While I was reading this book, Psychology, theology, and spirituality in Christian counseling I would often reflect on some of my previous counseling sessions. I feel that I often struggled with the appropriate timing and integration of theology and spirituality in my sessions due to the nature of my present employment. I presently work in an outpatient drug and alcohol facility and many of my clients deny and religion or spirituality. Sometimes I felt that I was too dismissive and should have asked the individuals to elaborate on their religious or spiritual preferences. I felt I was able to relate to a good deal of McMinn’s challenges that he presented throughout the book. The one challenge that stood out the most was Roger confessing a secret to his counselor about his screaming at his mother and how sick she was (McMinn, 2011). It was described as Counselor A moving Roger towards “I am okay,” while the Christian counselor has Roger feeling forgiven (McMinn, 2011). This stands out especially for me because although now I have the client’s best interest at heart, I feel that I am not treating my present clients as holistically as possible. I struggle with not wanting to be the counselor that forces my personal views and beliefs on others. While reading the book, I felt that it will certainly help me in the …show more content…
The book has a great deal of information for Christian counselors and the ability to handle challenging situations. The information that is provided by McMinn allows the readers to be able to correctly apply the integration of religion and spirituality in counseling sessions with clients. McMinn was also successful as how to handle and the approach difficult situations with Christians. He was also able to successfully have the counselor understand the appropriateness of timing when addressing concerns of the
In essence, McMinn’s intradisciplinary integrated approach to Christian counseling is more than a “toolbox of set strategies for change” instead it is a “deep, abiding, formative work of God’s Spirit,” within the counselors lives (p 31-32). McMinn (2007) explains his theoretical map is cognitive therapy along with developing a strong therapeutic relationship and trust with our clients is not only essential to the effectiveness of counseling, but also is vital to applying his approach of the integration of psychology, theology, and spirituality into counseling. By McMinn using his theoretical cognitive therapy map he can build upon it to integrate the concerns of the spiritual growth wellbeing of our clients as well as their wellbeing of mental
The start of this article focuses on a Christian client named George who is plagued with feelings of worthlessness, depression, low self-esteem, and suicide. His mother had also battled depression, and his father had an abusive relationship with alcohol, which caused his father to have verbally and physically abusive altercations with George and his mother. The abusive experiences that George was exposed to as a child paved the way for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder as an adult (Garzon, 2005). With all of these factors present in this client’s life, a treatment plan was created that involved scripture interventions. The author made sure to touch on the fact that every client is unique in the hopes that counselors would be aware that one type of scripture intervention might work for one client and not work for another. The article highlights three guiding values when considering these types of interventions; “respect for the client’s autonomy/freedom, sensitivity to and empathy for the client’s religious and spiritual beliefs, and flexibility and responsiveness to the client’s religious and spiritual beliefs.”(Garzon, 2005). ...
A difficulty that has occurred commonly is that a definition of spirituality cannot be agreed on. In a broad explanation of both religion as well as spirituality, religion constitutes the organization of faith, implementing prayer, ministry and theology. Spirituality could be viewed as a more individualized experience with a higher being, creator or idea (Walker et al., 2004, p. 70). These expressions allow a vision of client diversity that is found in all counseling classifications. While defining religion and spirituality properly seems trivial, when training counselors to properly apply the use of such variables in their therapies, a concrete explanation is imperative.
Cunningham, M. (2012). Integrating Spirituality in Clinical Social Work Practice: Walking the Labyrinth (1 ed.). Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education Inc.
David Entwistle's (2010) Integrative Approaches to Psychology and Christianity is geared more towards Christians with conservative evangelical views and provides the reader an outline to different worldview disputes and truth-seeking groundwork that surround the connection that underlies psychology and theology. In addition to analyzing the possible connection of psychology and theology, Entwisle discusses the consideration of integrating Christian faith with the practice of psychology. “Christian understandings of person-hood, the purpose of human life, our need for God, and the ethical teachings of Christian faith are integral to psychology, not merely parallel to it” (p. 199). Entwistle’s viewpoint on this matter is stated clearly. He believes that it is necessary for theology and psychology be integrated in order to fully understand human nature.
Clinton, T. & Ohlschlager, G. (2002). Competent Christian counseling: Foundations and practice of compassionate soul care. Colorado Springs, CO: WaterBrook Press.
Fake people are to be encountered with everywhere, especially in the days of middle school and in high school. Many adolescents have come across these people, and movies have even been made about these people. For example, the movie Mean Girls is made about a group of 4 girls who will act nice to people at their high school, then they will turn around and write mean things in their “Burn Book”, along with saying mean things behind their back. In “The Cask of Amontillado”, Edgar Allan Poe demonstrates through indirect characterization that the narrator, Montresor, is fake towards his arch nemesis, Fortunato. In the short story, Fortunato eventually tricks Montresor and buries him alive. It begins with Montresor declaring revenge on Fortunato
However, it does not matter how strong a person’s faith is or how weak a person faith is, everyone in Christian counseling starts off the same. It is a process how a person develops overtime. This is similar to a child learning how to tie his or her shoes. At first they do not get it but overtime, it becomes of habit and the person get better. According to Clinton, Hart and Ohlschlager (2005),” they believe that Christian counselling has to do with and learning applying the principles of the kingdom on living to the chronically sins, fears, failures, and dark areas of our life (p.21). When people are at their lowest point he or she turn to Christ to get the throughout tough times. Furthermore, in chapter two a person learns about the trust and fined our truth. In chapter two it discusses becoming a trust worthy counselor. In Chapter two, I realized that is all about gaining the clients trust. If the client, does not trust the counselor then no typ of relationship can be bonded. The client is in a venerable state and the counselor has to make sure that the can feel free to be
Worthington, E. L. Jr., Hook, J. N., Davis, D. E., & McDaniel, M. A. (2011). Religion and spirituality. In J. C. Norcross (Ed.), Psychotherapy relationships that work (2nd ed.). New York: Oxford University Press
Biblical Counseling is making a strong impact in today's churches and community. Counseling is seen as one of the most productive ways of helping a
On the down side there are a limited number of educational programs that adequately deal with the issue of incorporating religion and spirituality in therapeutic/counseling settings. This can be attributed to the fact that counseling is based in psychology, a scientific field, which has traditionally neglected issues of a spiritual nature (Nelson, Kirk, Ane, & Serres, 2011) as well as the practice used within the United States to separate education and religion (Cashwell and Young, 2011). This then results in a significant portion of therapist and counselors who are not prepared to address the issue of spirituality and religion with their clients. One would think that with the value many Americans place on the topic of religion and spirituality that there would come a time when a client would want to address this topic during his or her session.
Newman, Willis C. Bible Teaching about Christian Counseling: Theory and Practice Tacoma: Newman International LLC 2006) 32.
A licensed professional counselor is ethically expected to provide the very best care possible to his or her clients and one way to accomplish this goal is by implementing a self-care regimen. Recognizing and affirming one’s own shortcomings is one step a counselor can take to ensure their clients receive top-quality therapy. For the Christian counselor, this means actively participating in the biblical mandate of confession. According to McMinn (2011), “Confession requires humility, and humility is not easy” (p.177), yet this Christ-like characteristic is necessary if a Christian counselor wishes to provide his or her clients with the restorative help found within the counseling session. It should be noted that from a Christian perspective confession is not only the admittance of the sinful acts committed by the individual, but also a public declaration of one’s allegiance and loyalty to God.
The counseling session began with the introductions where I introduced myself as the counselor and later introduced my client. This stage is important in any counseling session since it is the time of exploration and focusing according to Gerard Egan as quoted by Wright (1998) in his essay on couselling skills. It is in this session that I was able to establish rapport and trust with my client in order to come up with a working and fruitful relationship with him. During this stage I made use of skills like questioning, where I would pose a question directly to my client, sometimes I would choose to just listen to what the client wanted to speak out while in some instances I would be forced to paraphrase the question if I felt the client did not understand the question I had asked previously. There were also other times when I would reflect through silence. During such a period, I got time to study the client and the information he had given. This being a difficult area, since some clients may not be able to volunteer information to you as the counselor, I decided to assure the client of confidentiality of any information he was willing to share with me with a few exceptions which I also told him about. Being open to him about the only times the information may not be confidential was part of my building rapport and establishing trust with him. I therefore, decided to ask the client what information he wanted to share with me and lucky enough he was ready to speak to me about different issues that he was going through.
This paper will include a self-assessment of my own spirituality and how I view spirituality. Peer-reviewed scholarly articles will be included in the essay pertaining to spirituality and my belief. In the following paragraphs will also include the integration of spirituality within social work practice. I believe spirituality does various things for me in my life: it heals me, helps in a time of need, and guides me towards positive aspects of life, which many people believe the spirit does the same for them.