Counseling

Reflection

The inspiration to become a people helper began in my early twenties after receiving help from an unskilled counselor. After one session (yes, just one), I remember leaving thinking, “Wow, I can do better than that.” Yet, my journey as a counselor did not begin until my mid-twenties. I completed my MA at seminary with an emphasis in Christian counseling and education. Still, as I began to counsel with members of the local church body, I recognized seminary did not adequately prepare me to meet their needs – I desperately needed to expand my skills and education. When my family moved to Tennessee, I discovered you could become licensed as a clinical pastoral therapist. This increased my incentive to expand my clinical skills, and thus, I began my long educational journey at Liberty University.

By the time I had started the CES program, I had accumulated a few years of counseling; however, I still had plenty of knowledge to learn. Since I came into clinical counseling from a nontraditional trajectory, it would be understandable that I would have some trepidation in the five core competencies. Interestingly, counseling was where I had the most experience, yet I felt a drop in confidence anytime I was around my peers. This was especially true since I was pre-licensed. This caused me to delay taking the counseling practicum for as long as possible. Once I took that class and received positive feedback from my peers and professor, especially since it was from peers that I highly respected, it helped to increase my feelings of competence. This experience ended up being one of the classes that was very meaningful to me. Consequently, this boosted my confidence as a counseling leader, as it is hard to confidently guide a young counselor if you feel inadequate in your skills.

The program at Liberty helped me hone my skills, especially in integrating faith and clinical practice. It is interesting to compare my paper on integration in COUC 730 with the methods I use today. Let’s say I have come a long way. The following years helped me refine my spiritual integration skills enough to discover this is an area of strength and expertise. Consequently, this has allowed me to share ways to incorporate faith practice into clinical counseling at conferences and presentations. I plan to continue to do this as opportunities arise.

Even though I feel confident integrating faith in counseling, I want to obtain certifications to strengthen my abilities, knowledge, and expertise in other treatment methods. While at Liberty, I began to resonate with schema therapy after taking COUC 715. Once I read Young, Klosko, and Weishaar’s (2003) manual for schema therapy, I readily identified how its use of experiential exercises would blend well with Ignatian spiritual practices. Once I finish my PhD, I want to become certified in schema therapy. Other authors have attempted to incorporate spirituality into schema therapy, but I believe there is more to explore. Pursuing certification, I think, will help be the first step to developing my model of spiritually-integrated schema therapy.

Faith encompasses everything I am and thus reveals itself in everything I do. As an ordained pastor and minister, my perspective on counseling makes me very aware of the spiritual dynamic and its impact on someone’s overall functioning. Considering this, I do not conceptualize myself as a counselor who happens to be a Christian – I view myself as a pastor with a ministry in counseling. This viewpoint gives me a nuanced perspective on my counselee’s issues. I am not seeking to convert my clients, but I am trying to understand their theology (everyone has a theology, whether they know it or not) and how it impacts their lives. I believe my time at Liberty has helped me do this more effectively.