Spiritual Crisis

Peer-Support and Grounding for Spiritually Transformative Experiences

Authors

  • Dr Michael J. Rush

Abstract

This article reports on the findings from three related studies designed to investigate interventions for spiritual crisis. Spiritual crisis can be understood as any spiritual experience that causes concern or distress. The first study was an evaluation of the United Kingdom Spiritual Crisis Network (SCN). Feedback was gathered from people who had contacted the SCN for support between 2011 and 2019. This study highlighted the importance of peer-support for those recovering from a crisis. The second study explored the meaning and lived experience of grounding in the context of spiritual crisis. Semi-structured interviews were undertaken with twelve participants, and the transcripts subjected to an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) analysis. Nine themes, with relevance to clinical practise, were generated along with an understanding of grounding as both a state and a process. The third study was a report on professional practise in the form of a case study that followed the journey of one participant from spiritual crisis through to them providing peer-support for the SCN. A narrative analysis of his story was undertaken utilising the Hero’s Journey as a framework for analysis. It was found that not all spiritual crises require intervention by the mental health services and other forms of support can be beneficial.

Author Biography

Dr Michael J. Rush

Mike Rush obtained his PhD at Christ Church Canterbury University, supported by the Alef Trust and the Professional Development Foundation. He is also Trustee of the Alister Hardy Society and sits on the committee of the BPS Transpersonal Psychology Section. He provides support, training, and undertakes research into spiritual crisis (aka spiritual emergency) and co-facilitates peer-support groups, trained as a Spiritual Emergence Coach with the IMHU. He was co-director of the UK Spiritual Crisis Network for ten years. Further, he is a qualified hypno-psychotherapist registered with the CNHC and the National Society of Talking Therapies. Although he has not experienced a spiritual crisis himself, he has a long-standing interest in myth, magic, and mysticism, viewed through the lenses of applied and transpersonal psychology, and in particular with spiritual crisis, Western Esotericism, and the pre-Christian traditions of the British Isles.

Downloads

Published

2026-10-06

Issue

Vol. 12 No. 1 (2026): Journal for the Study of Religious Experience

Section

Articles

License

Copyright (c) 2026 Journal for the Study of Religious Experience

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The Journal for the Study of Religious Experience is a peer-reviewed, open-access journal. All journal content, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.

The copyright for articles published in this journal is retained by the authors and the Journal for the Study of Religious Experience.

Authors would need to request the reuse of the article in case they want to publish it elsewhere and they should acknowledge the initial publication in JSRE.

Authors are permitted and encouraged to post online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) a link to the Journal's website where the article may be downloaded for free.

Authors are responsible for ensuring copyright clearance for any images, tables, etc. which are supplied from an outside source.