

The APA Handbook of Psychology, Religion, and Spirituality, edited by Kenneth I. Pargament, presents this as a mature, research-based field. Religion and spirituality are studied as complex forces that can shape development, mental health, relationships, communities, and culture, with the capacity of religion and spirituality to do both good and harm.

This last point matters. Spiritual psychology, taken seriously, treats spirituality as a complex psychological subject worth careful study.

A few of the questions the field engages:

• Why people are religious or spiritual, and how that varies across culture and history
• How spiritual beliefs and practices shape coping, meaning-making, and identity
• When religion and spirituality support psychological well-being, and when they harm it
• How psychologists can integrate spiritual and religious considerations into assessment and treatment
• How spiritual experiences relate to development, trauma, and healing

A master's degree in spiritual psychology is built on this kind of inquiry.

What a Master's Program in Spiritual Psychology Typically Includes

Programs vary in structure, but the core elements are recognizable across the field.

Theoretical foundations. Coursework in transpersonal psychology, depth psychology, the psychology of religion and spirituality, human consciousness, and the developmental theories that frame whole-person growth. Students engage with the major figures and frameworks that have shaped the field.

Wisdom traditions and East-West psychology. Many programs include the study of contemplative and wisdom traditions, drawing on Buddhist, Hindu, Christian, Jewish, Islamic, Indigenous, and other lineages of inquiry into human inner life. The aim is to develop literacy across traditions, with cultural humility and academic rigor.

Research and inquiry methods. Graduate students learn to engage with research on spirituality, contemplative practices, consciousness studies, and related areas. This includes both quantitative and qualitative approaches, with attention to the methodological challenges that come with studying experience.

Clinical or applied training, depending on program structure. Some programs prepare students for licensure in clinical practice. Others focus on coaching, education, organizational consultation, chaplaincy, or research. Prospective students benefit from looking carefully at what professional pathways a particular program supports.

Experiential learning and contemplative practices. Many spiritual psychology programs include experiential components, where students engage in their own contemplative practices alongside academic study. This is consistent with the field's premise that the practitioner's own development is part of professional formation.

Ethics and professional boundaries. Strong programs give serious attention to ethical issues in working with spiritual material. The boundary between therapy, spiritual direction, pastoral counseling, and religious instruction is real, and graduate training should address it directly.

Clinical training operates on its own track. For students who want to practice psychotherapy, the master's degree needs to align with the licensure pathway they are pursuing. This is one of the most important questions to ask of any program under consideration.

What Research Says About Spirituality, Religion, and Mental Health

The empirical picture for how spirituality affects psychological functioning is developing, and the research deserves careful framing.

The review by Lucchetti, Koenig, and Lucchetti synthesizes a substantial body of research on spirituality, religiousness, and mental health. The relationship is consistent and complex.

Their main findings:

• Strong evidence for some outcomes. Research connects spirituality and religiousness with reductions in depression, suicidality, and substance use
• Mixed evidence for others. Anxiety research is more variable, with a longitudinal study still needed
• Bidirectional relationships. The effects of spirituality and religion on mental health are bidirectional, meaning psychological state also affects spiritual life
• Mechanisms still being mapped. The processes by which spirituality and religion influence mental health are not fully understood

The review also names something important. Spirituality can support meaning, resilience, coping, social support, and recovery. It can also be a source of struggle. Negative spiritual coping involves alienation, fear, shame, punishment beliefs, or conflict with God, community, or one's own beliefs.

Spiritual psychology, as an applied field, takes both sides of this seriously. The same spiritual frameworks that help one person hold suffering with meaning may, for another person, deepen guilt or amplify distress. Trained practitioners learn to recognize the difference.

Spiritual Psychology and Clinical Practice

The clinical relevance of spiritual psychology shows up in a particular way. Patients bring spirituality into therapy, often without naming it.

Christopher Cook's clinical article on religion and spirituality in clinical practice makes the case directly. Clinicians need to account for the beliefs, behaviors, and values that shape a patient's self-understanding. Many patients want to discuss spirituality or religion with mental health professionals, and clinicians need the skills to engage these dimensions ethically.

This is where spiritual psychology becomes practical. A client may present with depression, but their suffering is also shaped by questions such as these:

• Why did this happen?
• What does this loss mean?
• Is there still meaning in my life?

These are questions the therapist holds with the client. The work calls for presence, restraint, and clarity about the clinical role.

A meta-analysis by Captari and colleagues, examining 97 outcome studies and over 7,000 participants, found that psychotherapy adapted to clients' religious or spiritual beliefs and values produced greater improvement than no treatment in psychological and spiritual functioning. In more rigorous additive studies, religiously and spiritually accommodated psychotherapy was equally effective to standard approaches for psychological distress and stronger for spiritual well-being.

The clinical implication is straightforward.

Practitioners who can engage spiritual material with skill and care often do better work, particularly with clients for whom spirituality is part of how meaning is made.

Spiritual and Religious Competence as a Clinical Skill

The professional standards around spiritual and religious competency have developed significantly over the past two decades.

Vieten and Lukoff's article on spiritual and religious competencies in psychology frames this as both clinical and cultural competence. Religion and spirituality are forms of multicultural diversity. Ignoring them in assessment and treatment can contribute to insensitive or inadequate care.

The competencies they describe span attitudes, knowledge, and skills:

• Attitudes. Awareness of one's own spiritual or religious background, biases, and assumptions, with openness to client diversity
• Knowledge. Familiarity with major religious and spiritual traditions, the research on spirituality and health, and the ethical frameworks that govern this work
• Skills. The ability to inquire about spirituality and religion in assessment, to integrate spiritual material into treatment when appropriate, and to recognize when referral or consultation is needed

This is the clinical-formation side of spiritual psychology. A graduate program prepares students to engage spiritual material in ways that are competent, ethical, and culturally aware. Personal interest in spirituality is the starting point. Professional skill develops through training, supervised practice, and sustained ethical attention.

How to Evaluate a Spiritual Psychology Master's Program

The growing interest in spiritual psychology has produced a wide range of programs, varying in academic rigor, clinical preparation, and professional outcomes. A few criteria help prospective students assess fit before committing.

Academic rigor. Strong programs engage seriously with research, theory, and the major figures across transpersonal psychology, depth psychology, and the psychology of religion and spirituality. Faculty are published, and the curriculum is grounded in the broader field.

Professional pathways. Programs differ in what they prepare graduates to do. Some align with the licensure requirements for psychotherapy in the student's jurisdiction. Others are designed for coaching, education, or research.

Clinical and applied training. Supervised experience, internships, and applied projects shape the formative side of the degree, with attention to professional development throughout.

Ethics and scope of practice. Strong programs address the ethical complexities of working with spiritual material directly and hold a clear boundary between psychology, spiritual direction, and religious instruction.

Faculty expertise. Faculty profiles vary. Some are psychologists with depth in spiritual or transpersonal areas. Others are primarily teachers of spiritual practices. Both have value, and the difference matters for how the degree functions professionally.

Program format. Programs run as online, in-person, or hybrid. The integration of experiential learning and contemplative practices, alongside compatibility with the student's life and professional commitments, shapes how the degree fits.

A strong master's program in spiritual psychology holds academic rigor and experiential depth together, preparing students to think clearly, practice ethically, and engage with human experience in its full complexity.

Who This Degree Is For

A master's degree in spiritual psychology draws several kinds of students.

Some come from the helping professions. Therapists, counselors and social workers often seek a graduate program that can hold the spiritual dimensions of the work they are already doing.

Others come from spiritual or contemplative communities, bringing personal practice traditions and a developing interest in psychological theory and applied work. A graduate program offers a way to bring rigor, research, and clinical or professional structure to what they have learned through practice.

Still others come through coaching, education, organizational consultation, or community work, seeking frameworks for personal transformation and human development that match the complexity of what they are working with.

What these students share is a willingness to take the spiritual questions seriously. They want graduate study that can match the depth of what they are already drawn to, and the kind of professional formation that turns inquiry into clinical or applied skill.

Spiritual Psychology Within Graduate Education at Meridian

The dimensions that spiritual psychology engages, consciousness, meaning, transformation, and the depth structures of human experience, are studied at Meridian through several connected concentrations within the Psychology master's program.

The Transpersonal Psychology concentration engages directly with states of consciousness, contemplative practices, and the academic foundations of the transpersonal field. The Depth Psychology concentration works with the symbolic, imaginal, and unconscious dimensions of psychological life that depth traditions have explored. The Somatic Psychology concentration engages the body as a primary site of psychological experience, including the somatic dimensions of contemplative and developmental work.

These concentrations sit within a transformative learning environment that integrates theory, contemporary research, and practice-based inquiry. Students engage with the academic foundations of the field alongside experiential learning, supervised practice, and the professional development that graduate clinical or applied work requires.

For those drawn to this kind of inquiry, a conversation with an Admissions Advisor can offer clarity about program pathways and areas of focus.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a master's in spiritual psychology?

A master's in spiritual psychology is a graduate program that studies human experience through the dimensions of meaning, consciousness, development, and transformation. It draws on transpersonal psychology, depth psychology, the psychology of religion and spirituality, and contemplative traditions. Programs typically include theoretical foundations, research methods, applied or clinical training, experiential learning, and engagement with wisdom traditions across cultures. Graduates pursue work in psychotherapy, counseling, coaching, education, organizational consultation, and research, depending on the program's structure and the licensure pathway it supports.

How to get a degree in spiritual psychology?

Earning a degree in spiritual psychology typically begins with a bachelor's degree, usually in psychology, religious studies, philosophy, or a related field. From there, students apply to a master's program that aligns with their goals, whether clinical practice, coaching, education, or research. Programs vary in format, including online programs, in-person, and hybrid options. Coursework usually combines theoretical foundations, research methods, applied training, and experiential learning. Students who want to practice psychotherapy need to confirm that the program meets the licensure requirements in their jurisdiction. Doctoral study is available for those interested in research, teaching, or advanced clinical practice.

Is a spiritual psychologist a real thing?

Spiritual psychology is a recognized field of academic study and applied practice, with roots in transpersonal psychology, the psychology of religion and spirituality, and depth psychology. Practitioners working in this area come from a range of professional backgrounds: licensed psychologists, mental health counselors, marriage and family therapists, social workers, chaplains, coaches, and researchers. The professional title a person holds depends on their specific licensure and credentials. The spiritual orientation of the practitioner's work is a question of specialization. A psychologist who integrates spiritual considerations into clinical practice, for example, is a licensed psychologist whose training and practice include spiritual psychology as a specialization.

The questions that bring people to spiritual psychology are old ones. A graduate program is one way to study them seriously, with the rigor and care they deserve.

References

1. Captari, L. E., Hook, J. N., Hoyt, W. T., Davis, D. E., McElroy-Heltzel, S. E., & Worthington, E. L., Jr. (2018). Integrating clients' religion and spirituality within psychotherapy: A comprehensive meta-analysis. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 74(11), 1938–1951.
2. Cook, C. C. H. (2015). Religion and spirituality in clinical practice. BJPsych Advances, 21(1), 42–50.
3. Hartelius, G. (2022). What is transpersonal psychology? A concise definition based on 20 years of research. International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 41(1).
4. Lucchetti, G., Koenig, H. G., & Lucchetti, A. L. G. (2021). Spirituality, religiousness, and mental health: A review of the current scientific evidence. World Journal of Clinical Cases, 9(26), 7620–7631.
5. Pargament, K. I., Exline, J. J., & Jones, J. W. (Eds.). (2013). APA Handbook of Psychology, Religion, and Spirituality. American Psychological Association.
6. Vieten, C., & Lukoff, D. (2021). Spiritual and religious competencies in psychology. American Psychologist, 76(1), 26–38.