Integrating Spirituality In Counseling

Integrating spirituality and/or religion in counseling, when appropriate, can be an effective strategy for facilitating insight, hope, and change (Bowen-Reid & Harrell, 2002).  Moreover, integrating a spiritual perspective in counseling may be a necessary approach to ensure culturally sensitive and ethical counseling practice as integration is mandated by the American Counseling Association’s (ACA) Code of Ethics (ACA, 2005; Carone & Barone, 2001; Robertson, 2010).  The Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) further substantiated ACA’s position by recommending standards for social and cultural diversity curriculum that include spiritual orientation and religious values (CACREP, 2009; Willow, Tobin & Toner, 2009).  Finally, spiritual assessment is directly addressed in ASERVIC’s newly revised Competencies for Addressing Spiritual and Religious Issues in Counseling (2009).  Competency Ten reads: “During the intake and assessment process, the professional counselor strives to understand a client’s spiritual and/or religious perspective by gathering information from the client and/or other resources.”  This competency directly addresses the need for the appropriate and ethical integration of spiritual assessment into the counseling process.

Other reasons include:

1. Spiritual assessment allows for a better understanding of the client’s context and worldview, an essential element of ethical and culturally competent practice.
2. Self assessment is a necessary activity to help counselors clarify their own spiritual values (e.g., self-exploration activities such as a spiritual autobiography or timeline) before trying to help clients incorporate their spirituality into healing.
3. Continuous self-assessment in terms of the counselor’s spiritual domain allows the counselors to self monitor to avoid any violations of ethical principles, such as imposing one’s values onto the client.
4. Spiritual assessments provide counselors with tools that will assist in determining if the client would be served in a more productive way with the inclusion of spiritual issues in counseling.