Religious Coping in the Process of Counseling / Psychotherapy
Journal Title: Biomedical Journal of Scientific & Technical Research (BJSTR) - Year 2017, Vol 1, Issue 2
Abstract
Coping is expending conscious effort to solve personal and interpersonal problems, and seeking to master, minimize or tolerate stress or conflict. Religious coping is an effort to understand and deal with life stressors in ways related to the sacred, which includes prayer, congregational support, pastoral care, and religious faith. Religion is an integral part of most of the peoples’ life and it may be defined as a set of beliefs, attitudes, and practices pertaining to supernatural power, whether that power is force, gods, sprits, ghosts or devils [1]. Religion strengthens coping [2]. People use religious methods of coping to find meaning, gain control, gain comfort and closeness to God, gain intimacy with others and closeness to God; and to achieve a life transformation. Empirical studies have demonstrated that many people turn to religion as a resource in their efforts to understand and deal with the most difficult times of their lives. Research also clearly demonstrates that religion can be an invaluable factor in the process of instilling and facilitating positive coping, psychological well-being, and resilience in religious clients [3-6]. Appropriately integrating religiosity/spirituality into the counseling setting can be effective in instilling insight, hope, and change, each of which is an essential element of the counseling process.More and more people are seeking ways to cope with their stress, anxiety etc. Coping is expending conscious effort to solve personal and interpersonal problems, and seeking to master, minimize or tolerate stress or conflict. Recent development shows that religious inputs in the process of counseling / psychotherapy are significant [2]. Religion is an integral part of most of the peoples’ life. However, atheists (nonbelievers) are spread all over world. Maximum atheists (47 percent) live in China and lowest number (3 percent) is in India [7]. Prevalence of atheists in other countries varies between these two extremes. Religion may be defined as a set of beliefs, attitudes, and practices pertaining to supernatural power, whether that power is force, gods, sprits, ghosts or devils (Preet, 1995). Religiosity is faith in power beyond himself (believer) whereby he (believer) seeks to satisfy emotional need and gains stability of life and which he (believer) expresses in acts of worship and service [8]. Religiosity has closely associated with human behavior and undergoes change with great difficulty It can be measured on the following dimensions [9,10]: Religious beliefs (ideological dimension), Religious practices (ritualistic dimension), Religious feeling (experiential dimension), Religious knowledge (intellectual dimension), and Religious effects (consequential dimension). Spirituality is a dynamic and intrinsic aspect of humanity through which persons seek ultimate meaning, purpose, and transcendence, and experience relationship to self, family, others, community, society, nature, and the significant or sacred. Spirituality is expressed through beliefs, values, traditions, and practices [11]. There is no single, widely agreed definition of spirituality [12,13] According to Waaijman [14], the traditional meaning of spirituality is a process of re-formation which aims to recover the original shape of man, the image of God. It plays an important role in contemporary discussions of issues in mental health, managing substance abuse, marital functioning, parenting, and coping. Those who speak of spirituality outside of religion often define themselves as spiritual but not religious and generally believe in the existence of different spiritual paths, emphasizing the importance of finding one’s own individual path to spirituality. According to one 2005 poll, about 24% of the United States population identifies itself as spiritual but not religious [15]. Modern spirituality is centered on the deepest values and meanings by which people live [16]. It embraces the idea of an ultimate or an alleged immaterial reality. It envisions an inner path enabling a person to discover the essence of his/her being. Not all modern notions of spirituality embrace transcendental ideas. Secular spirituality emphasizes humanistic ideas on moral character (qualities such as love, compassion, patience, tolerance, forgiveness, contentment, responsibility, harmony, and a concern for others) (Lama, 1999). These are aspects of life and human experience which go beyond a purely materialist view of the world without necessarily accepting belief in a supernatural reality or divine being. Generally, religion has following functions:Meaning: Religion plays a key role in the search for meaning. In the face of suffering and baffling life experiences, religion offers frameworks for understanding and interpretation [17]. II. Control: Confronted with events that push the individual beyond his/her own resources, religion offers many avenues to achieve a sense of mastery and control [18]. III. Comfort/Spirituality: From the religious perspective, spirituality, or the desire to connect with a force that goes beyond the individual, in search of comfort and seeking reassurance, is the most basic function of religion [19]. IV. Intimacy/Spirituality: Sociologists generally have emphasized the role of religion in facilitating social cohesiveness [20]. Religion is said to be a mechanism of fostering social solidarity and social identity. However, intimacy with others, often is encouraged through spiritual methods, such as offers of spiritual help to others and spiritual support from clergy or members. V. Life Transformation: Religion also may assist people in making major life transformations, that is, giving up old objects of value and finding new sources of significance [21]. Thus, religious beliefs and practices may offer social and emotional support, help people find meaning and purpose in life, provide comfort in time of grief, and provide ethical and moral guiding lines that many choose to lice their life by. Religion and spirituality positively correlate with coping with stress [22]. Religion strengthens coping [2].
Authors and Affiliations
Dweep Chand Singh, Atul Madan
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP567133
- DOI 10.26717/BJSTR.2017.01.000191
- Views 183
- Downloads 0
Non-Protein Calorie: Nitrogen Ratio (NPC/N) as an Indicator of Nitrogen Balance in Clinical Settings
Background: An energy and protein provisions to patients in clinical settings, with not only acute but non-acute illnesses, have been reported an essential to prevent body mass wasting if they are provided sufficiently....
CADASIL, Migraine and Multiple Sclerosis (MS) – The Risk of Misdiagnosis, Case Report
Diagnostic criteria for multiple sclerosis (MS) have been changing for years to enable easier and faster ways to confirm diagnosis especially during last decade. They lead to earlier treatment of patients with MS what gi...
Excision of A Rare Bilateral Malignant Carotid Paraganglioma: What We Have Done and What’s to Do
Paragangliomas are non-epithelial neuroendocrine neoplasms. They are most commonly identified in the head and neck, most frequent in the carotid body, but only about 5% of carotid paragangliomas are bilateral. Surgery is...
The Caspian Littoral Strip in Azerbaijan is concerned with the State of Ecology of Heavily Exposed Metals
The presented article considers the natural-geographic location of Absheron, analyzes the presence of heavy metals such as zinc, mercury, arsen, copper in soils and plants remoteness from sources of pollution. Also, the...
Is c-kit Gene Product involved in Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition in Tongue Squamous Cell Carcinoma? A Pilot Study Oriented Towards Patient Outcome
SSC: Squamous Cell Carcinomas; EMT: Epithelial-Mesnchymal Transition; PDGF: Platelet- Derived Growth Factor; SCF: Stem Cell Factor; HPF: High-Power –Fields; SMA: Smooth Muscle Antigen; PDGF: Platelet-Derived Growth Facto...