Verified Document

How To Use Prayer In Counseling Sessions Article

Counseling and Prayer Christian Prayer in Counseling

"Christian Clients' Preferences Regarding Prayer as a Counseling Intervention" is a quantitative study by Weld and Eriksen (2007) in the Journal of Psychology and Theology. Their study used a survey of counselors and their Christian clientele with a Pearson and Fisher approach to quantifying the data. The implications of the analysis are used to discuss the counselor-patient relationship in terms of prayer, expectations, secularity, race, gender, and a variety of other factors.

The researchers note a lack of scholarly research on the subject of "client expectations about prayer in counseling" and attempt to fill a portion of that gap analyzing a survey of Christian clientele and their counselors (Weld, Erikson, 2007, p. 328). In the light of recent laws regarding counselors' respect for clients' religious beliefs, specialty counseling has developed that includes a Christian/spiritual approach to healing. Weld and Erikson (2007) acknowledge that prayer has been shown to have beneficial effects in counseling and what they aim to achieve with their study is to provide insight into how prayer as an intervention may be utilized more effectively, in the light of ethical, religious, and secular sensitivities. The results of the study showed that more than four-fifths of patients wanted to pray out loud as part of their counseling session and that they wished that their counselor would introduce...

These same clients expected prayer to be an effective tool in the healing process, and they also saw prayer as efficacious even outside of the counseling session (meaning they wanted their therapist to pray for them outside of the session and not just with them during the session).
The researchers concluded that all therapists should be sensitive to their clients' wants and needs as doing so helps to builder a stronger therapist-patient alliance. That said, they urge caution in broaching the subject or promoting prayer too much, as anything but a delicate balance can easily "turn off" the client if the therapist appears to go too far one way or the other (towards spirituality or secularism). Understanding the client and his/her expectations, therefore, is essential.

Reflection

My response to the article is that effectively highlights the need of counselors to consider the expectations of clients who approach therapy with a spiritual perspective. Counselors should be prepared to handle such clients and know how much prayer and what kind of praying should go into the session.

The study's design and methodology were suitably structured to deliver quantifiable results which helped the researchers analyze the data. This particular article was interesting precisely because it is a quantitative study, providing the exact method and formula to be used for any researcher…

Sources used in this document:
references Regarding Prayer as a Counseling Intervention. Journal of Psychology and Theology, 35(4): 328-341.
Cite this Document:
Copy Bibliography Citation

Related Documents

Prayer As Counseling Christian Client
Words: 916 Length: 3 Document Type: Term Paper

There are other insights, also described above, that I have gleaned form reading this particular article, which is why I chose it. Though I have my own opinions about prayer within counseling, I do believe that everyone is entitled to handle his or her sessions as they would like. However, I was quite surprised at the 82% statistic, as I had often believed that those who underwent counseling would be

Counseling Model a Practical Pastoral Counseling Model
Words: 3760 Length: 12 Document Type: Essay

Counseling Model A Practical Pastoral Counseling Model Counseling Setting Where Will Counseling Take Place? Boundaries for Safety and Security Relational Style Relational/Communication Style Structure/Strategy Sessions Summation Supportive Feedback God's Riches at Christ's Expense Annotated Bibliography A Practical Pastoral Counseling Model This is an overview of the counseling position that I will take when working with clients/parishioners. I realize that this cannot encompass every eventuality that may occur during a counseling session, but it should be comprehensive enough to account for most of the possibilities

Counseling With Christian Prayers
Words: 935 Length: 3 Document Type: Article Review

Weld and Eriksen's "Christian client's preferences regarding prayer as a counseling intervention." This article was based on empirical evidence gathered about the preferences of Christians seeking mental health counseling regarding the utilization of prayer. That evidence was based on a pair of survey instruments, The Brief Therapist Survey and The Prayer Survey for clients. One of the most interesting aspects of this study is that it considered the preferences

Integration of Counseling Theory From a Christian
Words: 3166 Length: 10 Document Type: Essay

Integration of Counseling Theory From a Christian Perspective Current Integration of Counseling Theory from a Christian Perspective The biblical approach to counseling brings with it so much in the field of counseling. Unlike many other logical approaches to counseling, Christian view of personality and counseling takes a spiritual angle to behavior and behavior change. Effectively, the worldview of a Christian ion as far as counseling is concerned will be very different from

Couples Counseling for Sexual Addiction
Words: 917 Length: 3 Document Type: Research Paper

Research Proposal for Couples Counseling Problem Sexual addiction is currently not recognized by the DSM-V as an addiction, and therefore some discrepancy among counselors about how to approach this issue exists, particularly when it comes to couples counseling. Research indicates, however, that sexual addiction is on the rise and that counselors require advanced training in this area to know how to treat it effectively and help couples address this issue that may

Grief Counseling
Words: 1900 Length: 6 Document Type: Term Paper

Grief Counseling Counseling For Loss & Life provides individual and family counseling services for people suffering from grief. For many years now, counseling for loss of loved ones has been using compiled information to help people who are grieving from the loss of loved ones, to give them the lost security, hope and peace. The information is gathered from many sources such as websites, letters that welcome people's input. The best

Sign Up for Unlimited Study Help

Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.

Get Started Now