Date
2-28-2025
Department
Rawlings School of Divinity
Degree
Doctor of Ministry (DMin)
Chair
Paul Esswein
Keywords
Anxiety, Community, Renewing the Mind, Social Anxiety, Spiritual Disciplines, Spiritual Formation
Disciplines
Christianity | Practical Theology
Recommended Citation
Otero, Jennifer L., "A Virtual Group Counseling Study on the Effects of Renewing the Mind, Spiritual Formation, and Engaging in Community on Women Suffering from Social Anxiety Through the Use of the Flourish Curriculum" (2025). Doctoral Dissertations and Projects. 6510.
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/6510
Abstract
Social anxiety impacts individuals from every walk of life, gender, and faith background. This project addresses the need for renewing the mind tools to address social anxiety for women. In addition, spiritual formation and the power of connection in community were assessed as essential tools in addressing and overcoming social anxiety. The available research on social anxiety confirms the impact that renewing the mind can have on successfully addressing anxiety at the root by changing one’s thought patterns and beliefs. Spiritual formation is central to this transformation. Nevertheless, biblical tools and curricula that are designed to address social anxiety are lacking. Simple Freedom Prayer Counseling offers many opportunities for clients to grow in their spiritual formation by implementing various biblical tools and spiritual disciplines to overcome various life-controlling issues, including social anxiety. This study implemented the Flourish Curriculum, a six-week virtual group counseling curriculum led by a Master level counselor and applied qualifiable and quantifiable research techniques using client interviews, surveys and the project leader’s observational data. It investigated whether renewing the mind, connections in community, and implementation of spiritual formation tools would positively impact social anxiety symptoms. The results showed that implementation of renewing the mind and spiritual formation tools did have a positive impact on social anxiety markers. The project also includes additional resources for participants to address social anxiety and overall spiritual formation and growth. To provide anonymity, pseudonyms were used throughout the paper to protect the participants.
