Assignment 1: DiscussionProviding Faith-based Services
Faith-based services are those that incorporate elements of spirituality. In the field of counseling those who provide faith-based services have traditionally been referred to as pastoral counselors.
For clients with strong religious convictions or the desire to explore their own spirituality further particularly as it relates to a mental health issue faith-based services may be the best choice. If a provider has strong religious convictions it is important that the provider abide by the ethical guidelines of the profession. This is particularly relevant when the providers own convictions are in opposition to the clients values beliefs behaviors or issues.
In 2012 the State of Michigan passed the Julea Ward Freedom of Conscience bill into law. Julea Ward is a former counseling student who was dismissed from her program after refusing (for religious reasons) to provide psychotherapy to a homosexual client in the counseling programs training clinic. She chose to refer the client to another counselor-in-training. To read the law visit this site:
After reading about faith-based services in your textbook lecture notes and the above article answer the following questions in a minimum of 200 words:
BySaturday post your response to theDiscussion Areabelow.Each response post should be a minimum of 100 words.