Psychology, Theology, and Spirituality in Christian Living by Mark R Mcminn - Book Report/Review Example

Book Review al Affiliation Book Review Summary The book under review is called Psychology, Theology and Spirituality in Christian Living authored by Mark R Mcminn. It is about the different techniques that counselors use to counsel their patients. It is what happens to the counselors and their patients behind the counseling rooms doors. The book begins with the story of Jill, who is a depressed young lady. She thinks about various counselors while she tries to think about who is the right counselor. She realizes that all the guides are different. Some will advice her religiously while others will not, some may also opt to use therapy to solve emotional problems in patients. With this, the book thus says that the counselors are confused too. This is because there are many methods of counseling, but the counselor may not know the right one to use on her patients too (McMinn, 2011). Jill finally finds the right counselor after doing her searching. She tells how she feels to Dr. N.T. Gration. She is a woman in her thirties who does not like her job and does not talk to her family and friends too. She has also stopped talking to her parents as advised by another counselor. Her present counselor Dr. Gration is an expert in integrating Christianity and psychology. She is too in a dilemma on how to advice Jill. This aspect shows the slow evolution of intergration movement of Christianity and psychology. Interdisciplinary integration is a recently emerging frontier for Christian counselors. Christian counselors face many challenges. Moving from areas of competence to three is one of them. Another one is blurred personal, professional distinctions. These are just some of the few amongothers. Another one is defining relevant ethical standards. The second example is about Jim, who feels he is confused about his faith. He, therefore, goes to see the counselor. In this situation, counselors who are aware of his spiritual formation will be able to discern his treatment. Balancing Christian theology, psychology, and spiritual formation tend to be important (McMinn, 2011). The theoretical road map for counseling is required while counseling. It is called cognitive therapy. The map helps the counselor give detect answers to his clients. Effective counseling also has ingredients. These include first the theoretical map and a strong therapeutic relationship. Patients who come with chronic personality adjustment problems, however, do not respond to cognitive therapy. Most forms of this therapy are silent about spiritual life. Christian counseling tends to be more complicated than other forms of counseling. Christian counselors are concerned with mental and spiritual health. A map is needed for spiritual growth. Most plans are based only on mental health (McMinn, 2011). They are made on the assumption that mental health can be separated from spiritual health. It must be true to the Scripture and ultimately relevant to mental health problems. The map should finally one that assumes neither a one to one correspondence between spiritual and psychological health. The map that the author begins with is simple but it provides an essential starting point for religious issues discussions. The healing motif woven the narrative of human history reflect a healing pattern. Concrete Response I agree with the author that prayer and scripture are important in counseling (McMinn, 2011). My mother had developed a brain tumor just as I was about to start high school. My father had had left my mother with my two siblings and I to take care of because of a misunderstading. We had lived together for the three years as a simple family with mom providing for us. She made sure we acquired the best education that she could afford to give us single handedly. However, my mother went into depression. As the first born, I did not know what was wrong with her. My relatives supported us and even made appointments for her to visit several counselors. My brother began taking drugs, and this frustrated her more and made her condition worse. As a counselor, I could not offer my services to her because it would not be effective. Therefore, we decided to take her to different counselors as stated above. However, I played a part in her healing by praying with her and reading scriptures to get words or encouragement from them. I went to church and had faith that God could heal my mother. The father who had left us came back and I saw this as an aspect of prayer. This helped my mother’s condition to get better. The family that was once broken apart was now mending the differences. We were now smiling again as a family with my mother healing again in the hospital. The worst nightmare, however, happened after some months. My mother peacefully passed away on her hospital bed after showing signs of healing. It remained a mystery of how God could at one time bring happiness and then take it again. The best thing, however, is that my father came back after her death. Despite this, prayer helped by encouraging my mother through the hard times and made us support her healing process because we trusted in God that she would heal. Reflection The book has strengths and weaknesses. In terms of strengths, it has many solutions of how counselors should handle their patients. The author has given a wide range of methods on how the counselors can handle patients. Another strength of the book is the author has given enough examples of patients whose cases required experts and has said how their cases were dealt with. These examples serve as teaching aids for the readers of the book especially other counselors. The language of the book is reasonably good. It thus favors a larger group of its users. The book has too many overlapped ideas that that counselors can use. This can prevent a reader from getting the central idea that can assist him in reading the book. The author also has used vocabularies that a reader who is not a counselor may fail to understand. In addition, the author discusses counseling within the religious perspective. This limits the discussion to areas that may include counseling outside religious and spiritual matters because there are patients who are not religious but might require counseling services. In fact, the author tackles counseling from a Christian perspective meaning that he limits the type of readers who can find the book to be helpful. People from other religions may not find the book to be helpful to them (McMinn, 2011). Action As a counselor, I have learned that I can use a variety of methods in their counseling for a better outcome. Counseling must involve several steps that include psychology, theology and spirituality aspects because all these areas offer significant help in terms of achieving desirable outcomes from a counseling session. As I have discovered, a counselor should make sure he uses the best technique to treat his patient. During counseling, the counselor should also learn what effective counseling should entail. The counseling should involve a theoretical map and a strong theoretical relationship. A conceptualplan also called cognitive therapy assists the counselor to detect answers from his clients. The plan should satisfy various conditions. It should be entirely relevant to mental health problems. It should also be simple. The counseling process must address all the issues that the patient has. This means that it must be an all round process where the counselor seeks to ensure that the patient achieves full healing and not just one aspect of healing. To do this effectively, the counselor must start by knowing the patient before even getting to the condition that he or she has. The counselor must establish rapport and trust with the patient to make them feel accepted and free to open up. Reference McMinn, M. R. (2011). Psychology, theology, and spirituality in Christian counseling. Carol Stream, Ill: Tyndale House. Read More