44-1 Teaching a Course on Integrating Religion/Spirituality into Counseling
The purpose of this study was to introduce a course integrating religion/spirituality into counseling and to explore the feedbacks of the participants. A total of 22 counseling psychologists and counselor trainees with diverse religious/spiritual backgrounds participated into the study. The course included four goals which were to enhance counselor's spiritual self-exploration and self-awareness, to enhance the sensitivity and understanding toward clients' religious and spiritual issues, to increase knowledge on the multi- religions and spirituality in Taiwan, and to enhance the competencies of spiritual assessment and intervention. In order to reach the goals, 10 themes in 30 hours were included into the course. To explore the reactions of the participants towards the course, eight focused groups were conducted in the middle and toward the end of the course. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data. Results showed that the participants benefited from the course. They gained new knowledge about religion and spirituality, increased spiritual awareness and reflections, developed positive attitudes toward religion and spirituality, considered to integrate religion/spirituality into practical works, and gained new insights and new thoughts to integrate spirituality and spiritual into counseling. Results also showed the participants' experiences, the source of benefits, the participants' feedbacks and suggestions toward the course. Recommendations for future course design and research were proposed in the end.
Keywords
course on integrating religion/spirituality into counseling ； outcome evaluation
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