Christian Prayer as a Counseling Intervention: A Study Review
This paper reviews Weld and Eriksen's (2007) quantitative study published in the Journal of Psychology and Theology, which examined Christian clients' preferences regarding prayer as a counseling intervention. The review summarizes the study's methodology, findings, and conclusions, noting that over four-fifths of surveyed clients wished to pray aloud during sessions and expected their counselors to pray for them outside of sessions as well. The paper then reflects on the study's design and broader implications for spiritually oriented counseling, and concludes with a practical application scenario describing how a counselor might sensitively and ethically integrate prayer into therapy with a depressed client.
- Overview of the Study: Summary of Weld and Eriksen's methodology and purpose
- Key Findings and Conclusions: Study results on client prayer preferences and counselor guidance
- Reflection on the Study: Critical reflection and suggestions for future research
- Practical Application of Prayer in Counseling: Applying study findings in a real counseling scenario
- Reference List: Cited source for the reviewed study
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What makes this paper effective
- It clearly separates three distinct intellectual tasks — summarizing the source study, reflecting critically on it, and applying its insights — giving the paper a logical and easy-to-follow structure.
- The practical application section moves beyond abstract discussion and grounds the study's findings in a concrete clinical scenario, demonstrating real comprehension of the material.
- The reflection identifies a genuine limitation of the study (its focus on Christian clients only) and proposes a meaningful extension (replication with Muslim, Hindu, or Jewish samples), showing analytical thinking.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper models the summary-reflection-application format common in counseling and education coursework. Rather than simply reporting what the study found, the writer evaluates the study's design, considers its replicability, and translates its conclusions into professional practice — a hallmark of applied academic writing at the undergraduate level.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with a concise summary of the study's purpose and methodology. It then presents the key findings and researchers' conclusions. A personal reflection follows, critiquing the study's design and suggesting directions for future research. The final section provides a step-by-step application scenario showing how a counselor would sensitively integrate prayer into sessions with a depressed client. A reference list closes the paper.
Overview of the Study
"Christian Clients' Preferences Regarding Prayer as a Counseling Intervention" is a quantitative study by Weld and Eriksen (2007), published in the Journal of Psychology and Theology. Their study used a survey of counselors and their Christian clientele, with a Pearson and Fisher approach to quantifying the data. The implications of the analysis are used to discuss the counselor-client relationship in terms of prayer, expectations, secularity, race, gender, and a variety of other factors.
The researchers note a lack of scholarly research on the subject of "client expectations about prayer in counseling" and attempt to fill a portion of that gap by analyzing a survey of Christian clientele and their counselors (Weld & Eriksen, 2007, p. 328). In light of recent laws regarding counselors' respect for clients' religious beliefs, specialty counseling has developed that includes a Christian and spiritual approach to healing. Weld and Eriksen (2007) acknowledge that prayer has been shown to have beneficial effects in counseling, and what they aim to achieve with their study is to provide insight into how prayer as an intervention may be utilized more effectively, given ethical, religious, and secular sensitivities.
Key Findings and Conclusions
The results of the study showed that more than four-fifths of patients wanted to pray aloud as part of their counseling session and that they wished their counselor would introduce the topic as a sign of truly understanding the patient. These same clients expected prayer to be an effective tool in the healing process, and they also saw prayer as efficacious outside of the counseling session — meaning they wanted their therapist to pray for them between sessions, not only during them.
The researchers concluded that all therapists should be sensitive to their clients' wants and needs, as doing so helps to build a stronger therapist-client alliance. That said, they urge caution in broaching the subject or promoting prayer too enthusiastically, since anything but a delicate balance can easily alienate the client if the therapist appears to lean too far in either direction — toward spirituality or toward secularism. Understanding the client and his or her expectations, therefore, is essential.
Reflection on the Study
This article effectively highlights the need for counselors to consider the expectations of clients who approach therapy with a spiritual perspective. Counselors should be prepared to handle such clients and to know how much prayer, and what kind of prayer, is appropriate for a given session.
The study's design and methodology were suitably structured to deliver quantifiable results that helped the researchers analyze the data. This particular article is notable precisely because it is a quantitative study, providing an exact method and formula that any researcher wishing to replicate the study could follow. It would be an interesting study to replicate with a different religious group as the survey sample — for instance, among Muslims, Hindus, or Jews. Reading further work by these authors, as well as other researchers on the role of spirituality in counseling, would be valuable. West (2004) has a study entitled "Spiritual Issues in Therapy: Relating Experience to Practice," which appears to be directly relevant to the topic. As specialization continues to grow, spiritually oriented counseling specialists may be in increasing demand. Understanding the field and how different approaches to spirituality prove effective would be a worthwhile endeavor.
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