Spiritual Counselling Research Articles

Predictors of university students’ willingness in the USA to use clergy as sources of skilled help

This exploratory study investigated U.S. university students’ perceptions (N = 186) and the predictor variables associated with their willingness to use clergy as a source of help. In the final regression analysis using the predicted variable of willingness to use clergy as a source of help (R = 0.816, R 2= 0.665, Adjusted R 2= 0.650), there were seven significant predictor variables: (a) trust of clergy, (b) empathic ability of clergy, (c) having previously sought help from clergy, (d) respondents’ dominant/minority cultural identification, (e) attendance at religious services at least once a year, (f) believing that spiritual counselling is as effective as psychotherapy, and (g) receiving religious/spiritual education as a child. An eighth variable was retained in the final regression model because of its proximity to significance (Friendships between clergy and people, p = 0.051). Accusations against clergy and the belief that clergy are held to a higher standard did not predict willingness to use clergy as a source of help. A general linear model (F = 125.696, df = 10, p < 0.001) revealed that those who self-identified with Protestant Christianity, Catholic/Orthodox Christianity, and Judaism were more likely to consider seeking help from clergy than those who self-identified with another religious tradition (Hinduism, Islam, or Buddhism), or adherence to spiritual not religious belief. Further, those who self-identified as Jewish or Christian were also more like to perceive clergy as trustworthy and empathic. Finally, African American/Caribbean Black respondents were more likely than either Latino/Latino American respondents or European American respondents to seek help from clergy, to perceive clergy as empathic, and to believe that spiritual counselling is as effective as psychotherapy (F = 1495, df = 12, p < 0.001).

Sisters of Christ The Gender Constitution of Swedish Clergywomen

The A. discusses the gender constitution of Swedish clergywomen in their professional careers. Light is shed upon the strategies developed by the informants, how they cope with their situation both as women and clerics and their potential to develop a new professional clerical role. It is obvious that clergywomen are often given a warm reception by their parishioners, but not always by their male colleagues. A type of male homosociality excludes women from the top positions in the Church of Sweden. One interesting field for analysis of the process of gender constitution is spiritual counselling, where the axes of gender and positional power tend to reinforce each other when the minister is a man, while they deviate from each other when the minister is a woman. Concerning the informants' understanding of gender, it can be pointed out that essential and constructional understandings appear to co-exist. Activating different understandings of gender in different situations may be a type of survival strategy in a professional context, where the very existence of clergywomen is called into question.

The Role of the Occupational Therapist in Addressing the Spiritual Needs of Clients

There is a continuing debate within the health professions on the place of spirituality and the approach to be taken towards spiritual needs within holistic care. In occupational therapy, the need for both a working definition of spirituality and evidence to validate spirituality as a performance component has been identified (Urbanowski and Vargo 1994). The aim of this study was to add to the debate by exploring the experiences of occupational therapists who have encountered spiritual needs in their practice. A phenomenological approach using semi-structured interviews with three Christian occupational therapists explored their understanding of spirituality and experience of spiritual needs in practice. While the therapists interviewed had some difficulty in putting into words the concept of spirituality, they were able to identify spiritual needs in their clients and expressed opinions regarding the possible role of the occupational therapist in dealing with the spiritual needs of clients. It was clear that spiritual counselling was not considered to be appropriate for the occupational therapist, although recognising the spiritual dimension of an individual was important. In the United Kingdom, the occupational therapy profession needs to develop further its view on spirituality in holistic care and the impact that it has on the health and wellbeing of its clients.

Quality of life

This article gives an overview of the field of psychotherapy in relation to other relevant fields such as body-therapy and spiritual counselling. It is shown how psychotherapy defines itself in isolation from or in comparison with its sister disciplines. Political boundaries between professions are described. The field of transformation is shown to be encompassing not only the health professions, the psychotherapy professions, and the professions dealing with spiritual emergency, but it can also be seen to contain intra-personal, interpersonal and extra-personal (social) dimensions.

Green crocodiles

Abstract The essence of spiritual counselling lies in the formal or informal teaching of meditation, where we turn away from the delusions of any achievement either psychological or material. These delusions, deeply embedded in psychotherapy and counselling, are essentially destructive. Real counselling lies in giving up ambitions and ideologies, not in acquiring more. Meditation can help us to live more fully in the present time.

Spiritual Direction and Non-Directive Counselling

Spiritual Direction and Non-Directive Counselling