Preferences of Conservative and Moderate Christians for four Christian Counselors’ Treatment Plans

Abstract

Conservative Christians, who comprise up to one-third of the total population in the United States, are often reluctant to seek counseling from nonreligious counselors. Consequently, counselors taking an explicitly Christian approach have developed a number of treatments designed to appeal to this population. In general, such treatments have not been examined experimentally. Participants (n = 45) from Protestant denominations completed questionnaires that investigated the effects of moderate and conservative religious beliefs on (a) preferences for Christian versus secular counseling and (b) preferences among four published approaches to Christian counseling –- those of Clyde M. Narramore, Jay E. Adams, Lawrence J. Crabb, Jr., and Andre Bustanoby. Participants completed the Rokeach Value Survey (RVS), then read a case history of a fictitious client, and four 1200-word structured treatment plans that represented each counselor's approach. It was found that for Christians, especially conservative Christians, there is a reluctance to seek secular psychological help, and a preference for counseling theories that are perceived as being congruent with their own religious beliefs. This desire for congruent religious beliefs was hypothesized to be a stronger determinant of preferences among the approaches than psychological factors such as emphasis on insight versus behavior change.