understanding the impact of your spiritual and religious or lack thereof orientation on counseling or therapy
Understanding the Impact of Your Spiritual and Religious (or lack thereof) Orientation on Counseling or Therapy
Discussion Context
There has been increased attention to spirituality and religion as a dimension of biopsychosocial identity and a consideration in promoting health and wellness. Recently, Blair (2015) studied the influence of therapist’s spirituality (or lack thereof) on therapeutic work. The way in which the spiritual or religious aspect of biopsychosocial identity, or lack thereof, is incorporated into your worldview will be an important consideration in this unit’s assignment.
As you prepare to complete your assignment, put yourself once again into the shoes of a counseling or therapy intern at Riverbend City who is researching for a cultural autobiography to help fulfill part of the cultural competency requirements in an internship. For your cultural autobiography, in addition to relating personal reflections and experiences from interviewing an individual with whom you share a cultural heritage, you will be drawing upon evidence-based models and competencies from scholarly and professional sources.
Discussion Prompt
This discussion will focus on reflecting upon your own spirituality (or lack thereof) and the ways it influences your practice.
In your initial discussion post:
- Discuss Blair’s findings on how our spirituality influences therapy in terms of your own spiritual or religious orientation (or lack thereof).
- Reference the ASERVIC Competencies and identify areas of competence you have targeted for development.
- Describe at least two strategies you will implement to prepare for ethical and effective counseling or therapy with one of the populations addressed in this unit.
Response Guidelines
Respond to the post of at least one other learner and suggest an additional strategy or activity for preparing for spiritually alert and competent counseling practice.
Your response should be substantive and contribute to the conversation by asking questions, respectfully debating positions, and presenting supporting literature relevant to the topic.
Learning Components
This activity will help you achieve the following learning components:
- Articulate the influence of spirituality or religion on counseling or therapy.
- Identify strategies to moderate the influence personal spiritual or religious beliefs and values on clients.
Resources
- Discussion Participation Scoring Guide.
- Spiritual & Religious Competencies: Competencies for Addressing Spiritual and Religious Issues in Counseling.