Where do spirituality and wellbeing converge?
Something interesting is happening, people are talking about spirituality again. They’re exploring tarot, crystals, astrology, meditation, manifestation, witchcraft, nature spirituality, deity, ancestors and a whole host of other things. Even the Evangelical Alliance has noticed this too; in its new Spiritual Curiosity resource, the EA describes a culture in which people are increasingly exploring spiritual practices and asks how Christians should respond. However, there is a deeper question here, what are people actually looking for? It is possible they are looking for connection to a God or many Gods, or maybe they are looking for certainty in an uncertain world. It is possible they are simply looking for meaning, identity, community, ritual, connection, hope, belonging, permission to exist as a human being or understand the suffering they see around us. The answer is probably a combination of all these.
It has been suggested that spiritual curiosity is seen partly as people searching for truth and looking in the wrong places. The difficulty with this view is it can appear that it is then the role of one spiritual framework to guide those who follow different spiritual frameworks to find this truth. A more useful question could be, who gets to decide that someone else’s spiritual exploration is searching for a wrong answer? They could be simply exploring, constructing their own meaning, asking questions they don’t know if there will be a single answer to; and what if uncertainty isn’t failure? For many Pagans, spiritual exploration isn’t a journey to a single, given destination. Pagan traditions are open to questioning, changes in practice, different understanding of deity, polytheism, animism, reconstructionism, as well as practices that are eclectic or atheistic.
Psychological thought has long recognised that spiritual life and mental wellbeing aren’t neatly separate compartments; they intertwine, challenge and support each other. As the Pastoral Manage for the Pagan Federation, a Counsellor and, obviously, Pagan myself, I know first hand how true this is.
A 2026 study in Frontiers in Psychology looked specifically at how people with lived experience of mental distress episodes used spirituality in meaning-making and recovery. The researchers found themes around reframing experiences, integrating intuitive/symbolic and rational ways of understanding, and collaboratively discerning the meaning of spiritual experiences. Their proposed VALID framework begins with Validate, rather than immediately judging the content of someone’s spiritual experience. This emerging research suggests that the way we respond to someone’s spirituality may itself matter.
Paganism is more than a collection of spiritual practices
When considering paganism, it is essential to remember we are not simply talking about a collection of spiritual practices. It is an overarching term that encompasses a family of religious and spiritual traditions and world views, including those for whom deity is central to their practice; for others it is nature, ancestors, ritual, community, mythology, land, ethics, seasonal practice or a combination of these. Some Pagans use tarot, work with crystals, practise magic, believe literally in multiple deities, understand deity symbolically, are atheistic or non-theistic. And this diversity matters because Paganism should not automatically be treated as a single alternative spirituality package.
How does spirituality contribute to wellbeing?
While it would be wonderful to fully explore this question, one article could not do this topic justice. As a brief explanation, there are 5 main ways that spirituality contributes positively to mental wellbeing.
Meaning
Ritual often draws people together, a shared focus can help to mark beginnings, endings, share grief, prepare for change and navigate transitions. Having something that feels constant in a time of upheaval can feel like the anchor for a ship on rough seas.
Connection
We know people need relationships to thrive, and a shared experience of spirituality grow our connection with community and develops our sense of belonging.
Nature
Many Pagan practices deliberately cultivate attention to seasons, land, weather, plants, animals and place. This creates another sense of connections and shared experience, reminding us that we are participants in a living world, not just observers of it.
Agency
Through ritual, people develop a way of creatively participating in their lives and communities, helping to develop a sense of doing rather than feeling things are done to them
Belonging
There is something deeply satisfying and psychologically significant about discovering that other people understand a part of you that previously felt isolated or inexplicable. Finding space to speak in a language that others understand can feel like parts of you are being shown to the light for the first time.
It is crucial that we acknowledge, none of these things are uniquely Pagan, nature connection, community, meaning, ritual aren’t Pagan property. Paganism can provide a spiritual framework in which these things become meaningful.
You don’t have to believe someone’s spirituality to take it seriously
Imagine a Pagan client sitting with their counsellor and feeling that they cannot mention their spiritualty. Something they feel is fundamental to understanding their experience and this important part of them is missing from the therapeutic conversation. This is not unique to Pagans, the same issue can arise for Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist, atheist, agnostic and other clients. The client’s worldview belongs in the room if it matters to the client.
In the therapy room, the counsellor doesn’t have to believe that a client’s deity exists, interpret a dream that has been shared, decide whether a synchronicity was really a sign; they simply need to understand what that experience means to the person. The research mentioned above suggests the need to attend to the function of spiritual experiences rather than judging their objective truth. Making ‘What did that experience mean to you?’ far more therapeutically useful than ‘Do you really believe that happened?’; or equally ‘How is this belief working for you?’ is a very different question to ‘Is this belief correct?’. This gives us the language to explore another person’s spirituality without either endorsing every spiritual claim or dismissing their spiritual experience as irrational.
Curiosity doesn’t require agreement, we don’t have to share someone’s spiritual framework to be genuinely curious about it.
A Pagan community response
As the Pagan Federation, we welcome the opportunity to contribute to this wider conversation by supporting Pagan communities to become places where people can explore spirituality safely and openly. This is through:
- good pastoral practice;
- clear safeguarding;
- signposting to professional support;
- combating stigma;
- supporting isolated Pagans;
- developing inclusive communities;
- encouraging responsible spiritual practice;
- and helping other organisations understand Pagan perspectives.
We don’t need to become counsellors, therapists or mental health practitioners to support our community. It is not our role to diagnose mental distress, tell a distressed person that their mental health episode is caused by spirits, karma, deity, possession, lack of ritual, or failure to be sufficiently spiritual. Creating welcoming, trustworthy spaces where people can explore their spirituality is not only achievable, but also of benefit to our wider community.
Pastoral Care
Similarly to counselling for mental wellbeing, pastoral care isn’t about finding or having the ‘correct’ spiritual answer, sometimes it is simply being someone others can celebrate, grieve or wrestle with beliefs with, using language that is authentic and specific to them. Sometimes we just need another human being to accept us when we say, ‘something happened today and I don’t know what I think it means’.
Perhaps we’re asking the wrong question
While the developing conversation about spiritual curiosity is valuable, perhaps we shouldn’t be asking ‘How do we respond to people who are spiritually curious?’
as though spiritual curiosity is something belonging to other people that institutions need to capture; maybe we should ask, ‘What are people telling us about what they need?’, because underneath tarot, crystals, ritual, prayer, deity, meditation, nature spirituality and all the rest there may be some very old human questions:
- Who am I?
- Why am I here?
- What matters?
- Where do I belong?
- How do I live with uncertainty?
- How do I make sense of suffering?
- How do I mark change?
- How do I remain connected to something larger than myself?
And, who will sit with me when I don’t know the answers?
The EA’s own discussion acknowledges that ‘spirituality’ is not necessarily synonymous with Christianity, and its research commentary recognises the complexity of drawing conclusions between religious participation and wellbeing, including the crucial distinction between correlation and causation. Meanwhile, the mental-health research mentioned above is explicitly saying that spiritually informed practice needs to make space for diverse spiritual frameworks, including Pagan/Animist/Shamanist participants, and that practitioners should validate and explore those frameworks rather than immediately imposing an external interpretation.
As a Pagan, I know that spirituality can be deeply personal; as a counsellor, I know that meaning and worldview are part of the person who walks through my door; and as Pastoral Manager within the Pagan Federation, I know that community has a responsibility to care well for its people. We don’t need to have all the answers; perhaps the first act of good pastoral care, good counselling and good community is simply to be willing to listen to the question.
As a reminder, if you feel worried about keeping yourself safe at all or need any immediate support:
- you can email jo@samaritans.org for a reply within 24 hours
- you can call the Samaritans (free) 24/7 on 116 123
- you can text “SHOUT” to 85258 to contact the Shout Crisis Text Line
- you can call HOPELINEUK (9am – midnight) 0800 068 4141
- you can contact your GP
- you can call 111, option 2 to speak to a mental health professional
- you can present at any A&E for support from a mental health professional you can call 999 if there is imminent danger to life
This article is intended as general information and is not a substitute for professional mental health advice.