Religious Beliefs and Practice: An Integral Aspect of Multicultural Awareness

Abstract

Religious beliefs are an aspect of clients' cultural background that should be considered an important aspect of multicultural awareness in the counselor education curriculum.

Integrating Spirituality Into Counselor Preparation: A Developmental, Wellness Approach

“…Several authors have recommended steps and strategies to incorporate spiritual issues into counselor preparation programs (e.g., Burke et al, 1999;Pate & Bondi, 1992). In order to facilitate this movement and establish compatible and congruent preparation paradigms within counselor education programs, we present the following recommendations.…”

“…These definitions should be useful to clients with minimal explanation and should also be readily understood by counselors. The lack of a clear definition and confusion over the meaning of spirituality has been a significant obstacle to the inclusion of spiritual concerns in counselor preparation and in counseling practice (Burke et al, 1999;Kelly, 1994;Myers et al, 2000;Pate & Bondi, 1992).…”

“…In part, this seems to reflect the confusion that results from equating spirituality and organized religious practices (Myers, Sweeney, & Witmer, 2000;Myers & Truluck, 1998), and, in part, it reflects the influence of individuals such as Freud (1912Freud ( /1959 and Ellis (1991) who, in the past, equated religiosity with mental illness. Regardless of the origins of the problem, the need for preparing counselors to respond to clients' spiritual needs seems to be an increasing reality (see Bishop, 1992;Burke et al, 1999;Kelly, 1994;Pate & Bondi, 1992). Pate and Bondi (1992) suggested that this need could be addressed by including religious values in course content, providing experiential training in religious values, and collaborating with religious counselors in the training and supervision process.…”

“…Regardless of the origins of the problem, the need for preparing counselors to respond to clients' spiritual needs seems to be an increasing reality (see Bishop, 1992;Burke et al, 1999;Kelly, 1994;Pate & Bondi, 1992). Pate and Bondi (1992) suggested that this need could be addressed by including religious values in course content, providing experiential training in religious values, and collaborating with religious counselors in the training and supervision process. This suggestion was facilitated with the adoption of the 2001 standards for counselor preparation by the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP, 2001), which include several references to spiritual issues and needs.…”

Spiritual and Religious Competencies: A National Survey of CACREP‐Accredited Programs

“…In addition, "religious and spiritual values" are used in the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Education Programs (CACREP, 2001, p. 61) standards in the common core area of Social and Cultural Foundations. Thus, there is a growing awareness in the mental health field that religion and spirituality are one aspect of clients' culture (Pate & Bondi, 1992) that should be considered in the counseling process.…”