Appellant: A Case Study

I met Amber in the course of my daily visitation routine as a chaplain in the hospital. A spiritual care-giver had left a note on my desk indicating that Amber Bill had specifically requested to see a priest. I immediately responded to that concern. As I visited with Amber, I tracked the conversation and I came to realized that Amber has some emotional concerns as she faced her last

Integrating spiritual and religious dimensions of clients ' lives into their treatment requires consummate professionalism and the highest quality of knowledge, skills, and attitudes. Psychologists

McMinn (1996) states, a Christian counselor’s “spiritual life spills over in interactions with everyone, including clients” (p. 13). A few other challenges that McMinn (1996) identifies are as follows: the necessity for a scientific basis, the need for ethical standards, and challenging the dominant models of mental health. While evaluating each religious intervention, McMinn (1996) poses three questions to ponder that consist of asking the reader if the intervention will establish a healthy sense of self, sense of need, and establish a healing

Religious settings highlighted that only professional counsellors belonging to professional bodies offered counselling services (West, 2001; Rye et al, 2000 and Thorne, 1991). It was also emphasised that although counselling in Britain is not underpinned by religion Woodruff (2002) that it does have its ‘roots in religious forms’ (West, 2001, p. 415). For example the act of forgiveness was seen as a key competent of spiritual pastoral care West (2001) and also was identified to be used amongst many therapist today (West 2001). It was also suggested that pastoral counselling played a large part in the establishment of The BACP West (1998) which is the ethical framework that counsellors are required to adhere to. (Moore & Roberts, 2010)

The issue of opportunity is a major factor in the sex offenses in Churches. In churches, opportunities for abuse are in activities such as taking children home after an activity or youth group, giving individual attention to a child, and being alone with children in summer camps. These opportunities allow priests to be alone with children without other adults being suspicious or concerned. Another factor in explaining the opportunity for abuse is the power and influence that clergy have. Since in the church, priests or ministers are influential in defining what is right and wrong, they may have the power to show abusive behavior as normal. Children are in a position that church workers can use their authority within the church to persuade a child to comply with sexual acts (Farrell & Taylor 2000). When authority is misused in this way it adds trauma to the abuse. The betrayal of trust involved is enormous, and for some victims it causes the difficulty to trust authority again.

McMinn unveils the realism of what essentially happens in the counseling office. He dives into the fitting together “Psychology, Theology, and Spirituality in Christian Counseling”. McMinn explains how “those who enter therapy in the midst of their pain experience a restorative counseling relationship that brings acceptance hope, and meaning into their broken lives” (McMinn, 2011, p. 20). There are various questions surrounding Christian counseling that McMinn faces head on in this book when it comes to the challenges counselors face as it relates to integrating religion and spirituality in their sessions. Life on the frontier as McMinn puts it, is where counselors face six basic challenges. Challenges such as moving from two areas of competence to three, blurred personal-professional distinctions, expanded definitions of training, confronting dominant views of mental health, establishing a scientific base or even defining relevant ethical standards (McMinn, 2011). Personal journey’s that McMinn has taken throughout his career provide him with the knowledge, skills and abilities to depict how we should face these challenges. McMinn talks about how many counselors have a need to interpret studies, have good psychodynamics and figure out which cognitive therapy is right for their counseling. As he states, “Christian counseling is more complex than other forms of counseling because our goal are multifaceted (McMinn, 2011, p.

Your job is to help people deal with the changes that come into their lives and make changes that will improve their lives (Collins, 2007, pp. 3-4). Additionally, Pastoral counseling can be both distinctively pastoral and psychologically informed. This occurs when it takes the identity from the rich tradition of Christian soul care and integrates appropriate insights of modern therapeutic psychology… (Benner, 2003, p.14). ). The primary goal lies with change; and our change is stemmed by our reliance upon the Father for change and healing and through “Jesus Christ [who] is the only all-sufficient and perfect healer for hurt people” (Wilson, 2001, p. 14).

The concern for morality and ethics cuts across all endeavors of human existence. Focusing particularly on the helping professions – Pastoral care, Counseling, medicine, Psychiatry, Social Work, Law, and Teaching - the need for standard professional guidelines for conduct of practitioners becomes of paramount importance. Competence or knowledge of techniques of therapy is important; but A person who needs to be salvaged, who needs spiritual, psychological, emotional, psychiatric healing or direction would rather prefer to interact with an ethically seasoned” half trained

Christian counselors have a responsibility to their clients to integrate psychology and theology in their therapeutic approaches. Incorporating multiple components however is not as straight forward as one might think. In Psychology Theology, and Spirituality (McMinn, 2011) McMinn discusses the benefits of an integrated counseling approach that strives to promote “both spiritual and emotional growth” (McMinn, 2011, p. 5) by including a third element; spirituality, or more specifically, spiritual formation. Finding the proper blend of elements can be challenging even for a seasoned therapist.

McMinn tells how psychology, theology, and spirituality are used and how they should be used in Christian counseling. A Christian counselor has to look at not necessarily psychology and theology in a counseling session but how religion and spiritually is brought into the session. McMinn (2011) states, “Religious interventions require us to understand spiritual formation, place priority on personal spiritual training as well as professional development, challenge prevailing models of mental health, work toward a stronger scientific base, and sensitively recognize ethical issues” (p. 26). Counselors need to work on their own spiritual foundation so they can are able to help clients. This consists of prayer, scripture, redemption, sin, forgiveness, and confession (McMinn, 2011).

In May 2011, CNN reported "Bishop Eddie Long reached an out of court settlement with four young men who accused him of sexual coercion" (Blake, 2011). Bishop Eddie Long was a minister known for speaking out against gay marriage in the pulpit, while spreading an "image of machismo wearing muscles shirts" priding himself on the "gift he had for ministering to Christian men" (Blake, 2011). After the matter was settled, CNN reports "Art Franklin, a Long spokesman, said the pastor settled the legal matter because it “is the most reasonable road for everyone to travel,” (Blake, 2011). The truth was not as it appeared. We will review this matter under the lens of self-perception and cognitive dissonance.

Throughout my 13-year career in the Human Services field, spending the majority of that time working with adolescent girls in residential treatment facilities, I am very much aware of the risks that exist with regard to sexual relationships between professionals and clients. In that time, it came to my attention that at least three employees at programs where I was employed had sexual relationships with clients. In addition to the ethical issues that arose from these situations, all of the clients were under 18 years of age so the actions of these employees had legal ramifications. Many of our clients had been victims of sexual abuse prior to admission into our program. I always viewed our programs as safe places where clients would be treated with respect and could develop strong therapeutic relationships with both their counselors and program staff members. Unfortunately, the actions of a few had a detrimental effect on our programs and also the lives of our clients. Having dealt with these issues and focusing on ethical decision-making throughout my education and professional career, the ethical dilemma of

For the mock trial I was assigned to be one of the prosecuting attorneys. After being presented with case materials which included facts of the case, statements from both prosecuting and defense witnesses, penal code for the alleged charges, and map of the crime scene, we as a group decided to create one Google Drive document. There we would upload our parts of the case and help other group members with their assignments.

The writer would hope the counselor whether Pastoral or Clinical is honest with the individual. A person can get a lie from anywhere. The reason for counseling is to help the person overcome what they are going through in their crisis. The Bible says in John 8:32, "And you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free." A lie will only keep the person in bondage.

John Jay College Research Team. (2004). The nature and scope of sexual abuse of minors by Catholic priests and deacons in the United States, 1950-2002. Washington, DC: United States Confer-ence of Catholic Bishops.