Student Discussion Response

Rachel Elkins

Defining Christian Spirituality

COLLAPSE

Within the counseling world there are several tools, techniques, and a variety of methodologies. Christian Spirituality is an important part of effective counseling for believers. Garzon (2011) defines Christian Spirituality as, “the cultivating and intimate relationship with Jesus Christ that progressively transforms one’s values, sense of purpose, beliefs, and lifestyles in the context of a faith community” (p. 23) When looking at secular counseling literature and methodologies, one will find it tends to separate the spirituality from the religious applications. Garzon (2011) though calls for Christians to acknowledge and practice that these two concepts should interact together. Because of this interaction, this brings a different element to counseling. Garzon (2011) examined that there is huge divide in beliefs among counselees and counselors regarding their faith in God, identity as a believer, and their understandings/application of religion in their lives. This could lead to a discrepancy between the counselor and counselee. Watts (2000) pointed out that it is very important for counselors to understand spirituality within counseling since many times their client’s spiritual convictions drive how they understand the world around them, as well as themselves. Because of the discrepancy in beliefs between the counselors and counselees as Garzon (2011) pointed out, it will be important for a counselor to have enough self-awareness to keep this in mind when counseling a believer. It would be a critical misstep for a counselor to overlook or ignore the counselee’s spirituality, to any degree (Watts, 2000). This could greatly affect a counselee’s willingness to partake fully in the practice of counseling.

There is a drastic difference between secular spirituality and Christian spirituality. As Garzon (2011) points out, secular spirituality is an attempt for modern psychology to acknowledge, to a degree, the importance of Christian spirituality as it has such a strong pull on the need to counsel within a culturally relevant manner. Because of this, there are attempts by secular counselors to integrate the two as best as they can. However, because a secular counselor is not approaching spirituality from a Christian viewpoint, their practices will be limited. Garzon (2011) demonstrates the counselor’s effectiveness will be limited in terms of understanding prayer and applying biblical understanding to the spiritual issues presented in the counseling sessions. The secular counselor will come into this counseling need with a limited perspective and if the person’s spirituality is of great importance, the counselee will not feel adequately helped. If a secular counselor is going to work with a faith-based client, they should seek out conversations with clergy in order to gain further insight and understanding to provide the best care for their clients (Watts, 2000). However, they would still be limited from provided the best care for their client and I would recommend they refer their client to a spiritually faith-based counselor to address the needs of the counselee.

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