Cultivating Compassion in Counselors: The Impact of Spiritual Transcendence
Counseling and Values June 30, 2026 Anna Lee Brown, Cyrus Williams, J. Ripley et al.
Spiritual transcendence—experiences facilitated by mindfulness, contemplative prayer, nature-based practices, or psychedelics—predicts higher compassion and empathy among professional counselors. In a sample of 95 counselors, spiritual transcendence accounted for 23.6% of the variance in compassion and 20.1% in empathy, beyond the effects of general spirituality and religion. The findings suggest that spiritual transcendence is a distinct construct linked to counselors' relational capacities, with implications for ethically integrating reflexive spiritual wellness practices into counselor education and professional development.