Vanessa Chant’s Thesis: The Integration Of Spirituality In The Practice Of Christian Counselling
Abstract
Christian counselling is encouraged by churches and provided for by theological colleges who incorporate counselling training in some of their curricula. Registration is provided by Christian counselling organizations and some employment opportunities are provided by many not-for-profit Christian organizations and Churches. This research sought to comprehend the significance of Christian counselling and to gain an understanding of how training impacts the Christian counsellor.
The literature and background information in Christian counselling was viewed, laying a foundation for the research. The research comprised four scales culminating with two client scenarios. It sought to determine the value of Christian training in counselling and to gain a better understanding of Christian counselling. There was an expectation that Christian counsellors would be able to articulate what the distinctives were in relation to Christian counselling. There has been no known research in this particular area in Australia.
The research included 128 Christian counsellors who were graduates of Christian colleges, counsellors employed in Christian organisations and members of the Christian Counsellors Association of Australia.
The results of the research indicated that most participants, although enthusiastic in relation to Christian techniques in theory, did not always follow through with practical examples of this in the scenarios. The hypothesis, =Graduates who are trained in theological institutions will be more likely to utilise Christian spiritual issues in their profession of counselling‘ was not supported.
Vanessa Chant’s full thesis may be downloaded from the below links: