Abstract
A total of 84 individuals with addiction issues (e.g., drugs, sex, weight, food, and codependency) were asked about their willingness to incorporate religion or spirituality in their counseling. These respondents expressed willingness to deal with religion or spirituality in counseling if the counselor was knowledgeable about their religion or spirituality. Degree of willingness was significantly related to clients’ religious background and age.
Keywords
Religion and spirituality play a significant role in our lives. Religiosity is an outward expression of the inner spirituality system (Gill, Minton, & Myers, 2010), and spirituality is an awareness of a force that gives a sense of connectedness to the universe (Myers & Sweeney, 2005). Many scholars (Chally & Carlson, 2004; Coleman, Mcliernan, Mills, & Speck, 2004; Ososkie & Holzbauer, 2004; Pargament, 2009) see the importance of religion and spirituality in counseling, and some (Karasu, 1999; Nosek 1995; Vash, 1994) have encouraged rehabilitation counselors to explore these issues in their practice, but whether clients are open to such exploration remains unknown.
Rehabilitation counseling research has not considered important factors, such as the differences in religion between counselors and clients as well as counselors’ knowledge regarding the religion of the clients, which can hinder clients’ willingness to incorporate religion and spirituality in counseling. Therefore, this study focused on the willingness of individuals with addiction (e.g., drugs, sex, weight, food, and codependency) at counseling facilities in a midwestern state to incorporate religion or spirituality in their counseling sessions.
Research Question 1: Are individuals with addiction willing for their counselor to include spiritual or religious issues in their counseling sessions: (a) Are individuals with addiction willing for their counselor to include spiritual or religious issues in their counseling sessions in general? (b) If the counselor’s religion or spirituality is different from the clients’ (those with addiction issues), but the counselor is knowledgeable about the clients’ religion or spirituality? (c) If the counselor’s religious or spiritual background is the same as the clients’ but the counselor is not knowledgeable about clients’ religion or spirituality?
Research Question 2: Do individuals with addiction issues tend to prefer (a) a counselor with the same religion/spirituality as them but not informed/knowledgeable about their religion or spirituality, (b) a counselor with a different religion from theirs but informed/knowledgeable about their religion/spirituality, or (c) neither of these.
Research Question 3: Does age, gender, education, or religion affect individuals’ (with addiction issues) willingness for their counselor to include religion/spiritual issues in their counseling sessions: (a) Does age, gender, education, or religion affect individuals’ (with addiction issues) willingness for their counselor to include religion/spiritual issues in their counseling sessions in general? (b) If the counselor’s religion or spirituality is different from the clients’ (those with addiction issues), but the counselor is knowledgeable about the clients’ religion or spirituality? (c) If the counselor’s religious or spiritual background is the same as the clients’ but the counselor is not knowledgeable about clients’ religion or spirituality?
Method
Participants were recruited from four facilities in a Midwestern state that serve individuals with addictions. Almost all of the participants were White (70.5%), followed by Blacks (22.19%), Hispanic (4.8%), and Asian (2%). In all, 80% were Christians, followed by Atheist (11%) and Muslims (1%), with ages (M = 43.84, SD = 11.11) ranging from 20 to 68. Of the 102 paper-based survey questionnaires distributed, 84 were usable.
Data Analysis
Descriptive statistic and logistic regression were used to analyze the data. Age, gender, religion, and education were entered into the regression model, and their effects were investigated with each of the outcome variables.
Results
For Research Question 1a, almost all of the participants (97.6%) were willing for their counselors to include spirituality in their counseling sessions. For Research Question 1b, 63.1% favored the inclusion of spirituality or religion in their counseling when the religion or spirituality of the counselor is different from theirs, but the counselor is knowledgeable about their religion or spirituality. For Research Question 1c, 73.8% were not willing to incorporate spirituality or religion in their session when the religion or spirituality of the counselor is the same as theirs, but the counselor is not knowledgeable about their religion. However, for Research Question 2, where participants were asked to choose among counselors who are of (a) the same religion/faith as theirs, but have limited knowledge about their religion, (b) different religion from them, but knowledgeable about their religion, and (c) neither of the above two options, 59.5% chose the second option, whereas 21.4% chose the third option and 13.1% chose the first option (5% of the sample did not respond to this question). That is, participants preferred counselors’ knowledge about their religion or spirituality over counselors’ religious background (by more than two to one).
Questions 3a, 3b, and 3c were analyzed using logistic regression, as shown in Table 1. Religion was significant for Question 3a (odds ratio = 10.74; 95% confidence interval [CI] = [1.22, 94.14]), and age (odds ratio = 1.06; 95% CI = [1.01, 1.12]) for Question 3b. For Research Question 3c, demographic and other variables—age (odds ratio = 0.96; 95% CI = [0.90, 1.01]), gender (odds ratio = 0.86; 95% CI = [0.28, 2.67]), education (odds ratio = 1.24; 95% CI = [0.41, 3.71]), and religion (odds ratio = 0.33; 95% CI = [0.03, 3.0])—were not significant. That is, the variables had no effect on individuals’ (with addiction) willingness for their counselor to include religion/spiritual issues in their counseling sessions (if the counselor’s religious or spiritual background is the same as the client’s but the counselor is not knowledgeable about the client’s religion or spirituality).
Logistic Regression Model for Clients’ Willingness
Discussion
The findings in this study are consistent with the findings of Rose, Westefeld, and Ansley (2001), who found that most clients were willing to incorporate spirituality into their counseling. In the current study, for participants’ willing to incorporate religion or spirituality into their counseling, counselors’ knowledge about the religion or spirituality of the clients were more important than the counselors’ religious background. Given this finding, training programs may want to consider helping preservice students learn about different religions and spirituality as they relate to counseling.
However, a small percentage (13.1) of participants preferred counselors of the same religious or spirituality background even if the counselor was not knowledgeable about their religion or spirituality (while we expect a person to be knowledgeable about his or her faith, it is not uncommon for a person to have little or no knowledge about his or her faith—for example, many nominal religious individuals). In certain cases, rehabilitation agencies may need to help clients get a choice of counselors who can benefit them, most preferably one with the same religious or spiritual background as the clients and who is knowledgeable about the clients’ religion or spirituality, especially for those clients who prefer only a counselor of the same religion or spiritual background, or agencies can refer clients (to a counselor of the same religious or spiritual background as the clients and one who is knowledgeable about the clients’ religion or spirituality).
That religion and age were significant was not surprising. Christians were more willing than non-Christians to include religion or spirituality into their counseling probably because integrating religion or spirituality into counseling in America is mostly done within Christian settings. For age, research has shown that age can influence people’s religious views. In particular, older people consider religion more important compared with younger generations according to a Pew Research (Salman, 2009).
Limitations
Generalizing to other populations is limited because a convenience sample with the following limitations was used: (a) the majority of the participants were Caucasian and Christian, (b) the sample size was small, and (c) the participants were all located in one medium size city and thus do not represent all persons with disabilities.
Directions for Further Research
The nonsignificant result for gender and education was unexpected. Research has shown that females are more religious than males (Vaus & McAllister, 1987) and therefore might be more willing to incorporate religion in their counseling. For education, one would think that those who have higher education might consider knowledge of counselors about the religion/spirituality of the client more important (in terms of helping a client who is interested in incorporating religion/spirituality in counseling) than those with lower education. These areas would be fruitful for further research. Researchers can replicate this study to see whether their results are the same or different from this study’s findings.
Footnotes
Acknowledgements
I would like to acknowledge Dr. Strohmer, the editor of the Rehabilitation Counseling Bulletin, Dr. Schwille, and Dr. Chan for their great feedbacks, and Trinity Church of Lansing/Celebrate Recovery. City Refuge of Lansing, and the other organizations that participated in this study.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.