1. Introduction
Version followed: Chabad-Lubavitch teaching as published by the movement itself. The core texts are Hayom Yom (entry for 20 Tammuz; compiled in 1943 by Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson from the talks and letters of Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn) and Kuntres HaTefillah / Tract on Prayer by Rabbi Sholom DovBer Schneersohn, the fifth Lubavitcher Rebbe. He first delivered it on Simchat Torah 1899, and Kehot publishes it in English, translated by Rabbi Eliezer Danziger. The guide also draws on the closing chapter of the same Rebbe's Kuntres Etz HaChayim / The Tree of Life (Sichos In English, translated by Rabbi Eliyahu Touger), and on the account of the beinoni (the "intermediate" person) in the Tanya of Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, the founder of Chabad, as a contemporary Orthodox teacher summarises it. [source: Hayom Yom 20 Tammuz; Chabad.org, Tract on Prayer notice; Tree of Life ch. 33; Eitam, Torat Har Etzion lesson 38]
Hitbonenut (Hebrew, "contemplation" or "meditation") is the Chabad Hasidic practice of dwelling on a concept from Torah and Hasidic teaching, especially in preparation for prayer (davening) and during it. It is not a technique of emptying the mind, watching the breath or repeating a word. It means thinking deeply and at length about a teaching on God's greatness and closeness until that teaching becomes felt as well as understood. [source: Hayom Yom 20 Tammuz]
The tradition's account of how change happens: transformation begins in the intellect. The movement's name is an acronym of chochmah, binah, da'at (wisdom, understanding, knowledge). Contemplation of this kind is meant to shape the emotions (middot), above all love and fear (awe) of God. Chabad teaching holds that emotions are volatile and can be disciplined through intellectual effort, which a person controls. It also holds that a purely intellectual life lacks vitality, so prayer prepared by meditation joins mind and heart and carries the idea into daily conduct. [source: Hayom Yom 20 Tammuz; Eitam; SSRC project description] A scholar's description of the practice as lived today names its aims as self-abnegation (bittul), giving of oneself, and equanimity (hishtavut). [source: SSRC "Neighborhood mystics" project description]
These are the tradition's own religious claims. Concepts such as the divine soul ("an actual part of G-d Above"), Atzmut (God's essence) and the Sefirot are given here as Chabad teaches them, neither affirmed nor dismissed. For the psychotherapist, hitbonenut is the client's own religious practice. Your work is client-led integration, collaboration and referral. You do not teach Chasidut.
2. Framework
2a. The practice as the tradition publishes it
Hayom Yom (20 Tammuz) describes three rungs of contemplation ("rungs on the ladder" of spiritual sensitivity). Each rests on a concept the person has already studied. [source: Hayom Yom 20 Tammuz; chabad.org/5832]
- Rung 1: contemplation that goes with study. The goal is to master the concept first and then dwell on its depth until its intellectual side becomes clear and illuminates the mind. To move on: the concept has been fully grasped.
- Rung 2: contemplation before prayer. The goal is to sense the vitality or life force of the concept, not only its intellectual content.
- Rung 3: contemplation during prayer. The goal is to sense the divine element within the concept.
The same entry teaches that a person sometimes feels divinity spontaneously, as a gift, without effort. Chabad does not rely on this: a person's own sustained service (avodah) needs all three rungs. [source: Hayom Yom 20 Tammuz]
Times and places in the liturgy. In the Tanya's account as summarised by Eitam, the divine soul of the beinoni rules most strongly at prepared times of prayer, such as the Shema and the Amidah. At these times the person binds the intellect to God, contemplates God's greatness and arouses love in the heart. [source: Eitam] Kuntres HaTefillah is the movement's detailed guide. The Tree of Life points readers to its chapters 9–10 for "two approaches" to concentration in prayer, and to chapters 16–20 for the teaching that everyone can attain love and fear of God. [source: Tree of Life ch. 33] The content of those chapters is not set out in this guide. [uncertain: not verified]
The minimum level. A person who has not studied these subjects should at least keep in mind the meaning of the words they recite. [source: Tree of Life ch. 33] A person who cannot hold the detailed Kabbalistic intentions (kavanot) may hold one general intention: that the prayer be heard by God, together with all the kavanot. [source: Hayom Yom 11 Adar I]
Rhythm of study. Rabbi Sholom DovBer asked his students to study Kuntres HaTefillah once every two or three months, ideally together and with discussion. [source: Tree of Life ch. 33]
Session counts and durations. The sources reviewed give no fixed length for contemplation and no number of sittings. None is given here.
2b. The psychotherapist's framework
[synthesis] Therapy takes no fixed number of sessions. Use these phases and move between them by the criteria given.
- Assessment and consent. Explore the client's religious life, including whether and how they practise hitbonenut, in their own terms. Agree explicitly whether and how their practice will be brought into therapy. Move on when the client has said what role they want their practice to play, which may be none.
- Client-led integration. Draw on the client's own concepts and practice as resources for the therapy goals (for example, the beinoni teaching set against perfectionism). Keep the client's rabbi or mashpia as the authority on religious content. Move on, or loop back, as goals are met or problems appear.
- Monitoring and problem-solving. Screen throughout for scrupulosity, adverse contemplative experiences, trauma activation and religious distress. Use sections 4 and 5.
- Collaboration and referral. With consent, liaise with a rabbi or Chabad teacher on religious questions. Refer for OCD treatment or medical review where indicated.
3. Guiding principles
The tradition's principles [source: Hayom Yom 20 Tammuz; Tree of Life ch. 33; Eitam; SSRC]:
- Mind first, heart follows. In practice, respect that for this client feeling is meant to grow out of understanding. Do not substitute emotion-led or body-led techniques as "the real thing".
- Effort, not waiting for inspiration. Spontaneous spiritual feeling is valued but not relied on. In practice, a client's "dry" prayer is not failure in their own frame.
- Study before contemplation. In practice, the client's subject for contemplation comes from Torah study with their teachers, never from you.
- Study in order to apply. Rabbi Sholom DovBer asks students to look in every subject for what they can apply to their own service. In practice, links between the practice and daily conduct are already part of the tradition, and you can invite the client to describe them.
- Neither false humility nor overreach. The same text warns against false humility and against self-esteem that aims above one's level, and against the excuse "Who am I? How can I?". In practice, explore how the client holds standards. Watch for self-attack presented as piety.
- The beinoni is the expected level. In the Tanya, the intermediate person struggles constantly and subdues the animal soul rather than transforming it. [source: Eitam] In practice, the struggle itself is normal within the tradition, which can soften perfectionism.
- A minimum is acceptable. Attending to the meaning of the words, or one general intention, is a legitimate level. In practice, this gives a ready, tradition-sanctioned "good enough" for a client who is anxious or scrupulous.
- Do it in company. Group study and discussion are encouraged. In practice, the client's community and study partners (chavruta) are resources.
The therapist's principles [synthesis unless tagged]:
- Client-led and within the client's own tradition. Bring hitbonenut in only at the client's invitation and in their language and terms.
- You are not the teacher. The rabbi, mashpia (Chabad spiritual mentor) or shaliach (emissary) is the authority on religious matters. You do not rule on halakha, choose contemplative subjects or interpret Chasidut. [uncertain: the mashpia role is not verified]
- Even-handedness. State no position on the truth of the client's beliefs, and do not dismiss them.
- Function over form. Judge whether religious behaviour is healthy by its function and impairment, not by how intense it looks. [source: IOCDF, Jewish Scrupulosity]
- Safety first. Adverse contemplative experiences, trauma activation and scrupulosity take priority over deepening the practice.
- Consent and boundaries. Ask permission before discussing religious material. Disclose your own religious position only if it helps the client. Avoid dual relationships, such as becoming the client's study partner or attending the same Chabad House. The APA Ethics Code is relevant to these boundaries. [synthesis]
4. Intervention inventory
Part A describes the practice as Chabad teaches it publicly, so you can recognise and respect it. The steps are paraphrased, and no detailed contemplative content from Kuntres HaTefillah is given. Part B is the psychotherapist's own work. Example language is the therapist's own wording, labelled (illustrative), never the Rebbes' words.
Part A: the practice as the tradition teaches it
A1. Contemplation that goes with study (rung 1)
- Purpose / when: To make a learned concept clear and luminous to the mind. It is the foundation for the other rungs. [source: Hayom Yom 20 Tammuz]
- Steps (as published, paraphrased): (1) Study a concept from Torah or Chasidut until you have mastered it. (2) Then stay with it, going over its depth, until its intellectual side becomes clear and illuminates the mind. In Chabad, study is aimed at application, so the learner also asks what in the concept applies to their own service. [source: Hayom Yom 20 Tammuz; Tree of Life ch. 33] Teachers choose which concepts to study. Do not supply them.
- Example language (illustrative): "When you sit with what you learned this morning, what happens for you? Is that something you'd want us to make room for here?"
- Watch for: Compulsive re-reading or a need to understand perfectly. The IOCDF lists a compulsion to fully understand or remember one's learning as a form of Jewish scrupulosity. [source: IOCDF] Working: the client describes study as clarifying and alive, not as a checking ritual.
A2. Contemplation before prayer (rung 2)
- Purpose / when: Preparation for davening, aimed at sensing the vitality of the concept rather than only understanding it. [source: Hayom Yom 20 Tammuz] Kuntres HaTefillah teaches that prayer should be preceded by proper contemplation, so that one can serve God with the utmost devotion, and that character traits are refined through prayer. [source: Chabad.org, Tract on Prayer notice]
- Steps (public outline only): Before prayer, the person returns to a concept they have studied and dwells on it at length, until it moves from "known" to "felt". The detailed methods (the "two approaches" in Kuntres HaTefillah ch. 9–10) belong to the text and its teachers. [source: Tree of Life ch. 33] Their content is not given here. [uncertain: not verified] The sources reviewed give no set length.
- Example language (illustrative): "You mentioned the time you take before davening. How has that been lately? Does it feel like it's doing what it's meant to for you?"
- Watch for: Lengthening preparation that is driven by anxiety ("I can't start until I'm properly focused"). This fits the IOCDF description of excessive effort to concentrate (kavanah). Also watch for pressure on time, work or family. Working: the client describes preparation as freely chosen and as feeding into prayer and daily conduct.
A3. Contemplation during prayer (rung 3)
- Purpose / when: To sense the divine element within the concept while praying. In the Tanya's account, the Shema and the Amidah are prepared times when the intermediate person binds the intellect to God, contemplates God's greatness and arouses love. [source: Hayom Yom 20 Tammuz; Eitam]
- Steps (public outline only): During prayer, especially at those points, the person holds the concept they prepared in mind while saying the words. The tradition hopes that love and awe will be stirred. The sources reviewed give no further procedure. [uncertain: not verified]
- Example language (illustrative): "What is it like for you when you get to the Shema? You don't need to explain the theology, just whatever you'd like me to understand."
- Watch for: Repeating words or blessings, or restarting prayer because concentration feels "not enough" (see B5). Also watch for distress when no feeling comes; the tradition itself treats spontaneous feeling as a gift that cannot be demanded. Working: the client tolerates variable feeling without self-attack.
A4. The minimum level: meaning of the words and one general intention
- Purpose / when: For someone who has not studied the contemplative material, or cannot hold the Kabbalistic kavanot. [source: Tree of Life ch. 33; Hayom Yom 11 Adar I]
- Steps (as published, paraphrased): (1) Keep in mind the plain meaning of the words being said. (2) Instead of the detailed kavanot, hold one general intention: that the prayer be heard by God, together with all the kavanot. [source: Hayom Yom 11 Adar I]
- Example language (illustrative): "You've told me your tradition itself has a 'one general intention' teaching. Would it help to ask your rabbi how that applies to you while things are hard?"
- Watch for: The therapist must not prescribe this as a ruling. Its clinical value is that it comes from within the tradition; any application to the client should be confirmed by their rabbi. [synthesis] Working: prayer becomes possible again without escalating demands.
A5. Periodic study of Kuntres HaTefillah with others
- Purpose / when: To keep the practice alive. Rabbi Sholom DovBer asked students to study it every two or three months, ideally together, discussing and strengthening one another. [source: Tree of Life ch. 33]
- Steps: These belong to the client's community: group study and chavruta. Your role, if any, is to notice whether the client has this support.
- Example language (illustrative): "Who do you learn with? Is that a relationship that helps you right now?"
- Watch for: Isolation from study partners, or group settings that feel shaming. Working: the client experiences peers as supportive.
Part B: the psychotherapist's work
B1. Spiritual assessment and consent
- Purpose / when: At intake, or whenever religious practice comes up. The aim is to learn what hitbonenut and prayer mean in the client's life and whether they want them in therapy. [synthesis]
- Steps: (1) Ask open questions about the client's religious affiliation, community, teachers and practices. (2) Use the DSM-5-TR Cultural Formulation Interview, including its spirituality, religion and moral traditions module. [uncertain: not verified] (3) Ask what role, if any, the client wants their practice to have in therapy. (4) Record consent and revisit it.
- Example language (illustrative): "Some people want their religious life to be part of our work and some prefer to keep it separate. What would feel right for you?"
- Watch for: Clients who expect a secular therapist to dismiss them, or a religious one to judge them. Working: the client speaks freely in their own terms (davening, Chasidus, the Rebbe, avodah).
B2. Client-led integration of the client's own teachings
- Purpose / when: When the client invites it, to use concepts from their own tradition as resources. Examples: the beinoni as the expected level of struggle, against perfectionism; the warning against false humility and "Who am I?" excuses, set against helplessness; the mind-leads-heart model, alongside cognitive work. [source for the concepts: Eitam; Tree of Life ch. 33; Hayom Yom 20 Tammuz; clinical use: synthesis]
- Steps: (1) Ask the client which teachings sustain them. (2) Reflect a teaching back only in their words, and check that you have understood it. (3) Explore how it bears on the current problem. (4) If interpretation is in doubt, suggest the client ask their teacher rather than settling it yourself.
- Example language (illustrative): "You said the Tanya describes the beinoni as someone who struggles all his life. How does that sit next to the voice that says you're failing because you still struggle?"
- Watch for: Using scripture to win arguments or to steer the client. That is a misuse. Working: the client experiences their tradition as an ally in therapy rather than an object of it.
B3. Linking to secular and clinical adaptations
- Purpose / when: When the client wants contemplative-style skills inside therapy. [synthesis]
- Steps: Note that hitbonenut is conceptual contemplation of studied content, not attention training. Mindfulness-based programmes (Domain II: MBSR, MBCT, MSC, CFT) are a different method, and some observant clients may have questions about them. Domain VII covers spiritually integrated and contemplative psychotherapy. Offer secular skills as separate tools, and let the client decide, with their rabbi if they wish, whether those tools are acceptable to them. Published clinical adaptations of Chabad hitbonenut: none found in the sources consulted.
- Example language (illustrative): "This exercise isn't a religious practice and it isn't meant to replace yours. Would you like to try it, or check with someone first?"
- Watch for: Merging the two practices in a way that changes the client's own practice. Working: the client uses both practices with clear boundaries between them.
B4. Referral and collaboration with the rabbi or Chabad teacher
- Purpose / when: For any question of religious law, practice level or interpretation, and when the client wants their teacher involved. Chabad emissaries (shluchim) teach on campuses and in Chabad Houses. [source: SSRC] The role of a mashpia (mentor) in contemplative prayer is part of Chabad practice. [uncertain: not verified]
- Steps: (1) Get written consent and agree what may be shared. (2) Frame the contact around the client's goals. (3) Ask the rabbi to give the religious guidance and confine yourself to the clinical side. (4) Feed back to the client.
- Example language (illustrative): "Would it help if your rabbi and I spoke? I won't ask him to change anything. I'd like him to understand the OCD so his guidance can take it into account."
- Watch for: Being drawn into halakhic debate, or a rabbi being given more clinical information than the client agreed to share. Working: the client gets consistent messages.
B5. Scrupulosity screening and adapted ERP
- Purpose / when: When prayer, kavanah, enunciation, study or vows become anxious and compulsive. The IOCDF lists these presentations in Jewish scrupulosity: excessive effort to enunciate and concentrate in davening, precise orientation, aligning tefillin, hedging speech about vows, compulsive full understanding of learning, intrusive sexual or blasphemous thoughts, and asking rabbinic questions (shaylas) to excess. [source: IOCDF, Jewish Scrupulosity]
- Steps (paraphrasing the IOCDF approach): (1) Use three criteria to tell religion from compulsion: community norms, motivation (acting to reduce obsessive anxiety) and functional impairment. (2) Help the client separate OCD's demands from actual halakha, consulting a rabbi or posek where appropriate. (3) Do exposure and response prevention within what is halakhically permitted: "violate" OCD's rules without violating real law, and face uncertainty without repeating, restarting or seeking reassurance. (4) Before exposures, obtain consent, agree the plan and confirm with the client's religious authority that the hierarchy is permissible. [source: IOCDF; steps 4: synthesis]
- Example language (illustrative): "Your rabbi has said your davening counts. The OCD says it doesn't. This week the practice is to finish the Amidah once, at an ordinary pace, and let the doubt stay."
- Watch for: Using rabbinic reassurance compulsively, which is itself a symptom. Do not let hitbonenut become the exposure's escape route, such as "I have to contemplate more first". Working: less time spent, less repetition, and prayer described as meaningful again. The IOCDF page stresses that people need not choose between their values and their mental health.
B6. Trauma-sensitive adaptation
- Purpose / when: When contemplation or prayer stirs traumatic memory. Examples are religious trauma, community-based abuse, or concepts of judgement, awe or self-nullification that echo abusive dynamics. [synthesis]
- Steps: (1) Ask what the client notices in body and mind during prayer. (2) Agree on grounding the client can use: eyes open, feet on the floor, naming things in the room, resuming ordinary activity. (3) Support choice: the client can shorten or pause contemplation, or stay with the plain meaning of the words (see A4), and can discuss with their rabbi what level is appropriate now. (4) Process the trauma in therapy, not during prayer. Treleaven's 2018 trauma-sensitive mindfulness work is a published reference for these principles. [uncertain: not verified]
- Example language (illustrative): "If the words about awe pull you back into fear of that person, you can stop, look around the room and come back to the plain meaning when you're ready. Would you want to talk this through with your rabbi?"
- Watch for: Dissociation, flashbacks, or the client pushing through as a religious duty. Working: the client can return to prayer with choice and stays within their window of tolerance.
B7. Monitoring adverse contemplative experiences
- Purpose / when: Throughout therapy, and especially if the client increases contemplative intensity or attends intensive gatherings or retreats. The Varieties of Contemplative Experience study (Lindahl et al. 2017, PLOS ONE) documented meditation-related challenges in Western Buddhist meditators. Its published follow-up topics include somatic and energy-like experiences, changes in sense of self, changes in fear and arousal, and delusion-like ideation. [source: Cheetah House VCE page] Those findings come from Buddhist meditation. How far they apply to conceptual Jewish contemplative prayer is not established. [uncertain: inferred] Farias et al. 2020 (Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica) is a systematic review of meditation adverse events. [uncertain: not verified]
- Steps: (1) Ask directly, without suggesting answers, about unusual experiences, distress, sleep changes or loss of functioning linked to practice. (2) If present, reduce the dose: the client, with their teacher, may shorten contemplation or return to the minimum level (A4). Use grounding and ordinary activity. (3) Coordinate with the teacher if the client wishes. (4) Refer to specialist support where needed; Cheetah House offers consultations, support groups and a symptom list for meditators in distress. [source: Cheetah House VCE page] (5) Before any intensive retreat, screen for current psychosis, mania, severe depression, trauma symptoms and sleep problems. [synthesis]
- Example language (illustrative): "Sometimes intense prayer or contemplation brings experiences people didn't expect, such as fear, feeling unreal, or strong sensations. Has anything like that happened to you?"
- Watch for: Sleep loss, persistent fear, depersonalisation, grandiose or persecutory ideas, and inability to function. Working: symptoms settle with dose reduction and the client keeps a relationship with their practice.
B8. Telling spiritual difficulty apart from illness
- Purpose / when: When intense religious experience or distress raises the question of psychosis, mania, depression or dissociation. [synthesis]
- Steps: (1) Learn from the client, and with consent from their teacher or community, what counts as normal experience in their tradition. (2) Assess function, insight, sleep, mood, risk and course over time. (3) Neither pathologise valued religious experience nor overlook illness. DSM-5-TR has a code for a religious or spiritual problem (Z65.8) that is not a mental disorder. [source: ICD-10-CM Z65.8] (4) Involve medical or psychiatric services when there are signs of psychosis, mania or risk. Questions about medication belong to the client's doctor.
- Example language (illustrative): "I'm not asking whether your experience is real or holy; that isn't mine to judge. I'm asking how you're sleeping and coping, because that's what I'm responsible for."
- Watch for: Your own bias in either direction. Risk always comes first. Working: a shared formulation that the client and, where involved, the community accept.
B9. Role boundaries, self-disclosure and competence
- Purpose / when: Throughout. You are not the client's rabbi, mashpia, confessor or study partner. [synthesis]
- Steps: (1) Decline religious rulings and contemplative instruction, and refer instead. (2) Avoid dual relationships, especially in small communities. (3) Disclose your own religious commitments only for the client's benefit. (4) Build competence in religious and spiritual issues; Vieten et al. 2013 set out spiritual and religious competencies for psychologists. [uncertain: not verified] (5) Follow your professional ethics code on boundaries and competence. [synthesis]
- Example language (illustrative): "That's a question for your rabbi, and it's a good one. What I can help with is how the anxiety around it is affecting you."
- Watch for: Being idealised as a spiritual guide, or devalued as an outsider. Working: clear roles and a client who uses both their teacher and therapy.
5. Handling problems
Tradition-sourced points are tagged. Everything else is [synthesis].
- "I feel nothing when I pray" (stuck). In the tradition's own frame, spontaneous feeling is a gift that cannot be demanded, and its method begins with the mind. [source: Hayom Yom 20 Tammuz] Normalise this using the client's own teaching, screen for depression (anhedonia often shows up as spiritual dryness), and treat the depression if present. Do not coach contemplation yourself; suggest they talk with their teacher.
- Self-reproach for falling short. The Tree of Life's exhortation against indolence and excuses can be heard by a depressed or scrupulous client as condemnation. [source for the text: Tree of Life ch. 33] Explore the client's own sources that set realistic expectations, such as the beinoni and the minimum level (A4), with their rabbi. [source: Eitam; Hayom Yom 11 Adar I]
- Scrupulosity about kavanah or repeating prayers. Use B5. Avoid reassurance loops, including repeated shaylas. Agree one designated rabbinic contact with the client. [synthesis; ERP approach: IOCDF]
- Overwhelm or adverse experiences. Use B7 and B6: dose reduction, grounding, coordination with the teacher and specialist referral. In an emergency, follow standard crisis and risk-assessment procedures.
- Non-adherence to therapy tasks. Check for clashes with prayer times, Shabbat and festivals, and accommodate them in scheduling. Check whether a task conflicts with the client's religious commitments, and ask rather than assume.
- Resistance or mistrust of therapy. The client may fear that therapy will undermine faith. Say plainly that changing their beliefs is not your aim (B1), and offer contact with their rabbi (B4).
- Ruptures. Misnaming a concept, dismissing a teaching or appearing to side with or against the community can cause one. Acknowledge it, ask the client to correct you, and repair.
- Community pressure or doubts about leaving. Some clients question their observance or leave. Stay neutral on the outcome, support autonomy, and treat any religious trauma as trauma. Documented misconduct by teachers of this practice: none found in the sources consulted. Assess any reported abuse by a religious authority as you would any abuse, with safeguarding duties where children are involved.
- Pressure to intensify practice. Pressure from peers or the client's own ambition can drive extended contemplation at the cost of sleep, work or family. Explore function and impairment, and suggest the client discuss pacing with their teacher. Never prescribe sleep restriction or austerity.
- Physical health. No health claims for hitbonenut are made in the sources reviewed, and it is not a treatment for physical illness. Refer any health concern to the client's doctor.
Sources
Online sources:
- Hayom Yom, 20 Tammuz (Chabad.org)
- Hayom Yom entry on three forms of meditation, trans. Y. M. Kagan, Kehot (Chabad.org)
- Hayom Yom, 11 Adar I (Chabad.org)
- Tract on Prayer (Kuntres HaTefillah): publication notice (Chabad.org)
- The Tree of Life (Kuntres Etz HaChayim), ch. 33, trans. E. Touger (Sichos In English)
- Eitam, U. The Reason for Prayer According to Chabad Chassidut (1), Philosophy of Prayer lesson 38 (Torat Har Etzion)
- Neighborhood Mystics: Contemplative Prayer and Ethical Subjectivity in Contemporary Chabad (SSRC forum project description)
- Contemplative Prayer in 20th Century Habad (N. Loewenthal; Chabad Research Unit catalogue entry)
- The Varieties of Contemplative Experience (VCE) Study (Cheetah House)
- Siev, J. Jewish Scrupulosity (International OCD Foundation)
Books and papers:
- Schneersohn, Rabbi Sholom DovBer. Tract on Prayer (Kuntres HaTefillah). Trans. E. Danziger, annotated by A. D. Vaisfiche. Kehot Publication Society, Chasidic Heritage Series.
- Schneersohn, Rabbi Shalom DovBer. The Tree of Life (Kuntres Etz HaChayim). Trans. E. Touger. Sichos In English.
- Schneerson, Rabbi Menachem Mendel (compiler). Hayom Yom. 1943. Trans. Y. M. Kagan. Kehot.
- Lindahl, J. R., et al. (2017). The varieties of contemplative experience: A mixed-methods study of meditation-related challenges in Western Buddhists. PLOS ONE, 12(5), e0176239. (Cited from Cheetah House.)
Also cited [uncertain: not verified]: Farias et al. 2020 (Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica); Treleaven 2018 (trauma-sensitive mindfulness); Vieten et al. 2013 (spiritual and religious competencies); the DSM-5-TR Cultural Formulation Interview.
ICD-10-CM Z65.8, Other specified problems related to psychosocial circumstances (includes 'Religious or spiritual problem'), https://www.unboundmedicine.com/icd/view/ICD-10-CM/945432/all/Z65_8___Other_specified_problems_related_to_psychosocial_circumstances