Integrating Spirituality Into Counselor Training: Article Analysis

Christian counseling is all about integrating psychology, theology and spirituality into counselor and clients lives. Psychology, Theology and Spirituality in Christian Counseling gives insight into how these three perspectives can be used to help individuals identify certain aspects of their lives that might be enhanced when the counselor includes spirituality into their counseling sessions. We also see how important it is for the counselor to be in touch with their own spirituality so that

Each person is unique with different gifts, abilities, and struggles. Counselors are committed to walk with individuals on their journeys to growth and healing without judgement.

Authors Hawkins and Clinton (2015) starts the text “The New Christian Counselor: A Fresh Biblical and Transformational Approach” by explaining their vision of the future of Christian counseling and remind us as counselors our role in performing our duties spiritually by helping shape us into better counselors. The authors do this throughout by explaining their definition, direction. and focus of the counseling practice in the 21st century.

A counselor’s job is to journey along with their client and to provide insight and support to those who are at risk and those who are hurting and searching for comfort and acceptance. If the counselor is a Christian they will also want to share our Heavenly Father’s love with the counselee and help guide them on a path that will lead them to Christ. There are several different techniques that can be used to break through the walls of some people in order to help them recognize the basis for their feelings whether it is such things as sin or faulty

The authors in this research address the importance competency in preparing counselors-in-training. Young, Cashwell, Wiggins-Frame, and Belaire (2002) suggest that counselor’s educators are much unprepared to incorporate spirituality competencies to counselors-in-training. The article also supports counselor educators are unprepared in applying spirituality in their curriculum. They lack the requirement set by CACREP standards, as well as their colleagues are even less prepared (Young et al.,

This paper will provide the reader with a reflection of my professional identity. This will focus on the role of a professional counselor and the differences between a professional counselor and other related professionals. It will also integrate how religious and spiritual beliefs can impact professional counseling. It will summarize my beliefs and values and what I plan to do so that I will not impose my beliefs on clients. Also, I will reflect on what I have learned during this course and how it will impact my future as a counselor.

In this article, there were a 26 survey conducted with 5,579 therapists with the integration of religion and spirituality in counseling. In the study, most therapist consider spirituality through their lives, but does not infrequently participate in religious activities. In the study, it was founded that marriage therapists consider more spirituality during their counseling session than other therapists, and marriage therapists is more likely to participate in a religious practice than other therapists.

like the SOCCS and RFS in the first article) and having to take courses and workshops that are directly related to value-based conflict training(s). Another issue that we can see within these articles is the conceptualization of cultural empathy and what it means to actually be in culturally competent and empathetic. Again further training should be given to ensure competence in this area in conjunction with learning about decision-making models related to incorporating these concepts within counseling practices overall. Also, counselors should try to be more aware of multicultural competencies and need an overall understanding of spiritual and religious practices to be a competent counselor. I believe further training in all of these areas is important and should be implemented by further education and receiving more CE or CEU hours if they already a licensed counselor.

Every person over the age of 19 can honestly say they have been a teenager, and as we all know the teen years can be pretty tough years. Being able to talk with an adult about these challenges is key to their future successes; unfortunately, many parents fall short on the explanation of God’s physical, emotional and spiritual design for them. This is where the Christian counselor comes in. It is my dream and goal to ultimately become a Christian counselor specializing in at-risk teens and families. To become a licensed Christian counselor, one must start the journey by setting solid academic goals and pursuing the education required for such licensure. For me, these educational goals include Associate’s and Bachelor’s degrees in Psychology and a Master’s degree in Christian counseling.

In today’s research, there is a showing of a swift change in religious silhouette (Hackett, Connor, Stonawski, & Skirbekk, 2015). Hackett, Connor, Stonawski, and Skirbekk (2015) reported by 2050 there will be a drop in Christian’s faith, and Judaism will no longer be the greatest non-Christian religious conviction. Muslims will outnumber individuals who consider themselves as a Christian religion. Magaldi-Dopman (2014) says, multicultural training enables discovery of self and brings awareness to one’s biases when discussing issues of spiritual, religious, and nonreligious issues with their clients (p. 195). And counseling professionals are conscious of death, that all living souls pass away, as well as their clients.’

Religion and culture will always form strong, in depth belief systems in individuals and I can see that there could be clashes of interest if the counsellor and client have different religious beliefs. There are so many emotive topics involved in religion, but one that springs to mind is the sanctity of marriage, a counsellor couldn't condone a person staying in an abusive relationship but they could make them aware of another choice and recognise, openly how difficult the situation is for the client. It could be that once the client is able to think this through then they can move

B. Preston Bogia (1984) quotes Charles Wheeler Scott (Pastoral Psychology, February, 1972): "It should not be forgotten that one of the advantages the pastoral counselor has over his secular counter part is that he works within the context of a worshipping community." This means that a pastor should not be alone in the counseling room, he should have witnesses but who are faithful but a counselor should be a pastor of that worshipping community.

As a counselor, I would utilize may of the secular assessment tools as a point of reference during some preliminary counseling sessions to get a better grasp on the issue(s) at hand. After assessing the multiple needs of the client, I would then utilize the spiritual assessments. I feel that if introducing spiritual assessments without assessing the individual can cause danger to the client. The reading provided a great example of this danger. It discusses the fact that in Pentecostalism, a person that claims to hear external voices is looked at as normal spiritual connectedness to God. However, “In such cases, a comprehensive assessment is necessary to determine whether the voices are, in fact, a sign of mental illness or are normative, and

In order to go forth with any counseling session; one needs to study the Bible passage carefully to discover biblical principles applicable to each person and what they are going through, then one will need to utilize said Godly principles. Consequently, one will need to be creative in how the Bible is used in each counseling session. One will need to ensure that they get to know the person that they are counseling, the issues that they face, and what their spiritual belief is.

Hello Professor, when it comes to your question about I found two article that talk about how that as a student and a professional counselor we should be diverse when it comes to others religious and spiritual beliefs. It is up to the teachers to show the students that when it comes to diversity that we should know how to handle different situations and understand that when we come to having a profession in counseling we should continue to educate ourselves so diversity is not an issues when it comes to our clients. Even though there are differences we should never push away a client because of own believes. I do feel that since this is a calling for most of us that we should learn and find ways to fulfil this calling to the best of our abilities.