Spirituality is a development of personal transformation. It is developed through subjective experience, psychological growth, or ideas of one’s world. It can’t be taught to someone for the individual needs to discover themselves as a whole. The person grows from the inside to become spiritual in the world around them. Spirituality can have many different definitions; it can be something as simple as looking for higher meaning to life. People can do this by songs, dances, stories, and writings as forms of expression. Different communities across the globe have different beliefs and thoughts regarding a particular issue. Counselors advise people to ease the burden of their dreams and avert cases like suicide.
Children Spirituality
On a daily basis, spirituality becomes a part of children and can be seen in their daily activities through facial expression, conversations, and attitudes. There are three types of spirituality in children: sensitive, existential and relational. Raw spirituality means children using senses is their being and not only to communicate thus connecting to the world. Relations implies a way to relate to people naturally show compassion, forgive and love thus connecting with God. Existential spirituality suggests the ability to understand symbolism, limitations, place, time, space and imaginations (Rowan, 2016). When children feel disconnected from their friends, families, communities, and peers, they tend to show academic, emotional and behavioral challenges. For children to feel connected, they have to form a bond with the environment that surrounds them at a particular time. If children lack connection with the world around them, they feel a sense of loss that this affects their psychological health. Spiritual growth is a combination of emotional and mental growth in children. Children life’s purpose, moral values, and meaning of suffering shaping is through religious beliefs. Children lousy life events can be solved by meditation, seeking strength from God, asking spiritual counseling and believing in God which is known as theological skills. Religious leaders in communities set aside sessions when children attend Bible or Quran meetings when they get spiritual guidance in the way of life.
Religion aids a child development thus shaping a child life as it becomes easier to solve problems that arise in future by reasoning. Parents, on the other hand, should become a part of their children’s lives in every step of the way to make sure that their daughter or son growth is positive. When parents and family love their children, they excel studies because they are always happy. At times parents fight in the presence of their children which usually negatively affect a child mental health. A child’s mind can record every event happening in their life thus leading negative growth. Counselor plays a significant role in shaping a child living through the study of behavior, emotions and listening to them. Some communities believe in counseling from religious leaders through Bible and Quran teachings (Rowan, 2005). A professional counselor is rejected in communities that embrace traditional methods of solving problems. Communities believe in curses and taboos when children have a problem, and some are cast out of society or perform a ritual for cleansing.
Positive effects of spiritual guidance
When a child raise life is natured correctly by religion and parents, they live a positive experience. A child performs well academically when the parents and teachers are concerned and treat them well. A child who is feeling a sense of belonging to through attending Bible or Quran study sessions is kind, forgiving, honest, obedient and humble as he or she fears the higher power (West, 2001). A society that brings up their children in a religious setting children grows up well and become better leader’s society thus leading to the growth of a country. Presence of parent in every step of life keeps off a child from bad company. Religious guidance teaches children and adults against engaging sexual intercourse thus meaning no early pregnancies and diseases. Parents and teachers encouragement in nurturing a child talent makes them become a legend in future for example in the music industry or art. Children spiritual guidance at home gives rise to scientists and innovators who have helped the world become a better place for humankind existence. Spirituality boost child self-esteem thus excellent life satisfaction. Religion guidance equips a child with skills that help them to handle and deal with daily challenges. Spirituality helps a child to escape diseases like ulcers in future which are a result of stress and depression. (Bryant-Davis, & Anderson, et al., 2012).
Adverse effects due to lack of spiritual guidance
If a child’s life is unshaped by religious leaders and parents the probability of that child to depression, commit suicide, deal drugs and gang involvement are high. Children who lack religion guidance and parents are absent when growing up; they tend to seek for answers in places which are inappropriate. Cases of depression in children lead to poor academic performance and dropping out of school when they become teenagers. Most teenagers who are dealing drugs or involved in a street gang in the United States are victims of depression and lousy development in childhood. The street gang in their perspective they do nothing wrong because that’s how they view their world. Children move away from home and live with friends or on streets to be at peace with their parents at home are always fighting. Drug dealing and gang involvement give teenagers money thus making them drop out of school as they start believing in life outside of class. Children are killed in the streets a robbery or drug dealing goes sideways thus bringing sorrow to their families and communities. Due to stress and sense of rejection by parent’s bright children leave school and opt for other alternatives thus leading to loss of great leaders in government and society for tomorrow. Children whose look for comfort in drugs like cocaine or heroin end up in rehabilitation centers thus causing wasting their childhood and parent’s money. (Plumb, 2011).
Conclusion
A child who has trouble when growing up is most likely to have a lot of problems when he or she becomes an adult. Childhood rejection and abuse haunt a person at times which makes him or her violent or abusive. A counselor should always do their best to spot children who are emotionally distressed to avoid problems that may arise in future. Children who witness their parents fighting they tend to have an unstable family if someone never comes in and help them through the distress. Nowadays there are a lot of break up in families, and if children lack counsel, they will follow in their parent’s footsteps. Children who experience rejection at home by their parents they tend to be angry and bitter thus picking up unnecessary fights (Lines, 2006). To solve the problem of stealing and fighting parents should ensure their child is raised through religion. Most successful and influential people in society when they are children they become raised through belief set up.
Children who grow up in a violent environment tend to harm other people in life. A child who experiences abuse from his or her mother tends to hurt other women in life especially the ones who look like their mum. Abuse of children results in too many homicide cases as they tend to become killers when they become adults. Unstable mental health inflicts harm to people and society at large. Drugs cartel is present today as when the founders are children nobody teaches them about neighbor well-being. To avoid school dropout, of bright students due to stress and peer influence, schools need to set up counseling department. When counselor spot an adverse change in behavior they talk to them, establish a problem and then help to go past them. Counsellor also calls parents for guidance session if they are the result of the change in their child. Dealing drugs is the primary challenge facing students at the Campus level, for example, smoking weed, shisha and injecting themselves with morphine, cocaine, and heroin which occurs due to parents and religion failure. Administering these drugs into the blood system lead to death in case of overdose. Drugs are addictive, and the body sometimes does not function properly if not fed with required dose.
The bad things about stating drugs are that the body craves for more and more which is hard to stop. Sometimes these drugs make a student go crazy. Parent’s health gets deteriorated, and life becomes hard for them as they grow stressed about their children. The above experience brings the recognition that young people need guidance and a place to lean on if the going gets tough. Counseling program brings a healthy community, and these programs should be established at every school. As a counselor, one must first understand a people and community behavior before giving guidance. Studying people and community provides a counselor with the approach on which to handle them not to get spooked. It is essential to treat a distressed child with care, or he might harm you.
References
Bryant-Davis, T., Ellis, M. U., Burke-Maynard, E., Moon, N., Counts, P. A., & Anderson, G. (2012). Religiosity, spirituality, and trauma recovery in the lives of children and adolescents. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 43(4), 306-314. Doi:10.1037/a0029282.
Joyce, P., & Sills, C. (2014). Skills in Gestalt counseling & psychotherapy. Sage.
Lines, D. (2006). Spirituality in counseling and psychotherapy. Sage.
Lukoff D, Lu F, Turner R. Toward a more culturally sensitive DSM-IV. Psychoreligious and psychospiritual problems. J Nerv Ment Dis. 1992;180:673–82.
McLeod, J. (2011). Qualitative research in counseling and psychotherapy. Sage.
Plumb, A. M. (2011). Spirituality and Counselling: Are Counsellors Prepared to Integrate Religion and Spirituality into Therapeutic Work with Clients?/La spiritualité et le counse
Rowan, J. (1993). The Transpersonal: Psychotherapy and counseling. Psychology Press.
Rowan, J. (2016). The reality game: A guide to humanistic counseling and psychotherapy. Routledge.
Rowan, J., (2005) the transpersonal: Spirituality in psychotherapy and counseling, 2nd edition, London: Routledge.
West, W. (2001). Issues relating to the use of forgiveness in counseling and psychotherapy. British Journal of Guidance and Counselling, 29(4), 415-423.
