Holly K. Oxhandler, Co-Investigator
Holly K. Oxhandler, PhD, LMSW, joined Baylor University’s Garland School of Social Work in 2014 upon completing her PhD at the University of Houston. Her research focuses on the intersection of ethical and effective integration of clients’ religion/spirituality (RS) within the evidence-based practice process in mental and behavioral health treatment. She developed the Religious/Spiritually Integrated Practice Assessment Scale (RSIPAS), which assesses mental healthcare providers’ (social workers, psychologists, counselors, marriage and family therapists, and nurses) attitudes, perceived feasibility, self-efficacy, behaviors, and overall orientation toward integrating clients’ RS in practice. She has also developed other instruments related to this area of practice, including the RSIPAS-Client Attitudes, the Social Workers’ Integration of their Faith – Christian (SWIF-C) Scale, and most recently, an instrument to measure clients’ perceived relevance of religion/spirituality and mental health.
Dr. Oxhandler cohosts the weekly podcast, CXMH: Christianity & Mental Health, has clinical and research experience working with older adults with anxiety and depression at Baylor College of Medicine, and co-authored a cognitive behavioral treatment manual that integrates clients’ RS beliefs into practice. Though the integration of clients’ RS in mental health treatment is her primary area of interest, her scholarship also includes evidence-based practice, serious mental illness, anxiety disorders, virtual reality, mentoring, and social work practitioners’ professional identity.