The social work profession is predominantly focused on promoting social justice for individuals and communities. This takes many forms, ranging from advocacy to counseling, but all efforts point to a common theme of helping people live healthy, socially adjusted lifestyles. This often means engaging every facet of a person’s identity, including spirituality.
Spirituality in social work is important both for social workers themselves and for the clients with whom they work. In a 2020 study, the Fetzer Institute found that, at least to some extent, 86% of the respondents identified as spiritual. As a factor in so many people’s lives, spirituality is something that social workers need to acknowledge when they’re working with their clients. Knowing how spirituality and social work intersect is important for anyone pursuing an online Master of Social Work degree and who wants to provide services to clients in the most effective manner.
The Role of Spirituality in Social Work
It’s important to understand that conversations around spirituality in social work practice aren’t about a specific religion. Instead, incorporating spirituality into social work practice is about helping clients to explore the spiritual aspect of their person and help them along a journey of personal discovery that can promote healing and healthy living. Doing this is increasingly recognized as a critical element of social work.
In many ways, spiritual issues are becoming a key talking point in the social work profession, as ignoring spirituality is neglecting a major component of many people’s lives. However, many social workers don’t feel prepared to initiate or participate in these conversations. In some cases, it may be because of a lack of formal training on the topic. For that reason, courses on spirituality and social work can be instrumental in providing care and furthering the profession.
Why Spirituality Matters in Social Work
As a 2019 article in the Journal of Sociology and Social Work notes, the social work profession has increasingly recognized spirituality as an important element in developing an understanding of the whole person. Gaining knowledge about clients’ spirituality can enhance a social worker’s understanding of clients’ potential for development. Conversely, not incorporating spirituality into social work can limit how social workers view their clients’ strengths.
In weaving spirituality into their practice, social workers are better equipped to implement a holistic approach that can empower their clients and open up new possibilities for clients to grow and succeed.
2 Ways to Apply Spirituality into Social Work
Social workers can work to apply spirituality in their practice both by strengthening their personal approaches to spirituality and by working to incorporate spirituality into the ways in which they assess and work with their clients.
Social Workers Can Choose to Strengthen Their Own Spirituality
The 2019 Journal of Sociology and Social Work article cited above suggests that social workers can elect to strengthen their personal spirituality through approaches such as:
- Meditating
- Practicing forgiveness
- Praying
- Reading religious books
- Reflective journaling
- Practicing yoga
A 2019 article in The New Social Worker noted that social workers who build a strong personal foundation in areas such as self-care and spiritual practices can serve as models for their clients.
Social Workers Can Assess Clients’ Spirituality and Incorporate the Results into Treatment Objectives
Research publisher EBSCO notes that social workers can conduct biopsychosocial-spiritual assessments of their clients to gain an understanding of how clients’ spirituality affects their well-being. These types of assessments can include activities such as:
- Interviewing clients to obtain information regarding their personal sense of spirituality
- Using screening tools such as the World Health Organization’s Quality of Life scale, which can help highlight clients’ spiritual beliefs and practices
- Reviewing client case records to identify past treatment efforts and their success
- Performing direct observation of clients to better understand how clients interact with others
After a social worker gathers information about a client’s spirituality, the social worker can use that information when identifying the best treatment objectives for the client.
Benefits of Spirituality in Social Work
The benefits of incorporating spirituality into social work can be significant. As EBSCO notes:
- Having knowledge of how clients’ spirituality affects their sense of well-being is critical in improving social workers’ ability to design services and treatment that have the highest potential for helping clients.
- When social workers take the time to learn about their clients’ spirituality, clients feel better understood and are more inclined to consistently participate in their service and treatment plans.
- Incorporating spirituality into social work can build trust between social workers and their clients and, therefore, strengthen their therapeutic relationships.
What to Expect from a Course on Spirituality in Social Work
Courses on spirituality in social work cover topics such as:
- How to initiate and respond to conversations around spiritual matters in a healthy way. This can be a complicated matter, as social workers must develop strategies to listen to and support clients while ensuring that they remain professional and clinical in how their personal beliefs influence these conversations.
- How to engage in areas of social work practice that are overtly religious or spiritual in nature, such as in counseling roles that are designed to exist within the parameters of a religious organization.
- How spirituality has been explored within the social work sector in the past, how best practices are defined in today’s climate, and what thought leaders are introducing as ideas that could influence the near future of the sector.
These are just a few of the major topics that can be covered in a spirituality in social work course, but they represent a big picture look at what you can expect.
Regis College’s Focus on Spirituality and Justice
As an institution, Regis College is built around a mission of empowering women and men to serve, lead, and challenge themselves academically. This mission is founded in the values of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Boston, an organization that focuses on bringing about reconciliation in situations in which brokenness is present.
These goals align naturally with the aim of the social work profession, as many social work jobs focus on protecting individuals from adverse conditions, offering counseling and support services, addressing societal issues that hold individuals back, and putting people in a position to succeed in life.
These concepts are essential to the nature of Regis College, as promoting social justice is one of the institution’s core values. We work to build an identity focused on commitment to service and aiding the marginalized, ideas that are integral to the social work industry. We also emphasize creating a strong sense of community and working to develop the entirety of a person, not just isolated values.
All of these priorities influence social work at Regis College, and our online Master of Social Work program specifically delves into many of these considerations in a course focusing on spirituality in social work.
Embarking on a Social Work Career That Incorporates Spirituality
Regis College is particularly well-suited for those seeking to incorporate spirituality into social work, as its identity as a Catholic institution creates a baseline expectation that issues of faith are central to our mission. Students who are interested in pursuing social work with a spiritual component can explore Regis College’s online Master of Social Work program and learn how the program can help them achieve their professional goals. Start on your path to a rewarding career in social work today.
Recommended Readings
Important Social Worker Skills
Skills and Characteristics of Successful Social Workers
What You Can Learn About Ethics in Social Work
Sources:
EBSCO, “Biopsychosocial-Spiritual Assessment: An Overview”
Fetzer Institute, “What Does Spirituality Mean to Us?”
Journal of Sociology and Social Work, “Integration of Spirituality into the Strengths-Based Social Work Practice: A Transpersonal Approach to the Strengths Perspective”
Regis College, Online Master of Social Work Curriculum
Regis College, The Mission of Regis College
Sisters of St. Joseph Boston, Our Mission and History
The New Social Worker, “Elevating Competence in Social Work