Many pastoral counselors are clergy or vowed religious, but a growing number of practitioners are lay people. Within the therapeutic context is a pastoral perspective, a consideration of the spiritual concerns and conditions of the individual. The client's faith is an attribute in his or her alliance with the counselor rather than a liability, and specific features of a person's spirituality are intrinsic to treatment. It is important to recognize the difference between spirituality and religion. Spirituality is something that a person is born with.
Religion is a human attempt to conceptualize spirituality in a paradigm.
A person's religion may be traditional or it may be an individual belief system or code of conduct. Often, however, actual practices and behaviors do not support what is professed as spirituality, and sometimes beliefs and practices are at odds. These are the occasions that frequently bring people counseling. It is also important to distinguish between pastoral counseling and Christian counseling. Christian counseling is a form of pastoral counseling, but pastoral counseling is broader in scope.