Spirituality and Religion in Counseling Ethical Considerations

This workshop will provide an overview of recognized standards of practice. We will look at some factors involved in making ethical decisions: definitions of spirituality and religion, developmental and cultural variables, assessment, transformative experiences, the impact of trauma, the impact of human development and culture, and the place of spiritual/religious practices within the context of professional counseling.

In this training participants will become aware of professionally identified competencies and standards of practice related to spirituality and religion in counseling. You will also Identify areas where ethical dilemmas may arise when addressing spiritual and religious issues in counseling. Lastly, participants will be able to articulate components of an ethical decision-making model that may be applied to these issues when they arise.

John Yasenchak, Ed.D., LCPC, LADC is currently contributing faculty in the School of Counseling, Walden University. Previously, he served as Assistant Professor for Graduate Counseling, Husson University. Prior to that, he taught for many years in the Graduate Counselling program at the University of Maine, Orono. John has served as President of the Maine Counseling Association, Chair of the North Atlantic Region American Counseling Association, and is currently on the editorial board of Counseling and Values, the journal for the Association of Spiritual, Ethical, Religious, and Values Issues in Counseling. John began his teaching career as a philosophy instructor with a specialty in ethics. He has presented on digital ethics, posthumanism, spiritual/religious issues in the practice of counseling. John has been a student and teacher of yoga for over twenty-five years.