Upcoming Trainings

Spiritual leadership has always been a challenging calling, but in recent years we have seen troubling levels of burnout, vicarious trauma, and diminished well-being among those serving in these sacred vocations. Self-care is frequently invoked as a solution for these problems. However, the “self-care solution” does not adequately address the systemic, relational, existential, and spiritual dimensions of the profound vulnerabilities in this work and the potential toll of this impact on leaders. This presentation invites a paradigm shift “beyond self-care” to offer holistic understandings and approaches for preventing burnout and promoting flourishing among spiritual leaders drawing on a program of practice-based research and “frontline” observations about these issues.  We will consider research findings on the multiple stressors for leaders and key pathways toward well-being and growth, including points of learning from one of the largest studies to date addressing burnout, trauma, and flourishing among spiritual leaders.

Steven J. Sandage, M.Div., Ph.D., LP, is the Albert and Jessie Danielsen Professor of Psychology of Religion and Theology with appointments in the School of Theology and the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Boston University. He is also Research Director, Training Faculty, and Staff Psychologist at the Danielsen Institute, which has a long history of providing psychological services to both faith leaders and the wider Boston community. Sandage has authored 9 books and over 200 articles or chapters on various topics at the intersections of spirituality, psychology, psychotherapy, theology, and social justice. He has done research on spiritual formation, mental health, and intercultural competence among faith leaders and seminarians for over twenty-five years through funding from the Templeton Foundation, the Lilly Endowment, the Fetzer Institute, the Covenant Foundation, and the Peale Foundation. He also practices as a Licensed Psychologist at the Danielsen Institute with clinical specializations that include couple and family therapy, multicultural therapy, and spiritually-integrative therapy.