Caption: Mountains in Morgantown, West Virginia
Photographer: Myself
Chapters 1-3 of the
Therapeutic Expedition by John Thomas & Lisa Sosin really made me aware
that I must first be grounded physically, spiritually, and emotionally in order
to help someone. As a twenty-three year old female I am experiencing a time
where I still have questions about life and trying to find who I am. I know
that God has brought me to the point I am in my life for a reason and gifted me
with talents to help others (2 Thess. 2:15). As an upcoming Christian counselor
I need to be grounded in my faith in order to adequately help someone during
their time of need. You must practice what you preach, is a phrase that proves
to be true in Christian counseling. I cannot expect a counselee to receive
advice on a situation when I live my life sinfully. Also through the readings,
I understand that I must be aware of progresses or stagnations during my
spiritual journey. I never want to be in a situation where my client is
progressing during their spiritual journey and I (as the counselor) have
experienced a troubling stagnation in my progress. Lastly, I need to understand
I cannot help everyone. I have the tendency to go above and beyond when someone
needs my help. I use all available resources, including my personal resources,
to make sure I am bettering a person’s situation. As stated by Thomas &
Sosin (2011) “You are responsible to
your counselee, not for your
counselee” (p.78). I do not have the power to move the mountains in every
person’s life but with the love and guidance of Our Father I can try my very
best to equip my counselee to experience the joy in moving those mountains for themselves.
Good post, Tiffanie! I also appreciated the comment, “You are responsible to your counselee, not for your counselee” (p.78). I think I will be thinking a lot in the next few weeks about boundaries and how I am to apply them in this context. I also realize that I cannot help everyone, but I hope and believe God will send people my way who need the kind of help I can give. I'm looking forward to getting to know everyone better through the class and the blog!
ReplyDeleteHi Tiffanie! it was nice reading your blog and also interesting to know that there is someone beside me who have the tendency to go above and beyond for people who needs help. As you mentioned that "You are responsible to your counselee, not for your counselee", i was taken aback about my previous experience as a substance abuse counselor. My job was very difficult at that time because it seems as if i was doing the opposite of what Thomas and Sosin mentioned in their book on page 78.
ReplyDeleteHey Tiffanie. Thank you for your post. I can relate with the desire to help others to a level in which may not be best for their growth. I tend to struggle with a "savior complex" in which I believe I am responsible for the healing of other's pain. It is extremely difficult to see people I care about going through seasons of hurt when I have the ability to relieve some of their pain. I have began to see the value in letting people discover their way out of the pain they are experiencing. This helps them grow stronger as individuals and teaches them lessons of who they are now and who they are capable of becoming. Thank you for the reminder!
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ReplyDeleteDear Tiffanie,
ReplyDeleteI like how you quoted Thomas and Sosin (2011) saying “…you are responsible to your counselee, not for your counselee.” (p. 79). That was something I had highlighted in my book while I was reading. I think often times we forget that we are not responsible for their actions. It reminded me of the section on the top of page 48 where the authors discuss how counseling doesn’t cause clients to shift away from the Lord. However, there are times when clients make decisions that the counselor would not have necessarily wanted them to make. Additionally, I like how you mentioned that as a counselor, you should have a solid faith and living a Biblical lifestyle. It reminds me of how the authors express the importance of a counselor’s worldview. I think that making sure one’s own life is being conducted in a godly way before instructing others to do so is important. Furthermore, this is a good accountability throughout life, seeing as we may see a client outside of the office at any time.
I enjoyed reading your post!
Camille
Reference
Thomas, J. C., & Sosin, L. (2011).Therapeutic expedition: Equipping the Christian counselor for the journey. B&H Publishing.
Nice! Thoroughly enjoyed reading your blog, Tiffany. I agree 100% with you upon building ourselves as much spiritually as we can. The more light we have in us, surely the more brighter we will seem to those we counsel. And you are absolutely right, there may be those counselees whom we are not able to heal. I thought about that recently and tried to imagine how it would be trying to work with a client for a period of time, but not being able to help them. Then the Lord reminds us, sometimes He uses us to just plant seeds in the heart of people, and then Lord willing, maybe someone will help that client reap victory. Or vice-versa, we may get a client who had a seed planted in them and God may give us the privilege to see victory reaped in their lives. Long as we keep our focus on the real Healer in this profession, I truly believe we will see awesome things take place.
ReplyDeleteYour insight is definitely head on! We as Christian counselors need to be conscientious to our actions and thoughts, because we need to be an example for our future clients and actually practice what we preach. It is better that we fulfill our duties as examples of Christian disciples, then go by the saying, "do as I say, and not as a do". Although, it may be hard at times, He will give us the wisdom and discernment to be able to know the best way to help our counselee.
ReplyDeleteThomas & Sosin (2011) “You are responsible to your counselee, not for your counselee” (p.78). The pervious quote you used in your post didn’t initially stand out to me when I was reading the book. However it greatly impacted me when reading your post. Many including myself are guilty of trying to take on others burdens. Instead of helping them find a way to confront their burdens and aid them in finding solutions. It’s incredibly easy to take on another’s Burdon and initially it appears you have helped them .when really “you” have simply covered the problem leaving them still unable to confront and handle the situation if it happens again.
ReplyDeleteYour post is very insightful. Your closing comments reminded me of something that I desperately need to work on before I become a counselor. There will be times when my client will not be willing to take advice and I will have to be ok with that. I am responsible to be the best counselor that I can be, but I do not have to put the sole pressure on myself to bring about change which is what I get from the quote from Thomas and Sosin (2011). Your recognition of how the Father can help us and guide us in our counseling journey reminds me of the Scripture from 1 Corinthians 3:6 where it talks about the body of Christ working together, but God is the only one who can actually bring about change in someone. Even though we may be competent counselors, God can bring about greater change than we ever could.
ReplyDeleteThomans, J. C., & Sosin, L. (2011). Therapeutic expedition: Equipping the Christian counselor for the journey. Nashville, TN: B & H Publishing Group.