Human Resources Management and Sustainable Development Essay Example for Free

Human Resources Management and Sustainable Development Essay Nowadays, sustainable development is a movement that is increasing in our society. Companies are progressively realizing the stakes of such policies, and are willing to have a try at it. The triple bottom line definition of sustainable development (source: United Nations) stresses an equal importance of the social and economic dimensions with regard to the ecological dimension. The sustainable development director of a company being usually inside of its human resources department, this department must therefore play a key role in the implementation of sustainable development policies. But what role exactly ? How can companies use human resources management to improve their sustainable development strategy ? Sustainable development implies taking into account ethical values and principles. For example, a new trend in companies nowadays is volunteering. Many different projects are available to volunteers, depending on their will and their interest centres : humanitarian missions, reinsertion of unemployed people, etc. These actions, which depend very much on the willingness of human resources management to set them up, contribute to the good image of sustainable development policies implementation in companies. It is even more striking to employees and locals when companies choose to get involved in missions close to its activity, e. g. the Danone group gives away free yoghurts to African communities every year. On the national level Many actions including the social dimension can be undertaken in companies. This includes for examples an improved fairness in the hiring process (e. g. through interviewing methods, anonymous resumes ), a regular training of employees, a more flexible work, etc. The most important part is to involve employees in the sustainable development process. Indeed, managers have the responsibility to spread sustainable development principles and to set them up, while employees realize them and keep them alive. If employees do not agree upon it, the company is walking right into a wall. Companies should therefore explain their initiative, the pros and the cons, and have employees agree on it. Meetings to agree on a charter could be a good thing also. Furthermore, employees’ involvement should not stop there : Companies should encourage their collaborators to integrate ethical and ecological attitudes in their everyday life. For instance, the Aventis Pasteur laboratory encourages its employees to take public transportations rather than driving alone to work. In order to do so, the company signed a contract with ADEME (Agence De l’Environnement et de la Maitrise de l’Energie) so as to improve the bus service to the laboratory. However, taking actions in the home country of a company is not enough today : sustainable development goes abroad ! On the international level With the globalization of firms, they now need to pay attention to the social aspects of being settled in different countries. Companies must indeed take into consideration the local social specificities, as well as local stakeholders. If possible, they should also try developing partnerships with local associations, NGO, as well as local and international public institutions. An example of what a sustainable development policy could be implemented abroad is the Lafarge cement company. Its employees in Africa were for the most part affected with AIDS. AIDS had a negative impact on the social but also on the economic dimension. It was the first death cause at Lafarge Africa. The group set up a policy to help fight the disease and to make working and health conditions as convenient as possible. This policy was set up in cooperation with CARE, an international development NGO. To go even further, Lafarge cooperated with local associations to launch a preventive campaign in the area. Another example is the Accor hotel company, which is involved in the definition and implementation of international standards on areas such as education, as well as the fight against prostitution and child exploitation. Both national and international dimensions must be taken into account in the implementation of a sustainable development policy, in order to make the most out of it. In conclusion, sustainable development being an important issue nowadays, companies are starting to feel implied in this process. Through a good use of the human resources management, social services can be set up in a company, both nationally and internationally, hence the performance of the company in terms of sustainable development.

Hotel Arts Barcelona Placement Cultural Studies Essay

Hotel Arts Barcelona Placement Cultural Studies Essay I really wanted to go to a Spanish speaking country, because it is my second language at school but also because I really want to discover the Spanish culture. Especially Barcelona attracted me a lot because I heard a lot of good things about this city. I have been to Madrid a couple of times but my perception of Barcelona was way different. Barcelona has a couple of things which attract me very much: the architecture, the climate and the football club. The department I was working in was the Guest Service Department and sometimes in the FB (bartender). I had several duties, some of these responsibilities were welcoming the new guests, taking care of the luggage of the guests, parking the cars of our guests, calling taxis for the guests, explain the directions to the guests and giving recommendations to the guests about restaurants and clubs. The  Hotel Arts Barcelona  is a 44-story, 482 room luxury  hotel  on the seafront of  Barcelona, in  Spain. A lot of people believe the hotel was build to service the 1992 Summer Olympics but actually it wasnt. Although the construction of the hotel was part of the big changes underwent by the city to prepare the Games, the hotel wasnt made for the Olympics. Hotel Arts is one of the citys leading hotels. The construction of the hotel was fully finished in 1994. It was designed by  Skidmore, Owings Merrill  and is 154 meters tall. Its one of the few skyscrapers that Barcelona has. The hotel underwent a total renovation in 2006, they installed new technology and upgraded the guestrooms and the bathrooms into modern, luxurious spaces to the standards of a 5 star hotel. A vision is an almost impossible dream and a mission is a written statement of the purpose of a company or organization. The mission statement guides the actions of the organization, it sets its overall goal and it guides decision making for every level of management. Its the direction for the company for within at least five years. Their vision is to provide the finest personal service and facilities, for their guest who will always enjoy a warm relaxed yet refined ambience. If you see this sentence you can conclude that its almost impossible. Their mission is to instill the well-being and fulfill even the unexpressed wishes and needs of their guests. 2.2.3 Mission Statement in practice The mission statement is definitely reflected in my department. Every morning we had a briefing about all the things that happened with out guests, good and bad things. So for example when it was someones birthday, everyone of our department kept that in mind so when someone came across the guest he congratulated him and gave him a little present. That is an example of fulfilling the unexpressed wishes of the guests. Every morning we also had a value of the day. Which was one of the 11 service values. For example: I own and immediately resolve guest problems. 2.3 Market segments 2.3.1 What market segment(s) does your hotel focus on? Hotel Arts Barcelona can be put in the luxury segment. They aim for well fortuned guests who are willing to spend from 400 up to 10.0000 euro per night. They make use of demographic segmentation because when you divide the market on a demographic base you get groups like: age, gender, life-cycle, occupation, race, income, education, religion and nationality. Hotel Arts has a mix of business guests and leisure guests. In the summer time its mostly leisure but trough the whole year there are big conventions being held in the meeting rooms. 2.3.2 Characteristics As I explained in the previous sub-title, there are different characteristics of demographic segmentation; age, gender, race, life-cycle, occupation, income, education, nationality. Hotel Arts is focusing on the upper-income guests and business guests. If you compare the demographic characteristics with other types of segmentation you will get the following things. When you look at the psychographic segment you can find a relation with the demographic segment. In the psychographic segment they are focusing on the social class, lifestyle and personality. When we talk about the targeted social class for the hotel, its the upper-level. If you look at the products the hotel is offering like, like. With geographic segmentation, they focus on geographic variables like: countries nations, states, and cities. Ritz Carlton is a brand that is known all over the world, thats why its not necessary to adapt to geographic variables because it doesnt matter. The mission statement does reflect on the market segment where Hotel Arts focuses on because the guests want to be treated like a king because they are used to a certain luxury standard. They say in their mission statement that the genuine care and comfort of their guest is their highest mission and that they pledge to provide the finest personal service and facilities, and those things are exactly what the luxury guest wants. When I started with working they let me walk with a colleague who showed me everything in my department. The first day was just looking, I didnt do anything but observing my colleagues. In my department we didnt have SOPs because the department itself was new. We did have standard procedures of working but it wasnt written down on paper. When a guest arrived we had a certain operating procedure. The cab with the guests came driven to our main door. One of my colleagues opened the trunk and took the luggage out. He told me trough a little microphone the name that was on the tag of the luggage and I opened the door of the cab and greeted the guest with the name that was given to me trough my earpiece. We first asked how their trip was to Hotel Arts and after that we asked if the guest wanted us to take care of the luggage. If yes we gave the guest one half of an orange ticket with a number on it and the other half we put on the luggage. It was an amazing system and it gave the guest mo re than just a warm welcome. We exceeded the expectations of the guest from the beginning by saying their name when opening the door of the cab. My managers were kind and open-minded, one came from Brazil and the other one from Belgium. They were natural leaders because they never acted like they were the boss or the manager but you always knew that you didnt want to disappoint them. They had a lot of conversations with the employees. If they had the feeling that there was a problem they always invited you for conversation. They asked a lot about how things where going personally and that was really nice. Because its good that your manager supports you and cares about you. We always had a group meeting 10 minutes before starting the shift and we always had a evaluation about the day after the shift. They also give you the room to improve yourself by giving you several responsibilities. For example after the first month I got the responsibility of welcoming the and taking care of the luggage of the band Coldplay. It took me a lot of planning and off course a little stress but it was nice to know that my manager had trust in me . One thing that I very much appreciated was the fact that my supervisor had arranged a Spanish class for me and a couple of my other foreign colleagues. I dont have the feeling that there are a lot of thing to improve for my managers. They were very talented and as a matter of fact when I left the hotel they got a promotion as Rooms Division managers 3.1.4 Guest Satisfaction When guests checked out they were asked to fill in an questionnaire with a few question about every department. Sometimes people got a phone call after there stay. Every month we got a report back about the answers that were given by the guests; this is called: the Gallup Report. Customer feedback is obviously an important part of the improvement process. Simon Cooper, president and chief operating officer, states, When it comes to customers, feelings are facts. The Ritz-Carlton deploys multiple methods to capture the customer experience, such as comment cards and a follow-up survey call from Gallup to guests after their stay. In addition, the staff discreetly look, listen, and ask for feedback during transactions and moments of truth to build upon the Ritz-Carlton knowledge-management system. In addition, theres a follow-up survey conducted by Gallup, which provides third-party validation. Finally, mystery shoppers circulate though the various properties to critique the processes.  [5]   3.1.5 Problems, complaints and solutions We had to take care of that the luggage went into the right room, which was sometimes a lot of work because of the arrivals of big groups (100 people at the same time). We made a sheet with all of the guests names and room numbers and after that we tagged all the luggage and made sure it was brought up. We had to take care of the parking as well, sometimes it was a problem for us because we had to park guests their cars but at the same time other guests wanted us to retrieve their cars. What we did to make sure it wouldnt be to busy with the parking we always asked if the guests were using their car during their stay. If not, we put them down in the big garage, if yes, we parked the cars in front of the hotel. Barcelona has a big problem with pick pocketing, because we where the first employees to come across when guests came back to the hotel, we were the first to listen to the problem. We had to send the guests to the concierge because he dealt with these problems but we always had the responsibility to follow up on the guest if we would come across him/her. We didnt have a point of sales system in my department because were werent selling anything, we were just providing service. I know from the times that I helped as a bartender we had Micros which was linked to the Opera system of the whole hotel. On Opera you could find everything of the guests. You could see what their preferences are in terms of their coffee, their newspaper and so on. With this knowledge we created a thing which was called Mystique. This is accomplished by having the empathy to know what thrills guests and how the staff can make the visit memorable. This is accomplished in conversations with guests and by maintaining a knowledge-management system that records the preferences of every guest. These preferences were all saved on Opera and it is accessible for Ritz Carlton employees all around the world. Maybe its a favorite magazine or wine, or dessert, or cappuccino. Whatever the case, employees know how to surprise the guests, which leads to strengthening the relat ionships with them. I have to make sure that all the employees are good ambassadors of the hotel, we must give arriving guests a warm welcome and a fond farewell. We can either make or break a holiday from the start and at the end. For example if people leave the hotel and nobody can order a taxi for them or help them with the luggage they will leave with a bad feeling. My responsibility is also to give my employees, like you for example, a warm welcome as well and to help you with problems. Welcoming the guests is a really strong point. We use a special system for this. The cab with the guests comes driven to our main door. One of my employees opens the trunk and takes the luggage out. He tells the doorman trough a little microphone the name that is on the tag of the luggage and the doorman opens the door of the cab and greets the guest with the name that was given to him trough his earpiece. We first ask how their trip was to Hotel Arts and after that we ask if the guest wants us to take care of the luggage. It is an amazing system and it gives the guest more than just a warm welcome. Simon Cooper, president and chief operating officer, states, When it comes to customers, feelings are facts. The Ritz-Carlton deploys multiple methods to capture the customer experience, such as comment cards and a follow-up survey call from Gallup to guests after their stay. In addition, the staff discreetly look, listen, and ask for feedback during transactions and moments of truth to build upon the Ritz-Carlton knowledge-management system. In addition, theres a follow-up survey conducted by Gallup, which provides third-party validation. Finally, mystery shoppers circulate though the various properties to critique the processes.  [6]   I think these are good performance indicators because if they say that they got noticed and helped immediately when they arrived it says a lot about giving a warm welcome. When they say the time of waiting for a taxi it says a lot about how fast people were getting helped. If their named was used when they left you can say that they got a fond farewell. Because every department gives its own specific service, and ours is welcoming guests, anticipate on needs of guests and giving guest a farewell, its good to be judged on specific indicators about our own department. If we score high and fits with our mission statement of giving the finest service to our guests. Because the hotel was situated in a an area where a lot of restaurants and nightclubs are, there were always people around the hotel. We always had a line of taxis right next to the hotel who were especially for our guests. If people from a restaurant from nearby came to our entrance and asked for a taxi we werent allowed to help him. We had to deal with that a lot. One day I started at seven in the morning and 10 minutes after I started a young man came to me. He got pick pocketed by a criminal gang, he lost his mobile phone and his wallet. He asked me to let him call with the hotels phone at the entrance but he was not a guest. If you look at this trough the JUSTICE way I couldnt let him make use of the phone because he was not a guest. Above that, the young man looked like he had drank to much. But if you look at this trough the CARE way, even though the guy had drank some alcohol he was really calm and friendly. On the other hand he was also really desperate because he couldnt ca ll for help. I could see the sadness in his eyes and because he asked me this in such a friendly way I decided to help him and let him make one quick call with the phone of the hotel.

The Doppler Effect And Its Applications

The Doppler Effect And Its Applications Perhaps you have noticed how the sound of a vehicles horn changes as the vehicle moves past you. The frequency of the sound you hear as the vehicle approaches you is higher than the frequency you hear as it moves away from us. This is one example of the Doppler Effect. To see what causes this apparent frequency change, imagine you are in a boat that is lying at anchor on a gentle sea where the waves have a period of T =30s. This means that every 3.0 s a crest hits your boat. These effects occur because the relative speed between your boat and the waves depends on the direction of travel and on the speed of your boat. When you are moving toward the right in Figure 17.9b, this relative speed is higher than that of the wave speed, which leads to the observation of an increased frequency. When you turn around and move to the left, the relative speed is lower, as is the observed frequency of the water waves. Content Doppler Effect (Sound) and its Application Introduction In physics, the Doppler Effect can be defined as, The increase or decrease in the frequency of sound and also to other waves such as the source and observer moving toward or away from each other. Thus the effect causes the change in pitch which is clearly noticed in a passing siren or train horn, as well as in the red shift/blue shift. The Doppler Effect is familiar to us with everyday experiences. It explains us the change in the pitch of a fast moving car horn or any other fast moving sound source as it passes us. If the car is approaching us, the pitch of the cars horn will be greater than if the car were stationary and as the car passes us and begins to move away from us the pitch will be lower than if the car were stationary. In fact, whenever the source and observer of a sound are in relative motion, the observed frequency will be different than that of the emitted one by the source. For example: The Observer feel higher frequency, when the train is coming to the observer. The Observer feel lower frequency, when the train is going far from the observer. History: The Doppler Effect was discovered by a scientist named Christian Doppler, who gifted his idea to us in year1842. He thought, if sound wave coming from the source might have a greater frequency and if the source is moving toward or the observer so there will be lower frequency if the source is moving away from the observer. Though some doubted the existence of this phenomenon, it was experimentally verified in 1845 by C. H. D. Buys Ballot (1817-1890) of Holland. Buys Ballot examined the alteration in pitch as he was passed by a locomotive carrying several trumpeters, all playing a constant note. The Doppler effect is considered most often in relation to sound (acoustic waves) and light (electromagnetic waves) but holds for any wave. When the source and observer of light waves move apart, the observed light will be shifted to lower frequencies, towards the red end of the spectrum, while if the source and observer move toward each other the light will be shifted to higher frequencies, t owards the blue end of the spectrum. The Doppler Effect is the phenomenon to observe at a particular time when the wave is emitted by a source moving w.r.t. the observer .The Doppler Effect can be stated as the effect produced by a moving source of wave when there is an apparent upward shift in the frequency to be observed by the observer and the source which is approaching toward it and the downward shift in the frequency to which it when the observer and the source is contacting. Change in the wavelength due to the motion of the source For the waves which propagate in the medium, such as sound waves, the speed of the observer and the source are in relation with the medium to which the waves are transmitted. The Doppler Effect may result from the change in position of the source, relative motion to the observer. Each of the effect is analyzed singly. For the waves which do not require any medium for propagation, eg. Light and gravity in general relativity, for it the difference in velocity of the observer and that of the source needs to be considered. HOW DOPPLER EFFECT DOES OCCURS: TYPES OF DOPPLER EFFECT: Symmetrical: It implies that Doppler shift is same when the source of light moves towards/away from a stationary observer or the observer moves with the same velocity towards/away from the stationary source. Asymmetrical: It implies that apparent change in the frequency is different when the source of sound moves towards/away from a stationary observer or as that occurs, when the observer moves with the same velocity towards/away from the stationary source. DOPPLER FORMULAE: Now the observer is in motion and also the source is stationary, then the measured frequency is: (1) When the up sign correspond to the arriving observer and the lower sign correspond to a receding observer. Now the source is in motion and the observer is stationary, then the measured frequency is: , (2) Where the up sign correspond to the source arriving and the lower sign correspons to the source receding from the observer. When both the source and observer are in motion, then the measured frequency is: 3) Note that the sign in the numerator and denominator are not depending on each other. By using the general facts for the sign at the numerator, the up sign is to be used if the observer is moving toward the source and the down sign if moving away from the source; in the denominator, the upper sign is used if the source is in motion w.r.t the source towards the observer and the lower sign if moving away. A simple trick to remember the signs is to remind one when or not the observed frequency is becoming to increase or decrease and to use whenever sign is required. For eg, when an observer is moving away from a source, the wave are going to move across it at the slow rate rather than if it was still, which signifies that the observers frequency is decreasing. And also it can be for when the source is in motion w.r.t an observer, it will go to smoosh the wave together as it emit it, which means to say that the increase in the observed frequency. This will be covered by making the denominator in eq (3) smaller, which do requires using it again. Source moving with V source < V sound: In picture shows sound source has radiated sound wave at the const. frequency in the same medium. However, the sound source is turning to the right with a speed Vs = 0.7 V(In mach). The wave fronts are to be produced with the same frequency. Since the source is moving and the center of the new wave front is now slightly shifted to the right. As a result, the wave fronts start bunching on the right side (in front of) and spread further on the left side of source. An observer in the front of the sourceis made to hear it at higher frequency f ÂÂ ´ > f0, and then the observer back to the source will hear a lower frequency f ÂÂ ´ < f0. Source moving with V source = V sound: Here the source is moving with the speed of sound in the medium (Vs = V, Mach 1). The wave fronts in front of the source are all bunched up to the same point. An observer in front of the source will feel nothing until the source arrives to him. The front will be quite intense, due to all the wave fronts add together.The figure at right shows a bullet travelling at Mach 1.01. You can see the shock wave front just ahead of the bullet. Source moving with V source > V sound: The sound source has been broken through the sound speed barrier, and is traveling at the greater speed then the speed of sound. Here the source is moving faster than that of the sound waves it creates are really leading the advancing wave fronts. It is this intense pressure front on the Mach cone that causes the shock wave known as a sonic boom as a supersonic aircraft passes overhead. The shock wave advances at the speed of sound v, since it has been built up from all of the combined wave fronts, the sound heard to the observer will be of the quite intense. Application of Doppler Effect: Sirens: The reason why the siren slides or blow, is because it doesnt hit you. It can be says as, if the siren is approaching to the observer directly, the pitch of the sound would remain constant (we have, vs, r is the radial component) till the source hit the observer, and then jump to the lower pitch. Because of the vehicle passes from the observer, the radial velocity never remains constant, but instead to vary as a function of the angle between observer line of sight and the sirens velocity: Vr = Vscos ÃŽÂ ¸ Where vs is the velocity of the source w.r.t. the medium, and the angle ÃŽÂ ¸ is the angle between the objects forward velocity and the line of sight from the object to the observer. Radar:-In the radars Doppler Effect is widely used in some of the radar, to measure the velocity of the object. A sound with required wavelength, intensity is fired to a moving target as it approaches from the radar source. Each subsequent radar wave has to travel farther to reach the object, before being redetected near the source. As each wave has to move farther, the gap between each wave increases, increasing the wavelength. Calculations from the Doppler Effect accurately determine the observers velocity. Weather Analysis or prediction: -Doppler radar uses the Doppler Effect for electromagnetic waves to predict the weather. In Astronomy:-The Doppler shift for light is used to help astronomers discover new planets and binary stars. Echocardiography: A medical test uses ultrasound and Doppler techniques to visualize the structure of the heart. Radio Direction Finding Systems

Second Earl Of Rochester Essay -- essays research papers

The satirists shared a talent for making other individuals feel uncomfortable, particularly by making them aware of their own moral inadequacies. They used irony, derision, and wit to attack human vice or folly. One method the satirist utilized to catch their readers' attention, while also making them feel uncomfortable, was to describe those things that were deemed inappropriate to discuss openly in society. The classical example of a topic that was discussed behind closed doors, yet the satirist used freely, was sex. Mention of such things as sex can always bring a giggle, excite feelings of hidden passion, or make one's cheeks rosy from embarrassment. John Wilmot, Second Earl of Rochester, and Jonathan Swift, were two satirist that were noted for using perverse language and graphic depictions to elicit desired emotions from their readers and to wage their attacks on human folly. To understand Rochester's use of sex in his work, one must understand his distaste for reason. This can be seen in his poem, A Satyr Against Mankind, when he comments: "Women and Men of wit, are dang'rous tools, and ever fatal to admiring fools." Rochester viewed reason as a vice rather than an admirable trait in man. When man followed a course of action that was advised by reason he turned into a coward who often betrayed his ideals, his family, and his friends. Rochester believed that to enjoy true happiness one must follow a course dictated by passion. Unlike reason, the passions do not betray one's senses and ideals. According to Rochester, the passions define who an individual is because the passions encompass one's emotions and desires. Reason cannot fully comprehend such a thing. Rochester highlights this belief in his poem's with tales of lust and sexual innuendoes. He uses perverse language and topics not only to mock those that believe reason is the human faculty that can bring about self-satisfaction, but also to describe to his readers that sensual pleasure is the highest pleasure because sensual pleasure is derived from passion, not reason. Rochester's poems rarely discuss love in the traditional sense; rather, he discusses it in a bodily context. Naturally, this would bring about the ire in any moralist. His poems make reference to ancient figures that draw on images of mass orgies and debauchery. He often uses language that elicits images of human... ...llivers Travels not only excite the attention of the reader but they also leave the reader with a very pessimistic impression of the modern world. If Gulliver had left a description of a pile of soil instead of his urination procedure, the reader would perhaps view his work as boring, but not as comedic or repulsive. The tales would have lost their derogatory tone, their satirical edge, and their comedic nature had Swift not used such images. Such images and language are a unique element of satirical writing. Satirist wanted to attack the vices of the community and impress an image on their readers. They, however, could not accomplish this through bland social commentary. Every literary style has certain tools to capture its audiences. The romantics used fruitful language and supernatural images. The realist used images and words that photographed how life really was. The satirist used wit, irony, sarcasm, as well as crude images and language. If they failed to use these tools then their attacks were not heeded and their words were not remembered. Rochester and Swift did not fail to use their satirical qualities and their impression on the literary world remains to this day.

George Gershwin Essay -- essays research papers

George Gershwin was born Jacob Gershowitz on September 26, 1898 in Brooklyn, New York. George began his professional career in "Tin Pan Alley," a location in New York City where aspiring composers and songwriters would bring their scores to a publisher trying to sell the tunes for cash. Two years after he started work for Jerome Remick, George had his first song published. "When You Want 'Em You Can't Get 'Em" was not an instantly famous, but it did begin to attract the attention of some of the Broadway composers of the day. During this time of professional growth, George kept his job as a rehearsal pianist and studied piano, theory and orchestration with the best of the best. George's first big hit was a song delivered by Al Jolson in the Broadway musical Sinbad. "Swanee" became an instant hit and propelled George's music before the Broadway audience regularly. In 1919, George composed the music for La, La Lucille, his first full musical score. From 1920 to 1924 he supplied producer George White with several songs for use in the immensely popular George White Scandals series. Behind Rhapsody in Blue, George is mainly known for numerous songs, which have become a part of the American songbook. The full scale collaboration of George and Ira Gershw in as composer/lyricist began in 1924 with the musical Lady Be Good!. The musical featured songs such as "Fascinating Rhythm" and "Oh, Lady, be Good" among others. One song, which wa...

Christian Counseling Essay

Abstract In the book, â€Å"Psychology, Theology, and Spirituality in Christian Counseling†, author Mark McMinn gives the reader information on how these three entities can work together in Christian counseling. McMinn offers several ways in which this can be done including the use of prayer, Scripture, confession, forgiveness, the effects of sin, and redemption in counseling sessions. Through narration of counseling vignettes displaying different results, from different approaches demonstrates for the reader integration. There are very many counselors in different walks in their faith and McMinn helps to explore this area for future and practicing clinicians. 4 MAT Review McMinn Summary Mark McMinn authored the book entitled; â€Å"Psychology, Theology, and Spirituality in Christian Counseling† introduces the reader to his concept of integration of these three entities. McMinn separates spirituality and defines why it is unlike psychology and theology, he states, â€Å"We can become more with less competent in the spiritual disciplines, training ourselves to experience God more fully, but we can never be spiritually competent.† (2011, p. 11). This is an interesting observation since Christians are always growing but can sometimes become stagnant in their growth and in their walk with Christ. It was also pointed out that spiritual training is not done in the classroom, it is not in a curriculum, and thus harder to measure from someone other than the participant. McMinn wants to empower the reader to explore their own Christian faith and how it can be incorporated successfully into therapy sessions with their clients. By educating the reader on a sense of a healthy self, he explores how prayer can be effective in sessions and also provides different methods for implementation. He stresses the importance of prayer and what it means at different times in relation to a counseling session he states, â€Å"We pray  as we breathe, inhaling the wisdom of God’s presence in this moment, exhaling a frantic need to have the perfect words or exact technique to â€Å"fix† our clients.† (2011, p. 109). This was one of the ways the author describes the use of prayer in counseling and how it also aides the counselor. Exploring further into the use of Scripture in counseling sessions the author establishes the connection of support in different counseling models. Forgiveness was also another topic the author addresses noting, â€Å"Rather, my goal is to raise pertinent issues and make recommendations for Christian counselors to consider so that each unique counseling situation can be carefully evaluated and a psychologically and spiritually sensitive manner.† (McMinn, 2011, p. 250). McMinn additionally provides five steps in assessing before considering introduction of forgiveness in a therapeutic session. He does this by debunking misinformation, and other related concepts that are not true in the use of forgiveness in therapy. By tying together the topics of prayer, scripture, confession, forgiveness, and redemption the goal as McMinn puts it, â€Å"If not how we understand the relationship between psychology and theology but how we practically use the Christian faith in our counseling. Change brings challenge and Christian counselors they several significant challenges as they bring religion into the counseling offices.† (p. 26) Concrete Response In McMinn’s book, he uses a chapter to discuss forgiveness which reminded me of a client I had long ago. This client had suffered physical, emotional, and sexual abuse from various family members. I remember this client disclosing horrible, horrible abuse and still having nightmares, at times hallucinations of the offenders, and fits of rage. At this point in my career I was co-counseling, and was just beginning to understand the impact forgiveness can have in physical health and emotional health. My problem was I didn’t realize how the client wanted to please me and in doing so I believe I prolonged this client’s understanding of forgiveness and what it should have meant with the client and not me. This client was Christian and from my estimation now looking back was just beginning their walk with Christ and not on the same maturity level that I was at that time in my walk with Christ. At that time I knew how forgiveness first and foremost is obedience to God, and secondly how it can set you free from so many emotional problems, McMinn said, â€Å"Forgiveness, in its theological and spiritual context, is profound, life-giving, and transforming. When we remove the religious context and think of forgiveness only as a clinical technique, we risk losing the essence of forgiveness.† (2011, p. 254) After reading this chapter it made me re-live an area in which I was not fully equipped to help client maneuver their way through. This particular chapter has allowed me to see how vital forgiveness is in a therapeutic session, and how it must be used carefully. It is made me aware of how important my Christianity is to forgiveness, but also to assess the level my client is currently on before beginning a session on forgiveness. Reflection Truthfully, there was not much about this book that gave me pause to say â€Å"this bothers me†. Although, I did have a few questions but not necessarily pertaining to the author’s writing of the book, but more so some information of other resources cited. For example, the author stated, â€Å"Though Maslow would not agree that the Christian faith can help lead people to emotional health, his reports of the characteristics and desires of help the people who have moved beyond preoccupation with self he called them self actualizers are remarkably similar to the fruit of the Spirit described by apostle Paul in Galatians 5:22-23.† (McMinn, 2011, p. 52). This was interesting, but this student thought as the author had previously pointed out how you can build on something that’s faulty. It appeared as though Maslow’s disagreement with the Christian faith was unfounded, but he built his own concept of self-similar to Christian values. There was a statement from McMinn which did cause this student question if there was a direct answer. McMinn stated, â€Å"However, this view perpetuates the problem mentioned earlier, that Christianized form of therapy can be built on flawed, misleading, and damaging worldview assumptions.† (2011, p. 25). The question this student was left with was is there any therapy that can agree with Christian beliefs without being built on a flawed worldview? The author gave this student of reason to pause when thinking about the different types of therapy that are currently used in counseling. Due to different statistics, success rates, and general practice it seems as a counselor you go with what  works. However, McMinn has given this reader a different view on how therapy for the counselor should be perceived with the integration of psychology, theology, and spirituality. It is not enough simply to use of therapy because statistically it has been proven to be successful. If certain theories in which some therapies are based are in direct opposition of godly counsel in this would need to be viewed more cautiously by the counselor. Action Action steps this student can take as a result of what has been learned, specifically in regards to prayer would be as follows: if a client desires to pray this student asked the client that comfort level in regards to pray aloud, silently or together. Further, learning pauses in a session can be a prime opportunity to pray silently for the client and guidance from God. McMinn stated, â€Å"Praying during pauses in conversation is often the way not only to keep a spiritual focus in counseling but also to keep from impulsively filling the silence with unnecessary words.† (2011, p. 83). Another action step this student will be taking as a result of a lesson learned, researching theories and books which may be in opposition to Christian beliefs. This student’s understanding of integration of psychology and Christianity are vital in be effective in helping God’s people. For example, the book â€Å"The Courage to Heal† is used in many areas of sexual abuse. This student was unaware of the author’s understanding of forgiveness and how the client is directed not to forgive the perpetrator of the abuse. If the client is Christian and this student is the counselor gave a homework assignment from this book regarding forgiveness this would create a problem. It is very important to understand, read fully, and research information which may be incorporated into a counseling session. It is not enough to use a therapy technique or intervention because it is popular or has been proven effective. Steps must be taken to ensure therapy and techniques are in line with God and His will. References McMinn, M. (2011). Psychology, Theology, and Spirituality in Christian Counseling (p. 254). Carol Stream, Illinois: Tyndale House Publishers.

Grief, Loss, and Finding Meaning and Purpose Essay

Death is something that is out of human’s control, and it can produce all kind of feelings, and attitudes. The following paper discusses critical issues associated with understanding and facing death. There are various feelings and emotions that a person can experience after they loss someone special in their lives. Through out this paper we will try to identify, express, and find what had been discovered through out grief, and loss. There are several major issues associated with death, but we will focus only on two of them. For instance when a person is facing death, that person would experience denial, isolation, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance; but the two major factors that will be discussed on this paper are depression and anger. According to the Merriam-Western Dictionary Death is the act of dying, the end of life, and there are several ways of coping with the emotional reaction when facing death. We all experience many losses through our lives, and when the loss is the death of someone really close to us, someone who we love and care about—perhaps a family member, a coworker, neighbor etc. That loss can cause a grieving process that can surely affect the way se see things and continue our lives. One of the issues associates with understanding coping and facing death is anger. Lets say for instance that if the cause of death of a family member was something unexpected, anger feelings can take control over that person. Anger is a wide range of emotions, is a strong feeling of displeasure, and belligerence aroused by a wrong, wrath, ire. (Dictionary.com). On the other hand, when facing an early death of a love one, the dominant feeling present on the rest of the family is anger, leading them to a bitter indignation at having been experience the unfairly death of one of their family members. The anger of a person who is experiencing a loss, can be targeted many things, or persons—perhaps anger at God for allowing that situation, anger over what seems unfairly and unjust. Another issue associated with understanding, coping, and facing death is depression. Individuals who are depressed use to isolate or withdraw them selves, they feel hope less and they are not ready to go back to their usual activities; they feel hopeless. A person’s attitude, beliefs, and values about death are according to  his/her cultural influence, and this will contribute with the way they respond when facing death and grief. An individual’s culture would influence the way that individual will respond when phasing death. Culture can influence a person on the way they perform the ceremonies or rituals when grieving. For instance in some countries, when a child died the parents are allow to bath and dress the child with their own cloths, when in different countries it is not permitted even to cry. These two different ceremonies show the different ritual people have according with their culture, values and beliefs. Finding meaning and purpose can be part of the grief process for those who faced a loss. Even though is not an easy process, that crisis can be turn into an opportunity to find true meaning. Many people can grow through grief, and learn to appreciate the value of life, and become better persons. In many cases the grieving process can be an opportunity to unify the family who is suffering. There is always family issues that could separate a family, but the death of a member can be an opportunity to reunite that family, and that is when meaning and purpose take place in the grief process. Grief and loss are universal, and it cannot be controlled by any human kind. The stage of grief and loss occurs in respond to the death of a value person—emotions and attitudes take control of those who are facing it. Loss is an unavoidable part of life, and grief is the healing process of those wounds that a loss could leave an in an individual’s life. References Kubler-Ross, E. Death: The Final Stage of Growth. New York: Prentice-Hall, 1975. http://cogprints.org/9155/ Developmental theory. (2006). In Elsevier’s dictionary of psychological theories. Retrieved from http://library.gcu.edu:2048/login?qurl=http%3A%2F%2Fsearch.credoreference.com.library.gcu.edu%3A2048%2Fcontent%2Fentry%2Festpsyctheory%2Fdevelopmental_theory%2F0