Attending to religion and spirituality in group counseling: Counselors' perceptions and practices.

Abstract

Although consensus is building that religion and spirituality are important aspects of individual counseling, there has been little exploration of these topics in group counseling. The current online questionnaire study provided a description of how 242 experienced group counselors approach religion and spirituality in group counseling. Interventions that were less active and less directly tied to religious or spiritual practices were viewed as the most appropriate. Spiritual interventions were seen as more appropriate and were used more frequently than corresponding religious interventions. Counselors reported infrequent use of religious and spiritual interventions, even when they were viewed as appropriate. Counselors' degree of religious commitment and spirituality were positively correlated with appropriateness and use of religious and spiritual interventions. Finally, open-ended comments revealed that many counselors saw therapeutic value in discussing religion and spirituality in group counseling, but also cautioned against the negative interactions and unproductive group work that might occur as a result of such discussions.

Religion and spirituality in group counseling: Beliefs and preferences of university counseling center clients.

“…The perceived appropriateness of religious and spiritual interventions measure (Comish, Wade, & Post, 2012) was used to assess clients' perceived appropriateness of 14 R/S interventions. Five pairs of interventions comprise 10 of the items.…”

“…The only empirical article that examined R/S in general counseling groups of which we are aware explored the group therapists' perspectives on this issue (Cornish, Wade, & Post, 2012). In this study, 242 experienced group therapists rated the appropriateness and use of religious and spiritual interventions in their group work.…”

Examining College Counselors' Integration of Religion and Spirituality Into Substance Abuse Counseling

“…Frazier and Hansen () determined that clinicians' own religious and spiritual identities were associated with the frequency in which they engaged in religious or spiritual behaviors with clients. In addition, Cornish et al () found a significant positive association between counselors' own religious commitment and spirituality and the frequency with which they used religious or spiritual interventions. Therefore, it appears that counselors' religious and spiritual identities may influence the way in which they attend to clients' religion and spirituality in session.…”

The Effects of Empathy on Disparagement Humor

“…Less research has looked at the stereotypes and expectations people hold about spiritual individuals. Some have looked at beliefs about spirituality in relation to something else such as how spirituality can play a role in counseling (Cornish, Wade, & Post 2012;Henriksen, Polonyi, Bornsheuer-Boswell, Greger, & Watts, 2015). Overall, most of the research on stereotypes has focused on who is viewed favorably and who is viewed unfavorably.…”