Therapists, clients and faith!

I often wonder if there are clients out there who would like the freedom to be able to express their feelings about God, who sometimes allows life to 'go wrong' and to explore their issues including and around that aspect of their lives. The counselling process can therefore be incomplete for many clients who feel awkward or foolish telling their therapist something that the therapist may find difficult themselves.

I believe it is a sign of the times where faith, church and the trimmings have become unimportant in people's lives; church attendance is falling and people are doing their own thing, without boundaries in the pursuit of constant happiness. But there will be potential clients who wouldn't go to a church or pastoral worker to talk through things for fear of them pushing judgement on their already fragile selves, who would relish the opportunity to be able to talk out their emotional distress to someone who knows why their guilt, shame, frustration, anger, jealousy, etc is a double bind for them, one, on a 'What would people think?' level, but worse, 'What does God now think of me?' level.

If this sounds like you and you're in a situation where you can't approach someone in your faith community and need to be able to offload and explore your issues outside, in a place where you will never be judged, but just helped to find a way through, please don't be afraid to ask if your shortlisted therapists are able to help you in this way.