Counseling Theory

1. Counseling Theory Ethical, Religious, and Spiritual Considerations

2. Theories and their spiritual, ethical, and religious implications Theories: • Answer the ethical question: “What should we do?” • Have implicit/explicit visions of the good life and human purposes, relationships, and community • Were often developed in response to Abrahamic religions • Shape clients’ lives through regular exercises that can have spiritual benefits or implications • Try to make sense out of suffering

3. Models for Relating Psychology and Spirituality(cf. Shafranske& Sperry, 2005) In addressing their subject matter, psychology and spiritual traditions are: What are the strengths/weaknesses of each position?

4. Psychoanalytic approaches:Spiritual, ethical, & religious perspectives • Theological Critiques of Freud: • Freud’s therapeutic attitude opposes asceticism, and thus sees religion especially as a moralistic source of neuroticism • Freud values autonomy above all; there is no such thing as psychologically positive human community, only survivable human community • Reductionist: spirituality explained away as nothing but unconscious forces—God as wishful projection • Some (e.g., Thomas Merton) criticize analytic ideal of rational thought and being able to articulate our feelings distinctly as antithetical to the mystical ideal of encountering the inexpressibly deep mystery of God beyond language. • Integration(Rizzuto, 1996): early nurturing relationships have a profound effect on the development of our images of God as a psychological object (e.g., as Daddy, Judge, Distant, Buddy, Cosmic Vending Machine)

5. Jung: Spiritual, ethical, and religious perspectives • Jung was among the first to take religion and spirituality seriously and to see them as essential for counseling • Psychological science becomes a moral science dictating a moral practice of creating a meaningful and integrated life. • Jung’s work on archetypes can help expand images for God and understand the use and benefit of ritual • But…some argue that Jung championed myth, ritual, and religion not for what they said about reality, but as therapeutic ways of enhancing experience • Jung can tend to confuse psychological statements with theological ones: • Criticism of egoism: hard to see how Jung deals with the moral problem of how to actualize my self when to do so competes with the psychic needs of my neighbor • Criticism of Gnosticism: assumes that healing will only come through knowledge of difficult realities; difficult to think of Jungian therapy for underprivileged or uneducated

6. Adler: Spiritual, ethical, and religious perspectives • Takes religion seriously as a social force and focused on issues of meaning, but some criticize him for a lack of attention to spiritual experience • Identifies a master virtue: courage • Focuses on the social implications of faith • Many find Adler’s approach open to including a variety of spiritual, ethical, and religious perspectives

7. Existential counseling: Spiritual, ethical, and religious perspectives • Assumption of unlimited autonomy can conflict with some religious understandings of human nature • Takes suffering and ultimate meaning-making seriously • At risk of underdeveloped notions of communal spirituality and care for the other • Provides a correction to the distortions caused by religious conformism • Focus on meaning making connects with tasks of spiritual direction—both for good and ill • Focus on self-salvation and critique of “Ultimate Rescuer” can make religion seem inauthentic

8. Rogers: Spiritual, ethical, and religious perspectives • Similarities between notions of unconditional positive regard and the Christian concept of agapē (self-giving love) • Attention to congruence parallels Buddhist concepts of mindfulness • Theological Critique: insufficient sense of personal evil and the capacity for self-deception. • For Rogers, evil comes from outside ourselves as incongruence, but many theologians see evil as deeply engrained within our own will (original sin). What of sociopaths? • Do you give unconditional positive regard for evil if that is the client’s deepest desire? • Is moral decision making the same as following our instincts? • When there are conflicts among people being congruent with their inner organismic valuing process, who wins? • To assert that self-actualization is a good moral principle to follow, one must also believe that there is a pre-established harmony among all people’s interests

9. Gestalt: Spiritual, ethical, and religious perspectives • Here and now experiential focus parallels Buddhist mindfulness; at the end of his life, Perls began to integrate Buddhism into his approach • Focus on ethical egoism and autonomy is often criticized. • Picture of human nature is primarily focused on basic biological needs—little attention to self-transcendence • Instinctual utopianism—presumes everyone doing what comes naturally will lead to social harmony • Little focus on life’s big questions

10. Behaviorism and cognitive behaviorism: Spiritual, ethical, and religious perspectives • Some of the techniques used by behavior therapy (e.g., attentiveness to thoughts, changing thinking, relaxation and meditation exercises) have been used as spiritual and pastoral exercises since ancient times. • The role of habit in being a good person and the cultivation of healthy habits has a long role in a variety of ethical systems • But the reductionism implicit in behaviorism (especially its radical form) is a deep challenge to any form of belief in a spiritual reality. • Reductionism risks losing sight of morality as meaningless • This leads to an internal contradiction since the whole reason for doing therapy is to eliminate bad or undesirable behavior • Radical behaviorism also loses sight of the intentionality of human behavior and consciousness • Spiritual ways of knowing are often considered supernatural or to transcend observation or measurement.

11. Behaviorism and cognitive behaviorism: Spiritual, ethical, and religious perspectives • Strict behaviorism is deterministic and thus eliminates both any belief in making one’s self better and any concept of responsibility or culpability for behavior • Many ethical systems believe that good habits require not only conditioning, but luck, grace, or enlightenment. • Often, behaviorism seems like a set of techniques in search of a picture of health. • Positive psychology is seeking to correct this, but runs into some of the same problems about how to operationalize and generalize what is good behavior. • Some consider behavior modification superficial, since it does not consider narrative or personal history.

12. REBT: Spiritual, ethical, and religious perspectives • By explicitly embracing a certain way of life, Ellis challenges the “myth of value neutrality” in counseling • Ellis (1980) “Atheist Values and Psychotherapy”: • There is no one supreme being in the universe • Personal identity is temporal and ephemeral • Self-acceptance does not depend on the existence of a deity • Self-satisfaction is central to personal growth • Morality is a personal choice • There is no need for guilt • We determine our own meanings in life • Ellis has a very optimistic view of rationality and what can be known with certainty, yet also wants to say that anyone’s view of reality can be the basis for rationality • Some argue that Ellis’ Stoicism minimizes the meaning of suffering—that nothing is ultimately appalling or of ultimate value (to be so would be “musterbatory”)

13. Reality Therapy: Spiritual, ethical, and religious perspectives • Is there a spiritual fundamental need? • Who defines responsible behavior? • Because Glasser often worked with difficult groups, it was often clear that most people would agree that avoiding crime, substance abuse, violence, etc. is irresponsible. • Many values questions in counseling are more subtle and require us to look at different worldviews’ and communities’ ideas of what a good life looks like. • Some religious groups have embraced reality therapy because of its focus on responsibility, non-determinism, and consequences for actions; others have critiqued its assumption that people can be good just by finding responsible ways to meet their inner needs and desires.

14. Feminism: Spiritual, ethical, and religious perspectives • God images: expansive and alternative language and images for God • Is Western, Abrahamic religion patriarchal? Examining images and roles of women in dominant faith traditions. • Attention to patriarchy in religious organizations • Exploring women’s ways of praying

15. Postmodern theories: Spiritual, ethical, and religious perspectives • The spiritual and ethical dilemmas of postmodernity (Z. Bauman, 2006) • “Re-enchantment” of the world: spirituality is believable again • Restores individual the ability to author his or her own world, but deprives him or her of the comfort that universal theories offered • Liquid modernity: relationships and commitments are short-lived—hard to get enough accountability or community to develop a mature spirituality