In this book, experts in the field discuss how spiritual and religious issues can be successfully integrated into counseling in a manner that is respectful of client beliefs and practices. Designed as an introductory text for counselors-in-training and clinicians, it describes the knowledge base and skills necessary to effectively engage clients in an exploration of their spiritual and religious lives to further the therapeutic process. Through an examination of the 2009 ASERVIC Competencies for Addressing Spiritual and Religious Issues in Counseling and the use of evidence-based tools and techniques, this book will guide you in providing services to clients presenting with these deeply sensitive and personal issues. Numerous strategies for clinical application are offered throughout the book, and new chapters on mindfulness, ritual, 12-step spirituality, prayer, and feminine spirituality enhance application to practice. *Requests for digital versions from the ACA can be found on wiley.com. *To request print copies, please visit the ACA website here: https://imis.counseling.org/store/detail.aspx?id=78161 *Reproduction requests for material from books published by ACA should be directed to [email protected]

This text is intended to help counselors and other mental health practitioners make informed and effective interventions with clients for whom religion and spirituality are significant concerns. It is comprehensive, providing information on religious systems and spiritual beliefs as well as clinical strategies and interventions. Throughout the text, the author weaves the theme in of understanding how the counselor's own worldview and values impact working with clients and offers activities and cases for exploring this further.

Innovative and reflective, Counseling and Spirituality helps readers integrate spiritual and clinical perspectives of counseling in order to successfully support clients' religious or spiritual journeys by utilizing appropriate knowledge and interventions. With cultural concerns such as religion and spirituality growing in importance and interest in the helping professions, this book serves to define varieties of spiritual beliefs, assess spiritual wellness, and apply theory- and practice-based approaches to individualized spiritual counseling situations. Author Joshua Gold helps readers contemplate how they see religion and spirituality in their own lives and appraise how their own spirituality sways who they are as clinicians and what they do in the provision of mental health services for their clients. What reviewers have to say about Counseling and Spirituality "This text is an impressive effort at integrating a complex and largely ignored subject... It strongly encourages the counseling field to take up the challenge of accepting what the majority of clients find important, spirituality and religion, and growing in our understanding, knowledge, and appreciation of its place in the counseling process." --Randall R. Lyle, St. Mary's University "The use of case examples, self-understanding exercises, and further learning allows the reader to engage in the text in a meaningful manner... More specifically, the case-study is not merely presented, but revisited at the end of the chapters allowing the reader to ponder the example while learning new information, and ultimately gain a potentially new perspective as she or he learns the outcome." --Guerda Nicolas, Boston College

Spirituality and Religion in Counseling: Competency-Based Strategies for Ethical Practice provides mental health professionals and counselors in training with practical information for understanding and responding to clients’ needs using a spiritual and religious framework. This work conceptualizes spiritual and faith development in a holistic way, using case examples and practical interventions to consider common issues through a variety of approaches and frameworks. This is an essential compendium of actionable strategies and solutions for counselors looking to address clients’ complex spiritual and religious lives and foster meaningful faith development.

To purchase this book with volume 2 of the set (with a 2-volume set savings), The Therapist's Notebook for Integrating Spirituality in Counseling II: More Homework, Handouts, and Activities for Use in Psychotherapy, see http: //www.haworthpress.com/store/product.asp?sku=5821 A client's spiritual and religious beliefs can be an effective springboard for productive therapy. How can a therapist sensitively prepare for the task? The Therapist's Notebook for Integrating Spirituality in Counseling is the first volume of a comprehensive two-volume resource that provides practical interventions from a wide range of backgrounds and theoretical perspectives. This volume helps prepare clinicians to undertake and initiate the integration of spirituality in therapy with clients and provides easy-to-follow examples. The book provides a helpful starting point to address a broad range of topics and problems.

From a leading researcher and practitioner, this volume provides an innovative framework for understanding the role of spirituality in people's lives and its relevance to the work done in psychotherapy. It offers fresh, practical ideas for creating a spiritual dialogue with clients, assessing spirituality as a part of their problems and solutions, and helping them draw on spiritual resources in times of stress. Written from a nonsectarian perspective, the book encompasses both traditional and nontraditional forms of spirituality. It is grounded in current findings from psychotherapy research and the psychology of religion, and includes a wealth of evocative case material.

Factor your clients' religious beliefs into their therapy! A recent Gallup poll found that nearly two-thirds of Americans surveyed said they would prefer to receive counseling from a therapist who is religious. The Power of Spirituality in Therapy: Integrating Spiritual and Religious Beliefs in Mental Health Practice addresses the apprehensions many clinicians have when it comes to discussing God with their clients. Authors Peter A. Kahle and John M. Robbins draw from their acclaimed workshops on the integration of spirituality and psychotherapy to teach therapists how they can help clients make positive life changes that are consistent with their values and spiritual and/or religious orientations. The Power of Spirituality in Therapy combines psychotherapy, spirituality, and humor to examine the “pink elephants” of academia-Godphobia and institutional a-spiritualism. The book explores the “learned avoidance” that has historically limited therapists in their ability—and willingness—to engage clients in “God-talk” and presents clinicians with methods they can use to incorporate spirituality into psychotherapy. Topics such as truth, belief, postmodernism, open-mindedness, and all-inclusiveness are examined through empirical findings, practical steps and cognitive processes, and clinical stories. The Power of Spirituality in Therapy includes: To Be (Ethical) or Not to Be? WHAT is the Question? To Believe or Not to Believe? That is NOT the Question! The Deification of Open-Mindedness Learning From Our Clients In God Do Therapists Trust? and much more! The Power of Spirituality in Therapy is an essential resource for therapists, counselors, mental health practitioners, pastoral counselors, and social work professionals who deal with clients who require therapy that reflects the importance of God in their lives. This guide will help those brave enough to explore how their own spiritual beliefs and/or biases can create problems when working with those clients.