Dr. Mark McMinn has written a wonderful book for those who are considering the path of Christian counseling. His main focus is on two aspects of the counselor’s life and his therapy sessions. The focus on the first chapter of this book is how we as counselors can integrate the Christian faith into counseling practices. McMinn (2011) explains that in order to have religious interventions we are required to understand spiritual formation, challenge prevailing methods of mental health, prioritize personal spiritual training, be sensitive to ethical issues, and strive to have a strong scientific base (p. 6). An important aspect of McMinn’s writing is that he points out the three roles that counselors hold simultaneously. First as counselors we become full participants in interpersonal interactions that happen during sessions. Second, counselor’s serve as observers that are carefully watching and evaluating what is going on in a relationship. And third, we engineer by becoming understanding and compassionate to the clients feelings (p. 60). McMinn says “The relationship we establish with clients is an important part of the healing process (p. 60)”.
It is very important that as counselors we understand healthy boundaries when it comes to client-counselor relationships. There is danger when a client is over-reliant on their counselor as well as over-confidence. It is important to find a balance so that there are appropriate limitations all around which will avoid hurt and confusion. A value that we can take away from McMinn’s work is the fact that there are certain constructs within a counselor’s foundation that can be used in treating their clients. These constructs are those of forgiveness, prayer, redemption, sin, and scripture.
Prayer has a major role in our careers as counselors. It is believed that the use of prayer in counseling sessions may help clarify a client’s perspective while enhancing their spiritual life (McMinn, 2011). Most importantly if a counselor is considering using prayer in their counseling sessions then they must be just as committed to using it within their daily personal lives. Just like prayer, scripture can be used within counseling sessions, but it is also important that the counselor incorporates it within their own personal life as well.
Using Scripture to encourage clients can help them learn to experience God more deeply and take their eyes off of selfish motives. McMinn made a profound statement when he says “In order for Scripture to effect significant change in the lives of counselors and clients, it must be internalized and personalized outside of counseling sessions (p. 146)”. As counselors we must strive to pursue a personal relationship with the Lord before we can try to incorporate it within out Christian counseling.
Sin, confession, forgiveness, and redemption are discussed in the latter part of the book in which we learn how sin is a major part of everyone’s lives, but having a healthy definition of sin and approaching it in a humble way can encourage healing. Confession is what helps us recognize our sin while forgiveness encourages emotional, psychological, and spiritual relief in one’s life. Lastly is redemption. Redemption is what brings us back to God where sin has found a way to separate us. In order to truly understand redemption, one must be familiar with the scripture (McMinn, 2011).
Redemption is what ties together the understanding of sin, prayer, and Scripture while helping us recognize that above all else, we need to have a relationship with a loving God. Concrete Response This book reminds me of a recent encounter I have had with one of my co-workers. We have discovered that we have had recent experiences in our past of physical and emotional abuse. The only difference that I noticed is that I come from a Christian background where he does not. As victims of abuse we talk about ways that we have coped as well as ways that we seem to struggle.
I have vaguely shared my experience with using prayer, and scripture, but have quickly noticed that it is a subject that I need to go around carefully. Some, like me find it easy to find comfort and healing within the church and by using prayer and Scripture. Others may feel judged and they come out being harmed rather than feeling like they were helped. In my past I have been counseled by pastors where I felt as though I was being condemned by the use of scripture rather than being encouraged. While talking to my co-worker he said that he had been to several different counselors and one was through a church.
He said that he was the least comfortable with this person because he felt like they were more interested in getting him “saved” than helping him through his trial. When he shared this it confirmed in me that as Christian counselors we need to fully understand how and when to use Scripture and offer prayer in counseling sessions. Without realizing it we can be capable of pushing someone further away from the Lord and their personal healing if they do not feel accepted in the midst of their hurt and downfalls.
Reflection McMinn did an excellent job explaining how to integrate psychology into spirituality, but it left me with one question, how do you use these techniques in counseling children and more importantly, a child that has not been exposed to too much religion? I know of people who did not attend a church regularly, but when they experienced personal trauma that is where the parents felt the most secure. McMinn’s techniques are helpful for adults, but are they able to be used with adolescents? How much nderstanding of prayer and scripture would they already have to be exposed to, to truly understand the intentions of the counselor? When speaking of children I am reminded of the section on sin.
Everyone of course is capable of sin however McMinn says “If we reduce sin to a set of behaviors then our tendency is to sit judgmentally with clients, especially those who have made a series of bad choices in their lives. But if we recognize sin as a state of brokenness—then we sit with our clients as equals (p. 193). This leads me to believe that McMinn is stating that sin is always from a state of brokenness. Is it not possible that after a period of time, sin stems from learned behaviors and cruel intentions, and not out of brokenness? Action I would recommend this book for anyone that is interested in pursuing the counseling field. I know that I will be reading this book again because I feel that there is so much wisdom between these covers. As Christians we are to center everything we do at the heart of Christ, even our occupations.
I would explain to a college the importance of implementing Christian beliefs into our client’s lives. One of the biggest lessons that I believe can be learned from this book is not to be judgmental. This is great advice in the counseling field as well as in our personal lives. The field of counseling is a calling. This is another big reason I would suggest to anyone entering the field, read this book. There is a nice balance between understanding sin, confession, redemption, and integration that proves to be so vital in successful and McMinn does a great job breaking down each one.
I was convicted about how I view other people’s situation. After reading this book, I have realized that even though I thought I was a very understanding person, I also pass judgment right away in areas that I should not. Because of the content we have learned through this text, I will strive to be open and take everything to prayer, especially those things I am not sure how to feel about.
Reference: McMinn, M. R. (2011). Psychology, theology, and spirituality in Christian counseling. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House.
Analysis Of “A Story” By Li-Young-Lee
A child has many interactions with different people throughout his/her life. A child learns to protect his siblings, to respect his mother, and to look up to his father. However, depending on what has happened between the child and the other person. In the poem “A Story” by poet Li-Young-Lee, he uses the third person point of view and structure of the poem to define the complex relationship of a son and his father. Children are known for becoming entertained very quickly as well as getting bored easily. Sad is the man who is asked for a story/and can’t come up with one. ”(1-2) This perspective is not the man’s but an outsider’s who has experienced this situation and can tell about it. As “his five year old waits in his lap”(3) it becomes clear that the father cannot come up with any new stories to tell his excited son. “In a room full of books in a world/ of stories, he can recall/not one, and soon, he thinks, the boy will give up on his father. ”(6-9) These lines are extremely significant because they are the thought of the father.
By using the third person-limited point of view, readers can see how the dad feels. He is annoyed with himself for letting his son down, and he feels like he might continue to fall short of his son’s expectations. Lee did this to show how a dad feels when it comes down to his son. He feels that he has to do everything right in order for his son to be a productive citizen. The structure of the poem “A Story” is very significant to its meaning. This free- verse poem has neither regular meter nor rhyme scheme.
However, the dialogue of the thoughts of the man and of his son is italicized. For example, “Not the same story, Baba. A new one. ”(4) This is what the dad imagines his son is saying. The child is tired of the same old stories and expects his daddy to come up with a story on the spot. On the other hand, the father is having thought of the future when his son is “looking for his car keys. ” This shows that the dad is afraid to let go of his son, even though the boy is only five years old.
Line eighteen reveals the universal thought of any human being: “Am I a god that I should never disappoint? ” This thought being italicized really puts emphasis on the structure of the poem. The poem format is not in a certain way, yet the specific details that make up the structure of the poem are what make it unique in its theme. Because of the effective use of point of view and structure, Lee successfully demonstrates the complex relationship between a father and his son.
Analysis Of The Wars
Analysis of the wars (part five, sections 14 and 15)
§ Section 14 is the third interview with Marian Turner, a Canadian nurse. In her first interview, she deemed Robert Ross a hero for trying to save the horses (which the “good” soldiers destroyed) and says he was not crazy; rather, the war was. (10). Also, when one considers another such quote – “Robert Ross was no Hitler. That was his problem” (11) – one is aware that his “madness” lay in his lack of monstrous bevahior.
§ In Section 14, Marian Turner’s advanced age shows, since at the start her mind wanders a little as she musses over the proper name for the Bois de Madeleine. She was the sole survivor of the Canadian nurses whose field hospital was bombed, along with the mascot, a white cat, which seems to symbolize the continuity of life. In war, human life destroys itself by design, but life continues in unintended ways. (Also, the cat’s whiteness might symbolize its relative purity, since it does not participate in the slaughter.)
§ She recalls when Ross was brought to the hospital just after the bombing, as much a wreck as the facility itself. He is guarded by a Canadian MP, which seems irrational considering that he is badly burned and unable to flee, but this is standard military procedure, which has its own sense of logic.
§ When Marian speaks of her lone conversation with Robert, she is silhouetted against the window, her face unlit as she says, “I wanted to help him die. . . . I’m a nurse. I’ve never offered death to anyone” (215), as though she descends into darkness when showing her desire to take life rather than save it.
§ When she recalls her state of mind – “I am ashamed to be alive. I am ashamed of life” (215) – she reveals her own sense of impossibility and her sense of war’s insanity. At this moment, Robert is the catalyst for her own change of mind and heart. She offers to help Robert die (by overdosing him with the morphine she has hoarded), but he answers, “Not yet.” Despite his pain and mutilation, as well as the rish of a court-martial, his will to live and to survive remains obvious. After recounting this, Marian claims, “Not yet has been my motto ever since” (216), implying that some of his will and desire to survive and transcend the madness has rubbed off on her.
§ In Section 15, Findley reverts to an omniscient narrator, who tells the reader that Ross was court-martialed but remained hospitalized due to his failing health. His final photo illustrates Robert’s sense of mind and sense of satisfaction at having succeeded, to some degree, in his desperate act. He is badly disfigured but smiling, perhaps out of a sense of victory. He kept Juliet’s love, survived the war’s madness and brutality, and escaped imprisonment and execution for defying military authority; he achieved what he tried to do, though the soldiers who obeyed orders destroyed fifty horses. In ways, Robert has won a moral victory that appeared insane but only seems that way within the mad context of war, in which humanity is discarded.
§ The Epilogue provides a key to his motives for having stolen the artillery regiment’s two hundred horses in an effort to save their lives. It describes a photo of him in camp at Lethridge in 1915, before he and his regiment departed for Europe. In it, he sits amidst stacks of rifles and someone lying under a blanket in the background (looking dead though alive), holding a small mammal’s skull in his hand. The scene could be considered morbid because of the skull, weapons, and prone man under the blanket, and in this sense Robert sits amidst a scene of death. However, he is clearly alive. Nicholas Fagan’s quote – “Nothing so completely verifies our perception of a thing as our killing it” (218) – seems to provide an answer as to why he peformed his last act. Having killed and surrounded himself with death made him comprehend both death and life, and having taken life may have made him want to save it instead, realizing too late how precious it was. His final act thus appears insane within the context of war, where killing and following protocol are the norms, but within this deeper understanding, war is madness and preserving life the ultimate goal. This is reinforced somewhat in the final paragraph, describing a photo of Robert with his sister and their pony; he emerges from the book not as a traitor or a madman, but someone who defended life when war’s twisted logic forbade it.