Trust and Religion Counseling - Essay Example

Part 1” How trust is related to counseling: Trust is important in counseling and in real life. Looking from the perspective of a counselor, the understanding between the client and himself/herself is based on mutual trust. Only by the detailed description from the client, the counselor can provide the proper advice. The role of a counselor in a counseling session is to guide the client to take proper decision. If the communication between the counselor and client is going on the proper way, the client can expect a better result. The third person perspective and experience helps the counselor to guide the client to a better decision. The problem is that, the trust that once broken is so difficult to restore, and sometimes it is never restored. Once my friend wanted to solve a problem in his family, I advised him to consult a counselor, who also happened to be my best friend. My friend revealed the story to the counselor and sought the best advice. But the counselor, who was without any professional ethics, disclosed even the minute details to me. Here, the trust is broken and the trust reducing behavior of the counselor is the reason behind the problem. The trust reducing behavior from either side may result in temporary or permanent break in relationship. There are so many factors that reinforce the trust building measures, and because of the negative influence of these factors, it is more difficult to maintain the trust. To maintain a healthy relationship the qualities that a person must possess are: word keeping habit, keeping honesty in communication, respecting the other person’s skills and abilities, and unguarded interaction. The fulfillment of the expectations from either side strengthens the trust and negligence of expectations badly affects the trust. There are certain factors that negatively influence the trust. Concealing the real motive and to act, i.e. to pretend as a trustworthy person and conceal the real motive is just cheating. Sometimes, relevant information may be twisted or falsified for personal benefit. This attitude leads to misunderstanding among people and hinders trust. Dominating tendency and misbehavior also hinder the growth of trust. Accepting the credit of others work create misunderstanding and ultimately to mistrust. The most powerful factor which hinders trust is gossiping. Because of uncontrollable tendency to create gossips about others, once, my friend was forced to attend a counseling session. After three successive sessions, he was able to withstand the bad habit. Trust building is a slow process and once the trust is lost, it will take time to regain the same. Nowadays, because of the stress created by fast lifestyle, people do not hesitate to undergo counseling sessions. People are becoming more and more self centered and this habit affects the mere existence of trust. When the trust among people is threatened by trust reducing behaviors, the trust between the client and the counselor also faces the same problem. The role of counseling is to reduce the stress due to the influence of trust reducing factors. During the stages of growth and development, the rate and role of trust in human life undergoes rapid change. Counseling provided to the children in various stages of growth positively influences the development of their intellect. The quality of counseling is related to the trust between the client and the counselor. Moreover, the counselor acts as a guide who gives inspiration and self confidence to the client. Only through trust and mutual understanding, the real aim of the counseling is satisfactorily fulfilled. The different types of counseling aim at the same point, i.e. development of human intellect. Part ll: The role of religion/spirituality in counseling: The role of religion or spirituality in counseling is important, because both influence each other to a large extend. Religious thoughts transform the mind, body and spirit of the individual. The questions related to spirit, heaven and hell, sin, etc, can be easily tackled by an experienced counselor. The theory of life after death tends the theists towards counseling because only a counselor can satisfy the theist. The religion plays the role of a counselor by calming the fears regarding the life after death and fate and acts as a source of communal strength. The beliefs and ideas which are originated from manuscripts provide the moral strength to the religious personalities. Moreover, a religious person is believed to be morally strong and beliefs help him /her to escape from the mental turmoil. When confronted with a serious problem, the Strong supporters of religion do not deny the service of the counselor. They consider the services of religion and counseling differently. Eugene W. Kelly quotes the words of Lehman, that the people who are religious accept the service of counselors. “It is reasonable to expect that from such a large pool of people for whom religion is important there are going to be clients who would welcome counselors' sensitivity toward and respect for their religious and spiritual beliefs. This expectation is directly supported by a 1992 Gallup survey showing that two-thirds of the respondents, when faced with a serious problem, would prefer to see a counselor who personally holds spiritual values and beliefs (Lehman, 1993).” (Kelly, 1998). The belief of the individual is strictly personal and it does not influence the decision making capacity and reasoning ability. Traditionally, religion and spirituality is taught through numerous courses like Social Studies, Cultural Studies and Humanities. So it is accessible to a large pool of people and its scope is ever widening. There are similarities more than differences in the teachings and theories of religion and counseling. But some counselors who are outside the circle of religion do not consider the religious and spiritual sides of the client. They simply ignore the details of religious influence and concentrate on other details. But generally most of the counselors are sensitive to religious and spiritual issues. Most of the counselors make use of the personal values of the clients to verify the variation in personal potency, including the religious and spiritual. Moreover, the counselors use spirituality than religious beliefs for the purpose of counseling. The people who are influenced by religion and spirituality are less affected by the problems, which are to be dealt by a counselor. Trust is the base of all beliefs and it provides the moral and mental strength to an individual to perform his/her duties. A person who is religious possesses certain ideology in life and can be considered as trustworthy. The relation and trust between a client and the counselor is similar to the relation between a religious person and the religion which influenced him/her. But the counselor must make sure that his/her own belief or ideology will not affect the process of counseling. It is evident that trust is the foundation stone of the real understanding among people. From a humanistic perspective, there is less difference regarding to the output of religious/spiritual counseling and clinical counseling. The counselor must consider the individual difference among the clients who are with or without religious belief. Moreover, in relation with religion/spirituality, and the process of counseling, the role of the counselor is crucial. By concluding, the ideas that are shared and transferred during the process of counseling create a positive impact on humanity as a whole. Reference Kelly, Eugene W. (1998). Spirituality and religion in counseling and psychotherapy- part 1: Importance of Religion and Spirituality in the general population. Vol. 1(13). Retrieved July18, 2008 from http://www.angelfire.com/nj/counseling/SprRelinCoun.html Read More