About

Steven J. Sandage is the Albert and Jessie Danielsen Professor of Psychology of Religion & Theology at Boston University School of Theology. His academic background includes a PhD and MS from Virginia Commonwealth University and an MDiv from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. Growing up in Iowa as the son of two teachers and being confirmed in the United Methodist Church, he developed an early interest in the connections between mental health, spirituality, and ministry, which he pursued through his studies and practical work. His professional experience includes working as a chaplain in prisons, geriatric facilities, and group homes for boys, shaping his focus on integrating psychology and theology to understand human development and healing. After completing his doctoral studies with a focus on counseling psychology and marriage and family therapy, he worked at Bethel Seminary in Minnesota, where he joined the faculty and established a clinical practice. In 2013, he accepted the Danielsen Chair at Boston University School of Theology and the Danielsen Institute, where he also serves as Research Director and Senior Staff Psychologist, with a joint appointment in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences. His research encompasses positive psychology and virtue, spiritual formation, psychology of religion, psychotherapy processes and outcomes, intercultural competence and social justice, psychopathology, and practitioner well-being. He has co-authored and edited multiple books and has been recognized with awards for excellence in the integration of psychology and theology. Sandage also practices as a Licensed Psychologist, specializing in couple and family therapy, multicultural therapy, and spiritually-integrative therapy, and serves on editorial boards for prominent clinical journals.

Research topics

• Psychology
• Psychotherapist
• Political Science
• Social psychology
• Medicine
• Sociology
• Clinical psychology
• Epistemology
• Theology
• Psychiatry
• Anthropology
• Pedagogy
• Internal medicine
• Engineering ethics
• Engineering
• Philosophy
• Environmental ethics
• Law
• Virology

Selected publications

• Spiritual Formation Among Students at Christian Seminaries: Mature Alterity, Symptoms, and Well-Being

  Pastoral Psychology · 2026-01-03

  articleOpen access

  Mature alterity is a key marker of spiritual formation. We used person-centered data analytic techniques to empirically generate subgroups differentiated by their profile on dimensions of the relational spirituality model (RSM). Four RSM dimensions were derived from factor analytic techniques on fifty items from eight measures of religiousness/spirituality and self-regulatory strengths. We used a sample of students from eighteen North American seminaries (N = 867; Mage = 31.95; 50% male; 60% White). Latent profile analyses at times 1 and 2 generated four subgroups differentiated by RSM dimensions. One subgroup, labeled the regulated seekers, represented a balanced profile of moderate acceptance of doubts as positive, low-to-moderate divine struggles and moderate interpersonal struggles, low-to-moderate anxious attachment to the divine, moderate dwelling, and consistent elevated regulation. The regulated seekers also depicted mature alterity, reporting moderate-to-high gratitude and other-forgiveness, low grandiosity, low right-wing authoritarianism, lower illusory religiousness/spirituality, and low materialistic and moderate-to-high contemplative prayer frequencies. They also reported a flourishing profile of lower symptoms, higher positive emotion, and moderate life purpose and higher belongingness. Latent transition analysis results showed that membership in this subgroup was largely stable over time. When the regulated seekers did switch subgroups, they tended to move to the subgroup whose RSM profile was characterized by greater dwelling. Findings offered support for the RSM and highlighted the need for monitoring spiritual formation using judicious assessment of RSM dimensions, mature alterity, and flourishing, along with discerning between greater religiousness/spirituality and mature alterity, which may not be synonymous.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• 9. Practicing interdisciplinary supervision: Views from the United States

  Scandinavian University Press eBooks · 2026-03-19

  book-chapterOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Trauma, Burnout, and Well-Being Among Chaplains and Clergy in the United States

  Pastoral Psychology · 2026-03-30

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Clinician Burnout and Flourishing: Predicting Client Dropout in a Practice‐Research Network

  Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy · 2026-03-01

  article

  = 37.8; 41.9% White; 62.5% female) using a US-based digital mental health network. Early dropout was operationalised as attending fewer than three sessions. Therapists completed self-report measures of burnout and flourishing. Multilevel logistic regression examined therapist-level predictors of early dropout, accounting for nested client data. Approximately 27.8% of clients dropped out early. Therapists accounted for 9.4% of the variance in client dropout. Therapist flourishing was significantly associated with lower dropout rates (OR = 0.90, 95% CI [0.814, 0.998]), while therapist burnout was not (OR = 1.01, 95% CI [0.758, 1.353]). More years in practice (OR = 1.02, 95% CI [1.013, 1.031]) and larger weekly caseloads (OR = 1.02, 95% CI [1.003, 1.033]) were both significantly linked to higher early dropout rates. Dropout was significantly lower for White clients (OR = 0.827, 95% CI [0.736, 0.929]) and White therapists (OR = 0.711, 95% CI [0.539, 0.938]). Therapist flourishing may support early client retention, while higher caseload, more experience and racial/ethnic disparities are associated with increased dropout. Findings highlight the need for wellness promotion, structural support and culturally responsive practices in psychotherapy.

  PublisherDOI

• Humility among seminarian women: A qualitative study

  Archive for the Psychology of Religion · 2025-03-29 · 1 citations

  article

  Humility is a salient virtue for Christian formation with demonstrated relevance for religious leader effectiveness and well-being. However, humility is complex for religious leaders, as role-related factors promote and challenge healthy humility. Practicing healthy humility might be particularly complicated for religious leaders who hold non-dominant identities, such as women or Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC). Using reflexive thematic analysis, this study reports on humility experiences among eight women, most of whom were BIPOC, enrolled in an Evangelical seminary. Four overarching themes were constructed: (1) Humility is essential for Christian life but can be difficult to define , (2) Humble leadership involves negotiating intersecting identities across time and context , (3) Ministry pressure and personal tendencies challenge authentic humility , and (4) Authentic humility can and should be cultivated . Discussion includes implications for these findings and recommendations for seminarian formation.

  PublisherDOI

• Contrasting Experiences: Gender Disparities in Spirituality, Character Strengths, Mental Health, and Social Justice among Next-Generation Religious Leaders

  Review of Religious Research · 2025-05-26 · 2 citations

  articleSenior author

  Despite female religious leaders’ substantial historic and ongoing contributions worldwide, their experiences remain poorly understood in male-normative contexts, especially from an empirical perspective. This lack of understanding leads institutions to overlook heterogeneity and perpetuate male-normed formative experiences, with virtually no empirical studies investigating gender differences among religious leaders, particularly regarding mental health. The present study utilized a sample of 452 emerging religious leaders (50.2%, women) and a series of t -tests and ANCOVAs on self-report measures across domains of spirituality, character, emotional/mental health, and social values. Overall, women reported significantly higher character strengths and social justice values but lower emotional/mental health than men, even after controlling for covariates. Men reported higher Narcissism-Grandiosity and Spirituality, while women reported higher Narcissism-Vulnerability, though the Narcissism-Grandiosity effect disappeared after controlling for covariates. The authors identify potential drivers of differences and disparities while proposing recommendations for stakeholders in religious communities and higher education.

  PublisherDOI

• Contrasting Experiences: Gender Disparities in Spirituality, Character Strengths, Mental Health, and Social Justice Among Next-Generation Religious Leaders

  2025-04-07

  preprintOpen accessSenior author

  In spite of the substantial historical and ongoing contributions of female religious leaders to the life of religious communities around the world, little is understood about their contrasting experiences in a context that tends to be male normative, especially from an empirical perspective. Poorly understood experiences of female religious leaders lead institutions and religious leaders to assume a lack of heterogeneity, along with the ongoing adoption of formative experiences that are normed after a population that does not reflect the realities of most current and/or future religious leaders. Little to no empirical studies to date have formally investigated gender differences in religious leaders in many domains, much less mental health. The present study utilized a sample of 452 emerging religious leaders (50.2%, women) and a series of t-tests on self-report measures across domains of spirituality, character, emotional and mental health, and social values. Overall, women reported significantly higher rates of character strengths, social justice values, as well as lower emotional and mental health compared to men. Results also indicated that men reported higher rates of Narcissism-Grandiosity and Spirituality, yet women reported higher rates of Narcissism-Vulnerability. The authors identify potential drivers of differences and disparities while proposing recommendations for stakeholders in religious communities and higher education.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Applying relational spirituality to develop spiritual and religious competencies in psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy training.

  Psychotherapy · 2025-08-04 · 2 citations

  articleSenior author

  Psychedelic-assisted therapies (PAT) can provoke personally meaningful spiritual or existential experiences in patients; these experiences have been associated with improved outcomes across several treatment targets and populations. The need for spiritual and religious competence, though present across the spectrum of psychotherapeutic practice, is especially strong in psychedelic-assisted psychotherapies. The relational spirituality model (RSM), a systematically developed and empirically tested framework for spiritual and religious competency in psychotherapy, offers a theoretical and practical framework for spiritual competency training in psychedelic therapies (Sandage et al., 2020). The model's inclusive spiritual, existential, religious, and theological (SERT) framework provides a broad and pluralistic approach that can meaningfully engage a wide range of SERT experiences and traditions in psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy. Further, the RSM can readily be integrated with other models of clinical care (e.g., palliative care), with a range of psychotherapeutic modalities, and within existing psychedelic training frameworks. To illustrate the application of the RSM to the development of religious and spiritual competence in PAT training, this article first describes the RSM. It then introduces methods for pragmatic training based on the RSM, which can be integrated with standard licensure-focused mental health training programs that might someday include applications for psychedelics or with specialized psychedelic-assisted therapy facilitation training programs. These include deliberate practice and experiential training components, "SERT groups," content and clinical theory, and training in assessment and case conceptualization. Finally, we discuss how the RSM can inform future directions in PAT training and support interdisciplinary approaches to PAT including collaborations across disciplines and healing communities. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

  PublisherDOI

• Discriminating the dimensions of humility: a validation study with religious identifying individuals

  Current Psychology · 2025-08-22

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Humility, Differentiation of Self, and Rorschach Assessment of Clergy Candidates in the USA: An Exploratory Study

  Journal of Religion and Health · 2025-09-19 · 1 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Peter J. Jankowski

  Bethel University

  84 shared

• Sarah A. Crabtree

  Boston University

  36 shared

• Everett L. Worthington

  33 shared

• David R. Paine

  Loras College

  33 shared

• David Rupert

  28 shared

• George Stavros

  27 shared

• Nancy G. Devor

  Boston University

  26 shared

• Laura E. Captari

  25 shared

Awards & honors

• Narramore Award for excellence in the integration of psychol…
• Applied Psychology of Religion and Spirituality Award from D…