The Contribution of Christian Worldview to Counseling Essay

One of the important concepts in counseling is the ability of the counselor to bridge the gap between himself or herself and the client in order to deliver an efficient and effective therapy. It is precisely in this process of bridging the gap that alignment, one of the important Christian worldview comes into play. As Hawkins and Clinton (2015) explain, when alignment is paired with empathy, the counselor significantly raises the level of effectiveness and efficiency of the therapeutic intervention that is tailored to the needs and realities of the specific client.

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As an important multimodal model, bridging and alignment with the client's preferred manner of feeling, acting and thinking is a concept that Paul effectively employed in his ministry. Apostle Paul would align his spiritual approach with the uniqueness of the audience. This model is effectively captured in 1st Corinthians chapter 9 verses 20 to 22 where Paul states: "To the Jews, I became like a Jew, to those under the law, I became like one under the law, to the weak, I became weak and to those not having the law, I became like one not having the law." He summarizes his argument by explaining "I have become all things to all the people so that by all possible means I might save some" (Hawkins & Clinton, 2015).

This strategy of aligning with the needs and realities of the client is uniquely demonstrated by the Christian worldview through Paul in his strategy to connect with the Athenians. Athenians would spend most of their time simply listening and talking about the latest ideas. They were simply fascinated by intellectual discussions. Therefore, Paul honors them by bridging the gap between them and him through a cognitive platform. He, therefore, engages them first by contributing to their modality via a poetic literature. By using the Athenian's love for cognitive communication, he is able to first engage them in meaningful discussion before finally preaching them the word of God. Various clients have various preferences and by adapting the Christian worldview, the counselor is able to effectively offer intervention in a manner that the client is familiar with and this raises both the efficiency and effectiveness of therapy. After bridging the gap and aligning himself or herself with the preferences of the client, the counselor can then guide the client to new channels.

Moreover, as gathered from the lectures, the Christianity worldview offers the counselor the needed pathway and examples into the multimodal concept of tracking. Tracking entails following keenly into the events as they unfold and anticipating the needs of the client based on the information being received. For example, a client may initiate the intervention by demonstrating a preference for sensation, then to action and then to feelings. The lecture outlines that tracking is based on the ability of a major player being able to adapt to the realities of the ground in order to meet an objective.

Conclusion

The concept of tracking is molded on the role of a quarterback in a game whereby the player is supposed to model his team's approach to the game on the unfolding technicalities. This strategy is again demonstrated by Paul through his quick track of the behavior of the Thessalonian elders who approach different members of the church through different strategies and Paul is quick to learn that one approach cannot fit all. The result of both alignment and tracking is the creation of a stronger therapeutic alliance.

Reference

Hawkins, R. E. (2015). The new Christian counselor: A fresh biblical and transformational approach. Eugene, Oregon: Harvest House Publishers.