Professor Fox Co-Edits New Open-Access Handbook on Spiritual and Religious Competencies

Free, cross-disciplinary resource aims to close a longstanding training gap in mental health education.

October 5, 2026

Jesse Fox, PhD, Associate Professor of Counselor Education at Stetson University, has co-edited a new handbook aimed at helping mental health training programs address a long-standing gap in how students and practitioners are prepared to work with clients' spirituality and religion.

The "Handbook of Training in Spiritual and Religious Competencies in Mental Health Professions," published by Oxford University Press, was co-edited by Fox alongside Joseph M. Currier of the University of South Alabama and Cassandra Vieten of the University of California, San Diego. The 496-page volume brings together contributors from counseling, psychology, social work, and marriage and family therapy programs across the country.

Spirituality and religion are significant dimensions of psychological well-being, but clinical training programs have often struggled to equip students and practitioners with the skills to address these topics ethically and effectively, according to the book's editors. The handbook offers cross-disciplinary strategies for integrating spiritual and religious competencies into coursework, supervision and training frameworks, with tools designed to be practical and approachable regardless of an instructor's prior expertise in the subject.

Thanks to funding from the John Templeton Foundation, the full handbook is available free of charge as an open-access resource. Readers can also visit the Spiritual and Religious Competencies Project website for many of the training programs and tools discussed in the book.

Fox has published extensively on the role of spirituality and religion in mental health, psychotherapy, clinical training and assessment, including two related books. He also served as co-principal investigator on the Spiritual and Religious Competencies Project and chaired the Religious and Spiritual Competencies Task Force before his term as president of the Association for Spiritual, Ethical, and Religious Values in Counseling.

The publication reflects the Department of Counselor Education's ongoing commitment to advancing scholarship that shapes how future counselors are trained to serve the whole person, including the spiritual and religious dimensions of their clients' lives.

The handbook is available now through Oxford University Press, including a free open-access PDF version.