...Spirituality in Counseling Integrating Religion and Spirituality In Counseling Anntoni Leonard University of the Cumberlands COUN 636 Abstract Religion and spirituality are arguably among the most important factors which structure human experience, beliefs, values and behavior. Religion and spirituality are clearly important to most Americans; however, most counselors have little or no training in dealing with religious and spiritual issues. Since the mid-1990’s, the integration of spirituality and religion into therapeutic sessions has generated much interest as an area that needs to be addressed with regards to diversity in clients. This paper will address the inclusion of religion and spirituality in client’s session and counselor’s attitudes toward a client’s faith based on the assumption that the client’s faith and the counselor’s attitude can have significant impact on the outcome of the treatment of the client. A counselor’s willingness to attend to faith as a means of growth can build rapport and lessen potential resistance with clients who are religious (Worthington, 1989). Spirituality in Counseling: Integrating Religion and Spirituality Spirituality has become increasingly important in counseling and prayer has become the spiritual intervention of choice for Christian counselors, as well as secular counselors. The controversial nature of including prayer in counseling requires much consideration on the grounds of ethical boundaries. Majority of mental health...
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...beliefs, religion and overall life around it. There are several different ways to express one's spirituality; rituals, songs, dances, stories, and writings are all common methods of expression. Finding spirituality in something can make someone feel enlightened and bring strong emotion and deep feeling. Several authors have based some of their writings on their spirituality. Some of these writings are as intricate as the Bible or as basic as an article in a local newspaper, but the meaning and passion behind them should never be doubted. In my personal value system and for the purpose of this Value Reflection paper, spirituality is forever tied to knowing God and doing God's will. We often hear the word "spirituality" used to signify that one has faith in a higher power. Spirituality as it is seen in Christianity is to believe in God. As a Christian, we believe that God loves us. We believe that Jesus died for us. We believe that Jesus rose from the dead with all power in his hand. Spirituality as it relates to Christianity says believe on a merciful God that loves and offers us redemption in spite of, and because of, our sins. In regards to counseling and my personal value of spirituality, I understand my need to be multiculturally aware and vigilante towards ethically serving the needs of my clients. According to Elliott (2008), while conflicts regarding sexual orientation and gender identity often receive attention, other value conflicts may emerge in the counseling process...
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...counselors seldom acknowledge in the counseling interventions. Asian Americans are faced with mental illness due to high academic achievement and refugee status. As counselors being culturally competence to Asian Americans can help assist them with their mental devlopement. They are a very distinct ethnic group that should be considered in the counseling profession. Asian Americans differ in methods and time of migration, language, social class, and religion. Many Americans still believe that the United States is the melting pot for all cultures not showing concern for cultures such as Asian Americans, which may find it to be difficult when integrated with other cultures. Counselors must understand the pressure that is place upon cultures, such as the Asian Americans when forced to integrate to the dominant culture. The United States is considered a free place for choosing the religion in which an individual wants to practice, but yet it seem rather biases against the Asian American populations. Counselors can help give back to Asian Americans what has been taken away from them for many years (religion). Due to counselors’ lack of knowledge and awareness of Asian American adolescents this culture is forced to integrate with the dominant culture, which may not be of their preference. The population of this group is growing in number in the United States and should be recognized as a separate ethnic group with many cultures, languages and religions. According to the study done (Dinh...
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...A Spiritual Approach to Counseling: Is it Significant? Abstract This paper will identify what spiritual warfare is and how it integrates into counseling, and explore steps to take in recognizing spiritual problems. It will assess the benefits of spiritual growth and why it benefits a person, and whether it is crucial to counseling. The illumination of the responsibility of the counselor to the counselee will also be addressed. The purpose will be to see if the understanding of the spiritual life and the application of that type of counseling is beneficial. Introduction Is the problem physical, mental, or spiritual? This paper will aid in understanding spiritual warfare, the counselor’s responsibility in recognizing it, and the spiritual growth that is needed to for the counselor and counselee for productive therapy. The professional field of psychology is opening up to the idea of spiritual formation and the benefits of being spiritually aware. This is profitable, but can also present some problems if the counselor does not understand what they are dealing with, and they are spiritually inept. Counselors should understand spiritual warfare; understand their role, and how to obtain knowledge and guidance by spiritual growth. Spiritual Warfare There are instances where conventional medicines do not suffice in helping someone overcome their predicament. This is because the physical world of medicine cannot identify with spiritual world of conflict. Spiritual...
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...Structural Approach to Family Counseling Beverly Manning COUN 601 – Marriage and Family Counseling I Liberty University July 5, 2013 ABST RACT Families are always growing and changing. They are considered living systems made up of many components. If families can’t adjust to change, the capability of the family and its individual members can be compromised. Structural family therapy (SFT) is a therapeutic approach that identifies that families have a lot of strengths. SFT tries to push families past dysfunctional patterns of interaction. This report details the application of the structural family therapy model, and I will specify my own therapeutic technique and explain how I would include faith into my counseling sessions. Structural Approach to Family Counseling One of the most important goals of a therapist is to understand how a family works. The family therapy movement has had the daunting task of trying to uncover the many facets of the family. Family therapy is full of many different approaches from psychoanalysis to the narrative approach. Each approach has been able to uncover a new aspect of the family. According to Nicholas (1999), the structural family therapy has had a significant impact on family therapy by introducing concepts of family hierarchy and boundaries. This allowed for the introduction to the idea of family as a new and organized strategy to cope...
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...psychiatrists, and social workers for help in coping with these crises and transitions. Others look for support and the opportunity to discuss these issues within a spiritual context. But can one find spiritual help and psychotherapy at the same time? Most religious leaders have little time or training to provide in-depth and extensive therapy. And most psychotherapists have little training or desire to discuss in-depth spiritual matters during sessions with patients. The answer may be pastoral counseling. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK: According to the American Association of Pastoral Counselors (AAPC) pastoral counseling is a form of psychotherapy that uses spiritual resources as well as psychological understanding for healing and growth. The central theme in pastoral counseling is an awareness of the spiritual dimension in human wholeness. Crises and transitions are addressed in terms such as faith, meaning, purpose, and direction, as well as in psychotherapeutic terms. The integration of religion and psychology for psychotherapeutic purposes began in the 1930's in several contexts, including (a) the collaboration of Norman Vincent Peale, a renowned minister, and Smiley Blanton, M.D., a psychiatrist,...
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...history of counseling we want to divide the subject into two sections, secular and Christian. Secular. The history of counseling had its origins, first in religion, later in philosophy, and later still in medicine. Religion and philosophy asked many of the same questions: “Where did I come from? Where am I going? Why am I here?” Medicine on the other hand tends to ask the question “Are you covered by insurance?” From time to time, the members of a community would suffer from the vicissitudes of life. At such times, they would seek help from their priest, wise man, or witch doctor. Often all three were offices were found in one person. Subscribe to this SiteHistory of Counseling Generally the problems they faced were of two kinds; grief over the loss of a loved one, or guilt related to the problem of wrong behavior, sometimes called sin. There were other problems of course, ranging from love sickness, to anxiety, to madness. Such extraordinary problems called for extraordinary solutions. Love sickness had its potions, and anxiety its elixirs and counsel, while madmen were often considered to be touched by the gods, and if not honored they were at worse driven from their community. Hannibal, Alexander, and Caesar with their bouts of epilepsy are examples of the former, whereas King David (I Samuel 21:10-15) and the maniac of Gadara (Luke 8:26-39) are examples of the later. Such was the order of things for millennia. However, as populations grew and religions changed...
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...Christian Counseling attempts to provide encouragement and guidance for those who are facing losses, decisions, or disappointments. Counseling can stimulate personality growth and development, help people cope more effectively with the problems of living, with inner conflict, and with crippling emotions, assist individuals, family members, and married couples to resolve interpersonal tensions or relate effectively to one another and assist persons whose life patterns are self-defeating and causing unhappiness. The Christian counselor seeks to bring people into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and to help them find forgiveness and relief from the crippling effects of sin and guilt. Therapist Characteristics A Christian counselor has beliefs about the attributes of God, the nature of human beings, the authority of Scripture, the reality of sin, the forgiveness of God and the hope for the future. The counselor seeks to help counselees change behavior, attitudes, values, faulty thinking and/or perceptions. We attempt to teach skills, including social skills, to encourage recognitions and expression of emotion, to give support in times of need, to teach responsibility, to instill insight, to guide as decisions are made, to help counselees mobilize inner and environmental resources in times of crisis, to teach problem-solving skills, and to increase counselee competence. The Christian counselor also seeks to stimulate spiritual growth, encourage confession of sin and...
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...Incorporating a Christian Worldview: Religion, Psychology, Christian Counseling Introduction: We live in a society where there are constant changes within our healthcare system which impacts every one of our lives. Everyone at some point in their life has been to the hospital, and the experience is often positive or negative based on your reason for going and the people you may encounter. Our healthcare while better than other countries could use some improvement. There are many underserved populations of indigent care patients who have problems with linkage to care for various reasons. Even with the introduction of Obama care unfortunately for all it’s not affordable and there is an unfair imbalance of those who receive care the best care because of lack of coverage and financial resources. I am passionate about the delivery of appropriate healthcare to all individuals. It would be my intent to impact the hospital administration field in such away we are able to ensure equality in the treatment and delivery of care for the patients regardless of socioeconomically class or status. Body: According to my strengths quest results my top five themes were positivity, developer, connectedness, achiever, and being strategic. These strengths can easily be transferred in the Hospital Administrator role. This is a senior level position which is responsible for managing both clinical and non-clinical aspects of hospital management inclusive of financial, personnel and clinical...
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...Counseling African Americans A multicultural competent counselor is, someone who’s able to work efficiently with groups of students from culturally distinct groups (Thomas & Vines, 2008). Furthermore, culture competency plays a key role in how counselors diagnose and treat their patients from any background or culture. The (Surgeon General, 2001) broadly defines culture as a common heritage or set beliefs, norms and values. Culture applies to all groups of people but unfortunately; there are major mental health disparities amongst minority individuals compared to white individuals. According to the Surgeon General (2001), ethnic minorities have less access to mental health services than their white counterparts. Additionally, minorities are...
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...Liberty University January 31, 2012 Summary Prayer is one of the most powerful and frequently used spiritual interventions performed by Christian counseling groups all over the world. However, combining religion and science has always been a controversial issue for centuries. According to Weld and Eriksen, most clients want to include their spirituality and their religion as part of their counseling sessions. The integration of this spiritual therapy is done by conducting surveys and observations. The core of this survey is to gather insight on their beliefs and finding out what method of conducting prayer is appropriate and spiritually motivated. These studies were done at 1 church counseling center and 6 private practices. The ages ranged from 18 to 77 with 64% being females and 36% being males.(Weld & Eriksen, 2007). These two instrumentations are called “the brief therapy” survey is used for clients and “the prayer survey”, which is used for the therapists’ purpose. The brief therapy survey is aimed at the therapist to monitor client’s needs and wants with regards to his counseling sessions. These surveys allow therapists to respect their client’s wishes so as to integrate a working profile for each individual; which in turn allows therapists to build a healthy relationship with clients along with a their spiritual needs fulfilled. The prayer surveys are scales of numbers. It is aimed at the client and it uses survey completed by clients to grade their therapist...
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...can successfully integrate psychology and Christianity together. It is important to do this because there is a history of conflict that exists between science and religion as well as supernaturalism and naturalism. Science, being naturalistic, believes in things that can be observed and measured which conflicts with religion, which is super-naturalistic, since most things relating to it cannot be observed or measured. Thus began the conflict of science and religion. Entwistle (2010b) spoke of the conflict Galileo had because he believed in the science experiments he had conducted. These experiments taught that the universe does not revolve around Earth, the heliocentric model, however this conflicted with the church and its religious beliefs since they believed in the Aristotelian model (Entwistle, 2010b). After pushing for his beliefs in his books, he received punishment after the second book was released. Entwistle (2010a p. 8) also brought to our attention the question asked by Tertullian, “What indeed has Athens to do with Jerusalem?” This is asking us if there is harmony that exists between the church and teaching institutions or in other words, religion and science. He believed that with the power of religion, we could fix all the problems people may have and they could become better. However, he realized religion did have its limitations so although he was weary of it, he believed integration of the two disciplines could be necessary. By integrating Psychology...
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...when our coach gave the children tickets to our games and we were able to see them holding signs and cheering for us. I wanted to continue giving back to the community throughout college so I asked my cousin, a social worker, if I could volunteer my time and help her with some of the children she worked with. Many of the children I spoke with had issues with one particular counselor because he did not like that many of them were gay. I approached him and suggested that if he was uncomfortable with the children that he should change jobs. He stated that he was getting paid pretty well and all they needed was the word of God. Instead of helping them with their real issues, he was forcing religion on them. This situation reminds me of Jennifer Keeton; she is anti-gay and counseling students who refuse remedial training (Huff post). Keeton insisted that homosexuality is an “immoral personal choice” and refused to affirm a gay client’s behavior as “right or healthy”. Federal Judge J. Randall Hall, the 11th Circuit previously dismissed Keeton’s appeal for a preliminary injunction, pointing out “counselors must refrain from imposing their moral and religious values on their clients”. I agree with the judge, not everyone has the same beliefs. I understand Keeton’s point of view, but when you are a counselor you will have a broad range of clients and it is very...
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...over the lifespan (Ohl, 2007). This paper will demonstrate Counseling Plan a woman who was referred by her gynecologist for counseling because she has never experienced an orgasm. It will include assessment of the dynamics of the couple’s relationship as well as issues regarding their sexual functioning, possible sexual dysfunction within the framework of the sexual response cycle, sexual normality as well as a evidence-based counseling interventions grounded through research and treatment plan with ethical considerations. . Table of Contents Abstract 2 Case Study: Michelle and Tom 5 Assessment of Sexual Issues 6 Biological Assessment of Sexuality 6 Cultural Assessment of Sexuality 6 Religious Assessment of Sexuality 7 Psychological Assessment of Sexuality 8 Assessment of Dynamics of the Relationship 8 Family and Couples 8 Diagnostic and Multi-Axial Impressions 9 Diagnostic 9 Multi-Axial 10 Integration of Disorder 11 Sexual Response Cycle Framework 11 Sexual Normality and Sexual Response Cycle 12 Sexual Disorder and Sexual Response Cycle 13 Psychosexual Development over the Lifespan 14 Psychosocial Contributions 15 Treatment Goals 15 Individual Goals 15 Couples’ Goals 16 Counseling Interventions 17 Initial Assessment 17 Counseling...
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...of creation and God’s involvement. As it states in Genesis 1:26 (KJV), Then God Said, “let us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creping things that creeps on the earth.”” EXAMPLE 1 In this world we live in, we have choices to accept certain religions and worldviews to accept and live our lives and represent that specific religion. As a Christian and a future psychologist/counselor I have to be very mindful of my representation of God and what he expects from me and how I interact with people within my career. As it states in Proverbs 13:10 (KJV), by insolence comes nothing but strife, but with those who take advice is wisdom, and in chapter 15:22 (KJV) it states, Without Counsel Plans fail, but with many advisers they succeeded. I have to believe that God created man in his image in my career choice because Instead of just doing secular counseling I can always convert to pastoral counseling which can include theological techniques. With counseling you have to be as God and to help oneself. As it states in John 5:30 (KJV), by myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me. With this passage it...
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