Spirituality and Dream Work in Counseling: Clients’ Experiences

The authors suggest that focusing on dreams in counseling may be a useful framework to explore clients’ spiritual values and beliefs. Because little is known about how spirituality and dream work are integrated in practice, the purpose of this article is to document how some counselors and clients work on spirituality and dreams. Responses of clients who focused on dreams from a spiritual perspective are described and discussed. Relevant clinical issues that counselors may encounter are identified. Recommendations are made for counselors who wish to integrate spirituality and dream work in counseling.An earlier version of this article was presented at the Semi-Annual Meeting of the Association of Mormon Counselors and Psychotherapists, Salt Lake City, Utah, April 2004.     

Influence of Counselor Spirituality and Training on Treatment Focus and Self‐Perceived Competence

Spirituality is a potential area of concern for counseling clients. This study presents the empirical results of a survey completed by 572 counselors to determine if counselors' spiritual beliefs, experiences, or training had an impact on their focus of therapy or self‐perceived competence. A counselor's personal spirituality, spiritual experience, and spirituality training did significantly influence treatment focus as well as self‐perceived competence to counsel a client with spiritual concerns.     

The trend toward spirituality in the workplace: overview and implications for career counseling

The author provides career counselors with an overview of the trend toward spirituality in the workplace and examines its potential pros and cons for workers. The growing openness in organizations to explore work from a spiritual perspective provides a new tool to the career practitioner. Career counselors can help clients draw on their spirituality as another resource for negotiating the increasingly complex world of work.     

Spirituality in Counseling: What Do Counseling Students Think About It?

The author discusses students' reactions to 4 seminars. 1‐hour each, on the topic of spirituality in counseling. Students were enrolled in a master's‐level counseling program, Several issues emerged that have implications for the training of counselors on spiritual issues, including students' level of comfort with discussing spiritual issues, the difficulty of defining spirituality, client and counselor readiness to explore spirituality, and training issues in the area of spirituality.     

Spiritual Assessment in Genetic Counseling

One hundred and twenty seven full members of the National Society of Genetic Counselors participated in this study exploring current spiritual assessment practices of genetic counselors and reactions to a spiritual assessment tool. While 60% of genetic counselors reported they had performed a spiritual assessment within the past year, fewer than 8.7% of these counselors assessed spirituality in more than half of their sessions. Counselors reporting high perceived relevance of spiritual assessment performed an assessment more frequently than those reporting a low perceived relevance. Barriers to spiritual assessment included lack of time, insufficient skills, and uncertainty regarding the role of spiritual assessment within genetic counseling. Almost two-thirds of counselors expressed that having a spiritual assessment tool would increase their ability to elicit relevant information. These data suggest a need for increased training regarding the methods for and relevance of spiritual assessment in genetic counseling. Recommendations for future directions of research are explored.     

Spiritual Bypass: A Preliminary Investigation

The phenomenon of spiritual bypass has received limited attention in the transpersonal psychology and counseling literature and has not been subjected to empirical inquiry. This study examines the phenomenon of spiritual bypass by considering how spirituality, mindfulness, alexithymia (emotional restrictiveness), and narcissism work together to influence depression and anxiety among college students. Results suggested that mindfulness and alexithymia accounted for variance in depression beyond what is accounted for by spirituality and that all 3 factors (mindfulness, alexithymia, and narcissism) accounted for variance in anxiety beyond what is accounted for by spirituality. Implications for counselors are provided.     

Entering the Sacred: Using Motivational Interviewing to Address Spirituality in Counseling

Despite the salience of spirituality in the lives of many clients, counselors are often hesitant to explore spiritual issues in counseling, largely out of a valid concern of imposing values on the client. Motivational interviewing provides a framework within which a counselor can both assess spirituality and facilitate client exploration of spiritual issues without fear of imposing values.     

Mental Health, Depression, and Dimensions of Spirituality and Religion

The author explores the relationship between spirituality and religion and human growth and development, specifically examining emotional well-being during adulthood. Dimensions of spirituality to be explored are meaning in life, a transcendent purpose, intrinsic values, and spiritual community. The argument is made that spirituality is related to emotional well-being during adulthood. Implications for further research and relevant information for counselors, psychologists, and educators are included.     

The Soul of Supervision: Counselor Spirituality

Because spirituality training for counselors and supervisors is vital to counselor development, the authors examined the relationships between purpose in life, the integration of spirituality into supervision, and the supervisory working alliance among a sample of supervisors and trainees. Supervisors reported a greater sense of purpose and spiritual discussion during supervision than trainees. Trainees' personal sense of purpose was positively related to spiritual discussions with a supervisor and to an emphasis on client issues in supervision.     

Addressing Spiritual Issues in Secular Counseling and Psychotherapy: Response to Helminiak's (2001) Views

D. A. Helminiak (2001) suggests that counselors who work within the framework of a client's chosen religious or spiritual perspective are illegitimately responding to spiritual issues in counseling. In contrast to this position, this article affirms that spiritually sensitive counselors who work within the religious or spiritual framework of clients can practice both ethically and effectively and can generate useful research examining the relationship between spirituality and successful therapeutic outcomes.     

The Inclusion of Spiritual Process in Counseling and Perceived Counselor Effectiveness

In this study, client level of spirituality was examined as a potential moderater for the effectiveness of including spiritual process in the counseling process. Using an analogue design, participants were crossed on self‐reported level of spirituality and randomly assigned to 1 of 2 analogue conditions. Results suggested that a spiritual intervention was perceived similarly to a cognitive‐behavioral intervention for all respondents. Those respondents who self‐reported higher levels of spirituality rated the counselor on the analogue as more expert and more trustworthy, regardless of which of the 2 analogue conditions they evaluated. Implications for counselors are provided.     

How Christian Spiritual and Religious Beliefs Help and Hinder Counselors' Empathy Toward Clients

The critical incident technique was used to examine how counselors' religion and spirituality help and hinder counselor empathy toward clients. Twelve counselors holding Christian beliefs identified 242 helping and 25 hindering incidents that formed 14 helping and 3 hindering categories. Categories reflected counselors relying on a natural connection to their spirituality, drawing from empathic roots in their religion or spiritual experience, and using commonalities shared with clients as a means of empathizing. Implications for research, counselor education, and counseling practice are discussed.     

Integrating Spirituality Into Counselor Preparation: A Developmental,Wellness Approach

Recent surveys of the general public and of counseling professionals suggest the pervasive importance of spirituality in the lives of all individuals. Yet, the infusion of spirituality in counselor preparation programs continues to be a concern. Incorporating spirituality within a wellness paradigm can help counselors and counselor educators value and address spirituality as an integral component of optimum human functioning. By distinguishing between religiosity and spirituality and operationally conceptualizing spirituality as a life span developmental phenomenon that is essential for achieving wellness, counselor educators can more readily incorporate spiritual issues within the philosophy of the counseling profession.     

Reconciling Spiritual Values Conflicts for Counselors and Lesbian and Gay Clients

Counselors and lesbian and gay clients experience parallel values conflicts between religious beliefs/spirituality and sexual orientation. This article uses critical thinking to assist counselors to integrate religious/spiritual beliefs with professional ethical codes. Clients are assisted to integrate religious/spiritual beliefs with sexual orientation.     

Step by Step: Avoiding Spiritual Bypass in 12‐Step Work

With spirituality as a cornerstone, 12‐step groups serve a vital role in the recovery community. It is important for counselors to be mindful, however, of the potential for clients to be in spiritual bypass, which likely will undermine the recovery process.     

The Spiritual Formation of Walter: An Illustrated Meta-Model of Spiritual Formation Using the Film The Visitor

This article describes a meta-model of spiritual formation comprised of salient and consistent components from developmental psychology models. The model is comprised of six “spaces” and is illustrated using the film The Visitor. This article provides a brief overview of spirituality and differentiates it from religion. The meta-model presented here is intended to be used by pastoral counselors and spiritual directors as a heuristic framework for understanding and facilitating an individual’s spiritual formation.     

Integrating Spiritual Experiences in Counseling

Although the spiritual dimension is an integral part of psychotherapy, most mental health professionals lack the necessary training for working with spiritual experiences therapeutically. The experiential focusing method developed by Eugene Gendlin (eg., 1969, 1981) offers a key tool for counselors to help clients integrate their spiritual experiences in counseling. In this article, the author offers a definition of the spiritual experience, outlines the focusing method, presents examples of its application, and discusses the implications of using focusing to help clients integrate spirituality in counseling.     

Spirituality and Multimodal Therapy: A Practical Approach to Incorporating Spirituality in Counseling

The purpose of this article is to describe how the dimension of spirituality can be added to an existing counseling theory, multimodal therapy (MMT; A. A. Lazarus, 1984), to provide counselors with a practical approach to incorporating clients' religious and spiritual beliefs in the counseling process. An explanation of MMT is given, as well as its supporting research. The context of spirituality in counseling is discussed, and the process by which it can be integrated into the MMT model is explained. Two case studies are described to demonstrate how spiritual issues can be assessed and used to strengthen the counseling process. Finally, implications for counseling are discussed.