Gracevine Autumn 2015 | Page 15

entirely met by conventional training programmes. Interestingly, counselling trainees themselves voiced this lack and their relative unpreparedness to deal with the number of issues that present themselves with religious or spiritual clients.

The study found “that students specifically requested that religious and spiritual knowledge and skills be included within their programs in various ways so that they are prepared to work with clients of different religious and spiritual backgrounds”.

Furthermore, “Even though there is a desire to learn about different religious and spiritual beliefs and populations, many students noted that these issues were minimally discussed or not discussed at all within their programs” (p.68).

There are already programmes here and in the US that are seeking to address this apparent need and lack, and perhaps many readers and ministers or trainees are working in this area, but the article points perhaps to a wider need for training and development with religion and spirituality in various occupational fields, for wherever people encounter one another andexchange their values and views, there will be a need for a deeper mutual understanding. Perhaps not only in counselling but in many other professional fields and contexts, and perhaps more widely still, there is a value of a training in spirituality. Food for thought indeed!

(Henriksen, Richard C et al. “Counseling Students’ Perceptions of Religious/Spiritual Counseling Training: A Qualitative Study.” Journal of Counseling & Development 93, no. 1 (2015): 59–69. doi:10.1002/j.1556-6676.2015.00181.x.)

“Shadows Along the Spiritual Pathway”

Caroline Humphrey, from the University of Hull, explores the darker side of spiritual development in her article “Shadows Along the Spiritual Pathway”. Writing from a clear transpersonal psychology position and perspective, she tends to eschew traditional, historical and religious forms of discourse on this aspect of human development, for example the descriptive frameworks of the so-called “dark night of the soul” of the Carmelite mystics, in favour of what she would describe as an “open-minded stance” and a “a counterbalancing perspective”.

Although it is arguable whether such an open position has been achieved in her article, given her preference for a particular discourse and for a transpersonal psychology that “holds the keys to unlocking this darkness” (p.2), there is still much to be gained from following the line of thinking and the invitation to enlist the metaphors of transpersonal psychology (“its metaphors of ‘shadows’ and ‘daimons’” (p.2) “in the service of spiritual growth”. There is no need to either “repudiate” the shadow-side or “revel” in it on the spiritual path, but rather steer a course through the wholeness and through the depths of all that is unseen within us. The option, then, as a minister and a counsellor is to navigate the choppy waters and the darker side of spiritual life in as whole a way as possible, and where this is done the “darkness” is never quite as dark as our forebears may have perceived it.

Spiritual development and life can be challenging at times, but it does not need to be insufferable. Modern, contemporary ways, narratives and methods of development perhaps show this to be true.

(Humphrey, Caroline. “Shadows Along the Spiritual Pathway.” Journal of Religion and Health, 2015. doi:10.1007/s10943-015-0037-2.)

Note: You may be able to get access to any of these journal articles though your local or university library for free. Inter-library loanscan help with any access issues. Speak to your local librarian for details.