Alusine Melvin Moseray Kanu DA

The legacy of unresolved loss is about the compassion, kindness, courage and beauty that come into our lives. Realizing and living into the resolution of our lives and being able to understand that entire experience to others is what is illustrated in this article that talks about using genograms and life stories as forms of counseling grief and loss. In the wake of traumatic loss, it is important to offer compassion, to help draw comfort and strength from each other, the community and faith.

Experts in family therapy and pastoral care discuss how faith, beliefs and practices can foster personal and relational well being following loss of loved ones and reflections of spiritual journeys. Resilience comes across as a spirituality of courage in spite of the boundaries of life. A resilience perspective in pastoral counseling centers on approaches cultures use to face the end of life with coping and adjustment mechanisms.

To live a happy and fulfilled life is to maintain a balance of the mind, body and soul. Emotional health and well-being are a crucial part of the wellness equation. To achieve mind, body and soul wellness, the mind must be balanced. Spirituality brings humans closer to their core being through spiritual balance that includes practical spirituality, trusting in divine destiny, comparative religion, self worth and humility. There is a specific balance between emotion, strength, love and wisdom.

Pastoral counseling provides care many people value. People want counselors who are friendly to their values and can help them to draw upon the spiritual resources that are important to them personally. They also want counselors to respect their beliefs and religious practices. Contemporary pastoral counseling involves a process of drawing upon the treasures of faith and upon the resources of behavioral science in order to help people do better in coping with emotional and relationship problems.

Interventions on faith related issues include awareness raising, knowledge dissemination, skills training, individual counseling and harnessing the support that is provided by peers, family members and community services. Faith related issues can be classified as psychological because they affect positive indicators including life satisfaction, resilience and self worth. As a cognitive process, faith affects positive indicators including thought processes and achievement.

Christianity and Islam are closely related religions because they both revere Abraham and certain patriarchs in the Christian scriptures and Quran as spiritual ancestors. It is important to realize that there are many traditions within Islam and many different traditions within Christianity. An interesting topic in Christian Muslim relations that needs to be explored more fully and more objectively are similarities and differences between their experiences of faith, prayer and worship.

This article discusses some interpretations of meanings of spirituality. Some view spirituality as participating in religious rituals and practices including going to church, synagogue, mosque etc. Some practice spirituality through prayer, yoga, meditation or reflection. Practices of spirituality tend to improve coping skills and social support, foster feelings of optimism and hope, promote healthy behavior, reduce feelings of depression and anxiety and encourage a sense of relaxation.

In relational communication, we need to understand and monitor our relationships. We can do so by having the ability to set and achieve realistic goals that involve satisfying one's own needs and those of relational partners. To be satisfactorily competent in relational communication, one must value flexibility with a willingness to change if the willingness is reciprocal by finding a balance between independence and interdependence. Such perspectives affect cultural and social orientations.

Verbal communication teaches us to think before we speak by organizing our thoughts and use direct and concise language without necessarily using complex terminology to drive home important points. Competency in language use teaches us to vary our tone by expressing interest in what we say so others will pay attention. It is necessary to understand that nonverbal communication has an effect on how verbal communication is interpreted in relation to rules, cooperation, staying and changing topics.

United States culture is enriched by the values and belief systems of virtually every part of the world. Common beliefs, values, and cultural practices shared by most people in the United States are achievement and success, moral orientation, humanitarianism, efficiency and practicality, materialism, equality, freedom, external conformity, patriotism and democracy. This article discusses individualism, equal opportunity, science and technology, progress and change, work and play and competition