Use of Prayer and Scripture in Cognitive-Behavior Therapy
This article talks about Cognitive-Behavior therapy and using prayer and scripture appropriately, how to approach using biblical/ Christian values in therapy. The journal also talks about an historical overview of behavioral therapy, throughout the years. The commentary discusses the two component of mindfulness, in which the first component engages self-guidance concentration and the second component engages implementing a meticulous direction that is distinguish by interest.
He discusses the eight main features of the Christian approach to cognitive-behavior therapy. It also describes clear and unclear integration of scripture and prayer in “CBT”. The author speaks about the assessment process to determining the use of the Christian approach or standard approach in Cognitive Behavior therapy. The article explains the seven steps for inner healing prayer, but also says that it might not work for a more troubled individual.
The Intervention section of the article covers different kinds of prayer and the diverse elements of prayer. Siang-Yang Tan explains in detail a case of a client dealing with depression, he also illustrated a word for word transcript on how the Bible, scripture and prayer was used in the clients therapy session. Siang-Yang Tan also says that “as with prayer, Scripture can also be misused or abused in therapy.
However, the appropriate and ethical use of Scripture or the Bible in Christian CBT by a sensitive and prayerful therapist can be of significant help to Christian clients who seriously take the Bible to be the inspired Word of God and their ultimate authority in life (Tan, 1996). Interaction I became very interested in this journal after reading through the titles for the other journals, this one seemed so fascinating to me.
I was also looking at journal article “Prayer in Counseling” in which I decided to make my second journal assignment. I started reading with the expectation of learning how to use prayer and scripture in therapy. By reading this article I learned of the historical overview of how prayer and scripture became a part of therapy. I also learned of the ethical and proper uses of prayer and scripture during “CBT” and also had a chance to read the illustration of different therapy sessions using different Christian approaches.
It was very pleasing to see the key features of biblical approaches used in Cognitive-Behavior Therapy. I learned of the difference between Implicit and Explicit integration in therapy and it was used. Learning of how to conduct a pre-intervention assessment to establish the method of whether to use Standard or Christian CBT was very helpful. I discovered about the seven steps to inner healing prayer and how it might not be a good idea to use these methods on a more psychotic client.
I would definitely want to research the use of scripture and prayer a little more and how effective it is in treating clients. I am glad to see that it actually help the client in the article and also how he showed his method of doing so with Christian CBT. It is so exciting to see that Biblical or Christian values can help heal a client. I would absolutely love working in a Christian Counseling setting where I would be able to share and teach a client about the Lord and still help them get through whatever crisis they might have.
