The effect of God-Oriented Spiritual psychotherapy (GOSP) on Psychospiritual development

God-oriente d spiritual psychotherapy (God-OSP) is an approach based on Islamic resources. Its basic assumption is the development of perceptual filed to the origin of being and resurrection, in addition to self and objective existence, activating the spiritual dimension, creating monotheistic attitude, providing the ground for the treatment and change of clients with psychological problems. The aim of this research is to study the effect of God-OSP on psychspiritual development (PSD) as a criteria of mental and spiritual health. The method was quasi-experimental with a pretest-posttest design in the clinical clients. The sample of this study included ۲۰ clients being selected by voluntarily sampling. All of them had anxiety problems. All of them, in addition to clinical interviews by clinicians and receiving a diagnosis of anxiety, took the psychospiritual development questioner (PSDQ). Then, they entered the spiritual group therapy. After ۴۵ weekly sessions of treatment, they were tested again, and the obtained data were analyzed.The findings showed that the clinical signs of low level of psychological development associated with psychological disorders were significantly reduced under the effect of God-OSP. In the other words, the signs of the egocentric faith and the transitional faith (ambivalence) decrease. On the other hand, the signs of Reconstructed Faith and Transcendent Faith significantly increase. But, at the dogmatic stage (second stage), the subjects did not change significantly. The findings of this study confirmed the two basic assumptions that spiritual therapy not only reduces the clinical signs associated with low levels of development but also provides the basis for transcendent human growth and development. This interactive effect increases the effectiveness of spiritual therapy and reduces the rate of recurrence based on clinical self-reports.

Keywords:

God-oriented spiritual psychotherapy , Psycho-spiritual development , spiritual/religious therapy , religious clients , Islamic Psychology