Ethics of Prayer in Counseling Author Eriksen Karen 2007

¶ … efficacy of prayer has often been documented, but at the same time there are a lot of ethical concerns and people are reluctant to combine prayer with counseling. The authors of this article discuss the ethical concerns and recommend ways of circumnavigating and dealing with these concerns. Counselors are recommended to care for the client's welfare and prayer is a great part of that caring, either for counselors themselves praying for clients or advocating that clients resort to prayer.

Realistically speaking, however, todays counselors would be reluctant to employ spiritual tools, such as prayer and counseling, to psychological problems. Counselors who work in religious practice may find it helpful and therapeutic to pry with client in both a private and family group sessions. Other counselors who work in private settings but have religious clients may find it, likewise, helpful for these clients that they offer prayer as part of the arsenal of their program. This is particularly so since religion is an important coping strategy for client. The prayer should be kept brief, counselor should explore client's reaction to inclusion of prayer in program, and counselor should exclude himself form prayer whilst client prays.

Prayer too should be limited to healthy, not pathological needs and desires. Finally, counselor should explore with client impact of prayer on client.

Efficacy of prayer demands great cultural competency on the part of the counselor particularly if the counselor belongs to another religion or is secular. The counselor should have the ability of being able to enter into an attempt to understand the cultural values of the client and the significance of prayer to him.

Polls and surveys indicate the high regards that large numbers of the population place on prayer.

Secular counselors can leverage treatment of clients by recommending that they pray (if religious clients so wish).

Prayer should be only be used in supplementation, not replacement, of other counseling and social work services; client should be asked whether or not he wishes to do so, and counselor should value client's religious expression. Adopting these practices in this way will prevent scruples of mixing religion with counseling.

In your own words, reflect (in 1 page) on the article

Counseling does require that the counselor make the client's welfare the focus of the session. The counseling is not about the counselor; it is about the client. In that way, therefore, *'s article makes perfect sense, for a religious client, their welfare is best served by prayer and he or she is succored and comforted by religion. Prayer, in fact, may provide as much healing as the social support, counseling techniques, and medication that the counselor provides. Prayer may be a placebo for the client.

As * observe, a large name of the population espouse belief in the comfort of prayer. Since counseling is supposed to serve as comfort and means for finding solutions to personal problems as well as for generating ways to dealing with these problems and for gaining the strength to do so, prayer sounds like a good supplement. This is specifically so sense prayer provides each of these qualities: it helps uphold the person, it provides a means for the person to sort out his concerns and to pray for guidance, it also helps the person prioritize his difficulties and gain comfort in that he feels that he is speaking to (communicating with) an all caring more powerful Being.

In a different way the insertion of prayer is therapeutic sense the client senses the counselor's care for him in the request. This is particularly so if the counselor joins client in prayer, and/or if prayer is conducted in a group setting.

There is a lot of research on the efficacy of prayer (whether understood or not). The client attends counseling because he hopes for help with his problems. The counselor performs this counseling because he hopes to help client. Prayer may work as a break through.

write (in 1 page) how you would apply the information you have learned to a potential counseling setting.

I will be more aware of the comfort that prayer may give people and instead of feeling sensitive about the client's religious values and trying hard to not interfere as per APA instructions, I would carefully suggest whether client may feel a need for prayer and if so to go ahead and pray.