Abstract Book of the 6th International Conference on Research in Psychology
Year: 2025
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Spirituality in Counseling: A Bibliometric Exploration of Integration Strategies, Therapeutic Effects, and Cimo Framework Insights
Harshita Barua, Dr. Nidhi Maheshwari
ABSTRACT:
The study explores the integration of spirituality into counseling practices through an in-depth bibliometric analysis combined with the application of the CIMO framework. Spiritual counseling addresses psychological, emotional, and existential challenges, offering a well-rounded and holistic framework for counselling. The analysis highlights key patterns and themes in the existing research on the integration of spirituality in counseling, underscoring various contexts, interventions, mechanisms and outcomes that shape its therapeutic application. Through a keyword co-occurence analysis study further reveals 5 major clusters (1) Existential Challenges and the Role of Spiritual Counseling in Resilience and Survivorship. (2) Attitudes, Education, and Professional Competence, (3) Spiritual Care for emotional wellbeing, (4) Adolescents, Grief and Pastoral Counseling, and (5) Psychological Healing through Spiritual Coping Strategies.
Using the CIMO framework, the study outlines effective interventions such as spiritual narrative therapy, client centered therapy, mindfulness and prayer, emphasizing how integrating spirituality enhances therapeutic outcomes by fostering resilience, facilitating meaning-making, and strengthening coping skills across diverse contexts. The findings provide valuable clarity on the research in the context of spiritually oriented counseling, offering insights into its transformative power and uncovering emerging trends in the field.
Through thematic mapping, self-efficacy in spiritual counseling emerged as an underexplored area, suggesting new research directions. The findings also uncovered a substantial gap in counselor education, with many professionals reporting that they are unprepared to address clients’ spiritual needs, pointing towards the need for spiritual training in counseling curricula. These insights offer promising avenues for future research, guiding deeper exploration into the integration of spirituality in therapeutic practices.
Keywords: spiritually oriented counseling, bibliometric analysis, cimo framework, therapeutic outcomes