Integration or Separation? Addressing Religious and Spiritual Issues in Multicultural Counseling: A National Survey of College Counselors

Abstract

Given contemporary ethical concerns, the authors conducted a national survey of 216 college counselors' perceptions of integrating religious and spiritual issues in multicultural counseling and counselor education. Using cluster analysis, the authors identified 4 patterns of commitments to multiculturalism and religiosity. Respondents demonstrated ethical bracketing in that they considered religious and spiritual issues favorably within the framework of multicultural counseling, irrespective of their commitments to those topics. Counselors can openly address spiritual and religious diversity.

Multicultural counseling: The strategy of social fasilitator of post-conflict education and psychosocial guidance in multicultural society

“…Even this treatment can reduce anxiety and depressive symptoms at 3 months for women with psychological distress in post-conflict rural settings in Pakistan. On the other hand, Smith et al, explained that the results of a survey of college counselors in America showed that multicultural views such as religious and spiritual topics need to be made explicit in handling post-conflict victims (Smith et al, 2019). Multicultural counseling is very relevant to be given in handling post-conflict victims in areas with different levels of ethnicity, race, and culture such as in Indonesia.…”

“…Multicultural counseling is a paradigm that emphasizes the importance of understanding the diversity and suitability of responses given by counselors/psychologists to their counselees (Ford et al, 2015;Williams et al, 2014;Yan & Lam, 2000). The multicultural view may have long been considered, although studies show that this view is not as fully implicit in the practice of professional counselors as was found in a study by Smith et al, (2019). This study finds that the concept of multicultural counseling can be an important part of handling post-conflict victims who may suffer from major depression or PTSD other than NET.…”