ABSTRACT
There is very little hard evidence about how much spirituality is included in psychotherapy and counselling training programmes. Writing in a United States context, Pargament suggests that, in order for psychotherapists to practise spiritually integrated therapy, four elements are necessary: knowledge, openness and tolerance, self-awareness, and authenticity. In order to develop competence in the area of spirituality, trainees should be expected to explore their own spiritual journey and encouraged to engage with some form of spiritual practice as part of their personal development. Both Fowler and Jamieson offer models and frameworks which provide theoretical knowledge and understanding of the experience that some clients face when wrestling with spiritual issues. In order to integrate spirituality into psychotherapy training, the main requirement is a shift in attitude rather than the introduction of substantial amounts of theoretical material into the curriculum; this is not quite the same in the case of spiritual direction.
