Belford, Ann (New York). ‘The relation of religion to pastoral counseling’,  J. of Relig. and Health,  7,  1 (1968).

In answering the question, how does religion enter into the therapist's work, Ann Belford starts from the familiar observation that many patients suffer from not knowing what their life means to them. She quotes Jung, Fromm, Viktor Frankl, Maslow, LeShan and Winnicott to illustrate how this shows itself clinically. Such patients should encounter in the therapist an intention to help them to recover their own ‘counsel’. To recover one's own counsel, she defines, is to alter one's attitude to oneself and to one's development, and this involves a concern with what is ultimate in our lives and what we experience as giving them an ultimate significance.

With such questions we are in a religious dimension. She goes on to consider the shifts of attitude that are needed and lists the main ones as: 1. A shift from a lack of consideration of one's inner purposes and needs to one of attention towards them; 2. A shift in attitude towards time from a past-future perspective to the present; 3. From reliance on authorities outside oneself to assuming responsibility for oneself; and 4. From a focus on results to involvement in living. The quality of the therapist's attention toward his patient implements the initial intention of promoting the recovery of one's counsel. She quotes here tellingly from Simone Weil's ‘Attente de Dieu’. The whole paper is deeply thoughtful and the discussion is careful, dynamic and illuminating.