Association for Spiritual Ethical and Religious Values in Counseling
Teaching Modules

Competency 10: During the intake and assessment processes, the professional counselor strives to understand a client’s spiritual and/or religious perspective by gathering information from the client and/or other sources.
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Areas of concern for counselors regarding assessment:
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Domain of clergy not counselors
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Fear of imposing values
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Counselor disbelief in the spiritual realm
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Counselor / client have had a negative experience or fear judgment
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Lack of education / training on assessment tools
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Ethical considerations
- ACA, 2005; Anandarahah & Hight, 2001; Cashwell & Young, 2004; Faiver, O’Brien, & Ingersol, 2000;
Gubi, 2004; Kielty-Briggs & Dixon-Rayle, 2005; La Torre, 2002; Miovic, 2004; Souza, 2002

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Assessment begins as soon as the client enters the counseling setting
- Frame, 2003; Gill, Harper, & Dailey, 2011
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Qualitative (informal) assessment strategies allow counselors to:
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Use flexible terminology
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Allow for exploration of client belief systems
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Focus on strengths
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Serve as an intervention
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Qualitative assessment strategies are not :
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Limited in focus
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Quantifiable
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Allow for comparison
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Time efficient
- Harper & Gill, 2005

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Based on theory
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Unlike formal assessment strategies – not always paper/pencil
 Countless measures – can be grouped by themes
 Types:
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Behavioral observations
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Religious or spiritual history
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Creating a spiritual autobiography
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Spiritual genograms
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Spiritual map or timelines
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Sentence completions
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Spiritual theme interviews
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Focus
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Childhood traditions
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Personal experience/practices
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Evolution to current state
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Affect / Behaviors /
Cognition
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Communion
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Conscience / Intuition
- Hodge, 2001

 Intake allows counselors to “gather information about the range and scope of the concerns, pertinent details about the current situation, and relevant background information to the current problems”
- Whiston, 2008, p. 116
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Involve direct techniques – intake form, observation, and interview – typically administered during the first (and/or second) meeting
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By including spiritual/religious issues into the intake process, the counselor demonstrates openness to:
 learning about the client’s spirituality
 sharing through mutual disclosure
 exploring the whole client - physical, emotional, spiritual, and environmental dimensions
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Including spiritual/religious issues in the intake process allows counselors to identify issues which may warrant a more thorough assessment
- Gill, Harper, & Dailey, 2011

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Forms which include spiritual and/or religious information typically assess:
 the clients’ religious and spiritual beliefs and practice history,
 denomination/faith of origin,
 current denomination/faith,
 role of faith in the client’s life,
 religious conflicts/support, or other important issues.
- Richards & Bergin, 1997
 Simple “yes,” “no,” “somewhat,” or “maybe” options keep the form brief, allowing it to be completed quickly by the client.
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Questions that leave space provide counselors with basic understanding of the client perspective.
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Include disclaimer if you have stringent religious beliefs or practices.
- Gill, Harper, & Dailey, 2011

Yes, No, Somewhat / Maybe:
 Do you have a belief in God, a higher power, universal spirit, or other?
 Would you like to discuss this belief/absence of beliefs?
 Have you experienced any changes in religious affiliation since childhood?
Open Ended Questions:
 How would you describe your religious or spiritual beliefs and practices?
 What role has religion and/or spirituality played in your life?
 Has religions and/or spirituality contributed to any stressors in your life?
Both:
 Are there any spiritual and/or religious resources that you feel are a source of strength? If so, what resources have you found helpful?
 Are you currently affiliated with any religious denomination and/or spiritual practice? If so, what religious denomination or spiritual practice are your affiliated?
- Gill, Harper & Dailey, 2011, p. 146

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Upon first seeing the client, the counselor begins observing: appearance, behaviors, and word choices.
 Client’s can display spiritual beliefs and personal values through:
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 dress make-up hairstyles grooming
Tattoos
 wedding and engagement rings
 jewelry
 bindis
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Masonic rings
 novelty t-shirts
 Word choices, such as portions of prayer or suggestion of a higher power, may allow an opportunity for the counselor to discuss the spiritual domain.
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Behaviors, such as gestures, may indicate a client’s belief system: Making the sign of a cross, clasping hands in prayer, or holding a spiritual symbol.
When using observation as an assessment tool, watch out for biased or incorrect assumptions!
- Gill, Harper, & Dailey, 2011

 Counselors-in-training often wonder: w hat do I ask?, what should I look for?, and what topic should I avoid?
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During a direct interview, the counselor will ask the client specific questions related to the spiritual and/or religious domain.
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If the extent to which the client wishes to integrate spiritual themes is unclear, questions can be more implicit.
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Some strengths based questions include:
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When have you felt the most alive? What would you like for your legacy to be? For what are you grateful? What do you consider sacred?
 More probing / less implicit questions include:
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What has caused you the greatest suffering? What do you regret the most in your life?
- Harper & Gill, 2005

Spiritual based sentence completion tests contain the beginning of a sentence (i.e., a stem), which clients are asked to complete.
Sentence stems allow for varied responses that may incite deep reflection and provide the counselor with considerable insight into the client’s spiritual domain. Two commonly used sentence completion exercises are:
Spiritual Quest Form (SQF; Nino, 1997) Includes 10 sentence stems designed to explore attitudes of the client related to spiritual development Contains stems such as:
• I think the spiritual…
• My relation to God…
• A meaningful life …

Spiritual Autobiography
Include earliest childhood memories of religion/God/the sacred and family background. Focus on the impact of religious /spiritual beliefs and experiences and movement through the life cycle stages. Include turning points, present place on one’s religious / spiritual journey, confusing or frightening moments and any other recollections.
- Astramovich, 2003
Spiritual Timeline
Create a narrative timeline or description of development of values, ideals, meaning, sacredness, intuition, practices, rituals, etc. Includes events and people impacting the lifespan. Try to cultivate a better understanding of your own personal strengths and belief system by:
 processing your own timeline with a trusted peer or advisor,
 applying various models of spiritual and/or religious development , and
 reflecting on how this helps you in your work.
- Curry, 2009

Spirituality Genograms
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Systemic view of religious/spiritual domain
 Two preceding generations & any following generations
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Can contain ages, dates, careers, achievements, physical and mental disorders, notations about alcohol and drug use, and other snippets of family history.
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Focuses primarily on spiritual domain of family but can contain any other information the counselor and client think is useful to the client’s assessment and treatment.
Spiritual Ecomap:
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Graphically describes immediate family and the client’s spiritual resources . At the center is a genogram style representation of the client’s immediate family.
Symbols:
 men = squares; women = circles; “X” = deceased individual; double circle or square = client.
 solid horizontal line = marriage; slashes in the horizontal line = divorce; dashed horizontal line = non-marriage union
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Vertical lines lead to subsequent generations of family members. Multiple lines connecting family members = exceptionally close relationships; jagged lines = strained relationships; broken lines = cut in the relationship.
- Harper & Gill, 2005; McGoldrick & Gerson, 1985;

(See Notes for Case Study)
Lives next door to John and Martha and
Mary attends church with them
Buried in
St. Luke’s cemetery
“One policy is no reason to change religion”
John
Does not want to change Martha
Will go with Betty, but wants to go to church with children
Don
Married at St. Luke’s
Buried in nearby
Lutheran cemetery
Roger
Deacon. Feels responsibility to St. Luke’s. Trusts ELCA.
Has burial plots at
St. Luke’s
Lifelong members of St. Luke’s
Susan
Wouldn’t feel at home anywhere else Betty
Married at St. Luke’s
George
Converted to Lutheran when he married Jean
Approves all committed relationships
Carl
39
Sam
Committed to church family
Linda
37
David
24
Rarely goes to church; doesn’t understand why people are upset
Grew up in & married at St. Luke’s
Jean
12 Greg
18
Gay, but not out to parents.
Has scholarship to an ELCA college, but parents want him to change college plans
Was in church choir & church youth activities; now avoids church
Charlie
16
Plans to stay in ELCA church or views are unknown
Does not support gay and lesbian clergy but is undecided about leaving ELCA church
Does not support gay and lesbian clergy and will leave ELCA church

Allow the class to uncover a personalized view of spirituality/religion and experience the influences these beliefs on their lives. Similarities and differences of these two concepts are explored to foster competence.
Creating an environment of trust/safety is essential prior to beginning this exercise. Students typically break up into small groups then individually complete the following table:
Every Day Often Sometimes Never
My Race
My Religion
My Gender
My Relationships Status
My Spirituality
Read to class: In this table are some of the cultural groups to which we all belong. We are likely to be consciously aware of some of our memberships more than others. This depends, in part, on how others respond to us and on our experiences in the world. Go through the table and check the extent to which you think about each of your cultural identities.
- Hagedorn & Gutierrez, 2009

After each individual has filled out the table, the group is given a handout and asked to discuss the following:
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Which of the aforementioned aspects of your culture are you most aware? Least? What does this mean to you?
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Of which are you more aware, your religion or your spirituality?
What does this mean to you?
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As a group, come up with two definitions for religion and spirituality.
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Keeping these definitions in mind, find definitions for both religion and spirituality, either in your textbooks or in another scholarly source.
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Look over the definitions you have written. With this information in hand, would you change your answers regarding the level of awareness you have about your religion or spirituality? Why or why not?
- Hagedorn & Gutierrez, 2009

New Experiential Reflection
Attendance at a religious or spiritual activity. Reflect on how the activity increased awareness and acceptance of experiences in which you were unfamiliar. Write about your experience, focusing self awareness.
Investigate Topics of Interest: Continue Your Journey
Based on your own interests, investigate topics related to spirituality and/or religion with which you are unfamiliar.
Create a list of local spiritual and/or religious organizations, centers, and /or workshops related to this topic. Make this resource available for clients – be sure it is current!