Some Comments on the Ethical Use of Religious and Spiritual Constructs in Clinical Practice

What is it about?

This paper comments on ASERVIC's competencies for managing religious/spiritual issues in counseling. While an important document for practitioners, the paper identifies some issues with the standards in terms of both what they require of practitioners as well as its restricted understanding of what religious issues represent about clients. A new motivational construct is presented that can help therapists, regardless of their belief status, manage religious issues in a manner that keeps the focus and goals of treatment squarely within a social science paradigm. This approach puts less pressure on therapists to master information about various religious/theological/spiritual models and emphasizes more universal psychological dynamics that are ethically appropriate for the social sciences and clinically relevant.

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