I often get asked what is the difference between Spiritual Counseling and traditional Psychotherapy. Here is a comparative list taken from the Science of Mind Practitioner Training Workbook, which was compiled by a professional Psychotherapist and a Spiritual Counselor. The purpose is solely to bring clarity and understanding to the differences between these two outstanding modalities of healing.
The Psychotherapist …
- is interested in the client’s pain, fear and anxiety
- is oriented toward healing past wounds to relieve current symptoms
- is oriented towards working with causes to change conditions
- wants to know the reason the client is seeking help
- assesses the client’s weaknesses and strengths to determine what level they should be working on
- assesses the client’s childhood history to look for personality or psychiatric damage that requires treatment or medication
- is interested in developmental / emotional history of the client in the family setting
- is interested in the history of successes and failures
- is interested in the client’s current support system
- is interested in the client’s sense of self or ego strength
- is interested in the client’s ability to accept reality and move through fear
- empowers the client to better adjust to life and live in harmony by assisting them through their fear
- helps the client to uncover and understand their feelings and emotions
- helps clients with their relationship with themselves in order to improve their relationships with others
- helps the client to gain a greater sense of self-esteem
- believes the client is responsible for what they do with life’s experiences
- expresses caring for the client not through sympathy, but rather a compassionate heart
- helps the client to live more in the present moment
The Spiritual Counselor …
- is interested in the client’s emotions as out-picturing of their beliefs
- is oriented toward changing past beliefs to relieve current symptoms
- is oriented toward working with beliefs to change conditions
- wants to know the reason the client is seeking help
- assesses the client’s awareness of spiritual truth to determine what level they should be working on
- assesses the client’s childhood to look for basic beliefs resulting from experience that are still active through the subconscious mind
- is interested in repeated patterns of thought and basic beliefs while growing up
- is interested in growth through challenges whether “success” or “failure”
- is interested in the client’s sense of unity with a Higher Power or Love as their support system
- is interested in the client’s sense of Self as a unique expression of this Higher Power or Love
- empowers the client to better adjust to life and live in harmony by teaching Oneness with / as Love
- helps the client to uncover the hidden belief beneath the feelings and emotions
- helps clients to see Love in themselves and others in order to improve their relationships with others
- helps the client to gain a greater sense of self-esteem
- believes the client is responsible for their own experience of life
- expresses caring for the client not through sympathy, but rather a compassionate heart
- helps the client to live more in the present moment
The comparison between these two helps to find which is the best. Thanks for sharing these informations to the readers. The spiritual and the conventional therapy have different feelings and different nature. The post clearly shows the difference in that. Keep sharing more in the upcoming posts.