Spirituality and Wellness in
Counseling
European Branch
American Counseling Association
Wiesbaden, Germany,
November 6, 2008
Mark E. Young and Tabitha L. Young
University of Central Florida
Orlando, FL USA
Spiritual or Religious?
• For the purposes of this talk, religion refers
to engaging in the rites, rituals and group
worship. Spirituality refers to one’s
personal relationship with God or a higher
power. Therefore, a person may be spiritual
but not attend organized religion. Religion
can be thought of as a search for spirituality.
Spirituality and Wellness Models
• Most models of wellness have included the
salutary effects of religion/spirituality
• Often confused it with a sense of meaning
• Religion/spirituality seem to potentiate
some of the effects of other treatments
• Thought to provide a
protective/preventative effect against
disease as well.
Studies Linking Spirituality &
Health
• More than 1200 studies have found a link
between spirituality and health including
mental health
• Some compare religious and non-religious
• Some compare degree of
involvement/orthodoxy.
• Some look at specific techniques such as
meditation.
Studies Linking Spirituality &
Health
• Generally point to salutary effect
• But why? Health related behaviors, social
support, positive emotions, faith leads to
positive thoughts (optimism & hope)
• Richards & Bergin (1999) blessing effect
• More than 70% of clients want counselors
and their physicians to talk about their
religious/spiritual background.
Big Questions for Counselor
Training
• How religious and spiritual are counselors in
training
• How well prepared or trained are they to deal
with issues of faith?
• How willing are trainees to discuss
spirituality and religion with clients?
• How likely are they to promote their own
religious viewpoint?
Conclusions
• Data pointing to potential preventative and
treatment effects stemming from spiritual
practice.
• Clients want to talk about this.
• Growing recognition that these beliefs and
practices shape the client’s world view and
effect the degree to which they will adhere to
treatment.
• An holistic view of functioning requires body,
mind and spirit.
• Counselors need more training
Professional Support
• ACA supports the inclusion of
religion/spirituality in counseling.
• Code of ethics points to recognizing
religious diversity as part of culture
• ASERVIC has developed competencies
ASERVIC’s Competencies
• Competencies for Integrating Spirituality into Counseling
• Competency 1 - The professional counselor can explain the
• difference between religion and spirituality, including similarities and
• differences.
• Competency 2 - The professional counselor can describe religious
• and spiritual beliefs and practices in a cultural context.
• Competency 3 - The professional counselor engages in
• self-exploration of religious and spiritual beliefs in order to increase
• sensitivity, understanding and acceptance of diverse belief systems.
• Competency 4 - The professional counselor can describer her/his
• religious and/or spiritual belief system and explain various models of
• religious or spiritual development across the lifespan.
• Competency 5 - The professional counselor can demonstrate
• sensitivity and acceptance of a variety of religious and/or spiritual
• expressions in client communication.
Competencies Continued
• Competency 6 - The professional counselor can identify limits of
• her/his understanding of a client's religious or spiritual expression, and
• demonstrate appropriate referral skills and generate possible referral
• sources.
• Competency 7 - The professional counselor can assess the
• relevance of the religious and/or spiritual domains in the client's
• therapeutic issues.
• Competency 8 - The professional counselor is sensitive to and
• receptive of religious and/or spiritual themes in the counseling process
• as befits the expressed preference of each client.
• Competency 9 - The professional counselor uses a clients'
• religious and/or spiritual beliefs in the pursuit of the clients'
• therapeutic goals as befits the clients' expressed preference.
Linda Robertson’s Study
Using the SCS
• Developed a 28-item six factor scale of
spiritual competency that counselors should
have. (n=599
• Found that religious school students scored
better.
• Still, very few counselors knew about
competencies. 5 percent
• Very few received a 70% correct rate.
Taking a Spiritual History
• Client’s spiritual life - resource for understanding
how client processes experiences and life meaning
(Sermabeikian, 1994)
• Could help understand & identify spiritual issues
such as: sin, guilt, & forgiveness (Dillingham,
1993)
• Avoid:
– Misdiagnosis
– Disrespecting client’s beliefs
– Treatment adverse to morality (D’Souza, 2003)
Taking a Spiritual History: Study
• Kristeller and colleagues (2005)
• 118 patients given Spiritual History
• Oncologists: 2 Christian, 1 Hindu, and 1 Sikh
• 76% patients reported useful
• Results after 3 weeks (compared to control):
– Greater reduction in depressive symptoms
– Greater quality of life
– Greater well-being
– Increased sense physician cared about them
Taking a Spiritual History
• Let’s try it
Case Study
• Background: 34 year old female
• Suffering from mild depression
• Married to a man in prison
• Conflict over that relationship
• Does not feel very supported by church
• Religion very important to her and a source
of strength
Meditation Works To Enhance
Wellness
• Most are familiar with Benson's Meditation
Research in 1970's Harvard simple forms creating
positive physiological changes including lower
blood pressure, relaxation etc.
• Recently (1996) Benson has concluded that the
effects of the relaxation response are enhanced by
the faith factor. In other words, a spiritually
oriented meditation is thought to be more effective.
More on Meditation
– There has been a line of fairly consistent research on the
effectiveness of mediation for reducing anxiety, stress,
treating phobias and excessive anger.
– Let's take only a couple of illustrative studies:
– Daniel Goleman of Emotional Intelligence Fame did his
doctoral dissertation on meditation and stress. He showed
meditation teachers and non-meditators films of industrial
accidents. He: then measured physiological reactions
– The meditators showed a unique pattern of reaction: They
reacted immediately to the stress and showed the typical
fight or flight reaction but then they rapidly recovered to
the pre-film level.
Stress Recovery
• But the non-meditators reacted more slowly
and continued to feel the stress both
mentally and physiologically for a longer
period of time
• Goleman concluded that quick stress
recovery is a trait of meditators. This is key
in the full court press of life where one must
recover and the concept of strain and
hardiness in the coping literature
Intercessory Prayer
Intriguing research suggesting praying for
others can have positive effects on those
prayed for
Still this domain remains controversial and
inconclusive..
People who pray do feel better themselves
though.
Quasi- Spiritual Techniques
• New areas of study, not connected with any
particular religion include gratitude,
forgiveness, sacrifice, happiness, sense of
meaning and purpose all of which have
some connection or overlap with spiritual
practice.
• Results have generally been positive
Gratitude
• Adaptation researcher Allen Parducci (in press) recalls a striking
example: "On the Micronesian island of Pohnpei, which is almost on
the equator, I was told of a bitter night back in 1915 when the
temperature dropped to a record-breaking 69 degrees!"
• "counting our blessings" Marshall Dermer and his colleagues (1979)
demonstrated this by asking University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
women to study others' deprivation and suffering. After viewing vivid
depictions of how grim life was in Milwaukee in 1900, or after
imagining and then writing about various personal tragedies, the
women expressed greater satisfaction with their own lives
• Rabia Basri, the Muslim woman saint is another example.
What are we paying attention to?
Some Gratitude Exercises
• Fill up a sheet of paper
• Gratitude is a skill: You need to practice
– Think of the little things. My car started., No lines at the
Super Target. Make a list
• Thank You entry – brief description of where you were
when the person appeared and what they did. Tell
them.
• Ten things that begin with M
• Ten things then write a description.
• Gratitude Journal
References
• Ambuel, B. Taking a spiritual history. Journal of Palliative Medicine, 6, 932-933.
• Chandler, C. K., Holden, J. M., & Kolander, C. A. (1992). Counseling for spiritual wellness: Theory
and practice. Journal of Counseling and Development, 71, 168-175.
• Emmons, R.A., & McCullough, M. E. (2003). Counting blessings versus burdens: An experimental
investigation of gratitude and subjective well-being in daily life, Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology, 84(2), 377-389.
• Miller, G. (1999). The development of the spiritual focus in counseling and counselor education.
Journal of Counseling & Development, 77, 498-501.
• Myers, J. E., & Sweeney, T. J. (2005). Five factor wellness inventory: Adult, teenage,
and elementary school versions. Menlo Park, CA: Mind Garden, Inc.
• Sweeney, T. J., & Witmer, M. J. (1991). Beyond social interest: Striving toward optimum health and
wellness. Individual Psychology, 47(40), 527- 540.
• Richards, I. S., & Bergin, A. E. (2005). A spiritual strategy for counseling and psychotherapy (2nd
ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association
• Young, M. E., & Lambie, G. (2007). Wellness in school and mental health systems: Organizational
influences. Journal of Humanistic Counseling, Education and Development, 46, 98-114.