Spirituality and Religion: The Ninth CACREP Core Curriculum Area

Abstract

On the basis of the ACA Code of Ethics (American Counseling Association [ACA], 2014) and ACA‐endorsed competencies, the ability to address spirituality and religion is a recommended skill set of counselors. The Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) addresses the “spirit” in the standards; however, in the training of students, additional focus could be placed on this competency. The authors introduce expert‐reviewed standards to be considered as a 9th core curriculum area of the CACREP Standards (CACREP, ) titled Spirituality and Religion.

The Effect of the Spiritual Counseling Course Within Turkey’s Counseling Training Program

“…Conversely, excluding the universal human quality that is spirituality (Helminiak, 2001;Ingersoll & Bauer, 2004) from the therapeutic process may decrease the effectiveness of the process and lead to early termination (Curtis & Davis, 1999). Counselors risk being irresponsible and undermining a vital component of their clients' existence until the counseling profession takes a firmer stand on the integration of spirituality into counseling (Bohecker et al, 2017). The ACA Code of Ethics (ACA, 2014), on the other hand, highlights the importance of counselors exploring their own spiritual beliefs in order to assist clients who wish to achieve their spiritual needs.…”

“…Cashwell and Young (2004) found little consistency when reviewing spirituality-focused training programs and practices, which led the researchers to argue for greater standardization. Bohecker et al (2017) proposed that the CACREP standards be expanded to include issues such as spirituality/religion, belief development models, and spiritual competencies.…”

Understanding Conflict Between Religious/Spiritual and Queer Identities: A Framework for Counselors

“…Religion and spirituality are often conflated but are distinct from each other (Worthington et al, 2011). Traditionally, religion incorporates dogmatic beliefs regarding the origin, nature, and purpose of creation, usually involving worship and ritually centered on a moral code (Bohecker et al, 2017; Young & Cashwell, 2020). Spirituality tends to be more abstract, focusing on ways of being through transcendent and nonphysical acts, such as prayer and supplication, meditation, reading and/or interpretation of religious texts, and community involvement (Bohecker et al, 2017; Young & Cashwell, 2020).…”

Counselor Education and Supervision: 2017 Inaugural Review

“…Educational standards dialogue focused on strategies for advocating for educational standards in licensure laws (Lawson, Trepal, Lee, & Kress, 2017), an argument and pilot data in support of 60‐credit‐hour school counseling programs (Merlin & Brendel, 2017), and a proposal of spirituality as a ninth core curricular area (Bohecker, Schellenberg, & Silvey, 2017). Teixeira (2017) presented data suggesting that gatekeeping practices of counselor educators do not vary by the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) accreditation status.…”