Value-based Counseling. Culture and Religion as a Meaningful Element of a Specific Type of Psychodynamic Short-term Intervention

Abstract

Value-based Counseling (VBC) evolved from the work experience of the Jungian psychoanalyst Inge Missmahl gained mainly in Afghanistan, but also in Sri Lanka, China, Haiti and Ukraine. The short-term psychodynamic intervention has a salutogenic approach that aims to improve the sense of coherence and self-efficacy of clients in the course of a non-directive but carefully structured conversation. VBC is based on the idea of man/woman as a human being that has an inherent need for leading a meaningful life. Our human potential for self-development and our pursuit of harnessing this potential can be used to facilitate human self-healing. The counseling approach avoids pathologising clinical symptoms underlying intrapsychic or interpersonal conflicts, traumatic experiences, a disruptive social environment, or difficult life transitions such as migration or loss of livelihoods, instead seeking to understand the significance of these symptoms as an expression of unresolved social stress. VBC is based on the experience that we can discover scope for change if we understand our emotional reaction to a situation experienced as an impasse by becoming conscious of the hierarchy of our own values that triggers this emotional reaction as well as of the values of concerned parties. Culture, and in this context religion, shape our perception of the world and of our feelings associated with this perception. Culture and religion are therefore regarded as a resource that can provide meaning and that counselors can refer to and use with deliberate care in their interactions with clients.