Religion and spirituality have never been simple subjects to handle. It must be taken with a grain of salt in every aspect of discussions. When considering religion in therapy, it has been a tricky subject matter to work with without violating boundaries or harming clients. In the past, there was no religious middle ground or understanding in therapy, it was “conducted on a predominantly secular landscape where most therapists challenged religious beliefs” (Rosenfeld, n.d, p. 191). It should not be so difficult to find a therapist that will work with you if you have religious beliefs, a difficulty such as therapists who do work with religion or therapists who do not work with religion, because religion is not a scarce practice. In fact, a survey …show more content…
There are numerous steps a therapist must take to prevent imposing their own beliefs on a client. Before the professional relationship between the therapist and the patient is created, the psychologist must consider their own religious beliefs and if belief is held that it may impede the effectiveness of therapy, they must disclose the information to the client (Barnett & Johnson, 2011) as per the APA ethics code standard 5.01. The psychologist must not falsely advertise their religious stance or avoid stating it is they believe it to be a problem with the client. A general guideline for employing religion in therapy is to not do so unless the client has expressed interest in such practice, the client’s religious relationship is already established, and if the therapist is competently trained with such matters (Rosenfeld, n.d). It is obvious that there is no need to discuss religion or spirituality in sessions if the clients has no interest in doing so, but is just expressed by the therapist themselves which would lead to imposing their values on the client. When religion is to be included, then it is recommended that the respect is shared between the both of them “to capture the desirable therapeutic relationship of trust, equality and negotiation… [that] accepts patients’ views as valid and important… and helps to prepare them for further decision making opportunities” (Rosenfeld, n.d, p. 195). Through such an understanding, no harm will come to the client and no ethical violations will be
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). ...
As mentioned, psychotherapy is not thought to be value-free or value-neutral any more, and therapists are required to be aware of their own values and to hold them back while treating clients. Nevertheless, according to Patterson (1998), some psychologists claim the legitimacy of imparting certain values. Understandably, it is more so among psychologists with religious orientation as in pastoral counseling. However, Patterson (1986) also listed psychologists who instruct certain values without religious affiliat...
In this meta-analysis of integration of spirituality and religion in the counseling field, the authors seek to understand the skills and attitudes needed to integrate these variables into counseling. Among those that were studied are awareness of one’s own culture and heritage, respect for the diversity found in people concerning spirituality and religion and recognition of one’s helping style and how it may be perceived by clients (Walker, Gorsuch, & Tan, 2004).
Cunningham, M. (2012). Integrating Spirituality in Clinical Social Work Practice: Walking the Labyrinth (1 ed.). Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education Inc.
An ethical implication for a counselor expressing their value to a client can be if the client does not believe in God because they he/she is Atheist. The counselor can persuade to the client that my praying the dilemma that the client is current in can be resolved by praying
Confidentiality. Confidentiality is just as important in Christian counseling as it is in secular counseling. According to the American Association of Christian Counselors (2014), “confidentiality recognizes that every client has a fundamental, moral and legal right to privacy and to have a wide range of personal thoughts, opinions, beliefs, and behaviors that are protected from public knowledge” (p. 22). It is crucial for counselors to maintain client confidentiality unless what a client discloses brings harm to themselves or other people. Confidentiality should be kept at all
Treatments such as conversion therapy have been thoroughly debated by doctors, everyday civilians and even politicians. The question surrounding the topic asks whether or not the treatment is ethically and morally acceptable. Conversion therapy is an option of treatment catering to the LGBTQ community that claims to be able to change a person’s sexual behaviors such as orientation, preference and identity. The main controversies on the topic argue the physical and psychological side effects, treatment options and whether or not different sexual behaviors are mental illnesses that requires treatment.
Religion can be defined in many ways and has different meanings for different people; some say religion is a belief in a god or gods. According to (Religion, 2015) religion is defined as faith in a divinely created order of the world. Places of worship vary from churches, temples, and mosques to list a few. For many, religion is turned to in times of distress and confusion. Many seek assistance through religion similar to how client seeks assistance from therapy. In the past religion has been used to heal, which begs the question does religion belong in therapy? In this essay I will discuss religion in therapy.
In counseling integration of Christianity into the therapeutic process has long been researched and developed. In order to get a good grasp as to what things or ideas would be a part of that process the individual must look into themselves as a therapist and decide how or what that integration process would look like for them. The difficulty in meshing Christianity and Psychology is that there will always be a degree of fealty to one side or another. According to Emmons, many studies have demonstrated that spirituality and religion are closely associated with psychological well-being but, there are also levels of spiritual maturity and an individual 's ability to forgive others to contend with. Throughout the course of this paper I will be discussing the integration process as I understand it and how it would relate to my own relationship to faith.
“Homosexuality is found in over 1,500 species. Homophobia is found in only one” ("1,500 Animal” 1). Conversion therapy, or otherwise known as “reparative therapy,” is a homophobic process by which many therapists attempt to “cure” homosexuality. Conversion Therapy demonstrates the ignorance of this world by causing mental and physical harm to its participants in an attempt to “cure” something that is not a problem, and that is why the federal government needs to ban it once and for all.
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
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.
The integration of theology and psychology is a controversial subject. Some Christians have taken the position that psychology is an inherently evil invention of man that should be invalidated and ignored. Other Christians, particularly those in the “psychology industry,” have become enamored with the “…scientific credibility” that psychology seems to present and have tended to give psychological research and methodology a higher regard than Scripture itself. Both of these propositions seem to be extreme; where is the balance?
In our fast passed and ever changing society, personal experiences built up over time and often make life difficult to deal with over time. Everyone has their own prospective on what is important and how they will tackle various problems they face from day to day. It is the responses to our harsh environment and experiences that can often manifest into feelings such as: anxiety, resentment and possibly guilt (Crabb, 1977). It is those that have negative experiences in life that seek out the help of counselors, to better understand and change the root of those problems. Each Christian counselor must carefully research and develop a counseling model which best aligns with their education level and spiritual beliefs. The following will be a summary of the models of counseling developed by Dr. Crabb and Dr. Hawkins, addressing the strengths and weaknesses of each model. Through this theory critique a Christian counselor should be able to identify and develop a strong foundation for their counseling theory and better serve their clients while maintaining a strong spiritual foundation.
To answer this question, we must first understand what both ethics and morality are. As ethics is defined as the philosophical study of morality, those who study religion get their moral precepts from what they believe God says should be done. This perspective is not at all unexpected, because all religions apply a perspective on morality. Morality is defined as beliefs concerning right and wrong, good and bad- beliefs that can include judgements, values, rules, principles, and theories. Morals are what help us guide our actions, define our values, and give us reason for being the person that we are.