Stories Matter: Narrative Themes of Counselor Educators' Religious and Spiritual Competency

Abstract

Using narrative inquiry, the author explored the multicultural aspects of religious and spiritual experiences, assumptions, and patterns of 9 counselor educators to understand the impact that experiences and beliefs have when supervising and teaching counseling students. A gap exists between counselor standards, ethics, competencies, and practice, because counseling students receive mixed messages about addressing spiritual and religious concerns. Through hermeneutic analysis, 6 themes emerged: (a) religious and spiritual journeys, (b) religious and spiritual practices, (c) relationships, (d) marginalization, (e) modeling, and (f) risk and taboo. Trustworthiness strategies, implications for counselor education, limitations, and directions for future research are described.

A Counselor Education Case Study: The Counselor Values‐Based Conflict Model in Action

“…Supervisors also develop competency through collaboration and consultation with appropriate religious leaders (McMinn, Snow, & Orton, ). It is interesting that the religious and spiritual competency of supervisors may be related to their own religious and spiritual development (Johns, ). Spiritually and religiously competent supervisors are better equipped to assist supervisees in addressing how their spiritual beliefs may be affecting the counseling relationship (Berkel et al, ).…”

A Spiritual Question

“…From a larger narrative research study on spirituality and counseling, (see Johns, 2014, 2017), six themes were identified, and the data poems were created through recursive and hermeneutic data analysis. Through the first research question, I sought to understand the personal religious and spiritual lived experiences of counselor educators.…”

Sacred Space: Student Supervisees' Experiences of Spiritual Issues

“…Although a handful of studies have examined the quantitative frequency of spiritual dialogue and how counselor educators’ experiences affect their discussions (Gilliam & Armstrong, 2012; Hull et al, 2013; Johns, 2017; Miller & Ivey, 2006; Miller et al, 2004), there are no known studies that explore what spiritual issues supervisees may have, including issues between supervisor and supervisee or between client and supervisee or internal spiritual issues the supervisee may be experiencing. Although we now know that spiritual issues exist and may be discussed, and that rapport is a factor (Weinstein, 2006), there remains a lack of understanding of what student supervisees experience regarding spiritual issues.…”