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For most people, career planning focuses on skills, interests, labour market information and educational pathways. But for many, spirituality, however it is experienced, quietly shapes the career choices they make and the career paths they pursue. This blog post explores three points along the career journey where spirituality may surface: planning, development and maintenance.
What is spirituality?
Spirituality is a belief that we are influenced by forces that extend beyond our everyday existence. The American scholar Marian Stoltz-Loike (1997) sees this as reflecting a common human yearning to connect with a dimension greater than ourselves. While religious traditions such as Christianity, Islam or Hinduism often foster spiritual life, spirituality can exist outside organized religion.
According to Professor of Counsellor Education Joshua Gold (2010), both religion and spirituality significantly shape what individuals deem important in life, providing an orientation toward what is beyond the self – whether that be God, spirit, universal power or the Creator. A person’s spirituality brings forward what they consider most meaningful, naturally influencing their career decisions and showing up in the workplace.
Career planning and the sense of spiritual calling
For some, career planning is guided by a deep sense of spiritual purpose or calling. This can arise as a need to align with specific religious principles or values. When individuals experience a pull toward a career as part of a spiritual calling, making space to explore and honour that call becomes essential.
In a study examining the role of religious or spiritual calling in the career decisions of Roman Catholics, Esperanza Hernandez and colleagues (2011) identified several key themes. One central finding was that participants experienced their calling arising from a mutual relationship with God. Importantly, this sense of calling was not always smooth; for many, it involved deep internal struggles, both with their faith and with the calling itself.
In contemporary Western societies, autonomy and self-direction are highly prioritized, and the experience of being drawn to a particular career by a divine calling can be difficult to make sense of. This tension may lead to vastly different emotional responses, from a profound sense of purpose, to inner conflict and grief over life directions that feel lost or foreclosed. For those with deep religious convictions, a strong sense of calling may feel non-negotiable, even when it conflicts with personal desires. The result can be a kind of vocational mourning – a sense of loss over alternate futures that may never be pursued.
Career development and spiritual balance
Bringing spirituality into career conversations can help create a sense of coherence and integration across life domains. Some clients may find it challenging to balance work with their spiritual or religious commitments – seeing these as distinct components. For others, work itself may be a form of spiritual expression or service.
Career professionals can help by recognizing that spirituality is not compartmentalized from other life domains. Marian Stoltz-Loike (1997) notes that spirituality can influence how people make career choices and assess success, affecting their long-term fulfilment. When spiritual concerns are integrated into early career conversations, clients are better equipped to pursue careers aligned with their deeper values.
Career maintenance and spiritual struggles
While spirituality can positively affect one’s career, spiritual struggles can also bring disruptive impacts – not just on a person’s personal life, but also in professional settings. Addressing these experiences through respectful and supportive means can help to minimize immediate distress while making intentional decisions about maintaining their career.
Common spiritual struggles typically fall into six main categories: divine struggles, demonic struggles, interpersonal struggles, struggles with doubt, moral struggles and struggles with ultimate meaning. Though often disruptive, these experiences are important to recognize, acknowledge and attend to. Building your own awareness about spirituality, even if it is not a part of your life, can help you to identify when a client is experiencing spiritual struggles in their career.
“While spirituality can positively affect one’s career, spiritual struggles can also bring disruptive impacts – not just on a person’s personal life, but also in professional settings.”
Psychologists Julie Exline and David Bright (2015) share how spiritual struggles can be common in the workplace. Whether among organizational leaders grappling with ethical dilemmas or employees facing crises of faith or uncertainty about how their jobs align with their spiritual values, spiritual struggles can emerge for individuals across an organization. Such struggles can affect not only daily functioning but also long-term career trajectories, and so should be acknowledged.
Spiritual emergencies and career disruption and transformation
Another potentially disruptive – though transformative – spiritual experience is the spiritual emergency. More commonly associated with Eastern religious, spiritual practices such as meditation and psychedelic experiences, spiritual emergencies (Grof & Grof, 2017) refers to a destabilizing psychological event triggered by an altered state of consciousness. These experiences can be serious, even overwhelming, and may require urgent support to ensure safety and grounding.
Spiritual emergencies can disrupt a person’s ego identity and shake their understanding of themselves and their careers. Yet over time, they may also lead to profound transformation. Mike Collins (2007) emphasizes that such expanded states of consciousness can ultimately lead to a greater sense of coherence between one’s self-awareness and occupational identity. Career goals and life priorities may radically shift as individuals transform the way they make sense of the world. These transitions are not easy, but they often lead to deeper integration and fulfillment.
Working with a career counsellor and/or a trusted spiritual advisor can support individuals in making sense of these experiences, deepening their understanding of themselves and their relationship to the divine and, in turn, fostering clarity.
The journey onward
Religion and spirituality constitute vital dimensions of a person’s holistic identity. Attending to these aspects throughout their career journey can support not only professional development but also a deeper sense of fulfilment and integration across their lifespan. Spirituality can show in career counselling in various ways. A sense of spiritual calling, balancing work life and spiritual needs, and experiences of spiritual struggles and emergencies are some of the more common ways to be aware of. Seeing career through the lens of spirituality helps the client build enduring relationship between domains, creating a solid footing onward in their life’s journey.
