developing my cultural and world view
The areas that I look forward to developing is my cultural and world view. In that, I will be able to tell the differences of the underlying client’s beliefs of various spiritual systems. Also, as a therapist, I think it’s essential that one meditates on their spirituality so that one can be able to relate with a patient on a spiritual level. Counselor’s self-awareness is very vital in therapy. Successful counseling should address the body, mind, and spirit. A primary therapist’s goal is to ensure the well-being of the client. Spirituality and religion are vital sources of strength to some clients, it gives meaning to their lives, and it can be essential in promoting their mental healing and well-being. In Blair’s findings, some patients described how spirituality played an indispensable role in their lives because it helped them get an identity (Blair, 2015). During a therapeutic process, the counselor must use the client’s spiritual beliefs to help them explore and get better.
The spirituality topic is susceptible, and one should have some level of therapeutic skills to know on what angle to address it with their patients. The most important thing is to understand my clients. I wouldn’t talk about my spiritual orientation unless my client is interested. Only then will I indulge in the topic in a way that is beneficial and in ways that would not cause difficulties in the therapy session. Spirituality is a broad and exciting topic, discussing it with a patient one learns a lot from them regardless of whether you are in the same religion or spirituality. Having being trained in spirituality and doctrine relating to it makes it easier to understand a client’s spirituality without asking them a series of questions. Disclosing one’s spirituality as a therapist helps the counseling be comfortable and authentic from both ends. However, it’s vital that as a therapist that one does not interfere with the belief of the patient. That’s why that discussion should only be done only when the clients bring it up, at least according to me. As a professional counselor, one should be able to identify the differences between spirituality and religion.
References
Blair, L. J. (2015). The influence of therapists’ spirituality on their practice: A grounded theory exploration. Counseling and Psychotherapy Research, 2-8.