Personal Faith & Family Counseling

Religion and spirituality are related but slightly different entities. Spirituality is a personal belief in a supreme being, an internalized set of values, and an inner wholeness that exists within or outside formal religious structures, and religion tends to be more connected with institutions, "denomination, external, cognitive, ritualistic, and public" (Stevens & Wolf, 2001, p.66). Spiritual practices tend to be more universal, private, affective and spontaneous. In the past, there have been barriers to integrating religion and spirituality into clinical practice. For example counselors may have views that are different from those of their clients and they may worry about conflict because of differing viewpoints. During the process of integration, one has to face the inhibiting factors of one's faith and how they might impact clients (Stevens & Wolf, 2001, p.67).

There is very little literature about the process of integrating faith into one's counseling practice, especially family practice. It seems to be a situation where each person is on his own, b

. . .
mutual endeavor of therapy. According to Jankowski, a mature faith moves one from an I/It orientation to an I/Thou orientation, making all relationships smoother and more pleasant (Jankowski, 2002, p.70). If the counselor remains steadfastly in the cognition mode, a cognition-emotion dichotomy may arise, making it difficult for the client to move forward. A relaxed, faith-based connectedness promotes healing and change in people's lives, and a resilient spirituality results that integrates the cognitive, metaphysical, and relational dimensions of spirituality. What has changed with postmodern spirituality is the elevation of subjective experience to a legitimate way of knowing. If insight comes during prayer or meditation, it is considered as valid as what is learned in church or read in a valued spiritual book. For Americans, who tend to be rather individualistic, such an individualized type of faith can be isolating. It is Jankowski's contention that it would be beneficial for Americans to release some of the intense vertical orientation (reaching to God) and develop more of a horizontal orientation in order to feel more connected within groups of people (Jankowski, 2001, p.71). This shift would be very beneficial in fam
. . .

Some common words found in the essay are:
Benshoff Spruill, According Jankowski, Overall Muslims, Gushue Sciarra, Stevens Wolf, , Arab Americans, Pearson QM, Hakim-Larson Nassar-Mcmillan, Educational Programs, one's own, family counseling, counseling practice, gushue sciarra, spiritual religious, benshoff spruill, religion spirituality, arab americans, gushue sciarra 2003, counselor education, process integrating, aware one's own, journal counseling development, counseling development 81, process integrating faith,
Approximate Word count = 2030
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)

More Essays on Personal Faith & Family Counseling