This study aims to identify the types of the subjective perceptions about Christian counseling among Korean Christian counselors and to investigate characteristics of their perceptions. In order to seek for types of subjective perceptions, Q-methodolo...
This study aims to identify the types of the subjective perceptions about Christian counseling among Korean Christian counselors and to investigate characteristics of their perceptions. In order to seek for types of subjective perceptions, Q-methodology, the research methodology to identify the constructs of perception about some themes, was used in this study.
In the first stage of this study, in-depth interview and literature review were carried out to collect the Q-population. As a result, 290 statements were collected. Among 290 statements, 34 statements were chosen for Q-samples. Then 21 P-sample, professional Christian counselors, were picked and the Q-sorting and in-depth interviews were conducted by them. For data coding and factors analysis, QUANL program was used.
As a result, 5 consensus items and 4 factors were identified. First of all, all types negative these statements: "If the client is non-Christian, Christian counseling has limitation", "Christian counseling is not for the evangelism", "Religious issues are addressed in the session", "To theorize Christian counseling is difficult", "Christian counseling has not been established yet."
Also, in this study, 4 types of perception were identified. The first type, named "focused on the relationship with God", emphasizes the client's relationship with God in the Christian counseling. Moreover, they value the activity of the Holy Spirit rather than integration of Christianity and counseling or/and professionality of the counselors. The second perception type was named as "focused on the perspective of God and sanctification" and it emphasizes to make the client has God's perspective and be sanctified. However they negative the use of skills based on the secular counseling. The third type, named "focus on the integration which is based on the Christian worldview", especially emphasizes the integration of Christianity and counseling and Christian worldview. The last type was named as "focus on the integration which is for the recovery of holistic being". They beware the counselor's attitude to interpret the clients with Christian worldview and to have stereotype to the client. Also, they emphasize the integration of Christianity and counseling in order to recover holistic being.
Key words: Christian counseling, Subjective perception, Q-methodology, Types of perception