Dr. Holly Oxhandler, Professor, Associate Dean for Research, Diana R. Garland School of Social Work
“Though I have always valued transformational education, since joining Baylor, I have grown in my awareness that we cannot offer transformational education if we are unwilling to be transformed. This has translated into my commitment to humility, learning, serving others, growth, and transformation – intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually – in order to offer the transformational education Baylor values.”
Several years ago, I threaded those sentences together in a local coffee shop while preparing my materials for tenure and promotion. I joined Baylor’s faculty in 2014 after receiving my PhD in social work from the University of Houston, especially drawn to Baylor’s emphasis on transformational education. What surprised me, though, was how my research, teaching, and service at Baylor would usher me toward surrendering to a deep, humble process of transformation in order to offer the transformational education Baylor prioritizes.
The nature of both social work and my research invite some of this reflection. For the last 16 years, I’ve studied the intersection between spirituality and mental health, mental health care providers’ (and educators’) views/behaviors around discussing (and training students to discuss) clients’ spirituality in therapy, and clients’ views on integrating their spirituality in therapy. Over the years, I’ve developed instruments to measure these concepts and a grounded theory on this topic, started podcasting about faith and mental health, and in 2022, published a book to translate this research and my lived experiences at this intersection called The Soul of the Helper: Seven Stages to Seeing the Sacred Within Yourself So You Can See It in Others.
What I’ve learned from this research is how essential our inner work at the intersection of faith and mental health is as we serve others – including as faculty serving our students, colleagues, and communities.