Question: Professional Organizations and Counselor Competencies

As you have seen, the American Counseling Association has large regional associations and state associations that support the counseling profession through education, advocacy activities, and networking opportunities. You also saw that some ACA associations also promote specialized counseling competencies for working with particular clients.

The Association for Spiritual and Ethical Values in Counseling (ASERVIC) is one of these associations. In advocating for the importance of the Spiritual Competencies, ASERVIC has published a white paper, which is a report that presents a position and helps readers outside the organization understand a particular issue. Clients' spiritual beliefs are important for counselors to understand because they impact clients' world viewsâ€"the beliefs and assumptions people use to interpret the world around them.

Read this white paper and the ASERVIC competencies. Then, in your post, address the following:

• Create a hypothetical case in which you are seeing a client who has different spiritual beliefs and therefore a different worldview than you.

• Briefly describe the spiritual beliefs of your hypothetical client, and then briefly describe your own.

• Analyze how these differing spiritual beliefs and worldviews could impact both you and the client as you work together.

• Finally, identity three counseling competencies that you could use to bridge your differing views and beliefs in order to serve your client well.

Response Guidelines

Respond to two learners whose hypothetical client has a different belief system than you do. Compare the response you would have to the client with the response described by your peer, offering constructive ideas about additional spiritual competencies that might be important for the case.