The integration of spirituality into counseling has been on the rise in recent years. Though the reasons for this may vary, one thing is evident: more and more people are turning towards spiritual practices as a way to find peace and hope in this turbulent world and to find meaning in their lives. There are many benefits to incorporating spirituality into practice. Here are five to name a few:
1. Enhanced sense of meaning and purpose
When we allow spirituality to play a role in our counseling, we enable ourselves to connect with a more profound sense of meaning and purpose in life by focusing on something greater than ourselves. This inclusion can be instrumental in the healing process and equally important in seeing the value in our lives and in the lives of those around us. We have experienced firsthand how anxiety, depression, and other daily struggles can be transformed into hope and vitality when spirituality becomes a resource for healing.
2. Increased empathy and understanding
Another benefit of incorporating spirituality into counseling is increased empathy and understanding towards ourselves and others. Spirituality helps us see differently, helps us see a bigger picture…a more inclusive picture. We learn that it all belongs, the pain and the joy. We learn that we create our own suffering by our thoughts about how we think things should be rather than accepting things as they are. We find there is strength in our times of weakness and that we can use that strength to make changes in ourselves and what we put into the world. When we empathize with, understand, and accept our pain and the pain of others, everything changes. Incorporating spirituality into counseling allows us to recognize what is already true and good inside of us, helps us understand and accept ourselves and others, and can help us open up and trust again.
3. Better coping skills
We acquire coping skills as we move through life. They are what we use to address life's challenges. We pick up both helpful and not-so-helpful strategies along the way for facing these challenges and are not always aware of the impact these strategies have in overcoming our hardships. When we incorporate spirituality into counseling, we equip ourselves with better tools for facing our challenges. The first is (greater) awareness. When we become (more) aware of how our unhelpful strategies affect us, we can make better, more intentional choices to help us when encountering our challenges. Spirituality can also guide us through these struggles in a healthy, positive way by helping us tap into our inner strength and calmness and by helping us enhance our resilience. Together these tools enable us to reach more desirable outcomes for the challenges we face.
4. Greater sense of connection
We all have an innate desire to belong, for a sense of connection. We can feel lost and alone when we don't feel that sense of connection. Community is essential for our well-being and our growth. We need others to lean on for support, but we also need to be able to offer support when others are in need. Involving others can help us discern the answers to the important questions in life, help us see the truth and beauty already present within ourselves when we can't see it for ourselves, and can help give us direction when we are unsure which way to go. Many spiritual and religious traditions emphasize the importance of community. Integrating spirituality into counseling allows us to reestablish our community if one's community has been lost or compromised or to build upon our existing community and to find that sense of connection we seek. We become a part of each other's community as counselors and clients. And when we allow ourselves to open even more, we realize how vast our community really is; and that we are never really alone.
5. Improved overall well-being
Our mind, body, and spirit are all connected. To achieve our best overall health and well-being it is pertinent to include practices from all three (mental, physical, and spiritual) to care for the whole person. The inclusion of spirituality brings practices like prayer, meditation, spiritual/inspirational reading, yoga, and many others to help heal and strengthen our spirit as well as our minds and bodies by providing us all the benefits listed above, an enhanced sense of meaning and purpose, increased empathy and understanding, better coping skills, a greater sense of connection to ourselves, others, and the unknown, as well as hope. All guiding us to our best overall well-being.
When counseling alone doesn’t seem to be enough, integrating spirituality can be immensely valuable. But the same can be said for spirituality. If our spiritual practices don’t seem to be enough, incorporating counseling can be equally valuable. Take whatever is beneficial to you from either or both practices, leave what doesn’t work behind. We can never measure our lives by someone else’s, but we can all work together to help each other find the best versions of ourselves.
At Transcend Counseling and Wellness Services, we recognize the value of integrating spirituality into our counseling practice. Spirituality can be defined differently for each of us. As an interfaith center, we are open and accepting of all. We honor and respect the similarities and differences each spiritual path provides regarding all that is true, good, and beautiful. Through our many years of counseling, we have seen the impact the inclusion of spirituality has had on helping people transform their lives beyond what they ever imagined. And in the process, we too are transformed, over and over again.
If you are interested in working with one of our providers, please contact us today. Let us journey alongside you on your path towards health and well-being.