This study investigated the five scales of the Spirituality in Counselor Education and Training Survey (West, 2007). A confirmatory factor analysis was performed on the instrument via structural equation modeling. Further, the spiritual competence of mental health professionals was assessed with this particular instrument and a demographic questionnaire. Additionally, the relationship between spiritual competence and training and education, when participants demographic characteristic were taken into consideration, was examined. A census sample was utilized from American Counseling Association members of the Association for Multicultural Counseling and Development and the Association for Spiritual, Ethical, and Religious Values in Counseling participated in the study (n=367).
The respondents ranged in age from 21 – 78 years old, with an average age of 48 years old. The majority of the sample was female (64.3%). There were 201 participants who possessed master’s degrees and 117 participants who had doctorates. The majority of the study’s participants (40.9%) were currently working as community counselors. Of the participants, approximately 19% were working in community agencies and private practice, respectively, while 28% were working in an academic environment.
Over 60% of the participants had not taken any courses with a focus on spirituality whereas 31% had between one and six courses spirituality focused courses. The mean number of courses taken with spirituality as a focus was 2.10 and those courses taken with a spirituality focus ranged from 0 – 48. Further, the study’s participants had completed 0 – 60 courses infused with spirituality with a mean of 4.38. Of the participants, 189 had not acquired any training hours after completing their counseling degree programs. The mean number of development hours obtained was 26.56 and there were 15 participants who had over 100 development hours. Toward this end, the sample was overwhelmingly religious and/or spiritual as only 9% of the population reported that they were not religious and/or spiritual. Overall, the sample believed they were spiritually competent. The implications of these results were discussed.