Philosophical Assumptions and Key Concepts

What are the core assumptions and key features of the biological and psychoanalytic perspectives in psychology? In what ways are they similar and how do they differ?

How can a Christian counselor effectively counsel clients while holding to their convictions of faith? This question is one that many have to think upon. In reading the textbook for this class, the author takes the secular theories and breaks them apart. As a counselor, Christian or not, it is very important to pull from different theories rather than devote solely to one theory. Each individual coming in to the therapist’s office is wired differently in personality and belief system. As a Christian therapist, it is important to know the individual in the client’s chair. Being open with them about where one stands spiritually is a priority. The goal is to be able to take any theory and “think” Christianly. Every counselor is different, but there are central characteristics that one must focus their practice on while working with clients. The main goal as a Christian therapist is to integrate psychology, professional ethics, Scripture and the very character of Jesus in a way that never compromises the authority of God.

“Christian counseling, in its purest form, is a covenant between a caregiver and a care seeker to labor collaboratively for the possession of the soul—through the power of the Holy Spirit, under the authority of the Word of God” (Hawkins & Clinton, 2015, “Possessing

There are many views held among Christian counselors about how to Scripturally approach changing human behavior. For some who seek to base the motivation for change on Biblical grounds, an approach to counseling is geared toward changes that would allow one to conform more

Highlighting some theological assumptions that are critical for Christian counseling will be done in this section. The term counseling should be considered in the broadest of definitions such as counselor, helper, advocate, giving advice, teacher, and one who is called

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

Personal experiences are the most suitable for finding the implications that people place on the occasions, procedures, and structures of their lives and their discernments, presuppositions, and assumptions. There are various conditions necessary for a qualitative study. These include the questions about individuals' encounters and an investigation into the implications people make of their encounters. The contemplations of a man with regards to their social or interpersonal environment is also an important condition. Lastly, it needs an examination where it is hard to build up a traditional instrument because of the lack of understanding of the phenomenon.

According to Hawkins and Clinton (2015), Christian counseling is a collective process that includes at least three persons which are the counselor, the client and God’s trinity (Hawkins & Clinton, 2015, p. 39). The main objective of the relationship between these three forces is to obtain transformational

Individual personal theory of counseling is very important for the successes of any therapeutic process that affects how I council. Personal perspective, how the world works, belief system, the way things interact, and how they actually are form the basis of working of all individuals in life. In order to have the best decision with respect to any therapeutic process, I

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.

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 " A Structure for In-Depth, Phenomenological Interviewing” by Irving Seidman he talks about the methods and practice of phenomenological interviewing. For example, Seidman says that there are four themes to the interviews and the interviews should be done in three separate parts. Furthermore he states that the themes, “provide the rationale and the logic for the structure, technique, and approach to analyzing, interpreting, and sharing interview material” (263). Consequently it is made prevalent that these themes are crucial to the phenomenological interviewing process. In addition to him stressing the importance of the themes Seidman also elucidates on how much the three part interview matters.

A global trend toward liberalization of free trade is both strictly current and strictly relevant to Chinese economic growth.

A Phenomenological paradigm is a method of inquiry, associated with the German philosophers Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger. It attempts to capture the subjective experiences and interpretations as perceived by the participants or group of people in an unbiased manner. How they view and understand the world from their perspectives would be the focal point of the phenomenologists. Thus, the main goal of phenomenology is to understand the ‘life-world’ as viewed and experienced by the participants and requires the researchers to free themselves from any preconceptions and interferences. This method allows the researchers to understand the informants’ subjective world in their own terms and make them visible and true to the informants’