Filipino counselors' worldviews and their use of religious/spiritual interventions in counseling

• Main Author: Pappaliparambil, Pancratius Joseph, MSC.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2001
• Subjects: Counseling; Counselors; Perception; Psychotherapy; Educational Methods
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_masteral/2624
• Institution: De La Salle University

This study determines Filipino counselors' worldviews (Psychodynamic, Behavioral, Humanistic and Cognitive approaches) of Filipino counselors and their use of religious/spiritual interventions in counseling. It also seeks to find out the relationship between worldviews and religious/spiritual practices and the difference in the use of religious/spiritual practices among the different groups, namely, counselors with non-master's degree versus counselors with master's degree and above, school counselors versus counselors from other settings, and lay counselors versus religious counselors.The survey method was used involving 125 respondents who met the following criteria: a) Filipinos, b) counselor trainees with 12 units in counseling or a master's degree or doctoral degree in counseling and c) were practicing counselors in varied settings. The respondents answered two instruments: the first was used to determine the counselors' worldview of the nature of man based on four counseling approaches and the second, to determine the religious and spiritual practices that were used. A Focus Group Discussion was conducted to confirm the findings from the checklist. The results showed that Filipino counselors were predominantly humanistic (M=2.07) in worldview on a scale of 0 to 3 but also believed in cognitive (M=1.80) and behavioral (M=1.65), and mildly believed in psychodynamic (M=1.20) worldviews. The Filipino counselors sometimes used spiritual practices (M=3.24) and hardly used religious practices (M=3.54). There was a significant relationship between humanistic worldview and spiritual practices (r=-.214, p.05), and between behavioral worldview and spiritual practices (rBased on the findings, the general conclusion drawn was that Filipino counselors have a spectrum of worldviews which is predominantly humanistic, and to a lesser degree, cognitive and humanistic. Both 'lay' and 'religious' counselors occasionally use spiritual practices, but the latter adhere to religious practices as well in their counseling tasks.