Counseling With Christian Prayers

¶ … 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 for prayer utilized in mental health from both the client and the therapist perspective, as the aforementioned survey instruments were respectively targeted to the clients and the surveys. Largely because of the information explained in the literature review that there was a dearth of literature about the preference of how exactly clients wanted prayer used in counseling, there was no hypothesis on the part of the authors.

However, they were able to select both clients and therapists from a fairly wide range of organizations including one expressly related to church. The results were extremely significant because they revealed that more than three fourths of the clients preferred "audible prayer" (Weld and Eriksen, 2007, p. 333) and that Christian counselors tend to employ praying aloud with their clients. The findings also indicate that clients prefer prayer in a wide variety of interventions, and that counselors tend to utilize prayer in a number of different interventions.

Clients also wanted counselors to issue prayers for them outside of sessions and to initiate the subject of prayers during sessions. Lastly, results demonstrated that conservatives attributed greater significance to prayer than liberals, and that those with previous Christian counseling expected prayer more than those without such experience (Weld and Eriksen, 2007, p. 328). The implications are that counselors should attempt to link prayer to counseling interventions.

Interaction Quite honestly, I was extremely surprised at the basic premise of this article -- which was that Christians prefer aspects of their religion incorporated in their counseling -- specifically in the form of prayer. I always thought it was professional and expected of counselors to refrain from letting their personal convictions and facets of their personal lives (such as religion) affect their professional work.

However, one of the things that I actually commend the authors of this article about is the fact that they demonstrate a certain validity and relevance of incorporating prayer in a counseling setting. It is key to realize that the crux of the utility derived from doing so is based on the fact that both the client and counselor have to be of the same faith, Christianity.

The authors provided an abundance of research that indicates when both the faith of the client and the counselor is aligned (especially for Christians), that it is actually not uncommon for aspects of prayer to emerge within counseling sessions. In fact, the authors demonstrated a considerable amount of empirical evidence within their paper based on research they conducted that greatly obliterated any doubts that I had regarding this issue.

Specifically, the authors demonstrated that not only did clients prefer prayer in their sessions, but they wanted the counselors to initiate it (Weld and Eriksen, 2007, p. 328). This fact also further verifies my opinion in the instance in which there is a difference in faiths between the counselors and their clients. Thus, this article has me more convinced than ever that I should incorporate prayer into my practice when I am working with Christian clients. Moreover, it also suggests some different ways and interventions for which prayer is appropriate.

Although I realize that Christian clients desire it, I still think counselors should focus on objective facts to help their clients. Application The client came to me in a high state of emotional arousal. Mr. Smith appeared more distraught than I had ever seen him. As soon as the door had closed safely behind him, he slumped on the couch and clasped his hand to his forehead. When he finally was able to speak, it was clear that he was close to tears.

He explained that on a recent business trip, that he had committed an act of infidelity on his wife that he had been married to for nearly eight years. He admitted that they had been quarreling regularly for the past several months, and that before embarking on the trip they had had their worst argument which resulted in his leaving for the airport without acknowledging her before he left. He also explained that he felt immensely guilty about his lapse of fidelity,.