A Discipline Founded in Spirituality

One of my favorite literary quotes is from Shakespeare’s play Hamlet: “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” It implies that there are mysteries and experiences beyond our understanding of the world. Hamlet says this after encountering his father’s ghost, which is considered a strange and supernatural event.


The Swiss psychiatrist, Carl Jung had many paranormal experiences including near-death ones and a series of visions. He wrote and painted extensively about these experiences. Though committed to practicing practical psychology, he pioneered a way of incorporating mysticism, like astrology and divination, in psychological work.

The American philosopher and psychologist, William James was one of the founders of psychology as a discipline. He identified four characteristics of mystical experience: ineffable, noetic, transient and passive.

All this to say that spiritual encounters are foundational human experiences.

The ACA’s Code of Ethics emphasizes a client-centered approach, meaning whether or not to discuss spirituality is ultimately decided by the client. The counselor should only explore this topic if it is relevant to the client’s concerns and with their consent, and counselors must acknowledge and respect the diverse spiritual beliefs of their clients, including those who may not identify with any particular religion.

I come from a culture with spiritual traditions ranging from Jewish to Pagan to Christian, often blending them. My family’s stories include tales of mysterious visitations (when her beloved grandfather died, my mother said he came to her in the middle the of the night) as well as rituals like baptisms, seances, lighting candles, and making offerings to saints. We also have a Freemason or two among my ancestors. I have engaged in a lifelong exploration of spiritual practices and traditions including Catholicism, Reformed Judaism, Taoism, Tantra Shaivism, and Dzogchen Buddhism so when it comes to spirituality, I’m open to whatever shows up.   

Valuing the Client’s Spirituality

A non-binary client in their late thirties was facing a 4-year battle with malignant terminal cancer. They shared that their experience using psychedelics felt initially terrible and filled with suffering, but that when they were able to surrender, they experienced a sense of wholeness and bliss. I suggested we could use this psychedelic vision as a map for their journey going forward with illness and death, something they had not considered nor shared with their previous counselor.

Another client shared that traveling abroad enabled her to soften the edges of her identity and boundaries, allowing her to experience the world and other people with a sense of greater connection and ease. She strongly felt that travel was a spiritual experience for her that aligned with her Jewish roots.

A client who had struggled with intergenerational trauma and loss, practiced self-administering psilocybin alone and shared with me her insights. She described a mixture of experiences, from the more mundane to a profound connection through a vision of an ancestor whom she felt she actually embodied during a mushroom journey. This enabled her to connect with feelings of forgiveness for the suffering she endured.

Perhaps one of my most challenged clients identifies as a Christian. He struggles with an understandable dilemma: if God is good, why does evil exist? And why does God allow women he falls in love with to stay in abusive situations? Though I do not subscribe to his beliefs, I feel strongly that his questions are profound and worth exploring. It is, at times, difficult for me to refrain from remedying his dilemma through my more Eastern spiritual beliefs. Instead, I shared Anthony de Mello’s little gem of a book entitled The Way to Love. de Mello was a Jesuit who lived in India most of his life and wrote bracingly about God, Reality, and Love.

Clients who identify as Pagan or Wiccan, will often discuss their Tarot readings with me. I feel thankful for my familiarity with this tradition and genre of symbology that allows me to explore their concerns using a rich metaphorical language.  

These are some of the questions I use when approaching clients’ spiritual experiences:

• What do you feel or think this dream/vision is telling you?
• Is there a message here that feels relevant to your life?
• What troubles or reassures you about this experience?
• If this experience was “your marching orders” as it were, what would those be?

When clients talk about noetic experiences, I listen closely for clues to discover and incorporate meaning in their experiences. The terrain of spiritual experience is as complex and multifaceted as human consciousness itself. Our therapeutic approach must honor this complexity—recognizing that spiritual encounters are deeply personal, often ineffable, and profoundly transformative. Just as Carl Jung and William James understood, these experiences transcend simple categorization, challenging our conventional understanding of reality and self.

My key therapeutic considerations include:

• Embracing radical openness to clients’ spiritual narratives
• Maintaining ethical boundaries while creating space for profound exploration
• Recognizing spirituality as a potential source of meaning, resilience, and healing
• Understanding that spiritual experiences are as unique as the individuals who encounter them  

As counselor, my role is not to validate or invalidate spiritual experiences, but to provide a compassionate, non-judgmental container for understanding. Whether these experiences emerge through dreams, meditation, near-death encounters, or altered states of consciousness, they represent critical moments of potential insight and personal growth.

Critically, my approach must be rooted in the ACA’s ethical framework: client-centered, consensual, and fundamentally respectful of individual spiritual diversity. I listen not to interpret, but to understand—creating a therapeutic relationship where clients feel safe exploring the most intimate dimensions of their inner landscape.

Just as my own journey has woven through diverse spiritual traditions—from Judaism to Buddhism, from mystical practices to academic inquiry—so too must my therapeutic practice remain flexible, curious, and deeply attuned to the nuanced ways humans make meaning of their existential experiences.

Our relationship(s) with the invisible and numinous (meaning, suggesting the presence of divinity, or just Presence) is as individual and unique as fingerprints, yet has common features. These experiences may elicit awe, offer reassurance, incite action, and clarify issues. I have found the Mystical Experience Questionnaire (MEQ) to be very useful in this regard. It was developed in the 1960’s to assess mystical experiences caused by hallucinogens. It covers dimensions such as unity, sacredness, and ineffability. The Revised Mystical Experience Questionnaire (MEQ-30) is a 30-item version of the MEQ that is used in clinical research & measures four dimensions of spirituality: belief in God, mindfulness, search for meaning, and feeling of security. It can be downloaded here: https://psychology-tools.com/test/meq-30.

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Ultimately, spirituality in counseling is about creating a sacred space of genuine human connection—where the mysterious, the ineffable, and the profoundly personal can be witnessed with compassion, wisdom, and profound respect. 

Questions for Thought and Discussion

Which of the cases the author discussed resonated with you the most? In what ways?

How do you incorporate spirituality into your own clinical practice?

How do you integrate your own spirituality into your clinical work?   

File under: The Art of Psychotherapy, Musings and Reflections