Influences of spirituality on counselor selection

The influence of participants' spirituality on their choice of a counselor was investigated. Sixty-three university students completed the Human Spirituality Scale, which is a global measure of spirituality. Participants also completed the Counselor Description Questionnaire, which asked them to select 1 of 2 counselors with whom they would prefer to work on the basis of descriptions of the counselors' clinical approaches (1 including spirituality as an area of expertise). Quantitative analyses indicated that level of spirituality had no statistically significant effect on counselor preference; however, qualitative results suggested that a counselor described as competent in working with spiritual issues did influence some participants' preference for that counselor. The potential for spirituality is inherent in all human beings and is considered by many writers as essential to the counseling process (Benjamin & Looby, 1998; Chandler, Holden, & Kolander, 1992; Hinterkopf, 1994). Subsequently, the amount of attention the concept of spirituality has received in the field is increasing rapidly