Changes in Clients' Images of God Over the Course of Outpatient Therapy

✍ Scribed by Sharon E. Cheston; Ralph L. Piedmont; Beverly Eanes; Lynn Patrice Lavin

• Publisher: American Counseling Association
• Year: 2003
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 794 KB
• Volume: 47
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0160-7960
• DOI: 10.1002/j.2161-007x.2003.tb00227.x

✦ Synopsis

The authors examined the impact of outpatient counseling on clients' psychological symptoms and on their image of God. Thirty participants in a counseling treatment group and 68 participants in a no‐treatment control group completed the Brief Symptom Inventory and the Adjective Checklist at 2 separate times. Counseled participants experienced significant reductions of psychological symptoms over the course of treatment whereas the control group showed no changes. Furthermore, ratings of God's agreeableness significantly increased (toward compassion) for clients in the treatment group, whereas no such changes were noted for the control group.