Dr. Lisa Miller: How Does Spirituality Protect Our Mental Health?

Can spirituality enhance our mental health?

That is the question that psychologist and researcher Dr. Lisa Miller has pursued through her career. During her clinical internship after graduate school, she observed how while some of her patients had symptoms of major depression that required medication, other patients carried a sadness that carried life’s big questions: What is the purpose of life? Is there a larger meaning to existence? Decades later, Lisa has found that each of us has an “awakened brain,” neural circuitry that enables a human’s natural capacity for spiritual awareness.

In this conversation, Lisa and the Surgeon General delve into the science that explains spirituality’s protective effects on mental health. They also discuss the universal human need for an inner life that connects us to something greater than ourselves, and offer a few meditation practices to support the awakened brain. 

(02:00)    Introductory Guided Meditation 

(08:43)    What is spiritual health? 

(15:04)    How does Dr. Lisa Miller define spirituality? 

(18:18)    Why does spirituality protect our mental health? 

(20:55)    What are some practices to build spiritual health? 

(24:40)    What is the awakened brain? 

(26:56)    Are there particular stages of life when spiritual seeking spikes? 

(30:03)    What is an Awakened Campus? 

(32:44)    Why don’t college campuses focus more on spiritual well-being? 

(34:26)    How Dr. Miller’s spiritual crisis as a young person become her life’s work. 

(45:55)    What are the core elements of spirituality? 

(53:12)    Where has Dr. Miller found the support for spiritual exploration? 

(59:58)    How can parents build a spiritual foundation with their children? 

We’d love to hear from you! Send us a note at [email protected] with your feedback & ideas. For more episodes, visit www.surgeongeneral.gov/housecalls.   

Dr. Lisa Miller, Psychologist

Instagram: @dr.lisamiller 

About Dr. Lisa Miller

Lisa Miller, Ph.D., is the New York Times bestselling author of “The Spiritual Child” and “The Awakened Mind: The New Science of Spirituality and our Quest for the Inspired Life.” She is a professor in the Clinical Psychology Program at Teachers College, Columbia University. She is the Founder and Director of the Spirituality Mind Body Institute, the first Ivy League graduate program and research institute in spirituality and psychology, and has held over a decade of joint appointments in the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University Medical School. Her innovative research has been published in more than one hundred peer-reviewed articles in leading journals, including Cerebral Cortex, The American Journal of Psychiatry, and the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. 

Dr. Miller is Editor of the Oxford University Press Handbook of Psychology and Spirituality, Founding Co-Editor-in-Chief of the APA journal Spirituality in Clinical Practice, an elected Fellow of The American Psychological Association (APA) and the two-time President of the APA Society for Psychology and Spirituality. A graduate of Yale University and University of Pennsylvania, where she earned her doctorate under the founder of positive psychology, Martin Seligman, she has served as Principal Investigator on multiple grant funded research studies. Dr. Miller speaks and consults around The Awakened Brain and The Spiritual Child for the US Military, businesses (including tech, finance, HR and sales), personal development, faith based organizations, schools and universities, and for mental health and wellness initiatives.