According to McMinn (2011), “confrontation should be a valid option for most Christian counselors under many circumstances” (p. 167). He goes on to say there are “four approaches to appropriately confronting sin: silence, pondering, questioning, and direct censure” (McMinn, 2011, p. 167). In confronting sin in a client’s life, counselors must proceed with caution. Each client is different, so it is important for counselors to choose an approach “with regard to the particular client, the situation, and the nature of the therapeutic relationship” (McMinn, 2011, p. 167). Counselors must discern when it is appropriate to confront sin in their client’s life. They will not automatically and quickly confront sin in the client’s life because it is all about timing. The counselor must build a trusting relationship with the client before addressing sin in their life. The sensitive counselor will “start smaller, with …show more content…
Sometimes, counselors will confront sin in their client’s life when they shouldn’t and it causes more harm than good. The client will feel even more hurt because the counselor “jumped the gun” in confronting them about their sin. As a result, it is important for counselors to wait until the client is ready to confront their sin or to wait until the timing is right. Another caution mentioned in the class sources that counselors often overlook is “counselor self-awareness” (Peters, n.d., Week Seven Powerpoint Lecture Two). Counselors must be aware of their own emotions and attitudes when it comes to confronting sin in a client’s life so they do not become angry with their client because of sin in their life, or even judgmental towards them (Peters, n.d., Week Seven Powerpoint Lecture Two). Counselors need to have an awareness of their own attitudes and emotions before seeking to confront sin in their client’s
May (1988) writes that “grace is the active expression of God’s love” (p. 120), which is the ultimate desire of all humans. Grace is a difficult concept to understand because there is nothing a person can do to receive it; rather, it is freely given as a gift from God. Grace is given to all who believe in Him, regardless of their sins. Guilt is almost always attached to addiction. The Christian counselor can use the concept of spiritual grace and the supporting theology to help the client change his or her feelings of guilt into feelings of hope for personal change and forgiveness through
Regardless of what issues a client presents in session a counselor should first identify if the client’s issue will cause an issue for them. For example, if a counselor is in recovery from alcoholism and a client needs to address their own addiction issues this may be too close to home for the counselor to handle in an unbiased and professional way. Therefore a counselor should always ask themselves, ‘will this be an issue for me’ when presented with a client issue. Secondarily as counselor should identify if they are competent in their abilities to address the client’s issue. Is the topic something the counselor is comfortable with, educated on, or has experience with? It is unprofessional, unethical, and potentially harmful to the client to agree to address issues that one is not competent to address. If a counselor finds that they are competent and the client’s issue does not cause an issue for the them than the counselor can proceed to identifying new go...
Sanders, R., Yarhouse, M., Kays, J., & Jones, S. (2013). The Sexual Minority Client.Christian Counseling Ethics: A Handbook for Psychologists, Therapists and Pastors (251-284). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
Licensed mental health counselors have many ethical and legal issues dealing with interacting with clients in a way that leaves them in a better place. It is crucial that counselors act within the b...
This model identifies five moral principles which are: justice, autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, and fidelity. These fundamental guidelines are used to clarify issues that involve any given situation. Ethical guidelines may not address all situations, but will allow a counselor to explore ethical dilemmas and conflicting issues. Counselors are responsible to encourage clients to make their own appropriate decisions and to act on their own values. Two important things to consider when counseling client are: autonomous encouragement helps clients understand how their decisions and values that may or may not receive within the context of the society; they live in or may impinge on the rights of others (Kitchener,
A counselor should always keep their thoughts to themselves and remain open-minded about the situation. The only time a counselor should share their thoughts is if it helps the client with their situation that they are dealing with. “Counselors must practice only within the boundaries of their competence (Standard C.2.a.), and, if they “determine an inability to be of professional assistance to clients” (Standard A.11.b.), they should facilitate a referral to another provider. (Kocet, M. M., & Herlihy, B. J. (2014). Addressing Value-Based Conflicts Within the Counseling Relationship: A Decision-Making Model. Journal Of Counseling & Development, 92(2), 180-186 7p. doi: 10.1002/j.1556-6676.2014.00146.x).” Keeping your thoughts to yourself is
Confidentiality. Confidentiality is just as important in Christian counseling as it is in secular counseling. According to the American Association of Christian Counselors (2014), “confidentiality recognizes that every client has a fundamental, moral and legal right to privacy and to have a wide range of personal thoughts, opinions, beliefs, and behaviors that are protected from public knowledge” (p. 22). It is crucial for counselors to maintain client confidentiality unless what a client discloses brings harm to themselves or other people. Confidentiality should be kept at all
Carl R. Rogers theorized that through providing a certain kind of relationship with the client, one in which empathy, unconditional positive regard and congruence were present, the client would “discover within himself the capacity to the relationship for growth, and change and personal development” . As a counselor empathy is essential as it allows me to enter my clients internal frame of reference, while still retaining a problem-solving stance. Entering the client’s internal frame of reference means I must consider the emotions and thoughts of the client, it is similarly vital not to get lost in the internal frame of reference as this creates the distinction between sympathy and empathy. Unconditional positive regard, also called acceptance is essential as it plays a role in creating a helping relationship in which the client feels safe to express any negative emotions or thoughts, while being...
Biblical Counseling is making a strong impact in today's churches and community. Counseling is seen as one of the most productive ways of helping a
According to the Mariam- Webster dictionary salvation is, “deliverance from the power and effects of sin.” The concept of salvation is principal to Christianity. Looking at the history of Christianity, Jesus Christ is known as the savior, which is what spring the Christian movement. The religion of Christianity began and contined because Christians see Jesus as someone who brings God’s salvation to the people. When it comes to Christianity there is no real definition of salvation although it is very important to the religion. The meaning of salvation remains unknown exactly. When Adam and Eve went against, man and God became separated through sin. Death alone would not be enough to cover all the evils on sin. Sacrifice offered in the right way can pay for our sin. We work all our life to pay for the sins we are born with. Jesus Christ came and offered us the pure everlasting sacrifice, which is his death, and resurrection which would remove all debt of sin.
Sins are mistakes made in moments of weakness; everybody has weakness, thus everybody commits sins. These mistakes gone uncorrected leave guilt and regret, but because the nature of guilt is a feeling of responsibility for an action, it reflects the good in someone because at a subconscious level, they long for some form of redemption. The length at which two characters in The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, go to redeem themselves doesn’t necessarily show their “goodness”, but the level of guilt they experienced because of their sins. We find out that that the father, Baba, had an illegitimate son with his best friend’s wife, a Hazara woman, which in turn forced him to cover up his and Hassan’s relationship, not to mention his neglectful treatment of his legitimate son Amir due to their vast personal differences. Amir himself was cowardly when it came to defending his half-brother Hassan, his sins worsened when he sold Hassan out in order to bury his own guilt. While each character is good, Baba sacrificed more than Amir in order to redeem himself; though he was forced to cover up his relationship to Hassan, he did the best he could to give him and Amir a better life, and give back to his community.
The shepherd and sheep relationship is the best illustration for the relationship between pastor and parishioners. When Jesus asked Simon Peter does he love him three times and said to him “Feed my sheep”, the shepherd and flock relationship has been set. Since Jesus is our good shepherd (Jn. 10:11a), he laid out a good example for us to follow - to lay down his life for the sheep. (Jn. 10:11b) Thus, the wellness of both in and out of the parishioners should always be the concern in the pastors’ hearts. Soul care for the people is essential. Christian friendship is the foundation of Christian soul care. Pastoral ministry including preaching, teaching, and worship forms the broad context of pastoral counseling. Pastoral care is within pastoral ministry but broader than pastoral counseling. God’s love is the source and motivation. Within the pastoral care, there are spiritual direction and pastoral
When clients come in for help, especially children or underaged teens, you must know that the bible is not about disciplining them, it 's about the mighty acts of God (Lucas 18). Many christians believe that the bible is God 's actual words (Lucas 17) , but professional social work has rejected the notion of sin or more of the use of that word (Lucas
The author’s main argument is the failure of moral theology to focus on the everyday ethical issues confronting Christians, while his main aim is the usefulness of social anthropology to moral theology. The author wants a strong (er) relationship or connection between moral theology, i.e. ethics, and anthropology.
There will be counselees who do not know the Lord, and it will be important to do pre-counseling with those individuals. If there is an opportunity to share the gospel, the counselor will certainly talk to the counselee about repentance of sin—turning away from a sinful lifestyle and turning to Christ alone for salvation. It is important to understand as biblical counselors that we cannot counsel unbelievers because they have not repented of sin and turned to Christ. Therefore, the counselee cannot do anything to please God. Paul said, “Those in the flesh cannot please God” (Rom. 8:8). The biblical counselor understands his responsibility to share the gospel to those who do not know Christ if there is an opportunity to do