LIBERTY UNIVERSITY JOHN W. RAWLINGS SCHOOL OF DIVINITY
Measuring Christian Integration in Professional Counseling Practice and the Contributions of
Spiritual Formation and Mentoring
A Paper Submitted to
the Faculty of the School of Divinity
in Candidacy for the Degree of
Doctor of Education in Christian Leadership (Ed. D) Department of Christian Leadership and
Church Ministries
By
Mary Gracias
Lynchburg, Virginia
7/2022
Counselors often desire to integrate Christian faith into their clinical practice. Due to sparse
research, it is unclear to what extent and in what form this occurs. While integrating has no
common prescription, Christians continue to integrate in various forms (Eck, 1996; E. L.
Johnson, 2011; Walker et al., 2005). Scholarly dialogue has produced divergent views and lines
of research regarding integration that span philosophical frameworks to tangible evidence-
based models (Devers, 2013; E. L. Johnson, 2011; Terrell, 2007; Worthington et al., 2013). In
this context, a thick dialogue has emerged concerning counselor preparation and the facilitation
of integration (e.g., Burton & Nwosu, 2003; M. E. Hall et al., 2009).
Student spiritual formation and mentoring relationships have been espoused as integral to
developing a capacity to integrate (M. E. Hall et al., 2009; Sorenson et al., 2004; Strawn &
Hammer, 2013; Walker et al., 2005). But do spiritual formation and mentoring relationships
demonstrate a similar impact on practicing counselors’ integration? To answer this question, a
holistic measure of integration is required. This study offers one such measure and assesses
counselor satisfaction and activity of integration in clinical practice. Subsequently, the impact of
spiritual formation and prior mentoring relationships on integration are analyzed.
Christian counselors and integration
Scholars have debated if integration requires observable action, or if it is an internal reality
for the counselor. For instance, Terrell (2007) suggested integration is explicit simply in the act
of loving a client incarnationally. Yet E. L. Johnson (2011) contends this understanding of
integration is to perform secular therapy with a profound Christian metaphor applied to its
veneer. It is more accurate to suggest a Christian’s worldview is an orienting belief system
about health and well-being, and therefore integration is embedded in the Christian who
counsels (Entwistle, 2009; E. L. Johnson, 2011).
This is indicative of a larger debate and general concern with just measuring integration as
a set of explicit behaviors. Furthermore, a belief system that accords with God’s design also
forms what Woltersdorff (1984) called control beliefs, which dictate further interpretation and
response (cited in Lawrence et al., 2005). Therefore, various authors have suggested how to
relate the science of psychology with faith. For example, E. L. Johnson (2010) captured the five
views, of which integration is one of the five. The term can also be used as a moniker for the
larger discussion of bringing Christian faith into counseling and that is how the term integration
is used in this investigation.
Tangible expressions of integration spring forth from internal convictions about the relation
of counseling, faith, people, our profession, and more (Greggo, 2016). Moon (1997) outlines
specific areas of integrative expression: practical integration (utilizing techniques), personal
integration (inner life of the therapist), classical integration/soul care (learning from spiritual
forefathers), and contemporary integration (utilizing research and adhering to professional
guilds). Gingrich and Worthington (2007) highlight similarly broad categories. Clearly, reducing
integration to explicit Christian techniques is reductionistic and integration activity contains
both internal (thoughts and experience) and external (practical outworking) phenomenon
(Devers, 2013; Greggo, 2016; M. E. Hall et al., 2009; Jones, 2006). Walker et al. (2005) have
previously reviewed factors that influence counselors’ use of explicit integration, finding
personal religiousness and clinical training influential. However, they did not investigate
internal aspects of integration.
Counselor training: Spiritual formation and mentoring
Clinical training literature has identified core factors that facilitate propositional and
personal integration learning: (a) counseling knowledge, (b) theological
knowledge/appreciation, (c) spiritual formation, and (d) relationally thick contexts for learning
(mentoring and supervision) (Greggo, 2016; M. E. Hall et al., 2009; Moon, 2012; Scott, 2018;
Sorenson et al., 2004). This literature has generated a comprehensive reflection on the
necessary factors to facilitate growth across elements of integration which are reviewed
momentarily. An equally complex appraisal of clinical practice has not occurred.
Multiple voices discuss the crucial role of spiritual formation in the co-mingled process of
forming a Christian’s identity, spirituality, and clinical skill (Greggo, 2016; Moon, 2012; Strawn &
Hammer, 2013; Tan, 2001). Spiritual formation includes the degree to which convictions are
shaped, that lead to lived expressions of Christian faith and virtue (Greggo, 2016; Roberts,
1997). This occurs as a personal experience of being beloved by God shapes convictions and
alters the core beliefs that orient a counselor’s engagement with clients (Greggo, 2016; Scott,
2018). In short, spiritual formation alters the counseling expression (integration) of counselors.
The question remains whether this integration is seen primarily through internal use of
Christian resources or explicitly through counseling actions.
Similarly, mentoring has been recognized in counselor development, with Sorenson et al.
(2004) suggesting integration is more caught than taught and Sites et al. (2009) provide
relational examples. A groundbreaking set of studies over 10 years by Sorenson et al. (2004),
concludes, “The way students learn integration is through relational attachment with mentors
who model that integration for students personally” (p. 363). Affect-laden bonds between
faculty-mentors and students within the environmental context appear to influence the
learning of integration (Ripley et al., 2009). Furthermore, supervisors have been identified as
key mentors that model and explicitly support integration (Barto, 2018; Walker et al., 2008).
Humble mentors who live and breathe integration through conceptual and experiential
integration appear formative for counselors (M. E. Hall et al., 2009, p. 23; T. W. Hall & Porter,
2004).
Satisfaction and activity with holistic integration
Given a prior focus on explicit integration activity, a holistic consideration of a counselor’s
integration is warranted. This study assesses the following six elements of integration: (a)
explicit interventions, (b) internal thought and reflection, (c) consistency in lived expression
according to core beliefs, (d) learning about integration, (e) the use of a model, and (f) reliance
upon intuitive convictions (Gingrich & Worthington, 2007; Greggo, 2016; E. L. Johnson, 2011;
McMinn et al., 2009; Moon, 1997).
All of these aspects of integration manifest to various degrees and impact counselors’
ability to address the spiritual needs of clients. When client needs are addressed accurately,
counselors avoid values conflicts, and reduce internal dissonance that can lead to burnout and
distress (Barto, 2018; Holaday et al., 1994; Tan, 2009). However, counselors differ in their
satisfaction and activity with each of the elements of integration above. It is hypothesized that
these differences relate to spiritual formation and prior mentoring. This study opens up
counselors’ offices by assessing to what extent spiritual formation and mentoring relationships
contribute to activity and satisfaction with integration across the six elements above (12 total
elements as the six are repeated for satisfaction and activity).
References
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