Verified Document

Prayer As Counseling Christian Client 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 much more liberal and would thus be less inclined to believe in any religious component to therapy. Often times, those seeking religious therapy would see a priest rather than a psychologist or psychiatrist. Yet it was quite illuminating to see that, perhaps, even those more liberal did not necessarily shun prayer as a means to understanding themselves and their surrounding. Yet, again, there is no basis to this latter statement, though it can be a component that a further study could better address.

Application

This final section will discuss the potential application of this concept to an actual setting. Whereas in the first two sections the study was described and commented upon (especially in the second section), this latter section is much more practical. For this section, there is a hypothetical patient undergoing depressive tendencies who is also suicidal and who believes there is no hope in life. Depression is a very...

For this reason, a patient ought to know that depression is not his or her fault; in fact, there is absolutely nothing wrong with the individual, other than a normal, perhaps genetic predisposition that, unfortunately, may leave him or her vulnerable to depressive tendencies.
When talking to a patient who is undergoing such difficult transitions, especially such insurmountable sadness, one must be very careful with how to handle such a person. First, comfort must be imparted. Yet most importantly, a reason to help this patient understand that the situation is neither hopeless, nor terminal, and thus suicide is not at all a go-to solution. Prayer could have a great impact here for the simple fact that it can provide a means through which the patient could ask for answers, for penance, or for anything else that he or she might need. Prayer could also introduce the patient to hope, and to knowing that there is a possibility of something existing beyond death, something for which to strive and work for, and something that does not need to be attained easily and that can wait. In fact, prayer could have a huge impact to presenting hope, for that is what prayer is, and in a depressive patient, this could be effective, depending upon his or her openness to trying this means of therapy.

Cite this Document:
Copy Bibliography Citation

Related Documents

Weld, C. 2007 . Christian Clients
Words: 1046 Length: 3 Document Type: Article Review

Then, when the therapist is praying for the patient, they are changing their mental state of mind as well. This is significant, because it shows that when prayer is used during the process of obtaining mental health treatment, the patient would be more open to new ideas. At the same time, the therapist is more concerned about their patient's well being. Over the course of time, this improves the

How to Use Prayer in Counseling Sessions
Words: 903 Length: 3 Document Type: 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,

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

Gary R. Collins, Christian Counseling
Words: 8475 Length: 31 Document Type: Research Paper

Christian counseling has become an important treatment modality for a growing number of health care practitioners and patients across the country in recent years. Introduced during the early 1980s, Christian counseling advocates integrating religious practices and beliefs founded on religious traditions with psychotherapeutic techniques to provide an optimal approach to helping people cope with a wide range of personal problems and family issues. The purpose of this study is to

Christian Counseling
Words: 1539 Length: 5 Document Type: Book Review

Christian Counseling According to McMinn Counseling others through difficult time, challenging personal crises or the simple complexities of everyday life requires patience, compassion and selflessness. These are also all features of a good Christian life devoted to fellowship and the scriptures. These are the ideas at the crux of Mark McMinn's 1996 text Psychology, Theology and Spirituality in Christian Counseling. At its most basic, the text is an outline of the

Christian Counseling
Words: 3353 Length: 10 Document Type: Case Study

Christian Counseling Presenting Problems Diane seems to be undergoing many different problems that are present today because of her past. The way she was treated by her family and her husband now has gone to affect her psychologically and emotionally. The combination of post traumatic stress disorder, schizoaffective symptoms and previous satanic ritual abuse is very severe and psychological intervention is greatly required. One of her presenting complaints is post traumatic stress disorder

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