Priests and Clergy should not be allowed to counsel when they are not qualified

Counsellors and psychologists who are not religious argue that they should not bring their unbelief into the session when it is a religious client they are trying to help.  

One trapwire is when somebody's sect or religion or worldview opposes certain recommendations for mental health.  Even if some religion says that mental health is not in a vacuum but will only be possible if your spiritual and physical and relationship health is looked after there will still be problems.  The religion will see the spiritual as the foundation and the essential while the others are add-ons.  Or it may be that the spiritual is simply considered the main thing and if it is fixed the rest will fix themselves.  Neither of these views really respects our psychology.  They actually demand that counselling be spiritual and religion based!

But the fact remains that some belief systems do damage to the believers.  Religion needs to be challenged when that happens.  What if a Christian cannot shake off the fear that she is predestined by God for eternal damnation which if Calvinist Christianity is plausible or true is a sensible fear?  The counsellers and psychologists are letting themselves be bulled by their code of practice which in a spirit of political correctness ignores the problems caused by religion.

Another trapwire is when somebody suffers from mental illness and expresses an alarming or harmful religious belief.  What if they say they hate themselves because they feel they murdered Jesus with their sins for he had to die to make up for them?  Therapists will put that down to the sickness but the fact remains that it may not be down to it at all and may be their belief.

Depressed people feel worse if they have good children and a good job and a good spouse. It is important that you don’t add to it by telling them they have the best person of all – God.  You cannot encourage them to think you do

And if a client says how much prayer helps her or him and the therapist answers, "Do what ever gives you strength" that is actually going to be interpreted as an insult.  The client will think, "God he or she thinks my prayers are just a placebo.  That insults my beliefs and patronises me." 

Religion in many forms is simply dangerous.  Those therapists who think religion/God and helping those with psychological problems are compatible are lying to themselves.  The real and apparent strength in numbers that religion is blessed with is to blame.

Let us delve deeper into why religion should be banned from counselling.

Children have experienced tremendous tragedy. Instead of a counsellor, the priest was brought to give stupid blessings that don't work and to give false hope and to engage in giving useless and out of touch advice.

Priests and clergy being given the freedom to act like therapists and counsellors when they have no formal qualifications to do so is scandalous. The damage done can be irreparable. The relationship between priest and vulnerable person is one of the former manipulating the latter. The person needs an improvement in emotional health. When people talk about spiritual health, they really mean emotional health. Religion needs to talk about spiritual health in order to masquerade as a form of therapy and to give the false impression that religion is needed. The person should see through this and any good done will evaporate. And especially when they realise the true Christian claims that he cannot value other people unless God tells him!

The priest and clergyman has to prioritise moral considerations. A suicidal person may go and see him. If the priest tries to listen non-judgementally to the person he is not acting as a priest but as a man. He is not acting as a Catholic but as a therapist. Non-judgemental means, "I am not concerned about right and wrong. If you choose to commit suicide, then I respect and honour that choice." A true Catholic cannot take such a position and it denies the kingship of God. And the non-judgementalism is a moral stance in its own right. The Catholic then is choosing another ethic - an unChristian one. Catholic counselling can only make a person feel worse. If you are contemplating suicide, you do not need somebody condemning that sin. If they say they condemn the sin not the sinner you will not believe them. That excuse will only compound your distress even more.

Do not forget that the priesthood and the bishops claimed they did not understand the damage child sex abuse does to victims. That was a lie for people and parents came to them who did understand the damage and how no apology can ever fix it or suffice. The counselling priests and the bishops knew fine well the damage done and pretended, "We meant well."

When people do something very bad or something that makes them feel terribly guilty, they like to learn about the crimes of others and hear about them. It makes them feel better. Hearing the confessions of men who molest or abuse children makes the paedophile priest feel better and more satisfied in his sin. It helps him to rationalise and excuse future attempts to get access to children to abuse them.

Priests and clergy acting like therapists and trying to substitute for them needs to be legally prohibited - unless they have proper qualifications. It is a violation of secularism.