School Counseling of Christian Fundamentalists

Peterson and Nisenholz (1994) have noted that one of the primary objectives in the education of counselors is that they be made ready and able to work with a variety of clients. However, what can the counselor do when the client's belief system and values appear to be disparate from those which the counselor holds, and when the institution within which the counselor works does not easily lend itself to shifting the client to another counselor whose belief system is more compatible? This is precisely the situation in which many school counselors find themselves when counseling Christian fundamentalist students where fundamentalist is defined as a person who believes that the Bible is to be treated as the literal Word of God.

Since it is estimated that approximately 25 to 35 percent of Americans are evangelical, born-again Christians who believe that the Bible is to be taken literally (Eshleman, Cashion & Basirico, 1993), it can be seen that the situation has immediate significance for school counseling. The purpose of this paper is to determine what counseling techniques and/or theoretical perspectives might be amenable for use in these situations and which techniques/theories might not be applicable. Also, the paper will examine the ethical and legal dangers associated with these particular counseling situations.

Theories and Techniques: Those That Apply, Those That Do Not

. . .
e theory that will violate these students' beliefs can be seen in an article by Hoffman (1990). Specifically, Hoffman examines the notion of "hope" which he states demonstrates the convergence of religious thought and psychotherapeutic theories. Hoffman, in an attempt to develop a more comprehensive psychotherapeutic theory of hope, examines the client/patient experience of hope in psychologically-based treatment options associated with Freud, Skinner, or Rogers. These treatments are theoretically applied to a case study and the client/patient's experience of hope is qualitatively analyzed with respect to two factors: the "therapeutic relationship" and the "goals of therapy." The variables of the analysis are organized into a 2 x 3 matrix which describes the experience of hope in terms of a directive or nondirective therapeutic relationship and pessimistic, neutralistic, or optimistic goals of therapy. This descriptive matrix is then compared to the expressions of hope in evangelical Christianity which is qualitatively analyzed by the two factors of the "divine relationship" and the "goals for Christian living." Directive and less-directive expressions of the divine relationship and pessimistic, neutralistic, and optimis
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Approximate Word count = 3085
Approximate Pages = 12 (250 words per page)

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