Spirituality Reconsidered

Counseling and the helping arts in general have been hesitant to openly embrace the concept of spirituality as part of their working knowledge base. Part of the dilemma centers on sometimes confusing a religious view with a more secular conception of the term. Another potentially confounding element is the existing variety of ways the term is actually being used by both. In this investigation of the roots of the problem I hope to catalyze a more inviting and open dialogue as the profession considers the possibilities associated with an expansion or consolidation of definition(s).     

Re-Membering Spirituality

Ritual has been used as a therapeutic tool within family therapy for nearly two decades. Our understanding of ritual has been drawn from studies of cultures in which all life was viewed as sacred. However, common use of ritual in therapy lifts ritual out of its sacred context and secularizes it. Blending some of the key thinking in feminist theology with feminist psychology can help women reconnect with a perspective on the sacred that is empowering. Reimbuing ritual with the sacred and expanding its use in therapy make it a powerful healing process for women.     

Native American Spirituality

ABSTRACT

Followers of the New Age movement and others have been exploiting and commercializing “Native American” spirituality. This exploitation is being fought by many Native people. Native American spirituality may be studied and appreciated, but use of Native American religious forms outside of Native American communities is considered misappropriation and cultural theft. Native spiritualities address the needs of present-day Native communities. A Native spirituality that ignores that need is no longer a religion of and for the community. Disconnected from a Native community, religious beliefs, ceremonies, and religious art forms lose their primary significance.     

Shadow and Spirituality

When we confront the meaning of spirituality in education confusion and conflict can arise as they arise from the confrontation with spirituality in ourselves. This occurs both at the personal and at the collective level, according to writers such as C.G. Jung. Failure to understand that human spirituality includes a shadow side of this kind is precisely what leads many forms of human spiritual expression, including organized religion, into deep splits and schisms. It is unsurprising, therefore, that the willing, but perhaps, nä L ve attempts of contemporary educationalists to understand spirituality within education in a wholly positive light have themselves run into trouble. This paper will attempt to argue that without balancing contemporary educational debate about spirituality against some writers', including C.G. Jung's, deepest insights into the place of shadow in spirituality, children will yet again be sold a misfaction [1] about the nature of that aspect of human being and becoming. This, in turn will merely deepen the chaos, confusion and conflict arising from the earnest and well-intentioned, but perhaps nä L ve, attempt to make spirituality part of the cross-curricular experience of all children in all common schools.[2]     

Spirituality in Supervision

As an important component of counselor education and development, supervision is a likely teaching and learning opportunity to address spirituality in counseling. The author examines ways in which spiritual and religious issues might be presented in supervision, using the focus areas of the Discrimination Model (J. M. Bernard, 1997), namely intervention, conceptualization, and personalization skills.     

A Search for Spirituality

A mixture of African, European, and Native Puerto Rican (Tahino) religions form a historical foundation for the beliefs to which Puerto Ricans adhere. This article follows the search for spirituality of a mother and daughter. Although both born in Puerto Rico, mother was raised in the rural mountains of Puerto Rico and daughter was raised among the majority culture of the United States. Their search follows different paths, but the influence of their country is apparent in the rituals they perform and in the integration of their internal processes. More and more women turn to female spirituality and to rituals that honor the power with which all women are born. These rituals honor the earth as mother, the natural cycles women experience instinctively, and reliance upon their own inner voice as guidance. The building of faith and the reclamation of inner strength helps to peel away the layers, to face the truth of the past and present, and gives courage to health and transform the pain.     

Spirituality in health-care reform

Much of the discussion about health-care reform has focused on questions of political and economic policies. By contrast, this article contends that this dispute involves deeper questions of meaning regarding the kinds of values, including spiritual values, that we wish to be present in health care. Communities of religious believers have a civic duty of responsibility and a theological duty of stewardship for health-care institutions. Such communities bring to the health-care debate spiritual meaning embedded in themes of humility, justice, and mercy. These virtues provide a moral test of the soundness of reform proposals.