According to the text, why is it that the counseling profession can no longer ignore spirituality and religion in counselor training and preparation?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

The counseling profession can no longer ignore spirituality and religion in the training of counselors because of the significant number of potential clients who may be spiritual and/or religious. Base on available research, 90% of individuals in the United States admitted being spiritual and/or religious. Research evidence also indicates a positive correlation between religion and spirituality and mental health, suggesting that spirituality and religiosity can act as protective factors for clients. Assessment can also include religion and spirituality as ancillary sources of information to conceptualize how religion and spirituality may be implicated in current problems or be explored as adjunct to other assessments for diagnosis, treatment planning, and setting treatment goals. Training of counselors to acquire competence in spiritual and religious issues can make counselors more comfortable with and capable of discussing such issues with clients instead of seeing them as inappropriate or avoiding them. Given the number of potential clients with spiritual and religious backgrounds, empirical evidence of the positive correlation between spirituality and religion to mental health, and lack of training on the subject, the counseling profession can no longer ignore spirituality and religion in counselor training.