The process of determining one's own faith and integrating it into a counseling philosophy is a process that is intensely personal, yet it is an important process that impacts one's approach to counseling families, especially in a facility or organization that is faith-based. It is the purpose of this paper to discuss the process of faith integration into counseling practice and the implications of that process.
Religion and spirituality are related but slightly different entities. Spirituality is a personal belief in a supreme being, an internalized set of values, and an inner wholeness that exists within or outside formal religious structures, and religion tends to be more connected with institutions, "denomination, external, cognitive, ritualistic, and public" (Stevens & Wolf, 2001, p.66). Spiritual practices tend to be more universal, private, affective and spontaneous. In the past, there have been barriers to integrating religion and spirituality into clinical practice. For example counselors may have views that are different from those of their clients and they may worry about conflict because of differing viewpoints. During the process of integration, one has to face the inhibiting factors of one's faith and how they might impact clients (Stevens & Wolf, 2001, p.67).
There is very little literature about the process of integrating faith into one's counseling practice, especially family practice. It seems to be a situation where each person is on his own, but as solitary and individualistic as the process may be, it certainly would be worth the effort because of the benefits of being able to relate with greater depth to a clientele of great diversity. Ethically, the religious variable cannot be ignored in therapy, and the first step is for the counselor to be clearly aware of one's own values and beliefs in the spiritual area.
Learning and becoming aware of one's own values and beliefs is a part of the process of...