Advancing Professional Practice

This article discusses professional identity and the challenges faced by professionals in human service organizations such as fear of risk, increased complexities, and sense of powerlessness. It also provides an example of the challenges faced by a priest in Jacobite Syrian Orthodox Church.

Running Head: Advancing Professional Practice
1
Name
School
Date

Advancing Professional Practice 2
Introduction
Professional identity is an individual’s self-concept according to experiences, beliefs,
attitudes, and values. This concept defines how one believes to be in a specific occupation and
the form of communication that exist. There are several definitions that are linked to professional
identity such as; a definition that state that this concept is established according to shared
expertise, others claiming that it originates from work interactions and observations of peers.
Professional identity can be introduced and assisted by a tool that helps in developing a common
sense of attributes among practitioners.
Professional practitioners can be used to simplify different meanings to different
professions. Individuals identified by a job title always sound stronger compared to those with
less clarity in their job titles. The job title is vital especially when changing to personal adviser
from careers adviser. This induces how practitioners perceive themselves. For practitioners, job
title is vital to define the job they do. It has an important role since it gives support to
practitioners to clarify their specifications.
Issues related to professionals in human service organizations
Fear of risk
This issue is associated with the fear of the consequences of engaging in a wrong
decision. In most instances, counselors and priests are highly valued individuals in the modern
world. They are always perceived to leave aside their personal ambitions and the need to be
married and have children but roll up their sleeves for the church work. Such state puts registered
counselors and priest to always stay in a formal role. This has remained a challenge since most of

Advancing Professional Practice 3
these professionals are left to live a lonely life, go through financial and administrative hardships
and limited professional work. Many people have unrealistic expectations towards them leading
to a stressful effect on both counselors and the priests (Crossman, 2015, p.35)
Increased complexities
When matters relating to life arise, priests are the best choice for consultation with many
individuals. Even though most of the priests act as both good advisors and listeners, they have an
aspect of getting anxious in case of a raw need. Priests have been caused to draw a boundary
between himself and his congregation due to several factors. People can be emotionally attracted
to the priest in moments of a powerful religious experience leading to dynamic feelings that can
result in the breach of the boundary. A lot is demanded from a priest today so as to fulfill God’s
demand. Therefore a spiritual leader should be knowledgeable in psychology to overcome all
complexities coming his way (Priest, Gass, 2017, p.67).
Sense of powerlessness
An individual can feel powerless and uncertainty due to factors such as when they are
unappreciated, lack work flexibility, have a unique relationship and change in policies. The priest
also goes through the same and this can be developed when giving a sermon and no one takes
heed of what the priest is talking about. The result from this would be a deterioration of the
relationship between the priest and his congregation. Furthermore, if members don’t help the
priest in availing the necessary resources, sense of powerlessness will be the outcome.
Powerlessness comes in when an individual is scared of what other people will say or feel in case
one performs less than expected (Coughlin 2016, p.55).

Advancing Professional Practice 4
An Example in Jacobite Syrian Orthodox Church
Serving as a priest in Jacobite Syrian Orthodox Church comes with several challenges
today. These challenges range from the language barrier, the fight between our churches, family
challenges, inter-religious marriages, use of a technology and the social issues in the church. The
language barrier is a big problem especially in my church since there are several languages in
India. Even though English is a common language, most of the communities in my church lack
the ability to converse in it. The fight to control the churches is even a bigger problem since the
splitting of the church in 20th century. Recently, my church escaped being closed due to the fight
between the Syrian Church and the Jacobite Syrian Church. Only that, there was an intervention
from the authorities. Inter-religious marriage is another challenge. Couples that have married
from different religions face an aspect of isolation in my church. Despite preaching harmony and
love in the church, members still find it difficult to integrate with such couples. The introduction
of the modern technology has never been simple too since many members find the technology
complex to understand and use it. Even though youths are leading in enhancing the new
technologies, older generation feels left out in such platforms. Therefore, trying to deliver online
counseling, information and knowledge remain a big challenge (Oommen, 2015, p.55).

Advancing Professional Practice 5
References
Crossman, J. E. (2015). Being on the outer: The risks and benefits of spiritual self-disclosure in
the Australian workplace. Journal of Management & Organization, 21(6), 772-
785.Vladimir's Seminary Press.
Priest, S., & Gass, M. (2017). Effective Leadership in Adventure Programming, 3E. Human
Kinetics.
Coughlin, P. (2016). No More Christian Nice Guy: When Being Nice--Instead of Good--Hurts
Men, Women, and Children. Baker Books.
Oommen, G. Z. (2015). Transnational Religious Dynamics of Syrian Christians from Kerala in
Kuwait: Blurring the Boundaries of Belief. South Asia Research, 35(1), 1-20.