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ANNUAL REPORT 2025
The spiritual
counselor
educator
As a new faculty member in the College of Education,
the list of courses Craig Cashwell teaches reveals that
he’s anything but “new” to the counseling field. In Fall
2024 – Cashwell’s first with the College – he taught
addiction counseling and a crisis and trauma course,
and in the spring, he will tackle family and couples
counseling.
He has researched and taught in all these areas
over 30-plus years in academia, but his latest focus
coincides with a lifelong fascination with the intersection
between spirituality and mental health. Cashwell has
written books on religious trauma and how counselors
can effectively work through those issues with clients.
Cashwell’s interests get into the thorniest areas of his
profession, but as a spiritual person on his own journey,
he can’t help but dive deeper into the topic. He jokes
that he is constantly analyzing himself, digging into his
subtle, nuanced, unconscious parts, especially those
pertaining to spirituality.
He feels his expertise and lifelong obsession will help
future counselors navigate issues that, if not handled
properly, can dissuade a client from helpful counseling
altogether.
“It’s a very narrow line; a counselor should not impose
their values on clients,” Cashwell said. “An effective
counselor shouldn’t confront a person’s spirituality or
beliefs. They should honor and invite them into the
psychological work as a complement. It’s a dance, and I
try to help my students understand when to lean in, how
to do that effectively and when to step back and honor a
client’s path.”
He is currently finishing up a book on “spiritual bypass,”
a coping mechanism that sees people use spirituality
to avoid struggles and work to heal. It can come in the
form of dangerous practices, such as a person not taking
life-saving drugs due to religious beliefs, but it can also
manifest in a grieving spouse who doesn’t want to face
the pain of loss.
“When a Christian client says ‘my loved one is in a better
place, so I shouldn’t cry,’ I would say your sacred text
says Jesus wept and cried over his friend,” Cashwell
said. “That’s not me telling them; that’s their sacred text
telling them it’s okay to feel pain and work through it.
Spiritual bypass is a phenomenon that keeps me up at
night, and it’s only come to the fore in the last 20 years.”
While there have been articles and blogs describing
spiritual bypass, Cashwell’s work separates itself by
helping counselors work with it along with how it
intersects with other facets of identity, gender or even
socioeconomic status.
Cashwell knows he’s on the right track because the topic
still enamors him. He and colleagues first developed the
quantitative measure and definition for spiritual bypass
eight years ago and have since revised both. Spiritual
bypass has now been measured with many different
religious groups and has been translated into five
languages.
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