Integration in Hong Kong: A phenomenological Study of Chinese Christian Therapists

Abstract

The voices of other cultures need to be heard in the growing field of the integration of psychology and theology. This study phenomenologically explored the experience of integration for Chinese Christian therapists practicing in Hong Kong. The emerging themes placed the context of integration outside of the Hong Kong culture, with psychology and Christianity as foreign to the Chinese culture. Integration was founded on a dynamic and committed relationship to God. The centrality of relationship with God led to the sharing of personal beliefs with clients as well as encouragement to seek religion in their own lives. The power of theology to meet needs that could not be met elsewhere and provide meaning where none could be found, resulted in deference to the truths of theology.

Beyond Integration: A Phenomenology of Faith-Informed Clinical Practice

“…What the participants did describe was a relationship with God out of which flowed an embodiment of psychological and theological truth that came together in the clinician through the integrating work of the Holy Spirit in their lives. This understanding parallels the reflections of other scholars on faith and learning integration (Coe & Hall, 2010; Hsu et al, 2007; Neff & McMinn, 2020; Sites et al, 2009). They did not describe an intellectual exercise of trying to bring together different truths, but a belief that all truth is God’s truth and how they attempted to embody that truth as counselors.…”

“…This theme was theoretically supported in the literature on worldview and also empirically supported. Hsu et al (2007) reported that the participants in their study “experienced God as providing something beyond what was possible in the human realm” (p. 109). The sub-theme, The clinician’s way of being: An ontological necessity , adds support to Sites et al (2009) who proposed ontological foundation as the “natural outflowing of one’s faith and being into the pedagogical, relational, and community contexts of academic life” (p. 36).…”

“…The salience of the professor-student relationship in effective integration instruction was affirmed by several studies, culminating in the 10-year National Collaborative Study (Sorenson et al, 2004). Hsu et al (2007) examined the clinical practices of Christian psychologists and counselors in Hong Kong, noting a relational conceptualization of integration. Their participants reported that integration was grounded in the richness of their own spiritual life and its centrality to their practice, even though they had not been educated in Christian institutions and had no formal training in integration.…”