Attitudes
Abstract
There have been significant topics in discussion regarding the best decisions for
counselors to make regarding client's cases. This paper is going to answer the following three
questions: it will be hard to counsel a gay or lesbian couple wanting to work on conflicts in their
relationship; a man who likes to leave his wife and children for the sake of sexual adventures
with other women; and lastly a woman who has decided to get an abortion but wants to process
her feelings around. It is hard to provide counseling to individuals with the above questions
when someone is a conservative counselor because beliefs interfere with the counseling that
might be delivered, which creates bias in the services.
Attitudes
Every human has their own beliefs, but the problem is that they can impose them when
counseling individuals. It will be hard to advise a gay or lesbian couple wanting to work on
conflicts in their relationship because I am a firm Christian believer, and the advice provided
might not be correct. Religion plays an essential role in the type of counseling that counselors
offer. As mentioned in the reading that, "values can incorporate a wide variety of beliefs and
behaviors, religious values are some of the most deeply personal and difficult to reconcile
because of personal faith systems, community involvement, and religious texts or doctrine that
espouse assertions of truth" (Bayne, Harness, Kane, & Warfield 2020). Mental health
professionals are not to discriminate based on sexual orientation. Leviticus 20:13 "If a man lies
with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be
put to death; their blood is upon them." As a believer, I have the right to refuse to provide
services to gay and lesbian couples because the advice given to them is not going to be the
right one that they want to listen to. Laws exist to protect homosexuals, but laws also exist to
defend those who are religious believers. The reading mentions that "Christian, Jewish, and
Islamic religious traditions all have doctrines that view LG identities as unnatural and same-sex
relationships as sinful (Bayne, Harness, Kane, & Warfield 2020)" The therapist's reasoning
matters not to want to provide services to homosexuals because the therapist might not be
competent, which is a good reason to refuse to deliver services. Refusing to treat someone
because of their sexual orientation is not wrong because religion has been around for centuries,
and people should respect a person's faith. According to the reading, "Counselors who
self-identify as religious, maintain the values of biblical literalism (in Christian-focused research),
attend religious services, and engage in frequent prayer tend to hold more negative attitudes
toward homosexuality. (Bayne, Harness, Kane, & Warfield 2020)."
In other fields, it is common for the provider to refuse services as long as the provider
gives a referral to another provider “who would offer the treatment in question” (Caldwell 2019).
Obviously, the referral of the patient will resolve the issue because the client will be receiving
Attitudes
services somewhere else. For a therapist who is a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ to provide
services, it will be logical if somebody will provide training to work with gay and lesbian couples.
In Mississippi, a new law makes it legal to refuse services to someone because of their sexual
orientation. If a pastor refuses to provide a marriage ceremony, a therapist can refuse services.
My belief regarding gays and lesbians is from reading the Bible because I am very conservative.
Tennessee is another state that has passed laws allowing therapists to refuse patients
on religious beliefs. The law has problems because it is going to be hard for lesbians and gays
to find counseling. After all, the counselors tend to work in rural parts of the state. This law is, to
some, an attack on the profession of counselors. Matthew 22:37-39 "Thou shalt love thy
neighbor as thyself." The problem with this bible verse of loving your neighbor as yourself is that
therapists, by refusing treatment to gays and lesbians, are not loving their neighbor. After
examining this topic, I believe that it is my job to provide services to gays and lesbians and to
provide services to them as to anyone who wants to get counseling. In my future business, I
plan to open the doors to everyone regardless of the issue they will be bringing. Liberty
University will prepare me with the tools to provide outstanding counselor services. As it is
written in the Bible 1 John 4:7-8 “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and
whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not
know God, because God is love.”
Another hard topic to answer is the following: a man who wants to leave his wife and
children for the sake of sexual adventures with other women. In this situation, there is
something wrong with this man because there are a lot of people out there who would want to
have a family, and it is incorrect that he desires a sexual adventure with a woman. Hebrews
13:4 “Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God
will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.” As a future counselor, I will recommend the
man to get divorced before he plans to commit adultery because it is wrong to be unfaithful.
Genesis 2:24 “therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife,
Attitudes
and they shall become one flesh.” This man needs to understand that he decided to get married
to his wife and made a promise to be faithful.
In the United States, the percentage of divorce is high. 40-50% end up divorcing for first
marriages. Infidelity is very hard in a marriage. It can strain a marriage, and it can end a
marriage. I first need to have an understanding of why this man wants to cheat on his wife.
According to the reading, affairs happen for various reasons, but one reason is a lack of
relationship satisfaction and personal unhappiness. There was a study done that mentioned that
“being cheated on may negatively affect physical and mental health” (Adultery fornication 2019).
There are other risks for people who are cheated on because they are likely to be part of
high-risk behaviors, such as unprotected sex, increased drug or alcohol use, and overeating.
Jesus Christ mentioned that in the beginning, there was no divorce, but sin brought the issues
that currently exist with marriages. Matthew 19:8-9“Moses permitted you to divorce your wives
because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning. I tell you that
anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another woman
commits adultery.” My view regarding adultery is that it is morally wrong, and this man needs to
think twice before he makes his decision to commit adultery with his wife. The sinful act is going
to last a few seconds, but the wife, when she finds out, is going to be mad and might want to
divorce him. The type of therapy that I am going to provide is CBT so he can figure out the
psychological reasons for an affair.
The following issue was complex to answer: a woman who has decided to get an
abortion but wants to process her feelings around. An abortion is the killing of an innocent life
who is not able to make decisions. As it is mentioned Jeremiah 1:5 "Before I formed you in the
womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the
nations." It is evident that God knows his creation from the womb, and in this scenario, the
woman wanting to abort is going to become a criminal. The type of counseling that I would
provide is CBT for the mother to figure out individually what she desires to do with her
Attitudes
pregnancy. In the United States, 33 states require that clients “receive counseling before an
abortion is performed” (Mavuso 2021). Exodus 20:13: “You shall not murder.” This woman, if
she makes the horrible decision to abort, is going to become a murderer, according to the Bible.
The advice that I will provide to this woman is if she does not want the child to have it, to give it
to adoption because there are many couples out there in the world who are not able to have
children, and maybe they can adopt her baby. This woman needs to understand that there are
other options instead of becoming a murderer.
In conclusion, life is not that simple for those who want to enter the profession of
counseling. They have to make decisions in some challenging situations, such as counseling
gay and lesbian couples; this is hard because I am a strong Christian believer, and the advice
provided might not be correct. Another issue is to counsel a man who wants to leave his wife
and children for the sake of sexual adventures with other women. The last issue is to advise a
woman who has decided to get an abortion but wants to process her feelings. As a future
counselor, those questions are the ones that I find difficult to answer because they are against
my religious beliefs. When I become a counselor, I plan to use the Bible when counseling
individuals or couples. Proverbs 6:16-19 “There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that
are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a
heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who
breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers” The Lord is a loving God but at
the same time there are things that he dislikes the scenario of the situations of abortion, adultery
and homosexuality are examples of things that our Lord hates.
Reference
Attitudes
Adultery and fornication. (2019). Aristocratic Marriage, Adultery and Divorce in the Fourteenth
Century, 100–130. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv6jmv1h.12
Bayne, H. B., Harness, L., Kane, B., & Warfield, M. (2020). Christian counselors and affirmative
counseling of Lesbian and gay clients. Journal of Counseling & Development,99(1),
60–71. https://doi.org/10.1002/jcad.12354
Fisher, E. S., & Kennedy, K. S. (2016). Counseling students who are lesbian, gay, bisexual,
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https://doi.org/10.1093/med:psych/9780199355785.003.0005
Hermann, M. A., & Herlihy, B. R. (2006). Legal and ethical implications of refusing to counsel
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https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1556-6678.2006.tb00425.x
Mavuso, J. M.-J., & Macleod, C. I. (2021). ‘bad choices’: Unintended pregnancy and abortion in
nurses’ and counsellors’ accounts of providing pre-abortion counselling. Health: An
Interdisciplinary Journal for the Social Study of Health, Illness and Medicine,25(5), 555–573.
https://doi.org/10.1177/1363459320988873
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n
Team, G. E. (n.d.). Types of infidelity. Therapy for Betrayal, Infidelity, Affairs, Cheating.
https://www.goodtherapy.org/learn-about-therapy/issues/infidelity
Caldwell, B. (2019, April 8). How should religious therapists handle gay and lesbian
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