The search for spiritual/cultural competency in chaplaincy practice: five steps that mark the path

Chaplains who are clinically trained and certified spiritual care professionals can make a unique contribution in today's increasingly pluralistic and global health care context with diverse religious, spiritual and cultural values, beliefs and practices. The author characterizes this contribution as spiritual/cultural competency. A self-defined web of meaning is unique to each person, comprised of a composite of values and beliefs, a fabric woven by way of one's life narrative. The proven approach of clinical learning, with heightened introspective and interpersonal awareness, serves as the chaplain's primary pathway to multi-spiritual/cultural competency, integrated with the exploration of context in a way not prioritized before. Utilizing sources from pastoral theology, anthropology and multicultural counseling, a five-step process of competency assessment is introduced and discussed with the aid of two cases. Knowing one's own spiritual/cultural grounding is the first step in this open-ended search.