COUC 501 LIBERTY UNIVERSITY Benchmark Attitudes and Beliefs Reflection_ASSIGNMENT 2023.pdf

Benchmark Attitudes and Beliefs Reflection

Sydney Palmer

COUC 501 – Ethical and Legal Issues in Counseling

Dr. Ularisi Green-Baker

November 3 , 2022

Within counseling there is a lot of different cases you will run into as a counselor.

Upon completion of the Attitudes and Beliefs Inventory, I found numerous questions that

stood out to me that I believe would put me in a difficult position if I had to counsel that certain

situation. Although many of the situations, I felt a strong reaction too, these three situations I felt

drawn towards. My first question was number two, “a women who says that if she could turn her

life over to Christ, she would feel peace”. My second question was number eleven, “a man who

believes the best way to discipline his children is through spanking”. Lastly, my third question,

was number twenty-four, “a man with terminal cancer who wants to discuss stopping all

treatment to hasten his death”.

peace which Christ can provide that to her. As a Christian, especially if I was working within a

Christian counselling center, I would be honored to bring this client upon my caseload in order

for her to find peace as a follower in Christ.

My second reaction was towards the eleventh question involving a man who believes that

the best and only way to discipline his children is through spanking them. After reading through

this statement, my first thought included the idea of how spanking is seen in today’s society and

within the psychology field. Spanking is one of the most controversial subjects. While many

believe spanking is not an effective tool of discipline at home and it often leads to harmful

outcomes for the child being spanked and other forms of discipline would be more be more

effective. Although, I do believe there is a lot of solid and effective ways to discipline your child

Lastly, my third reaction was towards the question twenty-four, which includes a man

with terminal cancer who wants to discuss ending his treatments in order to end his life on a

quicker note. Although this is a difficult subject for anyone, due to the fact of someone

voluntarily ending their life but remembering the oath to do no harm plays a role in this situation.

All doctors and many other professions, take an oath to do no harm. Many patients with terminal

cancers are suffering to a point of harm. Due to many cases of cancer patients expressing their

urge to end their life to end the suffering, they have created a law in order for a Physician to

properly and safely end their life called Physician Assisted Suicide, also known as euthanasia.

Although this is not legal is all states, it is legal in a few states in the United States, offering these

services to those that fall under certain criteria and undergo numerous evaluations to ensure it is

to having interest in helping those suffering with terminal illness and it provides a form of moral

and ethical reasoning to be evaluated. By helping this patient talk through his options towards

assisted suicide it could open more doors on providing more help for those suffering with

terminal illness.

That single bible verse can explain and purify our understanding that by following Christ it can

bring hope and peace to our lives. After reading the question in order to develop a proper

reaction, of the client that would like to turn her life over to Christ in order to find peace, I

immediately turned to the bible. Nothing can help someone understand and develop their own

values and beliefs in regards to subjects such as finding peace, than reading the bible. I gathered

my knowledge and understanding of the topic of finding peach through Christ, from the bible. As

many people have come to know, Christianity has a hard time integrating within Psychology due

to the diversity of methods and the worldviews (McMinn, 2010). By learning the Christian

approaches towards Psychology from Liberty University will allow me to direct and assist my

client, seeking help with gaining peace through finding Christ.

74% of parents with children seventeen years of age or younger have used spanking as a form of

discipline, with an increased number of 94% of parents with children between three and four

years of age (Benjet, 2003). Although it has been studied to be used within the household, it is

still extremely unclear on if spanking is necessary or effective to be used. Throughout my years

as the bible. For this client, it is necessary for him to have a counselor that is biblically informed

on the correct aspects of using spanking as a form of discipline.

Lastly, when it comes to clients with terminal cancer or illness, it is extremely important

to be open minded, sensitive and a positive listener. This subject is touchy for anyone, licensed or

not. I personally have not had any direct training in regards to assisted suicide or counselling, but

I have done some intensive research on assisted suicide for other course projects. Besides from

doing research for assisted suicide, I do believe that people should have the option, under certain

circumstances to partake in assisted suicide if necessary. Although, I do need to gain more

knowledge when it comes to counseling those with terminal illnesses or those seeking assisted

suicide, I do believe I have the proper and correct values and morals to counsel them properly.

believe I would just need to strengthen my biblical aspects through counselling the proper way.

There are numerous ways to counsel someone seeking the Lord but finding the correct one,

especially for each client is needed in order to better assist the client. Other than that, I believe, I

would be comfortable counselling this client.

For the client believing the one and only way to discipline his child is through spanking, I

would need to do some more research in order to gain more knowledge and advice for this client.

Personally, I would need to gather more information on the benefits and the cons in regards to

using spanking on the children, finding studies and information about the frequency and duration

of this form of discipline. I would also want to seek out other forms or techniques of discipline

that the parent could use on their child as a form of discipline, besides the act of spanking. On

new counselor but it would be something I would be interested in achieving one day. Like stated

above, this would be an extremely difficult case, due to the sensitivity of the clients desire and

status. Knowing everything there is to know about assisted suicide would be my first step, since

this would provide and understanding between the client and the counselor that they are on the

same page in regards to assisted suicide information. Knowing where you stand as a counselor

with this matter is also important since you do know wan your emotions, values or morals to play

a role in changing the clients mind. Due to the strict guidelines of assisted suicide, the counselor

would need to know everything that the state is seeking for the approve him for assisted suicide.

This case would be by far an hard case but I would love to learn information about how to

counsel this sort of client for the future.

Benjet, C., & Kazdin, A. E. (2002, August 29). Spanking children: The controversies, findings,

McMinn, M. (2010). . American Psychological Association. Retrieved November 8, Apa PsycNet