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Spiritually Diverse Counseling
Are you searching for a non-Christian counselor in Northwest Arkansas who will honor your views or spiritual path?
The tapestry of who you are is woven together by many threads such as age, race, ethnicity, sexuality, gender, income level, ability, and more. This also includes the things that inspire you, uplift you, and generally make you say "wow" when you look out at the world around you. How you experience yourself in the world, and the world around yourself, deserves to be included in your healing journey.
But what do you do when the path you follow is different from the mainstream? How can you find a therapist who will not only "accept" those differences but be open to including them as part of the things that support you in your work together? What if you're questioning your religion and worry about finding a therapist who is open to your questions and exploration?
This is challenging enough when your path is more familiar to people but not well understood. Searching online for secular counseling or even non-Christian counseling in Arkansas might not find a lot in your area. You might be nervous to identify that you are Jewish, Muslim, or Buddhist. You might worry that a therapist will push a particular view on you if you reveal you are agnostic or atheist.
Do you identify as Pagan, Wiccan, Druidic, Luciferian, or such? Sharing this with your therapist can be intimidating enough that you might keep it to yourself even though it may offer important things that support you. While many therapists will acknowledge the value of something like prayer with some clients, they may dismiss other practices such as chanting, ritual, or Tarot.
These things deserve to be acknowledged, celebrated, and included in ways that support your counseling.
Counseling is first and foremost always driven by "empirically-supported best practices." That means the theories, tools, and techniques used in counseling are considered appropriate for a clinical setting. Spiritual tools and practices often include elements that cannot be ethically proposed by counselors in a clinical setting because they are not easily studied by scientific research.
However, there are a number of practical benefits that many spiritual practices can offer that can be incorporated into a person's regular routine and healing journey. These include:
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Mindful focus on the present, which has been shown to help reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression.
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A different way of looking at your problems.
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A regular routine of self-care.
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Ideas for alternative solutions.
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The power of metaphor to simplify your concept of your problems.
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A sense of connection to the world and others around you.
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Possibilities for building community.
Mindfulness has been studied quite a bit for counseling. So much so that mindfulness-based counseling is a recognized practice, and influences a lot of the work at MoonPath Counseling when clients find it helpful. Many spiritual practices provide great tools for mindfulness practice, which can help a person learn to unhook from their thoughts and feelings and come into the moment.
But these practices must be brought up by the client, and that's hard to do when you worry about what your therapist will think of you if you share these with them.
"Is it okay to contact you if I'm Christian?"
Yes! Spiritual diversity includes all spiritual paths and I have worked with many clients for whom their Christian faith is an important part of their journey, whether it's part of what supports them or a process of religious deconstruction. I simply created this page to highlight that MoonPath Counseling is open to and supportive of people from spiritual backgrounds who might worry about being treated poorly by therapists who have a lot of misconceptions around things like Paganism, Tarot, and ritual due to the therapist's own spiritual outlook or lack of understanding of how to incorporate these in clinically appropriate ways.
At MoonPath Counseling, your spiritual views and practices will be respected as part of who you are as a complete person.
I have worked with clients from many different backgrounds who considered their spiritual practices an important part of their mental health and overall wellbeing. Together, we identified the clinical benefits of their practices so that they could apply them with intention that was focused on learning how to honor their emotions, manage their thoughts, and modify their behaviors. This also sometimes included elements of religious deconstruction or dealing with religious trauma from their past.
Your spirituality is an important part of who you are. The things that help you feel uplifted, connected to the world around you, and give you a way to let go of your uncomfortable thoughts and feelings to be in the here and now can be powerful tools in your therapy.
You deserve a therapist who will not just "accept" these things about you, but will honor them and be open to how they might be a part of your healing journey. Click the button below to contact me to see if we might be a good fit for the work you want to do that honors all parts of who you are.
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