Next, it is important to identify how these beliefs impact or relate to the clients' current dilemmas. Discovering how clients' presenting problem is viewed through their religious lens can lead to significant insights. Clients' belief systems color their perspective on their life events. If they recently suffered a trauma, it is crucial to determine if this has altered their belief system in some way. Following traumas such as rape or the death of a loved one, people's worldviews are thrown into chaos.
Therapists are meaning-makers, facilitating their clients' search for their missing pieces.
Narrative theory tells us that humans cope with the vagaries of life by maintaining a coherent identity, a persona who forms and is formed by their life story. My story has a future. A spiritual crisis, which can separate a client from cherished perceptions of his or her own value and place in the universe, can signal the start of a downward spiral from which recovery can be difficult. If a clinical assessment reveals resources in the area of religion or spirituality, it can be treated like any strength -give it positive reinforcement, foster its growth and development. By simply talking with clients about their belief system, the therapist is helping the clients to expand and redefine their beliefs in order to explain them.