Sacred Unraveling: A Therapist’s Guide for Helping Clients Navigate Religious and Spiritual Change
As more individuals leave organized religion, deconstruct long-held beliefs, or seek nonreligious spirituality, their existential and spiritual needs often surface in therapy, whether as a presenting concern or a deeper undercurrent. They often turn to therapists, counselors, social workers, and other helping professionals in search of answers. Drawing from cutting-edge research and clinical wisdom, this book provides tools and guidelines for providing culturally competent spiritual care to help clients along their journey of religious and spiritual change. This book introduces a new framework—the Existential Distress, Growth, and Engagement (EDGE) model—to help clients make sense of their religious/spiritual identities, establish new worldviews, adjust their morals and values, and establish meaningful social connections. Based on rigorous empirical research, this book helps mental health professionals support clients as they embrace existential uncertainty and find meaning amid religious and spiritual changes.
(expected Aug 2026)
Books
The Courage to Suffer: A New Clinical Framework for Life's Greatest Crises
How do we find meaning in the midst of suffering? Adopting an existential positive psychology approach to suffering, The Courage to Suffer integrates cutting-edge scientific research with sound clinical practices to introduce a new framework for navigating the most challenging experiences in life. Although designed for therapists and clinicians, this book is widely accessible to anyone who has experienced adversity or is intimately familiar with suffering.
Interviews
Listen to Sara’s perspective and approach via podcasts