An exploration of how trainee counsellors who are practising believers of a world religion or faith tradition experience undertaking counsellor training

Jane Hunt

An exploration of how trainee counsellors who are practising believers of a world religion or faith tradition experience undertaking counsellor training

Jane Hunt

School of Psychology

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Abstract

This paper reports findings from a study that investigated how counsellors
who identified as practising members of a world religion or faith
experienced undertaking counsellor training in the UK. This was a
qualitative study. All four participants were final year students on BACP
accredited counsellor training programmes and identified as practising
Christians. Data was collated via semi-structured interviews and analysed
using thematic analysis. Findings point to trainees experiencing
significant anxiety with regard to talking about their faith during training
for fear of eliciting negative judgments. As a result, participants either
avoided talking about their religion or sought to defend it against
negative perceptions. Participants tended to feel more comfortable
talking to supervisors or therapists rather than their peers about religion
when it was relevant to the client work or to personal issues. All
participants reported receiving limited teaching input around religion
and mental health on their programmes and felt this was a neglected
area in counsellor training.

Original language	English
Number of pages	12
Journal	BRITISH JOURNAL OF GUIDANCE & COUNSELLING
Publication status	Published - 19 Feb 2018

Keywords

Religion; faith; trainee counsellor; experience of training

Access to Document

JH_faith tradition in counsellor training

Cite this

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title = "An exploration of how trainee counsellors who are practising believers of a world religion or faith tradition experience undertaking counsellor training",

abstract = "This paper reports findings from a study that investigated how counsellorswho identified as practising members of a world religion or faithexperienced undertaking counsellor training in the UK. This was aqualitative study. All four participants were final year students on BACPaccredited counsellor training programmes and identified as practisingChristians. Data was collated via semi-structured interviews and analysedusing thematic analysis. Findings point to trainees experiencingsignificant anxiety with regard to talking about their faith during trainingfor fear of eliciting negative judgments. As a result, participants eitheravoided talking about their religion or sought to defend it againstnegative perceptions. Participants tended to feel more comfortabletalking to supervisors or therapists rather than their peers about religionwhen it was relevant to the client work or to personal issues. Allparticipants reported receiving limited teaching input around religionand mental health on their programmes and felt this was a neglectedarea in counsellor training.",

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AB - This paper reports findings from a study that investigated how counsellorswho identified as practising members of a world religion or faithexperienced undertaking counsellor training in the UK. This was aqualitative study. All four participants were final year students on BACPaccredited counsellor training programmes and identified as practisingChristians. Data was collated via semi-structured interviews and analysedusing thematic analysis. Findings point to trainees experiencingsignificant anxiety with regard to talking about their faith during trainingfor fear of eliciting negative judgments. As a result, participants eitheravoided talking about their religion or sought to defend it againstnegative perceptions. Participants tended to feel more comfortabletalking to supervisors or therapists rather than their peers about religionwhen it was relevant to the client work or to personal issues. Allparticipants reported receiving limited teaching input around religionand mental health on their programmes and felt this was a neglectedarea in counsellor training.

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