Some Comments on the Ethical Use of Religious and Spiritual Constructs in Clinical Practice

Abstract Religious and spiritual ( r / s ) issues are important to the counseling process. While valuable for understanding clients, their emergence in treatment carries many complex issues that can strain a counselor’s scope of practice. In response to this, the Association for Spiritual, Ethical, and Religious Values in Counseling ( aservic ) has developed a set of competencies for counselors to address r / s issues in an ethically competent manner. This paper identifies some limitations to these standards and identifies additional components of competent practice that should be addressed as these standards continue to be improved and better adapted to the realities of the clinical process.