ABSTRACT
Understanding your own spiritual preferences and how these are influenced by your personal and social history and context is a key aspect of being able to work effectively with others in this area. This chapter outlines how workers can use critically reflective processes to identify their own, often deeply unconscious assumptions and values in relation to spirituality and religion, tapping into the underlying meaning that influences how they engage with practice. The resulting awareness means workers are less likely to be unconsciously and unhelpfully biased in how they listen to their client's experiences and beliefs.
Critical reflection does take an ideological position, is not neutral ie connects to social justice and social change. The process though is one that encourages unearthing your own position and understanding it more deeply. Critical reflection also encourages stopping and asking the important questions of spirituality: what is the meaning of this for me? Why is it important? How does it connect with what is deeper in my life? There are several case studies in this chapter that illustrate how to use the process.
