Psychology, Theology, and Spiritually in Christian Counseling - Book Report/Review Example

Task Psychology, Theology, and Spiritually in Christian Counseling Introduction Mcminn’s book Psychology, Theology and Spirituality in Christian Counseling targets individual involved in counseling or offer counseling services and tries to bring a relation between these three aspects Psychology, Theology and Spiritualism. McMinn emphasizes the importance of always having to consider spiritual combination into our daily activities in this case counseling. Most people are often careful when it comes to the word of God because they have different believes and our faith is not the same. Most therapist in the modern day society are not for the idea that the Bible and its teachings can actually have a tremendous effect on their result and it is this negative notion that McMinn through his book he tries to tackle. What one individual believes in may not necessarily apply to the other. Some counselors may have the solution that God is actually the answer to some problem they may be addressing but instead find difficulty in putting this theory across. He seeks to underline how everyone applies his or her faith in his or her normal day routine. He stresses the benefits and impacts of considering Christ when we want to solve problems that are not necessarily spiritual related. The book gives the counseling discipline the tools that it requires to better execute its role in the society and stresses a need to understand the works of God in carrying out several key activities in our daily lives. This essay reviews McMinn’s view of the importance of combining Psychology, Theology, and Spirituality in Christian Counseling. Psychology, Theology, and Spirituality in Christian Counseling McMinn holds a strong belief that all qualified psychologists should put trust as the first emphasis when the counselor is handling their individual client that in turn creates a free and flexible environment in which the healing process can be easily achieved. He further explains the use of the bible in therapy, the acknowledgement of the word of God and prayer when administering therapy would better strengthen the relationship in the session. His theory, that if one prays, he experiences a level of satisfaction and purpose in their lives be it on a family level or spiritual level and also promotes individual’s well being. Christian Counselors we are told however find their faith being a driving force behind the success that they achieve and they rarely use reference from psychology to help them in analyzing the problem at hand, all answers are available through the confidence and belief they possess in the Almighty. We are told of Jill who is very depressed and seeks to get proper a counselor who would really handle every event that she is going through. There is an evident need for a therapist who is not only qualified as a psychologist, but one who has other qualities. Most patients as explained in the book are keen to be treated with a therapist that they can trust and who are evidently ready to establish a close relationship with them bringing about trust. There is a clear indication that a significant amount of the scripture brought into counseling would actually bring out an impact of great importance. He further argues that the aspect of forgiveness, sin and a chance at redemption should be incorporated during counseling. These would give the patient a better and a different angle to view what might be affecting them. The patient may be from a family that rarely believes in the Scripture, but there is always a chance to be inspired and religion adopted by the entire family. The counselor is actually under the spotlight having to face their spiritual side. We all know that they are actually highly qualified for their job and enhanced in psychological studies. McMinn seeks to root out their belief in applying Spiritual fulfillment in helping their patients overcome certain difficulty. There is need to combine all the psychological knowledge, theology and the spiritual purposes in each session of counseling. The idea is to incorporate Christ in everything that we do, to give us a better understanding and a fulfillment of the spiritual mind. The mostly often-asked question by therapists of why implement prayer in session and its effect in a session find its solution in this book. They ask about just how significant is the exercise of asking the patients to offer testify on their experiences before the onset of the therapy, and how the testimony would better improve diagnosis. He believes that it is not always about the techniques applied to the particular therapy session but also there is an important need to consider an individual’s inner challenges, those that cannot be treated by just plain old therapy. It would in turn ensure a most efficient healing process that can be later adopted by the patient to tackle life’s difficulty and probably eradicate their past inner turmoil. Both psychology and theology applied in the therapies makes the counselor or the professional therapist handling their client to get to understand better their patient’s problems. It makes the doctor prepared to handle almost all the issues that may be raised about the patient’s inner personal life. Whether these problems arise from their families back at home that may be burdening the patient’s normal routine or just, help them out to be able to appreciate the Supreme Being, God in their lives. He explains that the therapist has an obligation to understand the patient better, and that it is crucial for him to express his opinion of the world. Religion is a voluntary step to take in life and therefore there is always a difficulty especially when it comes down to explaining the world to an individual who shares his or her own opinions and beliefs. The trust that is created between the two, therapist, and patient has a significant effect on determining the future implication that the problem experienced at hand will have on the patient in future. There are two different types of counselors, those that are non-believers; preferring to carry out their work without considering God’s help in their therapy and the type who prefer not to apply psychology in their work. McMinn seeks to fill this gap left between these two very distinctively different therapist and attempts to combine them together. The book insists that there is need to combine the works from the scripture, prayers, and confessions and even give sacraments in therapy sessions. All these factors combined with the psychological theory of practice to McMinn is the best way to tackle a session. Counselors today rarely apply the use of scriptures in their sessions and McMinn’s attention is focused on trying to involve them to adapt to the use of spiritual knowledge. He mainly seeks the attention of Christian counselors and students who are into therapy. His belief is that for an individual to qualify successfully, as an effective therapist there must be a firm acknowledgement that his or her spiritual beliefs should be combined with their educational qualification. In a normal counseling therapy session, psychologists normally try as much as possible not to bring up any religious beliefs of the patient as often as they can. In the book, it has been found that a failure to do so may have a negative impact or yield unsatisfactory results. This is majorly attributed to the fact that most, if not all emotional challenges are always because of sin, hence a need to, as an example confess these deeds. Understand the root cause of the problem before even an attempt is made to try to fix it. He further argues that acknowledging sin and combining the aspect of confession in the session can lead to growth in the patient’s spiritual growth. He also talks about forgiveness leading to liberation. Normally, for an individual to let go and forgive, is sometimes a burden and may not be easy. Forgiving a person and eventually achieving liberation involves a number of aspects. Fist there needs to be humility, achieve self-awareness and then show compassion. When a person is being liberated, it means that they are allowing God to take charge of their life, and accept that He alone can give them meaning and understanding of the problems and challenges that he/she may be going through. Both psychology and Christianity lie on two separate sides, McMinn tries to balance the scale and bring each closer together, merge them because he sees a better result when the two entities are combined. Only an experienced counselor with a better understanding of theology and a better skill in psychology is able to decipher this complex puzzle and aid their patients’ gain better understanding. These three elements are wry vital in growth not only spiritually but also intellectually. A counselor who observes these rules will gain more information frequently and be able to solve problems with much ease. The key principle is understand the world as it is, acknowledge that God is the supreme being and that with Him as our driving force believing everything is possible in His Mighty name, we can achieve so much. The patient is also able to obtain a level of satisfaction and knowledge of the conflicts he or she may be experiencing in their life. When the problem is acknowledged and they have come to trust the therapist to be able to help them, they can lay down every bit of the difficulty without holding back and this is where confession of the sin comes in. The counselor applying these concepts is then able to better diagnose the problem and help solve the mystery. The most important and interesting part of this application in the therapy process is that the patient will gain more trust in her/his therapist, be able to develop spiritually and in turn is able to tackle such a problem in future should it arise again. There is almost complete total healing, of the mind soul and body. The entire book speaks about the Importance of religion in not only therapy session, but in a wider range of activities that we carry out on a day-to-day basis. McMinn himself administers his theories in his work as a psychologist and tells about how he has achieved a lot ever since he had started to implement these attributes. Most patients would rather attend sessions with those counselors whose theories and beliefs revolve around religion as compared to the non-believers. They may not necessarily be non-believers but their failure to apply spiritual teachings in their work results in a loss of clients. Professional counselors as compared to voluntary counselors do not apply spiritual teachings and mostly lose contact with the inner desires and problems of the client. This often leads to a level of dissatisfaction and a temporary solution to the impending problems. Their main priority is always to make profit because they claim to have grasped enough concepts of their practice. Truth is, one may not actually have grasped enough knowledge over what they do and without God, and nothing can really be accomplished as required. On the other hand, therapists who only conduct the process with the sole intention to help individuals through their problems often apply spiritual guidance in most cases. By doing this, the client is able to open more to them and in turn, they get to learn a lot from these sessions. The lessons learnt can then be applied to other patients who may present the same diagnosis. The loss of clients to the Christian Counselors is not always a good implication to the traditional therapists who often argue that McMinn’s theories are unsubstantial. The target population for this book is mostly people who truly believe in the Scripture and would want to help other individuals deal with their psychological burdens honestly without an inner motive, like making money. In his book, he points out that it is important to establish scientifically a stance in psychological therapy. Most psychologists believe that Christianity and science cannot be merged together to solve a problem. Christian type of therapy is diverse and is able to tackle a wider scope of problems as compared to other forms of therapy. Most of the world population is Christians and McMinn states that both moral and emotional problems affect most individuals across the world who turns out to be believers. Whether they may be strong or mild believers, the outcome of the therapy session may be the key to determine their eventual spiritual growth. It is also a fact that human nature is full of sin and we always seek redemption and forgiveness. Therapists are individuals that we can talk to about our problems so that they offer an outstanding solution. Once the human behavior and acknowledgement of the fact that sin is actually a part of us, then there will be a swift process in problem solving. Conclusion Christianity plays a major role in the modern day society. There is need to acknowledge that God is the Supreme creator and our strength in whatever we do. A combination of prayer and repentance is vital in making us better and stronger individuals. People often have more trust in those that share spiritual experiences and messages. McMinn offers a chance for the traditional therapists to gain a completely new experience in their sessions by adequately applying the principle of prayer in counseling. The book also sheds a light on redemption during therapy. Almost all of our sins are the cause of emotional setbacks and stress, a belief in the Scripture can provide a great effect in changing our view of the world. It is not always an obvious fact that we may get to accomplish all of our goals perfectly, but a firm belief in the word of God and prayer, adds an extra advantage in letting us grow spiritually. In addition, those professional Counselors with an intention of sharpening their therapy intelligence can start by including the three principles in one session. Therefore, Christianity according to McMinn has a positive impact on therapy. I also learn from McMinn that the best counselors are always the ones that are not driven by their ambition to make money to generate more income. To help an individual with a problem better, it is vital for a better understanding and a comfortable relationship between the therapist and the patient. The world of psychology is moving towards an age where in order to understand the client well, all of his inner troubles have to be put in consideration. Work Cited McMinn R. Mark. Psychology, Theology, and Spiritually in Christian Counseling. Illinois. Tyndale House. 1996. Read More