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A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF MY JOURNEY ALONG THE SEEMINGLY EVER MERGING SPIRITUAL AND COUNSELLING PATH.I feel that I must start this assignment with a confession, which is, until I started to do my research into the role of spirituality and counselling. I did not realise how vast a topic this whole issue was and indeed is. Spirituality on its own covers so many different areas; it has probably dozens if not hundreds of definitions and can mean different things to all of us. When talking about spirituality my own view is that I am using all of my experience and knowledge to talk about something that is pure knowledge and so immense. Comparing my knowledge with this source of immense knowledge is like comparing the smallest star to the whole of the universe. All I can do is to try and explain why I feel that spirituality and counselling. are undeniably linked. I will also try to create a picture of where I believe my journey along both of these paths began. Even the word spirituality can conjure up so many different images in our minds. So how can spirituality be defined? As it is so hard to put into words. I believe that spirituality is like an awakening that makes me want to care for myself, others and indeed the whole planet on which we live. I feel very fortunate in having experienced such an awakening and I would like to share this experience with you. My own awakening happened several years ago after I had read a book called “The Way of the Peaceful Warrior” by Dan Millman. This book was all about changing the way we view every day things in our lives. As I turned the pages of this book I felt as though a veil was being lifted from my eyes. The world some how started to look different, even though it had to be still the same. But some how even the colours of the flowers seemed sharper, brighter, the grass felt softer the air seemed fresher. Surely the world had always been like this, but why did it feel as though I was seeing things as they truly were for the first time? For some reason along the way my life had lost this magical sparkle, I had been taking things for granted. How could I have allowed this to happened? When we give things a title are we just compartmentalising them and resigning them to a fate of indifference and this includes people. Wow what is that brightly coloured and fascinatingly shaped thing in the garden dad? “Oh that’s just a rose son”. As a child did life start to loose its sparkle for me when I started to realise just how harsh the world could be? Did this veil of complacency and indifference start to descend when I first realised that not every one in the world was as trusting and as loving as my own parents? Was it as a young boy when to my utter amazement and disbelief some one hit me and stole my first ever football? Or when my first girlfriend broke my heart? Was this veil a part of my defence mechanism against an all to often-cruel world? Words like denial, displacement and aggression come to mind. I do not pretend to have the answers to any of these questions, but what I do know is that the feeling of looking at the world without this veil is a truly wonderful experience. At this stage of my development I felt as though I had been given the chance to start my life all over again, but with a new perspective. My dilemma was how was I going to employ this new-found zest for life in my everyday surroundings? I joined Amnesty international in an attempt to change the world. I meditated and prayed harder than I ever had before. However I still felt a sense of confusion as to which direction I should go. As fate or coincidence would have it an opportunity arose through my job as a fire fighter to attend a course in basic counselling. skills. The fire service was looking for volunteers to go out into the community and talk to youngsters who had committed acts of arson. Still wanting to help every one that I could I willingly attended the course. I was well and truly hooked; I thoroughly enjoyed the course and tried to take in as much information as possible about counselling. skills. I was then let loose into the local community with bags of enthusiasm but little in the way of actual helping skills. It was at this point that I decided to find out more. I then enrolled at the Local College in Coventry and so began my journey into the world of counselling. Whilst doing this first counselling. course I feel that I have learnt so much and once again I would liken attending the course to a type of awakening. I feel that through the course and the process it invoked in making me look at my own prejudices and feelings. I have been able to strip a way some of the defensive layers that surround me. By going through this process I get the feeling that I am getting closer to my real self. I am learning how to offer people empathy, respect and congruence. For the first time in my life, thanks to the course, I actually feel as though I am being listened to and I am able to really listen to others. At times this learning process has been very painful, forcing me to question myself over and over again, and I have not always liked the answers. A friend once told me that in order for it to grow a lobster must shed its skin but it is at this point that the lobster is at its most vulnerable. At times on this course I have felt great empathy with the lobster. Just like the lobster I believe that I am growing. I am on a journey that at times can seem very lonely and indeed even painful. I can certainly relate my experience on the counselling. course to that of my spiritual awakening in that they both feel like a wakening's. Both involve me looking at myself and stripping away previous conditionings and prejudices to find my true inner self or soul. I have come to believe that we are basically spiritual beings. Anthony de Mello (1998) said, “The spiritual quest is a journey with out distance. You travel from where you are right now to where you have always been. From ignorance to recognition, for all you do see for the first time, what you have always been looking at. Who ever heard of a path that brings you to yourself or a method that makes you what you have always been? Spirituality after all is only a method of becoming what you really are.” At the moment I am nearing the end of the first year of my counselling. course. The past year has flown but has been very enjoyable. Although I feel that I have learned so much, it still feels like the beginning. As I read more and more about great people such as Gandhi, Jesus and Buddha for me the link between spirituality and counselling. grows. In counselling. we are encouraged to have faith in the client, and ourselves as human beings have the means to find their own solutions to their own problems. Some of our great spiritual leaders talked about having faith in ourselves and God (Mathew 7) “seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened for you” For me the following extract from Carl Rogers (1998) sums up the link between spirituality and counselling. perfectly. “ When I am at my best as a group facilitator or therapist, I discover another characteristic. I find that when I am closest to my inner, intuitive self, when I am some how in touch with the unknown in me, when I am perhaps in a slightly altered state of conscienceness in the relationship then what ever I do seems to be full of healing. Then simply my presence is releasing and helpful There is nothing I can do to force this experience. But when I can relax and be close to the transcendental core in me, then I may behave in strange and impulsive ways in the relationship, which I can not justify rationally. But these strange behaviours turn out to be right, in some odd way. At those moments it seems that my inner spirit has reached out and touched the inner spirit of the other. Our relationship transcends its self and becomes a part of some thing larger. Profound growth and energy and healing are present.” At present I find myself asking what next? In which direction should I travel? I feel that the answer is to carry on as before. To meditate and pray, asking for guidance, which always seems to be given. I know the road a head will be challenging but also very rewarding and exciting. One of my goals is to pass on as much of what I have learnt as possible in the hope that it will benefit others. I passionately believe that every one has the potential to achieve what ever they want to from this wonderful life. But for various reasons some people can and do get blockages, things go wrong. If through my role as a counselor I can help even one person to realise their true potential, then it will have been all worth while. I have chosen to end this essay with two quotes from “How to Know God” by Deepak Chopra. “We are like new born children, our power is the power to grow” Rabidrannath Tagore. Deepak Choppra also says, “That no matter which path you walk, two things are necessary. The first is a vision of the goal, the second is the trust that you have the inner resources to get there.” Warm regards: Anthony Somers
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Anthony Somers: Articles My journey along the seemingly ever merging spiritual and counselling path. Me and the person in counselling. Congruence, can I take the risk?
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