Standard ACT training doesn’t cover what happens when a client’s core values are explicitly religious ones. Clinicians are mostly left to work that out themselves.
These four books work through that gap, moving from general cross-faith integration to narrower, faith-specific treatment. Three of the four are Christian-specific. Only one covers a different tradition, and that one is narrowed further still, to a single clinical population: chronic pain.
This isn’t a gap in what got included so much as a gap in what’s been written. Christian-ACT integration is well-established; work on other faith traditions is only just starting to appear.
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ACT for Clergy and Pastoral Counselors: Using Acceptance and Commitment Therapy to Bridge Psychological and Spiritual Care
Edited by Jason A. Nieuwsma, Robyn D. Walser, Steven C. Hayes, and Siang-Yang Tan, Context Press, 2016
This is the broadest book on the page, and the only one written for two different readers at once: clergy and pastoral counselors doing informal spiritual support, and psychotherapists trying to work within a client’s religious framework. Chapters map ACT’s core processes onto existing pastoral work, and address directly where spiritual guidance should stop and licensed clinical treatment should begin.
Steven Hayes co-developed ACT itself, which makes it the most authoritive book on this page. However, It doesn’t go as deep into any single faith tradition as Knabb’s or Bhatti-Ali’s books below.
Recommended for clergy and pastoral counselors who need a clear line between spiritual support and clinical treatment, and for psychotherapists working with a religious client for the first time.
Faith-Based ACT for Christian Clients: An Integrative Treatment Approach
Joshua J. Knabb, Routledge, 2023 (2nd ed.)
This book is aimed specifically at Christian clients.
Knabb narrows from the book above to Christian clients specifically, pairing ACT’s empirical research with real theological work. His priority is awareness of God’s active presence, with the psychological flexibility following later. Chapters draw on the desert Christian contemplative tradition, work through case studies centered on anxiety and depression, and address the question of medication directly rather than dodging it. The second edition adds new chapters on couples and trauma, along with a “fork in the road” metaphor Knabb uses to walk clients through the choice between avoidance and values-based action.
At least one reviewer has flagged parts of the contemplative theology here as theologically loose by more conservative standards, not clearly grounded in scripture. This book reflects one particular contemplative tradition, not a consensus view in Christian counseling.
This is the clinician-facing manual half of a two-book set. Its companion workbook, below, is the client-facing half of the same approach.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Christian Clients: A Faith-Based Workbook
Joshua J. Knabb, Routledge, 2023 (2nd ed.)
This book is the companion workbook of the above treatment manual. Each of ACT’s six processes gets its own chapter, paired with a specific Christian contemplative practice. Present-moment awareness is worked through what the book calls “stillness and silence with God,” cognitive defusion draws on the Desert Fathers’ practice of watching one’s own intrusive thoughts rather than believing them, and acceptance of difficult emotions leans on repeating the Jesus Prayer as a form of centering prayer.
This guide seful on its own for straightforward cases. Pairs best with the treatment manual above for a clinician who wants the theory behind the exercises, not just the exercises themselves.
Integrating ACT with Islāmic Psychotherapy for Managing Chronic Pain
Razia Bhatti-Ali, Routledge, 2024
This is the only book on the page addressing a faith tradition other than Christianity, and the only one narrowed to a specific clinical population: Muslim clients managing chronic pain. Bhatti-Ali built the approach out of an ACT-based Urdu-language pain management program she developed for Muslim patients in the UK. The book works through ACT’s six core processes session by session, woven together with teachings from the Quran and Sunnah rather than treated as two parallel systems bolted side by side.
This isn’t a general Islamic-ACT resource – it’s specifically a pain management book that happens to be faith-integrated. The ACT for Chronic Pain page is the better stop if pain management is the primary interest.