Conservative Christians' Expectations of Non‐Christian Counselors

In this study of conservative Christians' expectations of counseling, 100 participants rated their expectations of the behaviors and attitudes of a non‐Christian counselor. Results suggest that highly religious Christians expected more in‐session religious behaviors from a non‐Christian counselor than did moderately religious Christians. Both moderately and highly conservative Christians expected a non‐Christian counselor to display attitudes of acceptance and tolerance for Christian beliefs.     

Observers' Perceptions of a Counselor's Treatment of a Religious Issue

How a counselor treats a client's religious beliefs may affect perceptions of the counselor. Participants (N =102) of either high or low Christian commitment rated a videotaped excerpt from counseling in which a client's religious belief was either supported, ignored, or challenged. Participants' religious beliefs did not affect participants' ratings of the counselor. Results suggested, however, that most college students expect counselors to support a client's religious beliefs or attend to psychological (rather than religious) beliefs rather than challenge a client's religious beliefs.     

Issues and Insights: Working With God: Managing Conservative Christian Beliefs That May Interfere With Counseling

Counselors who work with conservative Christians may ask how to respect a client's values when “God” seems to be saying something contrary to what the counselor believes is in the client's best interests. In a managed care era of decreasing choice about one's counselor, referral of such clients to a conservative Christian counselor is not always an option. “Working with God” when counseling conservative Christian clients requires counselors to understand conservative Christian beliefs. This article portrays conservative Christianity as a culture and articulates conservative Christian beliefs that may challenge the counseling process, suggesting options within the framework of these beliefs.     

College Students' Perceptions of a Psychotherapist's Treatment of a Religious Issue: Partial Replication and Extension

A study of the influence of a counselor's treatment of a client's religious values, observers' religiosity, and their interaction on observers' perceptions of counseling (Morrow, Worthington, & McCullough, 1992) was partially replicated and extended. Religious beliefs were differentiated from religious values as determinants of observers' perceptions of counseling. Student observers (N = 148) viewed one of two videotaped counseling interactions in which a counselor either supported or challenged a client's religious values. Dividing observers into high and low levels of Christian belief did not result in their perceiving religiously supportive or challenging counseling differently. Dividing observers into high and low levels of religious values produced consistent differences in how they perceived religiously supportive and challenging counseling. Findings supported the theory that people with strong religious values perceive counseling differently than people with weaker religious values.     

Affirmative Lesbian,Gay, and Bisexual Counselor Education and Religious Beliefs: How Do We Bridge the Gap?

The position held by the American Counseling Association, reflecting acceptance, affirmation, and nondiscrimination of lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals, has created conflicts for some trainees who hold conservative religious beliefs about sexual orientation. This article explores the counseling profession's evolution regarding LGB‐affirmative counseling and examines the potential conflict this evolution can create for counselor educators who are training students with conservative religious viewpoints about sexual orientation. Recommendations for counselor educators to manage this dilemma are offered.     

The Effects of Religiosity on Preferences and Expectations for Marital Therapy Among Married Christians

Highly religious couples constitute a substantial portion of marital therapy clients in the U.S. Married Christian individuals ( N = 211) completed a survey of demographics and religiosity (religious values and Christian beliefs). They rated preferences and expectations for one of four marital therapy situations: Christian therapist using Christian practices (e.g., prayer or reference to Scripture), Christian therapist using psychological practices only, non-Christian therapist willing to use Christian practices, and non-Christian therapist using psychological practices only. High religious values and high Christian beliefs predicted ratings of marital therapy situations, where high was defined as one standard deviation above the mean of standardized norm groups. Low to moderate religious values or Christian beliefs did not predict ratings of marital therapy. It was concluded that highly religious couples present a special situation where the marketing, assessment, and practice of marital therapy might differ from therapy with other types of couples.     

Religion and anxiety treatments in primary care patients

Earlier data suggested that religious physicians are less likely to refer to a psychiatrist or psychologist. This follow-up study measures how religious beliefs affect anxiety treatments in primary care. We surveyed US primary care physicians and psychiatrists using a vignette of a patient with anxiety symptoms. Physicians were asked how likely they were to recommend antianxiety medication, see the patient for counseling, refer to a psychiatrist, refer to a psychologist or licensed counselor, encourage meaningful relationships and activities, and encourage involvement in religious community. We experimentally varied symptom severity, whether the patient was Christian or Jewish, and whether she attended religious services. Physician attendance at religious services was assessed in the survey. The response rate was 896 out of 1427 primary care physicians and 312 out of 487 psychiatrists. Religious physicians were more likely to promote religious resources. There was no statistically significant difference between physicians' recommendations for religious and nonreligious patients. There was no statistically significant difference in religious and nonreligious physicians' referrals to a psychologist, licensed counselor, or psychiatrist. Ultimately, we did not find a difference in religious and nonreligious physicians' support for mental health referrals, however, religious physicians were more likely to encourage using religious resources.     

Demands for Privacy Among Adolescents in Multimodal Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Treatment

Adolescent clients' perceptions of the limits of confidentiality, as well as their privacy demands within the counseling relationship, were assessed. A total of 30 adolescents involved in individual, group, and family counseling for alcohol and other drug abuse served as participants. Participants were asked to respond to vignettes of confidentiality issues in terms of what they believed the counselor should do and what they would prefer the counselor to do. Results suggested that adolescents generally want higher levels of confidentiality than they expect to receive. This group of adolescent clients, however, made clear distinctions in their privacy expectations and demands according to specific situations.     

Effects of Role Expectations on Clients' Perceptions of Disclosing and Nondisclosing Counselors

The authors tested the hypothesis that regardless of whether a counselor self-discloses, a client's perceptions will be more favorable when the counselor's behavior is congruent with the client's precounseling expectations than when the client's expectations and the counselor's behavior are incongruent. Before listening to an excerpted interview, participants (a) were led to expect that counselors self-disclose, (b) were led to expect that counselors do not self-disclose, or (c) were given no expectation regarding counselor self-disclosure. Participants then listened to stimulus audiotapes in which the counselor did or did not reveal personal information. Dependent variables were participants' perceptions of the counselor on three social influence dimensions and two therapeutic relationship dimensions. Results indicated that the disclosing counselor was viewed more favorably than was the nondisclosing counselor, participants' expectations notwithstanding.     

Brief Christian and Non-Christian Rational-Emotive Therapy With Depressed Christian Clients: An Exploratory Study

The current outcome study operationalized a brief “Christian” form of rational-emotive therapy (CRET) and compared the therapeutic efficacy of this treatment with a standard version of brief rational-emotive therapy (RET) with depressed Christian clients. Results indicated that both treatments were effective in reducing depression and automatic negative thoughts, while only the CRET reduced clients' irrational beliefs. No between-group differences were obtained for clients' perceptions of the counselor. Findings are discussed in terms of applied integration issues and the long-standing antagonism of rational-emotive philosophy toward religious beliefs.     

Genetic Counselors’ Perceived Responsibilities Regarding Reproductive Issues for Patients at Risk for Huntington Disease

Research indicates that health care professionals’ attitudes may affect patients’ decisions regarding prenatal Huntington Disease testing, but few studies have sampled genetic counselors. In this qualitative study, genetic counselors described their experiences counseling individuals at risk for HD regarding reproductive decision-making. Five major research questions were investigated: 1) What are genetic counselor responsibilities? 2) What issues arise for patients and counselors? 3) How do counselors reconcile prenatal testing with presymptomatic testing? 4) To what extent are counselors’ initial expectations of at-risk patients’ beliefs and behaviors met? and 5) What advice would counselors offer to novice practitioners about working with this patient population? Fifteen genetic counselors experienced in counseling individuals at risk for HD participated in a semi-structured phone interview that yielded several themes. For example, participants identified their primary responsibility as information provision; less prevalent were psychosocial support and facilitating decision making. The most common ethical challenge was testing prenatally for HD which also results in presymptomatic testing of minors. Participants were divided about how directive to be in response to this ethical issue and about termination of a gene positive pregnancy.     

Health Beliefs,Religious Values,and the Counseling Process: A Comparison of Counselors and Other Mental Health Professionals

A. E. Bergin (1985) studied the religious values and beliefs of mental health professionals and the relationship of those values to the counseling process. This study replicated Bergin's research with a sample of professional counselors. Differences were found in each of 10 beliefs areas and 10 values areas between the total sample in both studies. Within-group differences revealed greater similarities between professional counselors and social workers and marriage and family therapists and greater differences between counselors and either psychologists or psychiatrists. Implications for counseling and counselor training are discussed.     

Authoritarianism and religious identification: Response to threats on religious beliefs

The present study illustrates the impact of threat and authoritarianism on individuals and their respective belief systems within a Christian framework. Participants completed Altemeyer's Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) Scale, the Religious Fundamentalism Scale, the Questions and Doubts about Religion Scale, and the Behavioral and Faith Scale. Participants also read a threat- or non-threat-inducing article concerning the crisis of the Catholic Church. Results showed that individuals with high RWA scores demonstrated a greater support for religious fundamentalist ideals, reported less doubts regarding their religious beliefs, and identified more strongly with their religion than did those with low RWA scores. Furthermore, participants who were exposed to threat, regardless of individual level of authoritarianism, scored higher on a measure of religious fundamentalist ideals and identified more strongly with their respective religions than those who were not exposed to a threat. Most importantly, individuals high in authoritarianism who were exposed to threat demonstrated greater support for religious fundamentalist ideals, reported fewer doubts, and more strongly identified with their religion than those individuals with high levels of authoritarianism who were in the non-threatening article condition.     

Role conflict for school counselors: training versus job demands

Principals' expectations on six counselor role dimensions were compared with ideal counselor roles as seen by counselor educators. The relationship of principals' training and practice in counseling to appropriate counselor role perceptions was also studied. Disagreement was found between principals and counselor educators on the role of the counselor in situations involving clerical tasks, confidentiality, personal-emotional counseling, and non-related counseling functions. Principals with some counseling training or experience were more similar to counselor educators in expectations concerning discipline, confidentiality, and clerical activity than those principals without counseling training experience. Yet all principals differed markedly from the ideal role as viewed by counselor educators.     

“There's a deeper level of meaning as to what suffering's all about”: experiences of religious and spiritual growth following trauma

Some survivors of trauma report experiencing beneficial changes in self-perception, relationships, and philosophy of life, and positive changes in the realm of existential, spiritual, or religious matters. The purpose of the present study was to examine participants’ phenomenological experiences of spiritual and religious posttraumatic growth (PTG). Transcribed data from semi-structured interviews with 10 women, self-identified as Christian, who had experienced spiritual or religious growth following various trauma were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Results indicated how religion provided a framework that assisted participants to incorporate life changes, and to find meaning in their suffering. The most salient themes identified in relation to religious and spiritual PTG included: process of spiritual and religious growth, strengthening of religious and spiritual beliefs, and personal and spiritual growth and healing. Participants’ trauma and associated distress prompted a process of questioning and meaning-making that facilitated deeply experienced personal and spiritual growth, and was related to intrinsic religiosity.     

Testing the Culture-Fit Hypothesis with religious beliefs: a multilevel analysis

This study tested the hypothesis that internalising cultural values that fit internalised Christian religious orientations would produce higher levels of well-being than internalising cultural values that are incongruous with one's religious orientation. Participants (n?=?409) completed self-report measures of cultural values (individualism and collectivism), religious orientation (quest and Christian orthodoxy) and well-being. A series of hierarchical regression analyses and hierarchical linear modelling revealed several Cultural Value X Religious Orientation interaction effects. Specifically, people whose cultural values did not cohere with their religious orientation experienced lower levels of well-being than those whose cultural values fit well with their religious orientation.     

Gross gods and icky atheism: Disgust responses to rejected religious beliefs

Disgust is an emotional response that helps to maintain and protect physical and spiritual purity by signaling contamination and motivating the restoration of personal cleanliness. In the present research we predicted that disgust may be elicited by contact with outgroup religious beliefs, as these beliefs pose a threat to spiritual purity. Two experiments tested this prediction using a repeated taste-test paradigm in which participants tasted and rated a drink before and after copying a passage from an outgroup religion. In Experiment 1, Christian participants showed increased disgust after writing a passage from the Qur'an or Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion, but not a control text. Experiment 2 replicated this effect, and also showed that contact with an ingroup religious belief (Christians copying from the Bible) did not elicit disgust. Moreover, Experiment 2 showed that disgust to rejected beliefs was eliminated when participants were allowed to wash their hands after copying the passage, symbolically restoring spiritual cleanliness. Together, these results provide evidence that contact with rejected religious beliefs elicits disgust by symbolically violating spiritual purity. Implications for intergroup relations between religious groups is discussed, and the role of disgust in the protection of beliefs that hold moral value.     

The relationship of adolescent mothers' expectations,knowledge, and beliefs to their young children's coping behavior

Developmental researchers have begun to explore parental cognitions in an effort to better understand adolescent parenthood. However, most research on adolescent mothers has failed to relate cognitions of the mother to the child's functioning. To extend the research on adolescent-parent families, we examined the association between adolescent mothers' knowledge of child development, parental expectations, and child-rearing beliefs to their infants' or toddlers' coping behavior. Trained observers rated children on the three subscales of the Early Coping Inventory–Sensorimotor, Reactive Behavior, and Self-Initiated Behavior. The findings indicated that the adolescent mothers' self-reports of their expectations for their own and their children's behaviors and emotions accounted for a significant proportion of the variance in objective ratings of the children's coping behavior in the sensorimotor and reactive behavior domains. Adolescent mothers who reported more positive, more realistic, and more mature expectations about parenting, children, and the parent-child relationship had children who were rated to display more adaptive and effective sensorimotor and reactive behavior coping capacities. An interaction between the adolescent mothers' knowledge and beliefs significantly predicted self-initiated child behaviors. Implications of the findings include the importance of exploring a “good match” in adolescent mother-child relationships.