Should Universalism Trump Cultural Relativism in Counseling?

Certain cultural customs and practices are viewed as abhorrent by many people, yet contemporary American counselors rarely criticize any specific culture. In this article, the authors explore why counselors abstain from such criticism. Furthermore, the authors demonstrate that universalism, often regarded as a politically incorrect and an academically archaic philosophy, is manifestly prevalent within the world's religious and political realms, as well as within the counseling profession. The authors assert that universalism should be prevalent within the counseling profession and that it can be integrated with multicultural principles. Finally, the authors suggest a procedure for identifying universal principles and practices.     

Assessing Religion and Spirituality in Counseling: Some Reflections and Recommendations

In this article, the importance of conducting a religious and spiritual assessment in counseling is considered. Some essential dimensions of religion and spirituality to assess are described. The authors recommend assessment questions that can be asked during clinical interviews or included on written intake questionnaires. They also briefly describe a few standardized religious and spiritual assessment instruments. Finally, they offer suggestions for conducting spiritual assessments in school settings.     

Understanding and Incorporating God Representations Within Counseling

The religious and spiritual identity of a client may be relevant to the counseling process, and thus counselors should be prepared to integrate these components within treatment. The authors consider the assessment and exploration of God representations (i.e., God images and concepts) to understand and integrate religious and spiritual meanings within the context of a client's presenting concerns. The authors provide examples, strategies, and considerations for how to apply God representations within counseling.     

Multicultural Training in Spirituality: An Interdisciplinary Review

Is spiritual diversity a neglected dimension in preparation for multicultural competency? The authors present an interdisciplinary overview of research related to multicultural training in spirituality and religion to address this issue. Findings indicate that counseling program leaders have minimal preparation in spiritual and religious diversity and interventions. In addition, spiritual and religious themes appear to be minimally included in counseling program curricula. Some evidence also indicates that religious and spiritual diversity is not considered as important in multicultural training as are other kinds of diversity. A movement to include spirituality and religious content in accreditation guidelines, however, points to a possible shift to expand preparation for religious and spiritual competency. The article concludes with implications for counselor preparation and supervision.     

CACREP Accreditation,Ethics, and the Affirmation of Both Religious and Sexual Identities: A Response to Smith and Okech

In response to Smith and Okech ( 2016 ), the authors reason that protections for sexual minorities can thrive with protections for religious liberties. The authors (a) acknowledge that the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs' accreditation process is designed to ensure that counseling programs of religious or secular institutions meet established standards to prepare counselors to work with all client groups, (b) describe the Ethical Acculturation Model (Handelsman, Gottlieb, & Knapp, 2005 ), and (c) provide an example of a theological perspective for educators to help students integrate their professional and religious identities.     

Religiosity,Gender, and Preferences for Religious Interventions in Counseling: A Preliminary Study

The authors sought to determine whether relationships existed between religiosity, gender, and preferences for a counselor's use of religious interventions in counseling. First, it was hypothesized that students with high religiosity would express stronger preferences for a counselor's use of religious interventions than would students with low religiosity. Second, it was hypothesized that women would express stronger preferences for religious interventions in counseling than would men. Results supported both hypotheses, and the findings may have important implications for counselors working with clients who indicate adherence to religious views or faith.     

Psychotherapy and Religion: Rapprochement or Antithesis?

Religion and psychotherapy have long maintained separate directions, currently manifested in four viewpoints: orthodox, atheistic, neutralist, and moderate. Although each therapeutic viewpoint is distinct, each contains the seed for rapprochement. The need for a rapprochement that provides professional psychotherapy capable of addressing religious issues is clearly voiced by laypersons, who are clients or potential clients, and by members of the clergy and psychotherapeutic professions. Increasing numbers of ministers now receive professional preparation for pastoral counseling. It is timely for those in the counseling professions to consider seriously specialized education and certification in religious counseling for secular psychotherapists.     

Integrating Religion and Spirituality in Marriage and Family Counseling

In the fields of counseling and psychology, interest in religious and spiritual issues is expanding. The authors examined integrating religion and spirituality with marriage and family counseling. They explored potential obstacles and negative consequences for this integration, as well as clinical implications. The positive impact of incorporating a religious or spiritual perspective into clinical practice is discussed. Ethical considerations, techniques, and strategies are presented.     

Clinical Behaviors for Addressing Religious/Spiritual Issues: Do We Practice What We Preach?

To determine if counselors integrate clinical behaviors for addressing religious/spiritual issues in counseling consistent with their ratings of the importance of such behaviors, the authors conducted a national survey of American Counseling Association (ACA) members. Seventy‐eight ACA members rated the importance of and frequency with which they engaged in a set of 30 clinical behaviors that were identified in the existing literature as addressing religious/spiritual issues within counseling. Results indicated possible disparities between importance and frequency ratings. Potential barriers to counselors' utilization of religious and spiritually directed clinical behaviors were identified.     

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.     

Religious Counseling: To Be Used,Not Feared

Our society is placing more emphasis on religion and religious issues. Persons seeking counseling often request Christian counseling. Students in academic settings often express an interest in becoming Christian counselors. Often the religious aspect is left out or avoided in courses for training counselors. This article gives some specific ways in which religious issues can be used in a counseling setting using the three ps: place, personhood and philosophy.     

School Counseling Programs as Spiritual and Religious Safe Zones

The authors present a model for creating spiritual and religious safe zones in school counseling programs that implements the Association for Spiritual, Ethical and Religious Values in Counseling's (ASERVIC; 2009) Competencies for Addressing Spiritual and Religious Issues in Counseling in a school setting. The authors frame the model within the context of issues related to the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and posit that students' ability to discuss and explore spiritual and religious issues promotes their personal and social‐emotional development.     

Learning Journals as a Counseling Strategy

This article explores the use of learning journals as a counseling strategy that can be used to complement a counselor's therapeutic orientation. The authors postulate that learning journals will have therapeutic effects on clients that will lead to enduring positive changes, discuss the development of appropriate learning taxonomies to evaluate learning journals, and make recommendations for practice.     

Therapists' Integration of Religion and Spirituality in Counseling: A Meta‐Analysis

The authors conducted a 26‐study meta‐analysis of 5,759 therapists and their integration of religion and spirituality in counseling. Most therapists consider spirituality relevant to their lives but rarely engage in spiritual practices or participate in organized religion. Marriage and family therapists consider spirituality more relevant and participate In organized religion to a greater degree than therapists from other professions. Across professions, most therapists surveyed (over 80%) rarely discuss spiritual or religious issues in training. In mixed samples of religious and secular therapists, therapists' religious faith was associated with using religious and spiritual techniques in counseling frequently, willingness to discuss religion in therapy, and theoretical orientation.     

Loss of Religious or Spiritual Identities Among the LGBT Population

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals are at risk of having negative experiences with religion because of mainstream religions’ non‐LGBT‐affirming stance. Negative religious experiences can lead to religious or spiritual (R/S) struggles and loss of R/S identity to maintain sexual identity. The authors describe R/S abuse, R/S struggle, and how these can result in loss of R/S identity in LGBT individuals. They provide a case study and discuss counseling implications and areas for future research.     

Inclusion of Religious Behaviors and Attitudes in Counseling: Expectations of Conservative Christians

In this study of 118 religiously conservative Christians' expectations of counseling, participants were randomly assigned to 1 of 2 treatment conditions: a Christian counselor or a counselor whose religious beliefs were unknown. Participants rated their expectations for the counselor's attitude toward their religious beliefs and use of religious behaviors in counseling using the Behavior and Attitude Expectancies scale (C. Belaire & J. S. Young, 2002). Participants also rated their general expectations for counseling using the Expectations About Counseling: Brief Form (H. E. A. Tinsley, 1985). Results showed that participants expected both a Christian counselor and a counselor whose religious beliefs were unknown to be respectful and accepting of conservative Christian religious beliefs and values and to include multiple religious behaviors in counseling sessions. Participants had overall positive expectations of the counseling process.     

Religious Education and Pastoral Counseling: The Classical Pentecostal Experience

The paper addresses the subject of religious education and pastoral counseling in the classical Pentecostal church. It argues that Pentecostals can benefit from a merger of religious education and pastoral counseling that leads the student/client to a closer relationship with God.     

Spiritual and Religious Discussions in Family Therapy: Activities to Promote Dialogue

Spirituality and religion are valued constructs for a large population in America. Each person carries a set of values and beliefs that may aid in their well-being. Spiritual and religious discussions within therapy can be essential for treatment. As therapists, we are expected to provide a safe therapeutic atmosphere for our clients. Therefore the therapist has the responsibility to be aware of personal issues and to integrate spiritual/ religious discussions. In addition, levels of differentiation are important in understanding the self of the therapist. The authors propose that therapists must be aware of their personal level of differentiation in order to effectively integrate spiritual/religious discussions in therapy.     

Religious Identity and Cultural Diversity: Exploring the Relationships Between Religious Identity,Sexism, Homophobia,and Multicultural Competence

In this article, the authors present the results from a national study investigating the relationships between religious identity, sexism, homophobia, and multicultural competence. Participants were 111 randomly sampled counseling professionals and graduate students. The results indicated a relationship between religious identity and various aspects of valuing cultural diversity, including sexism, homophobia, and multicultural competence. Implications of the role of religion and religious identity in counseling are discussed, and suggestions for future research are provided.     

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.