Religious Coping in the Process of Counseling / Psychotherapy

Dweep Chand Singh¹* and Atul Madan²

DOI: 10.26717/BJSTR.2017.01.000191

Received: July 03, 2017;   Published: July 13, 2017

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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.

Introduction| Religious Coping| Positive or Negative Religious Coping| Integration of Religious Coping in Counseling| Reasons For Integrating Religious Elements Into Counseling| Process of Religious Coping| Effectiveness| Faith Really Matters| Relevance of Religion to the Practice of Psychotherapy| The Initiation| Ethical Issues| Clinical Competence of Counsellor| Limitations| Conclusion| References|