Active Listening Essay

To be an effective competent Christian counselor, he/she should be emotional stable, and exhibit spiritual maturity. If a counselor is plague with emotional problems, and is not spiritual mature it will be quite difficult to counselor others as they should. It is imperative for a counselor not to look at the client to meet their personal or emotional needs. Moreover, the textbook mentions pitfalls and ineffective things a counselor could exhibit. They are as follows: “hunger for relationships, having a messiah complex, needing to have control or power, living vicariously, vicarious rebellion, atonement, and self-significance” (Clinton, Ohlschlager, & Centore, 2005, p.40-41). These things could potential harm the process. Furthermore,
The authors of this chapter, promotes 1 Thessalonians 5:14-18, as a foundational scripture for a competent Christian counselor. Active listening is a key core skill. This is very important, because you want to be able to show that you are attentive to what the client is talking about. Patience is a core skill, because it takes quality time with the client to be effective in your session. Not to mention, patience is an attribute of the fruit of the spirit. In addition, urge, warn encourage, and help are all key core skills that are cogent for a competent Christian counselor. When a counselor displays these things, it shows his/her level of spiritual maturity, and emotional
If the counselor wants to be effective, he/she must first continue to cultivate a relationship with Christ. Not to mention, the declares, “ But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Corinthians 3:18). It is essential for a Christian counselor to spend time in the presents of the Lord; so that they could be sensitive to the Holy Spirit. Clinton, Ohlschlager, & Centore writes, “A discerning counselor accepts the truth about good and evil in the world, is able to clearly discriminate one from the other engages in genuine warfare with the “enemy,” and is willing and prepared to seek the Holy Spirit’s guidance in the counseling process”