Holistic Spiritual Counseling Certification Online

Spiritual Education for Lightworkers

Over the past five decades, we have seen many counseling professionals begin to evolve beyond traditional concepts and techniques from their initial training and instead move along a more spiritual vector. Since it is the twenty-first century and spirituality is no longer an odd concept, other newer professionals are already there. Despite the conservative tendencies among licensing boards and insurance companies, counselors who introduce spiritual, transpersonal, or metaphysical paradigms into their work are no longer as ostracized as in decades past. Moreover, they are merely reflecting the society around them, which is also showing an increasing interest in spirituality.

As a relatively new field, Spiritual Counseling and Coaching requires well-trained, dedicated professionals to anchor its legitimate place within the psychological, psychiatric, mental health, and life coaching fields. Those professionals drawn to this work have long desired to add spiritual elements and tools to their counseling and coaching foundation. These change agent professionals could be considered Lightworkers. Lightworkers are no better than anyone else; they are simply members of the human race who are a bit more spiritually aware and awakened and have a heightened sense of compassion and service. They hope to give a little more back to the world than they take, to shine light into its dark corners.

It is important to note that Holistic Spiritual Counseling differs from Christian Counseling, which offers a purely Biblical and Christ-centered approach. Spiritual Counseling may certainly include Judeo-Christian tenets but is far more broad-based, Interfaith, and Universalist in approach. It draws upon many faiths and spiritual traditions, including Native American, Neopagan, Islamic, Buddhist, Hindu, Taoist, Shamanic, Jain, Confucianist, Goddess, Mystery School, Theosophical, and so on. Thus, by its very nature, it is holistic.

Our Holistic Certification Education Program

Although we are a newer certification body, you will quickly see that our holistic certification program provides you with a tremendous foundation of knowledge, concepts, and tools to strengthen and broaden your private practice. Although certification is not necessary for your counseling or coaching practice, it will provide you and your clients with the certainty that you are skilled and well-trained and are part of a more extensive spiritual counseling and coaching community that offers ongoing support and continuing education.

This certification is open to many types of practitioners in related areas who will hold graduate degrees or appropriate certifications in their field. We invite psychologists, social workers, mental health counselors, psychiatrists, marriage and family therapists, pastoral counselors, nurse practitioners, psychiatric nurses, and life coaches to join us in this challenging and exciting new arena. Naturally, transpersonal, metaphysical, and spiritual counselors are always welcome!

Licensing and Certification

These terms can be easily confused, but they are significantly different. Licensing refers to government and state-regulated requirements for various professions, from Social Workers, Psychologists, Nurses, and MDs to Hair Stylists and Building Contractors. Each has its own licensing board. Members of these professions must pass certain tests and have specific educational backgrounds in order to practice. Currently, there is no licensing for Spiritual Counselors and Coaches and those in associated fields.

Certification is not a governmental or legally regulated educational program. By completing the training and requirements from a respected certifying agency, the professional will stand out from others in the field by virtue of their advanced training and skills. If licensing eventually comes to this field, certified professionals will be better suited to step into the new licensing requirements.

Holistic Spiritual Counseling Certification Overview

The Guild offers a four-tier training program. Each certification course leads to a higher skillset and knowledge base.

The first level of certification is Initiate.
The second level is Adept.
The third and highest clinical level is Master.
The fourth, Master Teacher, is for those who wish to become teachers within the Guild.

The courses need to be taken in order, and each builds upon the other. Each course is held in an online format over two weekends, although in-person participation is available. We use Zoom as our online platform and Canvas as our teaching platform. The textbook for the course is A Fresh Cup of Counseling: A Handbook of Spiritual Counseling. A secondary book, useful for spiritual context and foundation in the certification course, is A Fresh Cup of Tolerance: Universalism—The New Religion of Tolerance. Both are available on Wipf and Stock Publishing, Amazon, and all major booksellers. (Click on the book titles to order them.)

At this time, the Initiate first level is scheduled for Spring 2024. The Adept second level is set up for the Summer 2024. The Master third level is scheduled for Fall 2024. The Master Teacher level is to be announced.

Concepts and Knowledge

Combining the best of psychology and spirituality with a strong dose of practicality and reality, the Guild’s Holistic Spiritual Counseling Certification Program builds in a comprehensive counseling and healing modality that can transform your clients from the inside out and the outside in. Spiritual Counselors recognize that effective holistic counseling and healing work must address all our Lightbodies: physical, mental, emotional, etheric-karmic, and spiritual or, put another way, body, mind, heart, and soul, past and present. Happily, you need not abandon your own personal spiritual beliefs or become a theologian to be an effective spiritual counselor. However, this certification training will provide you with a basic understanding of the various major spiritual traditions and religions and the useful tools that come with them.

Skills and Tools

Many spiritual counselors already bring in a broad array of spiritual-related skills, such as hypnosis, spiritual reading, Reiki and other healing modalities, astrology, shamanic training, and so on. We strongly recommend that you learn some of these skill areas, especially hypnosis and any others that call you, as they will not only enhance your clinical practice but also guide your own spiritual journey. The Guild’s Holistic Spiritual Counseling Certification Program builds upon and complements your prior training, experience, and skill areas.

In the certification training, you will learn how to apply spiritual counseling and healing concepts and tools across a wide variety of traditions, such as meditation, The Native American Medicine Wheel, Yin and Yang, The Buddha Noble Eightfold Path, The Jain Principle of Ahimsa (Nonviolence), Shamanic Journeying, Reincarnation, Star Origins, Yoga Pathways, Love and Forgiveness Practices, Guided Meditation, The Bodhisattva Vow, Energy Work, and many more.

Reality and Experience

Despite the spiritual nature of our work, we at the Guild are also very down-to-earth in our training approach. Using actual case studies and real-life scenarios, we will challenge you to come up with viable solutions and strategies. You will begin to see things in a new and expanded way. You will learn best practices and what doesn’t generally work. We dig deeply into dysfunctional families, inner children and the family within, codependency, wounded love, and trauma history (this life and past lives). We cover nearly every conceivable type of client issue and the strategies to deal with them: Children, Teens and Adults, Multi-cultural and Multi-religious, LGBTQ, Addictions, Victims, Abusers and Offenders, Illness and Disability, Bereavement, and Codependency.

In addition to your prior training and experience, with our Holistic Spiritual Counseling Training Program, you will further develop the skills necessary to help clients with both common and difficult life situations. The box to the right details some of these.

Common and Difficult Life Issues

Transition, Loss, Grief, and Bereavement...Childhood Abuse, Neglect, and Trauma...This Life Trauma (rape, abuse, war, etc.)...Life Goals and Motivation...Spiritual Growth and Exploration...Past Life Issues and Trauma...Depression and Anxiety...Partnering and Family Issues...Career Goals...Peer Relationships...Family Relationships...Work Relationships...Friend and Community Relationships...Illness and Disability...Cultural Issues...Aging...Suicide

Community Support

The Guild does not leave you hanging without an ongoing support system to strengthen your practice. Whatever level of certification training you have achieved, you will have access to individual mentoring and regular group coaching sessions. You will also be part of a larger Guild online community whose members span the globe. That is quite a powerful spiritual brain trust.

Self-Support

Our field has had far too many “wounded messiahs” in its ranks. Many burn out or become ill because they have become very good at helping others but have not learned to do this for themselves. Some get stuck in a “savior complex,” which is antithetical to the principles of spiritual counseling. Also, workaholism is an addiction and is common in our profession as well. Thus, one of the foundations of our work, for our clients and us, is Jesus’ commandment to “Love your neighbor as you love yourself.” (Mark 12:31) Like many other great spiritual teachers, Jesus understood that we are equally loved children of God and must treat ourselves equally as we treat others. It is about balance, and it seems true that the better we are at loving and honoring ourselves, the better we are at loving and honoring others.

Our certification training emphasizes self-care and self-support, which points to a life that nicely balances our time for work, family (partners, children, and relatives), friends, community, spiritual practice, and self. Nothing is neglected. And, as teachers of meditation, how can we not practice it ourselves, for it is the one spiritual practice that is basic to physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual health?

The Ten Commitments of a Spiritual Counselor or Coach

Our Holistic Certification Education Program will help you develop and bolster the ten commitments essential to any spiritual counseling or coaching practitioner. Many of these are the same commitments we encourage in our clients.

Commitment to help raise the love consciousness of the planet through words, thoughts, and deeds.
Commitment to follow a path of service and light.
Commitment to the welfare of those served and our colleagues in light.
Commitment to personal ethics of honesty, authenticity, and the valuing of all life.
Commitment to professional ethics valuing all served.
Commitment to honor diversity in all its expressions.
Commitment to honor and courageously explore one’s own spiritual journey.
Commitment to face, grow, and learn from all life’s challenges and lessons.
Commitment to our own personal welfare and good self-care.
Commitment to the welfare of family, friends, colleagues, and community.

Many of these are self-explanatory, but we parse them out in the certification training and discuss how they show up in the real world. We will see that they cover a multitude of human behaviors and aspirations, some of which include:

As Lightworkers, we are committed to healing human ignorance, blindness, darkness, and fear.
As Lightworkers, we are committed to home, work, and community practices that prevent gossip, petty jealousies, and mean-minded conduct.
As Lightworkers, we are committed to participating in, nurturing, and raising healthy families.
As Lightworkers, we are committed to fostering truthful ways of living in our own lives, in our communities, and in the world.
As Lightworkers and professionals, we act as role models. Anything we ask our clients to do in their healing journeys, we must have been willing to do ourselves.
As Lightworkers and professionals, we must ensure we are healing or have healed ourselves. If we have addictions (work, drugs, alcohol, sex, relationships, etc.) or destructive or self-destructive behaviors, we must bravely face them and restore our health. Again, we must be willing to do what we would ask our clients to do in the same circumstances.

Our Holistic Spiritual Counseling Course Curriculum

Spring 2024

Level I Initiate Course

This course introduces the practitioner to the basics of holistic spiritual counseling and coaching. It brings in Chinese. Hindu, and Native American spiritual traditions that can be used in counseling. The curriculum includes:

Day 1: Module I

Holistic Spiritual Counseling Foundations

The Story of The Guild
The Spiritual Counselor Defined
Psychotherapy and Spiritual (Transpersonal) Counseling
Obstacles in the Field
- Disease Model vs Holistic Healing Model
- Diagnosis, Drugs, and Insurance
Becoming the Spiritual Counselor
Past and Present Life baggage
Spiritual Counseling Ethics and The Ten Commitments
What is your Higher Purpose?
Exercises and Case Studies
Spiritual Tools
- Yin Yang
Guided Meditations

Day 2: Module II Curriculum

The Spiritual Side of Things

Perspectives on God/Goddess/Great Spirit/The Way
Shaman’s World
Energy Work
The Meditation Way
The Native American Medicine Wheel
Exercises and Case Studies
Guided Meditations

Day 3: Module III Curriculum

Spiritual Foundations and Dysfunctional Families

Spiritual Foundations
- Karma
- Ahimsa
- Law of Attraction
Dysfunctional Families
Exercises and Case Studies
Recommended Books and Movies

The price for this course is $750. Payment plans are available. $50 discount for early registration.

Summer 2024

Level II Adept Course

This course moves the practitioner to a higher level of understanding and awareness and covers a variety of case types that are part of our practice. It introduces Buddhist and Judeo-Christian spiritual traditions that can be used in counseling. The curriculum includes:

Day 1: Module II Curriculum

This Life Work

This Life Timeline
Emotional Baggage and Trauma History
Blueprints for Love, Marriage, Parenting, Friendship, and Prosperity
Attachment Theory
Defining and Healing the Inner Children and Developing the Adult/Wise Elder
Exercises and Case Studies
Guided Meditations

Day 2: Module IV Curriculum

Clinical and Spiritual Applications

The National Epidemic of Codependency
Working with Victims
Working with Addictions
Working with Abusers and Offenders
Exercises and Case Studies
The Noble Eightfold Buddha Path
Guided Meditations
Recommended Books and Movies

Day 3: Module III Curriculum

Clinical and Spiritual Applications

Working with Illness, Disability, and Bereavement
Working with Diversity
Working Internationally
The Moses Way
The Jesus Tapes
Exercises and Case Studies
Guided Meditations
Recommended Books and Movies

The price for this course is $1000.

Payment plans are available. $50 discount for early registration.

Fall 2024

Level III Master Course

This is the final and highest clinical course level. It introduces Shamanic, Buddhist, Hindu, and New Age spiritual traditions that can be used in counseling. The curriculum includes:

Day 1: Module V Curriculum

Reincarnation and Past Life Work

The Case for Reincarnation
The Reincarnation Experiments
Past Life Timeline
Previous Life Lessons, Traumas, and Themes
Light and Dark Past Lives
Resting Place: The Past Life Healing Place
Your Client, Past Lives, and You
Past Life Regression
Case Studies
Guided Meditations
Recommended Books and Movies

Day 2: Module VI Curriculum

Going Further Out and Multidimensional Healing

Star Origins
Connection to Spiritual Guides
The New Kids: Indigo, Rainbow, Star, and Crystal Children
The Far Side: Talking to the Other Side
Welcome to the Galaxy
Case Studies
Guided Meditations

Day 3: Module III Curriculum

Multidimensional Healing

Spirit Releasement
Shamanic Healing
The Many Faces of Yoga
Case Studies
Guided Meditations
Recommended Books and Movies

The price for this course is $1250. Payment plans are available. $50 discount for early registration.

Spring 2025

Level IV Master Teacher Course

This course is for those practitioners who wish to become teachers within the Guild. The curriculum includes:

Day 1: Module VII Curriculum

Creativity and Curriculum

Spiritual Foundations
Your Toolbox
What do You Want to Teach?
Curriculum Development
Guild Training Guidelines
Case Studies
Guided Meditation

Day 2: Module VIII Curriculum

Training the Trainer

Train the Trainer
In-Person Presentation Skills
Online Presentation Skills
Leading Guided Meditations
You are the Teacher
Canvas Platform Essentials
Technical Tool Helpers

The price for this course is $2000. Payment plans are available. $50 discount for early registration.