Therapist Spiritual and Religious Values in Psychotherapy

Abstract

In training and in supervision, counselors learn to be cognizant of personal values (e.g., spirituality, religiosity), yet they are enjoined to except them from practice. This article examines the nature of therapist spiritual and religious values and the impact of these values on the practice of psychotherapy. A goal of effective treatment should be the integration of therapist spiritual and religious values with therapist epistemic values in order to accommodate the spiritual and religious needs of both client and counselor. Counselor spiritual and religious values can contribute to therapy, even when the therapist is engaged in a dialectic involving personal and epistemic values.

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

“…Still others believe that religion and spirituality are best discussed only within an ecclesiastical setting (Thayne, 1997). Counselors' personal experiences with religion or spirituality and their assumptions about it also affect the way they work with clients' religious or spiritual concerns (Frame, 1996;Grimm, 1994;Stander, Piercy, MacKinnon, & Helmeke, 1994).…”

Spiritual and Religious Considerations of Michigan Counseling Association Members

“…What constitutes a person's religious or spiritual beliefs can also be understood using the language of personal values (Grimm, 1994;Kelly, 1994;Patterson, 1989). However, the connection between discussions of counselor values and spiritual and religious beliefs has rarely been made explicit.…”

“…When one looks more closely at the defi nition of values it becomes evident that there is an intersection between counselor values and spirituality and religion. Grimm (1994) defi nes values as the "complex, comprehensive system by which a therapist makes value judgments in relation to his or her context" (p. 155). Looking at Burke & Miranti's (2001) defi nition of spirituality, "spirituality includes one's capacity for creativity, growth, and the development of a value system" (p. 602), one sees the confl uence of personal values and the concept of spirituality.…”

“…Traditionally, counseling theorists have separated the counselor's values from the therapeutic process, based on the belief that counselors might unconsciously impose their values and beliefs on their clients (Hagedorn, 2005). Consequently, counselors have been directed not to allow their values to infl uence the therapeutic process (Grimm, 1994). Ethics textbooks have advised trainees to avoid imposing their values on their clients (Corey, Corey, & Callanan, 2007) and the governing body of the counseling profession, the American Counseling Association (ACA, 2006) has implied in its code of ethics that personal values and beliefs should not enter the therapeutic process.…”

“…In fact, in a national study of the spiritual and religious value orientations of mental health professionals it was found that most mental health professionals have spiritual and religious values (as cited in Grimm, 1994). Although it is crucial for counselors to honor issues of diversity within the counseling relationship, there is limited research considering the counselors' perspective of the role of spirituality and religion in the therapeutic process (Hickson et al, 2000).…”