Weld, C. 2007 . Christian Clients Article Review

Then, when the therapist is praying for the patient, they are changing their mental state of mind as well. This is significant, because it shows that when prayer is used during the process of obtaining mental health treatment, the patient would be more open to new ideas. At the same time, the therapist is more concerned about their patient's well being. Over the course of time, this improves the quality of treatment that is being provided; by helping the patient to be in the most resourceful state of mind and it is allowing the therapist to have more compassion. These two elements are necessary ingredients, in allowing the patient be able to help themselves, while having the trained mental health professional serving as a counselor / friend.

Application

For a trained mental health professional, this article will provide a good foundation as to how prayer can be used, as a part of their practice. For example, a Christian mental health professional could use prayer to effectively change the emotional intensity in sessions such as: spousal infidelity. Where, prayer could be used to help to reduce the negative emotions that both parties will feel. This is important, because when you are meeting with couples that are having marital problems, a defensive attitude is often taken in regards to individual behavior. Where, both parties will know that they are wrong to a certain extent, yet are reluctant to admit this to save face. When you pray before the counseling session, you are changing the focus away from blaming someone, to finding out what was the root cause that led to the affair. In many cases, it could be effectively argued, that when one spouse is unfaithful to another, it is often tied to a larger underlying problem in the relationship (i.e. boredom or not feeling wanted by their partner). To find out what is happening with someone, they have to be willing to discuss these issues. When you are using prayer during the process, they are mentally / emotionally committing to discussing and solving the problem.

Furthermore, prayer must be used at the end of the session. This will help to have both parties leave in a changed mental state of mind, compared to when they came into the session. When you are using prayer at this point, you are having both parties admit to themselves that they need to work on their problem. At which point, they can begin to use the different ideas that are taught to them during the session, to help improve their situation. Prayer also, helps the therapist to be seen as someone who cares about what is happening with their patients. This is important, because many people often feel that mental health professionals do a lot of Monday morning quarterbacking. Where, they will criticize the person, yet not show them how to avoid the behavior in the future. This causes them to be seen as cold and uncaring. When you are using prayer, as part of the counseling process, you are showing patients that you care about their…