Muslim Client Assessment

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Guidelines for the assessment of Muslim clients
At the initial or pre-counselling interview, it is important to assess the client’s preferred language in case the client does not share the same language as the counsellor. The use of a professional translator may be necessary. Issues of confidentiality should be discussed with the client and the family. The counsellor needs to be aware of the beliefs about the clients' illness, its causes, and when and from whom to seek care as this may have a significant influence on the presentation of illness or sickness behaviours (Rassool and Gemaey, 2014). During the process of engagement and the development of the therapeutic relationship the counsellor will be in a better position to explore the client’s …show more content…

According to Koenig et al., (1996), the spiritual assessment undertaken “validates religion as an important part of the client’s life and identifies a potential coping resource. It also provides vital information that is necessary in designing any future interventions that may include the client’s religious faith.” (p. 169). Richards and Bergin (1997) provided five reasons to include spiritual assessments in counselling: Spiritual assessments help counsellors to obtain a better understanding of clients’ worldviews; to determine if a religious orientation is positive and negative; to evaluate whether a client’s religious or spiritual community is a potential coping resource; to enable counsellors to make decisions regarding which spiritual or religious interventions will be helpful to a client; and to assist counsellors in determining how a client’s presenting problems and spiritual issues are …show more content…

An instrument that can be used universally with both Shiite and Sunni Muslims is the Religiosity of Islam Scale (RoIS) (Masri and Priester, 2007).The RoIS is a 19-item instrument with two subscales: Islamic Beliefs and Islamic Behavioral Practices. The scope and nature of the assessment will depend on the specific type of presenting issue. For some Muslim clients, the primary presenting counselling issue may be psycho-spiritual in nature so that a full spiritual assessment is warranted. One valuable point to consider is that the religious commitment of some Muslims could be the result of external (societal or familial) pressure, internal commitment, or some combination of the two (Rahiem and Hamid, 2012). Taking a spiritual history and using appropriate spiritual assessment tools can enable information to be gathered about spirituality relative to the nature of the presenting problem (Proctor, 2009). A spiritual assessment may explore such issues as the client’s religious practices, beliefs, client's religious coping style, special celebrations and religious support network. That is to assist the client by putting them in touch with their religious network. The support network or religious group may be a source of support or religiously oriented coping mechanism. According to Isgandarova (2007), the use of spiritual assessment tool

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