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Using critically reflective practicewhen implementing ethical andsensitive spiritual frameworks in socialwork practiceMargaret Mary Holden aa Discipline of Social Work & Social Policy in the La Trobe RuralHealth School, La Trobe University, Bendigo, Victoria, AustraliaPublished online: 09 Nov 2011.

To cite this article: Margaret Mary Holden (2012) Using critically reflective practicewhen implementing ethical and sensitive spiritual frameworks in social work practice,Reflective Practice: International and Multidisciplinary Perspectives, 13:1, 65-76, DOI:10.1080/14623943.2011.626021

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Using critically reflective practice when implementing ethical andsensitive spiritual frameworks in social work practice

Margaret Mary Holden*

Discipline of Social Work & Social Policy in the La Trobe Rural Health School, La TrobeUniversity, Bendigo, Victoria, Australia

(Received 28 January 2011; final version received 20 September 2011)

Spirituality can be understood and expressed in many different ways. Due to theincreased interest in spirituality, there also is an increased need to support socialworkers in this area. This paper discusses findings from a qualitative researchproject conducted in 2008 of six social workers working in a large Australianregional centre who implement spirituality in their practices. The results high-light the importance of social work students and practitioners practising criti-cally reflective practice, which is underpinned by ethical and sensitiveframeworks when implementing spirituality informed practice.

Keywords: spirituality; critically reflective practice; ethical and sensitive frame-works

Introduction

The idea of researching a topic of interest, in this case spirituality, was strengthenedduring the second year of my social work degree when I studied Research Methods.I have always been a naturally curious type of person and this article, whichdescribes the process of my research journey, is a result of my curiosity about spiri-tuality and social work education and practice. My honours research projectrevealed a gap in both social work education and social work practice regardingspirituality and its associated factors. The following article also includes backgroundinformation about my interest in spirituality, findings from the literature review,how I approached the research project, my findings and finally, the implications forsocial work education and practice.

Background

While conducting the research I was conscious of how both my and my partici-pant’s personal experiences of spirituality had been influenced by socio cultural,historical and political contexts. I was also aware that most Australians probablyconsider Australia to be a Christian society. This is partly due to the historical influ-ence of migration by, for example, Anglo-Saxons, Greeks and Italians to Australiain the past. These groups brought with them Catholic and Protestant belief systemswhich have remained dominant in Australian society. Therefore, it is important to

*Email: margie.holden@humanservices.gov.au

Reflective PracticeVol. 13, No. 1, February 2012, 65–76

ISSN 1462-3943 print/ISSN 1470-1103 online� 2012 Taylor & Francishttp://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14623943.2011.626021http://www.tandfonline.com

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point out from the outset that Christianity has been recognised as the main religiousparadigm in Australia and that its influence has been experienced both on a globaland personal level. My research revealed that some forms of Christianity have notalways represented social justice and that vulnerable individuals and groups havesuffered under its power and control. Nevertheless, as shown in my research, Chris-tian spirituality like other forms of spirituality gives a sense of meaning and pur-pose to many people.

The research involved me interviewing six social workers who identified usingspirituality within their practice, which revealed an understanding, albeit limited, ofhow to implement spiritual practice within an ethical and sensitive framework. Spir-ituality will be defined as an individual’s personal experience as they explore mean-ing and purpose, which may include religious experience.

As a mature age social work student my interest in spirituality in social workwas further reinforced by some of the content of social work practice skills andknowledge containing spiritual components. Meinert (2009, p. 2) refers to thisinclusion as a ‘direct and pronounced fashion in the mid-1980s when informationabout religion and spirituality began to emerge in social work practice and educa-tion.’ He states that its inclusion ‘did not take place without a struggle.’ (Meinert,2009, p. 2). However in saying this, I was also aware of what Stewart (2009,p. 35) refers to, ‘the considerable conflict between the current social workworldview and that espoused by traditional Christianity.’ My personal values andChristian worldview are based on tolerance and inclusion, and what Gray andWebb (2010, p. 62) call ‘liberal-open’, that is, ‘faith is seen as a motivation foraction, but not necessarily as an essential part of that action,’ which then led meto question my ability when engaging with people from diverse spiritualtraditions. Each of these factors ignited a desire to research how social workersimplement spiritual practice with people from diverse spiritual and religiousgroups in ethical and sensitive ways.

During my four years while studying the Degree of Social Work the topics ofreligion and spirituality were rarely discussed. One reference I recall being madewas the importance of these topics in some people’s lives as they grapple with lifecrises and then attempt to make meaning of the crises. The point being made bythe lecturer was not to ignore religion and spirituality in our client’s lives. However,there was no further instruction or discussion around how social workers shouldmanage these topics or implement them within an ethical and sensitive frameworkduring practice. The class of social workers, me included, were left with an impor-tant point, but with no clear guideline or framework on its implementation. Thisexample is supported by Sheridan (2009, p. 99) when he states that ‘both socialwork practitioners and students are utilizing a substantial number of spirituallybased interventions, that workers’ personal spirituality is influential in interventionuse, that there is no evidence of adherence to specific ethical guidelines, and thatthe majority of social workers receive little or no instruction on religion and spiritu-ality in their professional programs.’

The Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW) Code of Ethics is akey document which outlines the core values and principles of the social workprofession. Importantly, it gives social work students and workers clear instructionon how to provide sound, ethical social work practice. At the time of myresearch, the last review of the AASW Code of Ethics was conducted in 1999.Approval was given at the June 2009 AASW Board meeting to conduct a review

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of the Code of Ethics (1999). The AASW Code of Ethics (1999) espouses idealsof relationship and humanistic and social ideals which could be seen as represen-tations of spirituality; however to ensure that the code remains relevant to theprofession and those it serves, the new code includes more spirituality-focusedcomponents.

For instance, one example in the AASW Code of Ethics (2010) is withinSection 5.1, its General ethical responsibilities, which outline Sub-section 5.1.2:Culturally competent, safe and sensitive practices. Part D states that ‘Social workerswill recognise, acknowledge and remain sensitive to and respectful of the religiousand spiritual world views of individuals, groups, communities and social networks,and the operations and missions of faith and spiritually-based organisations’(AASW Code of Ethics, 2010, p. 18).

Each of the factors discussed so far influenced my decision to formulate theresearch question: “How do social workers apply spiritual frameworks in ethicaland sensitive ways?”

Literature review

Researching what other people had written about religion and spirituality withinsocial work practice was done with relative ease. There was a plentiful amount ofliterature and articles written to draw on for the project, particularly internationalstudies from Britain, Canada and North America. However, there were few fromAustralian social work literature regarding spirituality. The most prominent authorsinternationally and nationally were taken from the disciplines of social work, socialscience, pastoral care, psychology and nursing. Interestingly, according to Rice(2002, p. 305) ‘overall, spirituality in Australian social work publications andresearch is still in its infancy.’

There are mixed views about including spirituality within social work practice.For instance, Canda and Furman (1999, p. 4) maintain that social work is ‘funda-mentally a spiritual profession, one that sets its reason for existence and its highestpriorities on service.’ Lindsay (2002, p. 18) mentions how social work’s Code ofEthics espouses ideals of relationship, mutuality and ‘humanistic and social ideals’each representing forms of spirituality. Whereas, Gray (2008, p. 181) sees thatsocial work has attempted to project an image which is secular and professionaland that it has endeavoured to ‘distance itself from its religious, moralistic rootsand to establish itself amongst the important and high-status “objective” profes-sions.’ Specht and Courtney (1994) in Guo and Tsui (2010, p. 238) argue that‘social work must distinguish itself from psychotherapy and build a meaning, a pur-pose and a sense of obligation.’ The notion that social work is more an art than ascience is referred to by Goldstein (2006) in Guo and Tsui (2010, p. 238), he statesthat ‘social work is an artistic and moral practice, and cannot be reduced to data fortechnicians.’ Other commentary from Lindsay (2002, p. 20) reveals a variation inthought, that social work is experiencing ‘an increasing recognition of the signifi-cance of the subjective’ and a ‘growing interest in understanding how people con-struct their world view,’ both being important factors as social workers engage withpeople.

The writers who researched religion and spirituality were careful to make thedistinction between these. That is, while reading the literature it was clear thatmost of these writers employed mindful and comprehensive definitions of the

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topics as these distinctions were made. Defining and distinguishing spirituality asbeing something very different to religion was part of this process. For instance,James (1902) cited in Tacey (2003, p. 138) saw ‘personal religion’ as spiritualityor the primary religious experience, where personal meaning and purpose aresought. And religion was considered the secondary phenomenon, ‘or a responseto spirituality,’ where formal, institutional responses may be involved, James(1902) cited in Tacey (2003, p. 138). Furthermore James (1902) cited in Tacey(2003, p. 138) states that spirituality and religion can be experienced quite sepa-rately, in that people can have one without the other, that some religious peoplemay not be spiritual and some spiritual people may have no connection withtraditional religion.

Other definitions saw religion as being something very different from spiritualitywere described as follows, for instance, unlike religion, spirituality is considered anelusive term and ‘lacks a clear, generally accepted definition’ (Hay & Nye, 1998)cited in Rumbold (2002). According to Park (2005, p. 725) ‘religion serves as asource of meaning for many people,’ however the ‘group of people who considerthemselves to be non-religious is growing rapidly’ and worldwide, ‘it is estimatedthat 768 million people consider themselves “non-believers” and some of thesenon-believers many consider themselves “spiritual but not religious.”’

Other writers considered that everyone has a spirituality, that it is either a positiveor negative influence and that it is ‘reflected in our everyday thoughts, feelings, andactions’ (Sperry & Shafranske, 2005, p. 3). People, including those with no religiousaffiliation continue to seek meaning in their lives. The notion of people seekingmeaning in their lives is described by Moore (2008, p. 17): ‘if you have a reason forbeing, you don’t feel entirely aimless. You know who you are and what to do. In aculture where existential anxiety – the worry that nothing is of value and nothingmakes sense – is still the order of the day, these are valuable realisations.’ Tacey(2003, p. 4) describes this enquiry as ‘about finding the sacred everywhere, and notjust where religious traditions have asked us to find it.’ Bouma (2006, p. 12)describes the spiritual experience as one that ‘can be done alone and often is.’

There were many social work writers and researchers in this particular field whosuggested that religion and spirituality have a valid place within social work prac-tice. However, they also recognised the importance of implementing them withinsound ethical frameworks. It was those writers whom I drew my information fromregarding religion and spirituality within social work practice. Gale, Bolzan, andMcRae-McMahon (2007, p. xx) reported that the helping professions are experienc-ing a ‘growing number of people bringing spiritual issues to the helping relation-ship, challenging the exclusion of those issues from dominant professionaldiscourse.’ One remarkable statement made by Tacey (2003, p. 3) regarded how thecurrent ‘spirituality revolution’ is impacting various disciplines. He states, ‘publichealth, social work and psychology are now facing a crisis situation, where secular-trained therapists are no longer sure how to respond to this new and urgent cry forspiritual meaning.’ Furthermore, the surge in people’s enquiry and engagement inspirituality and traditional religious beliefs including ‘non-Western faith traditions’is leaving many helping professionals feeling ‘ill-prepared to respond to these newdemands’ (Gale et al., 2007, p. xx).

The main strength of my project was its exploration of an area which hasreceived little attention in Australian social work practice and education. Myresearch addressed a topic which is considered highly relevant and important to

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many Australian people. As I considered how to collect a sample of social workerpractitioners who apply spiritual practice, I felt it important to define spirituality inan inclusive way and that it was understood as an individual’s personal experienceas they explore meaning and purpose, which may include religious experience.

Methodology

Qualitative investigation was employed because it aims to extract the ‘contextua-lised nature of experience and action’ and its analysis attempts to produce ‘thickand integrative’ interpretations which relate to ‘larger meaning systems and pat-terns,’ which are each beneficial during the research process (Liamputtong Rice &Ezzy, 1999, p. 1). It also places an emphasis on the need to ‘both describe andunderstand people’ (Liamputtong Rice & Ezzy, 1999, p. 4) and is interested inseeking depth and texture of meaning, understanding and interpretation of wordsand language (Burns, 2000). Qualitative research was considered useful for this par-ticular research project because of its ability to reveal ‘contextual sensitivity’ whenstudying social reality within ‘naturally occurring data’ which ‘statistics cannotmeasure’ (Silverman, 2006, p. 43).

Qualitative description was also used because the study had as its goal a ‘com-prehensive summary of events in the everyday terms of those events’ (Sandelowski,2000, p. 334). The straightforward description of a particular phenomenon – in thiscase, how social workers apply spiritual perspectives within practice – was chosenas part of the methodology (Sandelowski, 2000). This approach was thought helpfulbecause in ‘qualitative descriptive studies, language is a vehicle of communication,’where the researcher remains ‘closer to their data and to the surface of words andevents’ than researchers using other approaches where a more interpretive slant isapplied such as in phenomenological or ethnographic studies (Sandelowski, 2000,p. 336).

The epistemological basis of my research, or its ‘justification of knowledge’(Carter & Little, 2007, p. 1317), was underpinned by social constructionism: theunderstanding that different people construct meaning in different ways (Crotty,2003). Crotty (2003, p. 58) suggests that social constructionism ‘emphasises thehold our culture has on us,’ that culture influences our thoughts, values and beliefs.In this context, because contemporary culture’s emphasis is on materialism and hashigh regard for the ‘physical world and its tangible objects,’ and spirituality is asso-ciated with the non-physical world, the research project assisted with exploring themeaning that people gave to their spiritual and religious experience (McManusHolroyd, 2007, p. 1).

The research project’s ontological basis, or as Payne (2005, p. 199) defines it‘the way in which we think of what it is like to be human’ is realism. In this sense,reality is considered to be subjective depending on the understanding of a phenome-non (Crotty, 2003); people will construct their unique meaningful realities.

A combination of purposive and snowball sampling was used because the studyaimed to interview participants who were closely involved with the topic and itwas considered that a two-pronged approach would increase opportunities to locatethese particular participants (Alston & Bowles, 2003). Purposive and snowball sam-pling were also chosen because sampling in qualitative research aims to ‘describethe process in the phenomenon, rather than its distribution,’ in other words it ‘gen-eralises about the nature and interpretative processes involved in the experiences’

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and not the ‘distribution of experiences or processes’ (Liamputtong Rice & Ezzy,1999, p. 42).

The sampling process began by me approaching two people from my existingnetworks. These two people were asked to pass on the information about the projectto others they considered might be interested and who were familiar with applyingspiritual perspectives within social work practice. These people were asked to con-tact me if they were interested in being part of the study. During recruitment Iaimed to have mixed gender representation when seeking participants by attemptingto recruit both men and women. However, there were only women interested inbeing part of the study, possibly because of the gender representation in the helpingprofessions. All six participants were qualified social work practitioners and wereinterviewed as individual workers from social work practice and not as representa-tives of particular organisations.

Data collection involved face-to-face semi-structured interviews with an inter-view schedule (sub-questions) which guided the structure of the interview. Theinterviews took approximately an hour, were audio-taped and were conductedduring the months of June and July in 2008. Data analysis began during these inter-views where I started to gain an understanding of common themes that began toemerge from the data (Sarantakos, 1998). There were two main stages of data anal-ysis. In the first, I made personal notes of what I considered were the emergingthemes. The second stage involved transcribing the tape recordings; this resulted ina verbatim written version of the one hour semi-structured interviews. Finaltranscriptions had all identifying material deleted. After transcription the methodused for analysis was ‘open coding where a word by word, line by line’examination took place with the goal of locating themes in the text (Grbich, 1999,p. 130).

Findings from the research

The findings were categorised into two main themes. Firstly, client-related spiritual-ity with sub-themes of the client’s understandings of spirituality and the spiritualissues clients bring to social work practice. Secondly, social worker related spiritual-ity with sub-themes of the social worker’s personal spirituality, the influence of theorganisational setting and the challenges experienced by social workers when apply-ing their perspectives of spirituality in practice.

All participants identified clients’ understandings of spirituality as holding differ-ent meanings for different people. They all stated that there were times when clientsbrought spiritual matters for discussion and it was estimated that this occurs aboutten to 30 per cent of the time during interviews. All of the participants felt that itwas important to hear and understand clients’ different appreciations of spirituality.

The types of issues that clients brought to the interview were closely associatedwith experiences of physical and emotional suffering and distress. The notion of cli-ents trying to understand and find meaning during experiences of personal hardshipemerged. Loss and grief issues were part of these discussions along with feelings ofanger and/or loss of faith in belief systems such as Christianity.

My project revealed the misuse of power experienced by clients from leaders intraditional religious institutions. One of the participants spoke of the religious basisof the agency she worked for and how a client had come to learn of this factorduring the initial assessment process. The client became, ‘. . . very concerned due to

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some pretty bad experiences with that church . . . which was very damaging evenmany years later, you know thirty years later . . .’ The worker was able to refer thisperson to a different agency.

Several of the participants understood clients’ spiritual issues as being connectedwith the lack of spirituality in models of helping, such as within social work prac-tice. Lesley explained: ‘Spirituality is not considered as part of the human experi-ence, we’ve done people a disservice because you can sort of be spiritually bereft. . . you can fix the wound, you can fix the broken arm . . . but if you don’t get tothe core of what is happening for that person all of those are only Band-aidsolutions.’

The second main theme of social worker related spirituality was divided into twomain groups among the interviewees, with three identifying as practising Christiansand the remaining three identifying as having strong spiritual values but not havingany association with particular religious beliefs. The three who practised Christianityspoke about their convictions and reliance on their faith as they practised socialwork. These three social workers all worked in traditional church-based agencies.The other participants described having a personal code of ethics, values, meaningand purpose in life as spirituality where expressions and language used were perhapsmore inclusive, global and non-specific in regards to particular belief systems. Theseworkers worked within a large government setting.

The influence of the organisational setting was identified by the participants.The lack of time to include spirituality in practice was one factor raised. Anotherfactor was the demand that some agencies place on workers to work ‘within a cer-tain way.’ Explanations were given of how the orientation process in some agenciesis very strong and how when workers attempt to integrate spiritual perspectives inpractice these ideologies ‘almost get squished out of you.’ Other comments includedthe impact of the organisation toward spiritual practice, ‘. . . because this is not done. . . and I think it’s a bit of a taboo and don’t go there subject . . . and you know . . .it’s a bit of a hot topic . . . you know politics and religion . . . and you just don’ttouch those things . . .’

The challenges that participants spoke about when applying their spiritual per-spectives in practice revealed the potential ethical dilemmas that may occur associal workers implement spiritual practice. For instance, five of the six participantsmentioned their concern about the possibility of them imposing their own spiritualvalues and beliefs in three specific ways. The first was the question of whetherworkers should bring up spirituality with clients. If this occurred, the second ques-tion was how the worker can then open up this type of discussion without beingtempted to include their own spiritual values and beliefs. For instance, ‘. . . and it’saround that stuff of what to disclose and what not to disclose and use of self insocial work . . . I try to be careful about what information I give but be honest if Ican . . .’ Finally, using strategies when connecting with clients, such as spiritual-type language which is non-biased and non-value-laden. Some examples included,‘. . . it’s always about their beliefs . . . as long as you’re on guard about your own. . .’; ‘. . . you have to get that indication from the clients first . . . that they’re opento that . . . and also too you have to be very careful as to your suggestions . . . youcan’t be openly pushing them in one way or another . . .’, and ‘I still find it quiteawkward in some ways because I don’t want to impose my beliefs on them . . .’

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Implications for social work education and practice

Clearly, the results suggest that more preparation and education is needed for socialwork students in the area of spirituality. This type of instruction is needed in thesocial work curriculum so that potential social workers do not impose their personalspiritual values on others during practice. The second reason for its inclusion is sothat social workers at least consider the spiritual needs of clients, not assuming thatit is not possible or important to talk about religious or spiritual issues during prac-tice. It is important for workers to have strategies in place so that when confrontedwith unfamiliar religious or spiritual values and systems, they are able to managethese ethically and sensitively. It is also important for social workers to have oppor-tunities for critical reflective practices regarding difficult issues to be included intosupervision in their workplaces.

During my social work training there was a strong focus on identifying and rec-ognising personal value judgements, their source and the impact these may have onpractice frameworks. Even so, Crompton (1996, p. 4) reminds us, ‘to talk aboutreligion and spirituality is for many people as embarrassing as talking about sex,death or money.’ For this and other reasons stated, workers who hold spiritualbeliefs and values and who want to apply spiritual practice, an ethical and sensitiveframework is needed. And for those workers who are not as interested in applyingspiritual practice but are confronted with a client who wants to discuss spiritualmatters, they too need an ethical and sensitive framework which is also supportiveand user-friendly for the worker. Clearly, both types of workers could be potentiallysupported with appropriate frameworks.

For workers who want to apply spiritual practice in the best possible way sothey don’t impose personal spiritual values and beliefs, a practice framework isrequired. An idea is a framework which challenges and guides workers when theyare considering raising spirituality with clients. If an easily accessible tool is avail-able, one which will prompt workers to question their motives for having thoughtthat spirituality requires being included in the interview, clients are more likely tobe protected. Therefore the importance of having such frameworks for both types ofworkers which are easily accessible and involve critical reflective practice ishighlighted.

Within this conversation, the question needs to be asked: ‘where does the placeof personal experience come from within reflective practice literature?’ And whenthinking about spiritual practice, how can social workers’ personal experiences ofspirituality be used to help build knowledge for social work practice? One of myopening statements was that I was conscious of how my and the participant’s per-sonal experiences regarding spirituality had been influenced by sociocultural, histor-ical and political contexts. Because of this reality, the place of spiritual beliefs andvalues within social work practice needs to be recognised. Gardner (2011, p. 61)expands on this and reminds us when implementing spiritual practice that ‘balanc-ing acceptance of diversity with not accepting spirituality that is abusive or deniesdiversity in others’ is important. An example of this type of tension that can arisefor social workers is shown in Smith-Osborne and Rosenwald’s (2009) research.They conducted research in 2003 where data from a random sample of 294 socialworkers suggested that ‘social workers with stronger religious/spiritual affiliationshad less support for lesbian and gay rights legislation and abortion rights.

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Those who were more conservative in political ideology indicated less supportfor gay rights legislation and more support for the death penalty, while those whowere more liberal were more supportive of abortion rights’ (Smith-Osborne &Rosenwald, 2009, p. 393). The following paragraph will explore this type of tensionthat social workers may experience during practice.

Critical social theory challenges the power and control that the dominant rulinggroups, such as religious and spiritual traditions, exercise. It also challenges oppres-sion in all its forms; that is, from the structural, interpersonal and personal (Fook,2003). With this in mind it seems that we are seeing a shift in people’s thinkingwhen it comes to belief systems and spirituality. Historically, religious institutionshave been prescriptive and have told us how to practice our spirituality and what tobelieve (Tacey, 2003). Gardner (2011, p. 19) explores this and writes, ‘in a tradi-tional approach, religion is seen as providing answers to meaning of life questions.Individuals are generally not expected – or sometimes, not seen as able – todevelop their own answers to these.’ However, it is evident that people are nowsearching for their ‘own “truth” from their own internal search for meaning andtheir experience of the spiritual’ (Gardner, 2011, p. 20). It is important, therefore,that the social work curriculum provides a safe and respectful space for students tocritically analyse personal spiritual values and beliefs. This space will provide aforum for development and insight into how structural and political processes havehelped form and influenced current values and belief systems.

Fook and Gardner (2007, p. 27) discuss the benefits of practising critical reflec-tion such as ‘searching for discrepancies between implicit and explicit assumptionsand for researching the unarticulatable – hidden and difficult to measure practice.’This notion is relevant as workers consider applying spiritual practice but want toact ethically and sensitively during practice. Fook and Gardner (2007, p. 17) talkabout their approach to critical reflection and use the term ‘unsettling individualassumptions to bring about social change.’ In order for students and workers to getthe most from critical reflection, they suggest that ‘there needs to be a degree ofdiscomfort or unease in order to motivate learning’ (Fook & Gardner, 2007, p. 17).Ghaye (2007, p. 155) refers to this type of discomfort during reflective practice as apotential challenge, that is, ‘emotional labour’ for social work students and workersas they are asked to be totally honest as they reflect. When firmly held values andbeliefs are critically examined through a reflective lens, the potential for newinsights and learning, although perhaps initially unsettling, is made possible.

When students and workers engage in this type of reflection it creates a forumwhere not only spiritual assumptions, values and beliefs are analysed and critiquedbut also all other assumptions, values and beliefs. This then provides a space wherestudents and workers can become more comfortable with these ‘unarticulatable’ top-ics which are ‘hidden and difficult to measure’ (Fook & Gardner, 2007, p. 27). Anexample of this type of approach is described by one of the participants and shereferred to students’ and workers’ personal spirituality and says, ‘. . . being able tosit comfortably yourself as well, and I wonder if a part of that is having your ownstuff, your own spirituality firmed up, I mean it’s never completely firmed up, butsomewhat deal with it beforehand so that you’ve done that exploration or you’redoing it . . .’

One of the participants mentioned the lack of education within the social workcurricula regarding preparing students in this area and states: ‘. . . it’s very confront-ing for workers who may never have explored their own inner core or inner being

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let alone feel comfortable about talking to other people about it . . .’ When socialwork students and/or workers are confronted with spiritual issues such as spiritualabuse, Northcut (2004, p. 353) highlights the importance of including ethics whenintroducing spirituality in social work education and how to manage ‘belief systemsthat pose a danger to self or others.’ An example could be female clients who livein traditional family settings where patriarchal values consider the female role asbeing subservient which is ‘consistent with certain conservative beliefs that adhereto a literal interpretation of their scripture’ (Northcut, 2004, p. 353). More conserva-tive social work students who hold religious/spiritual values may find this accept-able, however more liberal minded students who also hold religious/spiritual valuesmay consider this a form of spiritual abuse within families. Postmodernism suggeststhat ‘students should be exposed to multiple perspectives of truth,’ in order to ‘stim-ulate thinking in the classroom, in supervision and in practice’ (Northcut, 2004,p. 353).

To facilitate this type of spiritual exploration and reflective preparation for socialwork practice for social work students Ghaye (2007, p. 159) suggests the use of areflective portfolio where ‘principled behaviours’ can be applied as building blocksas personal records and reflections are documented. To ensure workers workethically by not imposing their own values on others, and for ‘blind spots’ to becritically reflected upon, this type of reflective preparation may potentially benefitboth workers and clients (Northcut, 2004, p. 351). This type of spiritual explorationcould also prepare students and workers ‘learn how to listen for spiritual themes inclient narratives’ (Northcut, 2004, p. 349).

Another good starting point could be what Ekebergh (2009, p. 53) discusseswhen she raises the concept of students’ and workers’ ‘lifeworld approach’ anddraws on Husserl (1970, 1998), which emphasises the ‘learner’s learning attitude,experiences and embodied understanding,’ that is, the ‘platform for learning andreflection is “the lifeworld”’ (Ekebergh, 2009, p. 53). During social work practice,workers, when faced with heavy case loads and excessive organisational demands,may not be consciously analysing what they are experiencing, resulting in their‘natural attitude’ being ‘basically unreflective’ (Ekebergh, 2009, p. 53). If studentsand workers who want to apply spiritual practice combine this with critical reflec-tion, they are given the opportunity to question their ‘existing meanings, value setsand approaches,’ which may result in discoveries and reconsiderations of new ver-sions of experiences and attitudes (Ekebergh, 2009, p. 53). Gardner (2011, p. 71)describes these types of processes as enabling ‘workers to live creatively with thetensions of spiritual practice’ such as ‘engaging with contradictions and uncertain-ties.’ Rumbold (2002) cited in Gardner (2011, p. 62) sees it as being about ‘knowl-edge, but equally about what we do not know . . . about belief but equally aboutdoubt.’ These ideas may support and strengthen social work students’ and workers’skills and knowledge as they intervene with clients around the topics of religionand spirituality.

Conclusion

This discussion has shown that spirituality can be understood and expressed inmany different ways. The findings from my research project and the literature bothconfirm that the increased interest in spirituality has resulted in people bringingissues of a spiritual nature to the profession of social work.

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The other important consideration is that those social workers who have per-sonal spiritual values and beliefs and who apply spiritual practice require support inhow they manage this application. In particular, critical reflective practice whichincludes spirituality and is underpinned by ethical and sensitive frameworks wouldassist students, workers and clients.

My first appointment as a social worker within a large government organisation,where I am still employed, has demonstrated that at least some clients are assistedwhen their personal religion or spiritual beliefs are incorporated as a resource orstrength during the interview and helping process. By reflecting on and then apply-ing some of the information gained from my research project I am able to engagewith people who use religion or spirituality in everyday life, particularly as theystruggle with difficult issues. However, at times I am concerned that I may bepotentially failing to act professionally because my social work training did not pre-pare me for this type of intervention. My added feelings of responsibility to clientsact in conjunction with this. As Sheridan (2009, p. 115) found in his 2008 study ofsocial workers who use spiritual interventions, ‘most participants were not basingtheir decisions on ethical principles, with the majority of responses either goingbeyond or falling below guidelines in terms of both personal comfort and opinionsregarding ethical use.’ He continues that ‘both over- and under-utilization of variousactivities can result in unethical and ineffective practice’ (Sheridan, 2009, p. 115).

There are clear implications here for social work education in the areas of spiri-tuality and religious matters. Social work education needs to include skills andknowledge about spiritual and religious issues as well as training to ensure that stu-dents and workers can reflect critically on their own experience and the potentialimpact of this on clients. Such training would support and ensure that socialworkers work ethically and sensitively with their clients when they apply spiritualpractice.

Notes on contributorMargaret Mary Holden completed the Bachelor of Social Work and Social Policy withHonours and the Bachelor of Human Services in 2009 and graduated from La TrobeUniversity, Bendigo, Victoria, Australia in 2010. She is currently working full time as asocial worker in a large Australian government organisation.

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