From Personal Experience to Clinical Practice to Research: A Career Path Leading to Public Policy Changes in Integrating Spirituality Into Mental Health

The editor of Spirituality in Clinical Practice, Lisa Miller, invited me to reflect on my career over the past 35 years focused on integrating spirituality into public mental health. Woven into this account is the story behind a recently developed spiritual assessment interview that I developed for use in many California county mental health agencies and have presented at American Psychological Association skills building sessions and workshops. This article traces the interplay of personal experience, clinical work, research, and public policy that illustrates core dynamic interactions of psychological science and praxis.