Review on Using Prayer as an Intervention Method
Princess Batsavage-LoNigro
Liberty University Online
COUC 506: Integration of Spirituality and Counseling
Dr. Robert Farrell
January 13, 2022
Author Note
I have no known conflict of interest to disclose.
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to
Email:
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Review on Using Prayer as an Intervention Method
Review of Using Prayer as an Intervention Method
In this paper, the article Using Prayer as an Intervention With Clients Who Are Substance
Abusing and Addicted and Who Self-Identify Personal Faith in God and Prayer as Recovery
Resources is reviewed and discussed (Juhnke et al., 2009). This paper will discuss how the
authors got motivation to look into how prayer affects the recovery process for clients in
counseling, the initial questions that help the counselor to decide whether incorporate prayer into
the counseling session followed by different methods of incorporating prayer, my interactions
with the article in which I discuss how I felt about the article, what I would like to do going
forward in research of prayer in counseling, and how different counseling guidelines such as
Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs [CACREP] and
American Counseling Association [ACA] talk about incorporating religion into the counseling
session, then followed by a scenario on how I would incorporate prayer into a counseling session
with a client who comes in with depression and anxiety.
Summary
In the article by Juhnke et al., the topic of prayer was discussed and how it can be
incorporated into recovery for those whom who have addictions. In the early part of the article,
the authors explain their reasoning for their publication. The authors talk about the how the
newly Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs [CACREP]
and the American Counseling Association [ACA] both after revision discuss the incorporation of
religion into the counseling fields. CACREP mentions that students need to understand the
importance and how to incorporate religion and spirituality into the counseling session
(CACREP, 2009). Similarly, the ACA Code of Ethics discusses that counselor’s need to be
careful to remove bias about different religions. This allows for the different religions to be
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Review on Using Prayer as an Intervention Method
discussed and respected in sessions with the client (ACA, 2005). With these two guidelines, the
authors begin to talk about the process of recovery whether is it for an addiction to alcohol or
recreational drugs. The article gives limited information about the 12-Step program that the
associations use, however they do mention that many of the steps utilize the idea of God or
higher power in the recovery process. Before discussing the four methods to include prayer into a
counseling session, the article mentions that in Step 11, the step utilizes “prayer and meditation”
(Juhnke et al., 2009). After acknowledgment of this step, the authors move on to discuss the four
methods of prayer inclusion into the prayer session. A major note that the authors include is that
there are four important questions that help the counselor gauge whether to use these methods in
the counseling session based on the client’s responses. These four questions ask the client about
their belief in a God or higher power, the divine powers will for them to get better, the use of
prayer to their God or higher power, and if the client wants to involve prayer in the counseling
session. The authors express that if the client responds positively to the initial questions related
to prayer than the incorporation of prayer into the counseling session is suggested. On the other
hand, the authors also mention that if the client does not respond positively to these questions,
that these methods are not advised as they could lead to other problems outside of the problem
they are seeking recovery for. If the client responds in a positive manner to the four questions,
then the counselor can decide which of the four methods to use. These methods are described as
specifying goals of treatment, client controlled, prayer at conclusion, and out-of-session prayer.
The first method, specifying goals of treatment, use previous information that client gave about
prayer to ask them if they would like to start the session with a prayer that lends to the goals that
client and counselor have made. The second method is client controlled, meaning that the client
establishes the way the counseling session will go as well as if that means that prayer will be
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Review on Using Prayer as an Intervention Method
incorporated into the session. The third method is prayer at conclusion, in which the counselor
will ask the client if they want to pray about the tools, resources, and goals that were worked on
in the session. The fourth method is out-of-session prayer. This method is where the counselor
discusses with the client the use of prayer outside of the counseling session to help them with
mitigating their desires in a moment’s notice. With these different methods geared towards the
inclusion of prayer in the recovery process, it is also important to know that some clients may
decline using prayer in the counseling sessions. If the client declines the prayer, it is important
for the counselor to reiterate that when the client feels comfortable or has the desire that they are
always welcome to ask to reintroduce that into the session. Another major point is that some
clients may ask the counselor to pray as they may feel uncomfortable prayer in front of other
people. All these aspects may occur, and it is the responsibility of the counselor to respect and
honor the desires of the client while offering the opportunity (Juhnke et al., 2009).
Interaction
When first looking at the article, Using Prayer as an Intervention With Clients Who Are
Substance Abusing and Addicted and Who Self-Identify Personal Faith in God and Prayer as
Recovery Resource I became intrigued because my family has a history of addiction. I do not
know much about the 12-Step programs. After reading the article, I am pleased with my selection
because I learned a lot about how to the incorporation of prayer into a counseling session can aid
in the recovery process of the client. Although this article did not have specifics about their study
or research, I learned a lot and want to continue to learn more about the effects of prayer in the
counseling session (Juhnke et al., 2009). Along with looking more into the research of prayer and
counseling, I want to research more about how prayer is presented throughout the bible in a
psychological stance such as how the use of prayer helped those mentioned in the bible
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Review on Using Prayer as an Intervention Method
overcome a problem whether it was financial, physical, or social based. Another thought that I
had while reading this article and thinking about how I can further my knowledge about the
effects of prayer in counseling was prayer would affect one’s mental health. Although this article
talks about addiction recovery, I began to wonder what the implications could be if the idea was
transferred to a different area of counseling. When looking at the guidelines and protocols for the
counseling field, the CACREP and ACA code of ethics come to mind. When this article was
written the CACREP standards were of the 2009 version. I want to look at the most current
version of the CACREP standards to see if there is more information about the standards that are
explained in this program. This article also mentions the ACA code of ethics of the 2005 version.
I also want to go look at the current revised version of the ACA code of ethics to see if there is
more guidelines and explanations about how to counsel with religion in the session.
Application
When thinking about how I can apply these fundamentals and methods in my career as a
counselor, I first think to the different areas that I can incorporate the idea of prayer into. The
article that this information came from was talking about addiction recovery however I want to
know how I can utilize prayer when an individual comes to counseling for mental health reasons
such as anxiety and depression. If a client were to come in with anxiety and depression, I would
want to get to know more about their religious beliefs and spirituality. With the understanding
that there are many diverse types of religion and degrees of expression, it would be imperative to
understand if they believe in a God or a higher power. This goes along with the first question that
Juhnke et al. proposes, as an initial gauge to whether the counselor should incorporate any of the
four methods into counseling. I would then gauge what the client’s perspective on prayer is and
how they undergo prayer if applicable. If the client is unaware of prayer, I would provide them
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Review on Using Prayer as an Intervention Method
an explanation and ability to make prayer unique to the client. If the client responds positively to
these different questions and discussions about prayer, I will then ask the client how they would
like the counseling sessions to go being specific to ask if they would like prayer in the session
whether it would be at the beginning, end, both, or not in the session. It is important for the client
to feel that you are wanting to hear their thoughts and provide opportunities but not to push these
opportunities. If the client were wanting to incorporate prayer into the counseling session, I
would want to make sure that the topic of prayer is about how they are feeling and what they
want God or the higher power to help them with. When looking specifically at the fourth method
described by Juhnke et al., I would make it a point to talk about how if client is having moments
of depression or anxiety that prayer is a valuable tool to use in the moment to lift the feelings and
concerns up to God or the higher power. Without having done previous research on the effects of
prayer when it comes to other problems or concerns in counseling, I do not have concrete data to
help uphold that this would help in this type of counseling session however based on the
previous research done on the effectiveness of prayer in addiction recovery, I would be confident
to implement prayer into the counseling session.
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References
American Counseling Association. (2005). ACA code of ethics. Alexandria, VA: Author.
Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs. (2009). 2009
standards. Retrieved on January 13, 2021, from http://www.cacrep.org/2009standards
Juhnke, G.A., Watts, R.E., Guerra, N.S., & Hsieh, P. (2009). Using Prayer as an Intervention
With Clients Who Are Substance Abusing and Addicted and Who Self-Identify Personal
Faith in God and Prayer as Recovery Resources. Journal of Addiction & Offender
Counseling. 30, 16-23.
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