Spiritual (pastoral or ministerial) Counseling is a listening art based on empathy, interpersonal collaboration and spiritual recognition. It is non-diagnostic. It does not offer treatment for an illness or pathology, either mental or physical. It seeks for and encourages a relationship to the higher or creative Self, which many people regard as the divine. It remains curious in the face of the unknown. It understands troubles and difficulties as the portal for spiritual growth. It believes that a spiritual perspective may include all aspects of life: family history, trauma, use of substances as escape, self-defeating patterns, thoughts and behaviors, as well as the inevitable losses, separations, and absences that occasion grief and mourning. It recognizes that spiritual authority resides in the client, not in the counselor. It listens for the other’s unique spirituality. It is interested in what the client considers the meaning of life; where this is not known, the counselor helps to seek this meaning.

In Spiritual Counseling the goal is to mutually create an environment within which the unspoken self can emerge.