Jesse Fox

Associate Professor of Counselor Education

My work sits at the intersection of mental health, meaning, and human flourishing. From my experiences as a counselor, researcher, and community leader, I write extensively about how spirituality and religion shape wellbeing, healing, and the work of counseling and psychotherapy. Drawing on my years of clinical experience, my publications aim to make psychological research both rigorous and deeply human. I enjoy engaging with and teaching students how to address topics such as spiritual competence in mental health care, the psychology of meaning, contemplative practices, and how clinicians can thoughtfully and ethically engage clients’ values and beliefs. My teaching, scholarship, and supervision focuses on bridging research and real-world practice, and I enjoy mentoring students to learn these skills as future practitioner-scholars. I truly believe that becoming a counselor is one of the most noble vocations a person can aspire to and one of the greatest joys as a professor is seeing my students go on to lead fulfilling and transformative lives devoted to the care and well-being of others.

  • PhD, University of Central Florida
  • MA, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School
  • BA, Cedarville University

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Biography

Jesse Fox, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Counselor Education at Stetson University. He earned his doctorate from the University of Central Florida and previously served on the faculty of Loyola University Maryland in the Department of Pastoral Counseling before joining Stetson in 2017. Fox has extensive clinical experience across college counseling, outpatient addiction treatment, community mental health, and private practice.

Fox’s scholarship focuses on the integration of spirituality, religion, and mental health, with particular attention to clinical training, competency development, and assessment. He has secured approximately $6 million in external funding to support this work from a range of national and community-based funders, including the John Templeton Foundation, United Way, and other philanthropic organizations. Most notably, he is a project leader for the Spiritual and Religious Competencies in Mental Health Care Project, a large-scale, multi-institutional initiative advancing research, training, and implementation of spiritually integrated mental health care. In addition to his academic role, Fox is the Co-Founder and Faculty Director of the Center for Optimal Health Across the Lifespan at Stetson University, an interdisciplinary center dedicated to community-engaged health research, workforce development, and outreach. Since 2020, he has also served as Executive Director of the Episcopal Counseling Center, a nonprofit counseling center serving the DeLand community since 1987. A full list of his scholarly works can be found on his Google Scholar profile.

More About Jesse Fox

Areas of Expertise

  • Counselor Education and Supervision

Course Sampling

  • Addiction Counseling
  • Understanding Religious and Spiritual Themes in Counseling
  • Spirituality in Counseling Practice
  • Human Development
  • Evaluation and Assessment
  • Statistics and Research Methods
  • Multicultural Counseling
  • Human Relationships, Methods and Skills
  • Psychopathology
  • Practicum in Counseling

  • Spirituality, Religion, and Mental Health
  • Clinical Training
  • Psychology of Meaning
  • Psychometrics
  • Psychopathology
  • Human Flourishing

Books

  • Fox, J. & Cashwell, C. S. (In press). Understanding and Working with Spiritual Bypass: A Guide for Mental Health Professionals. New York, NY: Routledge Press.
    Currier, J. M., Fox, J., & Vieten, C. (In press). Handbook of Training in Spiritual and Religious Competencies in Mental Health Professions. Oxford University Press.
  • Stewart-Sicking, J. A., Fox, J., & Deal, P. J. (2019). Bringing religion and spirituality into therapy: A process-based model for pluralistic practice. New York, NY: Routledge Press.

Refereed Journal Publications