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    Prayer in Counseling: The Practitioner's Handbook
    Prayer in Counseling: The Practitioner's Handbook
    Prayer in Counseling: The Practitioner's Handbook
    Ebook144 pages2 hours

    Prayer in Counseling: The Practitioner's Handbook

    By Jeff C. VanZant

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    About this ebook

    Prayer in Counseling The Practitioners Handbook is a bold apologetic for seeing greater use of prayer with the practice of counseling and psychotherapy in faith-based community, pastoral, and mainstream counseling settings. Using the evidence-based results of the best research studies and client surveys on the efficacy of prayer, the choice to integrate prayer with therapy is philosophically and empirically analyzed from every vantage. Practical examples, key filtering questions, and tried and true guidelines help the reader find a balance between the two extremes of avoidance/neglect of prayer as well as excessive/unwise usage. Gathering the best wisdom from the existing literature, the author builds a strong case to view prayer and counseling as unique but complementary avenues for dynamic change in a persons life. In light of potential counseling dilemmas and the need for healthy accountability Prayer in Counseling provides a roadmap to navigate the challenging ethical considerations of when and how to integrate prayer into therapy. Scriptural hindrances to effective prayer are identified and then contrasted against biblical principles and practical direction to make prayer a powerful, healing, and successful spiritual intervention in the counseling arena.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherWestBow Press
    Release dateNov 30, 2010
    ISBN9781449708306
    Prayer in Counseling: The Practitioner's Handbook
    Author

    Jeff C. VanZant

    Jeff VanZant started counseling professionally in 1993 working with various domestic violence treatment programs around Seattle and is uniquely qualified to speak to the enterprise of prayer in counseling with graduate degrees in ministry and psychology. Jeff currently works as a therapist with Meier Clinics, a nationally recognized faith-based treatment provider.

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      Book preview

      Prayer in Counseling - Jeff C. VanZant

      ABSTRACT

      Shall we not go to … enroll our names … anew in that school … always … open for those who long to continue their studies in the Divine art of prayer and intercession? A. Murray

      In this book I argue for a greater acceptance of Christian prayer in both mainstream psychology as well as pastoral and other decidedly-Christian counseling environments. The efficacy of prayer in a variety of counseling settings can be confirmed based on both the available empirical as well as anecdotal evidence. The appropriateness of prayer in therapy is approached from a perspective of the general cultural definition, understanding, and practice of Christian prayer in its various forms with attention given to those contexts, applications, and clientele for whom prayer might be most beneficial. Consideration is also given to those situations and dynamics that could be contraindicative for prayer.

      First, a discussion of several recent distant intercessory prayer studies lays the foundation for an exploration of the unique challenges and problems associated with scientific attempts to validate the efficacy of prayer. The choice to integrate prayer with therapy is philosophically and empirically analyzed from every vantage across the spectrum: from avoidance and neglect to excessive and unwise usage and every option in between. Ethical considerations surrounding the issues of when and how to integrate prayer into therapy are explored in light of potential dilemmas and the role of supervision in prayer.

      Next, various hindrances to effective prayer are identified via scripture and the unique roles and therapeutic functions prayer brings to specific situations and populations are surfaced and examined. Finally, an investigation of the purpose and efficacy of inner healing prayer is presented along with some practical tips to make prayer a successful spiritual intervention in the counseling arena.

      Contents

      ABSTRACT

      1

      DISTANT INTERCESSORY

      PRAYER (DIP) STUDIES

      2

      THE INTEGRATION OF PRAYER IN MAINSTREAM PSYCHOLOGY

      3

      ETHICAL CONCERNS WHEN INITIATING PRAYER WITH THERAPY

      4

      WHEN PRAYER IN THERAPY IS CONTRAINDICATED

      5

      CHRISTIAN COUNSELING PRAYER:

      LAY, PASTORAL, & PROFESSIONAL

      6

      PRAYER AS DIRECT THERAPY:

      THE PROMISE OF INNER HEALING

      7

      PRAYER AND THERAPY:

      FROM THEORY INTO PRACTICE

      Post-Script

      Prayer for Trust in Jesus –

      St. Ignatius of Loyola

      INTRODUCTION

      … a deeper insight into what prayer really is … will teach us that we do not need … with the multitude and urgency of our words, to compel an unwilling God to listen to us. A. Murray

      If you were told there existed an aid to therapy and the counseling process that could provide quantum-level breakthroughs for the most troubled clients in less time than they were currently investing would you be interested? Could you objectively consider and weigh a chorus of evidence, both empirical and anecdotal, that indicates that this aid could indeed effectively address the most complex forms of relational and emotional woundedness, behavior disorders, and even addiction? Prayer is an age-old enterprise but one that has often been equated with religious activity and so is frequently compartmentalized to religious settings. Consequently, prayer and its relationship to the therapeutic process has summarily been dismissed, marginalized, or flat-out ignored by the majority of the mental health profession … until now. Prayer, as a resource for both counselor and counselee, has quietly become a subject of interest that has steadily increased over the last two decades and is now finding emergence not only in faith-based settings but in the mainstream, secular mental health profession as well.

      How can such a simple activity boast such life-changing results? Today prayer is becoming not only a frequent form of preparation, accountability, and strength for many mental health practitioners (as well as the defacto ultimate tough case referral option), but also a mainstay of coping, comfort, forgiveness, and inner healing for clients as well. In its most dramatic application prayer is not only being employed to complement a variety of therapeutic efforts but in some settings prayer is replacing traditional treatment approaches as a form of therapy in itself with impressive yet mostly anecdotal success reports.

      However, not everyone is willing to acknowledge prayer as a legitimate enterprise within psychology and divergent understandings exist as to what prayer actually is. Even when prayer has been shown to have measurable medical and mental health benefits, psychologists and other helping professionals have remained hesitant to embrace prayer’s rewards or explore how prayer and other spiritual interventions might be integrated into the therapeutic endeavor. Questions abound as to who, when, what, where, and why regarding prayer being made a part of counseling.

      Additionally, others have voiced skeptical concern regarding the ethical implications of introducing prayer within counseling while also attempting to preserve client autonomy and appropriate boundaries. Can good counseling incorporate both? Could there be situations where prayer in counseling is contraindicated and potentially exacerbating to pathology? While prayer and other spiritual interventions have long been familiar and trusted resources within pastoral and decidedly-Christian counseling, what concerns and uncertainties can stifle the introduction of prayer even in its most welcomed settings? What scenarios and approaches have been found to be most conducive to incorporating prayer in therapy?

      Finally, what role can inner healing prayer have in a client’s life? How is prayer being used as a change-inducing, therapeutic endeavor in stand-alone treatment efforts and how effective have such attempts to make prayer a sole treatment approach been? When is inner healing prayer a more direct avenue to symptom relief and not an abdication of personal responsibility? What are the central threads of commonality that weave through the more prominent approaches to inner healing prayer? Who is and who is not a candidate for this type of prayer? This book attempts to embrace all of these subject areas and more via the objectivity of current research and practice regarding implementing prayer in the context of today’s counseling.

      "…access to divine providence is no
      cosmic gumball machine…"

      Inadequate Definitions of Prayer

      To give the widest opportunity for inclusion in the current prayer debate and dialogue some have defined prayer as those thoughts, attitudes, and actions designed to express or experience connection to the sacred (McCollough and Larson, 1999). Larry Dossey (1998), famed researcher of the efficacy of prayer in medical and scientific settings, defines prayer as communication with the Absolute which most could agree with. However, he observes that even this broad definition has been modified and expanded by researchers to essentially embrace a parapsychologist’s viewpoint of prayer as distant intentionality, mental healing, mental effort, etc., betraying a view of prayer that is more human focused and outward-results oriented.

      One therapist identified prayer as a kind of dialogue addressed to another part of me, indicating an understanding of prayer more akin to glorified self-talk. Other therapists have voiced the notion that all counseling is prayer or that mere silence is prayer (Gubi, 2001). Johnson (2007) observes that prayer forms that deliberately pursue emptying the mind and are specifically devoid of the use of words and symbols bear greater closeness to Eastern meditation. However, in a random survey of 1000 Australians using a personality attributes questionnaire Eastern meditation was shown to correlate to greater scores of psychoticism (i.e. higher egocentricity, sensation seeking, lack of empathy) than Christian prayer (Kaldor, Francis, and Fisher, 2002)

      Christian Versus other Definitions of Prayer

      Unlike some mystical understandings that would reduce prayer to a series of esoteric ponderings or a collection of meaningless and arbitrary mantras, Christian prayer consists of thoughts or words directed to God that are mainly focused along four primary streams: praise, confession, thanksgiving, and predominately petitions (requests) .... not for self-seeking materialism or as a hedonistic buffer from the discomforts of reality, but for action, change agency, and social justice. In fact, Christ promised the unlimited return of the seemingly impossible to those who present their prayer agendas agreeing with others in faith (Matthew 18:19).

      …Prayer’s primary goal is not to facilitate an easier existence on earth…

      However, anyone attempting prayer for any period of time soon learns that they can’t always achieve preferred outcomes to prayer, reminding us that access to divine providence is no cosmic gumball machine promising something tasty and chewable with every prayer coin casually dropped in the heavenly slot. A better metaphor might be to picture prayer as a spiritual Facebook account where God has friended us in to share and exchange our heartfelt issues.

      Prayer as a Sacred Dialogue

      True prayer is then dialogue with God (Psalm 16:7) and involves interaction, mutuality, and response. Yancey (2006) defends the main purpose of prayer to be knowing God which insinuates a holy relationship and relational conversation with the Infinite, giving as well as receiving. While prayer should not be perceived as one-way discourse we should be cautious regarding immediately assuming impulses, intuitions, and epiphanies discovered in prayer to be messages from heaven. But instead of debating which avenues and formats one might legitimately hear from God today (be it scripture remembrance, promptings, premonitions, visions, or voices) perhaps it will suffice to say that there is a common consensus that God’s people do hear from Him!

      Yet many retain a fairly truncated understanding of prayer, often choosing to view prayer as a last resort when all other human agency has failed in a situation. But instead of seeing prayer as a desperate fling to the end zone on 4th down or funneling our

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