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Theological pastoral counseling
Counseling theories and techniques
Counseling theories and techniques
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You have well written with the thought-provoking post regarding approach with three different perspectives psychological, theological and spiritual to address complicated human problems. You also have made excellent observations about the essential elements of discipleship either Christian or non-Christian setting. It is such an opportunity for discipleship. As followers of Christ, our principal role as a counselor is not just giving opinions, ideas, directions but also discipleship our clients sharing truth and wisdom of Christ which brings freedom and path to come out from darkness to light. What I completely agree with you that we as Christian counselors Jesus is the answer and we should deliver to the message of Jesus Christ despite various …show more content…
It is more of ministry to people who are walking hurt, living in pain and broken relationship in this world. "The calling of the new Christian counselor, our high privilege, and our compelling responsibility, is to be distinctively Christian and thoroughly professional"(Hawkins & Clinton, 2015, p.6) and "God has called us to be conduits through which his love can flow to others (Hawkins & Clinton, 2015, p.11). We are to bestow empathy and be a person who listens to client genuinely with the pure heart to serve them. Christian counselor must be a person lead other to God's truth and lead them to become more like Jesus Christ. Clinton and Hawkins challenge Christian counselor with these challenging words, “Christian counselors derive their authority in these three responsibilities. As prophets to speak the Word to people, as priests to intercede with God for our clients, and as kings to give directions to clients with authority” (Hawkins & Clinton, 2015, p. 179). They further write that "Christian counselors derive their authority from Christ with high responsibilities (Hawkins & Clinton, 2015, p.
As a Christian counselor, we have the power of the Word on our sides, but so many of us do not understand how to properly apply scripture into the counseling relationship in an effective manner. In Interventions that Apply Scripture in Psychotherapy, Garzon (2005) attempts to accomplish the following; educate individuals on the various techniques one can use to apply scripture, and to encourage and stimulate God ordained creativity in the hopes to create new techniques and methods for applying God’s Word in the counseling relationship.
They may help someone “feel better, but where is the true transformation of his life? Are these things even goals worthy of a biblical person? Where is love? Where is joy? Where is gratitude? Where’s obedience? Where’s the willingness to sacrifice? Where’s the courage to love our enemies in ways that are both merciful and yet tough-minded? Where are all the good things that are part of human life in Jesus’ image? Such self-confidence is not the image of Christ!” Which is the point…secular worldview counseling leads the counselee to find their identity in themselves or in the counselor or in the plan instead of in Christ alone. In the article by Paul Tripp, The Present Glories of Redemption, he takes the book of Ephesians and breaks it down to see exactly how we are to care and counsel because of the great work of Christ and His plan. “When we counsel people, we must find out what their real view of God is. We will often find that our counselees have a big gap between their functional “theology” and the truth. In other words, when they tell their story, God is not in it.” We as
Clinton, T. & Ohlschlager, G. (2002). Competent Christian counseling: Foundations and practice of compassionate soul care. Colorado Springs, CO: WaterBrook Press.
Psychology, Theology, and Spirituality in Christian Counseling written by Mark McMinn and published by Tyndale House in 2011 notions towards the idealization that Christian counselors need to be privy in the most recent psychological methods as well as theological theories. “This is a book about counseling processes techniques” (McMinn, 2011, p. 150). McMinn also alluded that Christian counselors benefit from having a spiritual maturity. With having these attributes counselors are better prepared to take note of prayer, Scripture, sin, confession, forgiveness, and redemption. McMinn (2011) model flows in the direction of healing while equating to a more advantageous relationship with The Lord Jesus Christ as well as with other relationships (McMinn, 2011).
Confidentiality. Confidentiality is just as important in Christian counseling as it is in secular counseling. According to the American Association of Christian Counselors (2014), “confidentiality recognizes that every client has a fundamental, moral and legal right to privacy and to have a wide range of personal thoughts, opinions, beliefs, and behaviors that are protected from public knowledge” (p. 22). It is crucial for counselors to maintain client confidentiality unless what a client discloses brings harm to themselves or other people. Confidentiality should be kept at all
However, it does not matter how strong a person’s faith is or how weak a person faith is, everyone in Christian counseling starts off the same. It is a process how a person develops overtime. This is similar to a child learning how to tie his or her shoes. At first they do not get it but overtime, it becomes of habit and the person get better. According to Clinton, Hart and Ohlschlager (2005),” they believe that Christian counselling has to do with and learning applying the principles of the kingdom on living to the chronically sins, fears, failures, and dark areas of our life (p.21). When people are at their lowest point he or she turn to Christ to get the throughout tough times. Furthermore, in chapter two a person learns about the trust and fined our truth. In chapter two it discusses becoming a trust worthy counselor. In Chapter two, I realized that is all about gaining the clients trust. If the client, does not trust the counselor then no typ of relationship can be bonded. The client is in a venerable state and the counselor has to make sure that the can feel free to be
Mental health counselors work with individuals, families, and groups to address and treat mental and emotional disorders and to promote mental health. They are trained to address a wide range of issues, including depression, addiction and substance abuse, suicidal impulses, stress management, problems with self-esteem, issues associated with aging, job and career concerns, educational decisions, issues related to mental and emotional health, and family, parenting, and marital or other relationship problems. Mental health counselors often work closely with other mental health specialists, such as psychiatrists, psychologists, clinical social workers, psychiatric nurses, and school counselors. (US Department of Labor)
When I began my studies at the University of Northern Iowa, I had an interest in the field of psychology, but I was not yet sure that I wanted to pursue a career in that area. The classes that I consequently took and the professors that taught them solidified my desire to receive a degree in psychology.
Values, Morals, and Beliefs are components that play a role in an individual’s self-identity. The establishment of these components shape human nature, behavior, and the development of an individual’s purpose. The basis of these fundamentals has contributed to my desire to become a counselor. This paper will discuss my views of human nature, factors of behavior changes, goals of therapy, the roles of a therapist, and the counseling approaches that I chose to incorporate in a practice.
called by God to be an effective counselor. The book of Philippians 1:6 states, "being confident of this, that he who began a good work in
Newman, Willis C. Bible Teaching about Christian Counseling: Theory and Practice Tacoma: Newman International LLC 2006) 32.
The shepherd and sheep relationship is the best illustration for the relationship between pastor and parishioners. When Jesus asked Simon Peter does he love him three times and said to him “Feed my sheep”, the shepherd and flock relationship has been set. Since Jesus is our good shepherd (Jn. 10:11a), he laid out a good example for us to follow - to lay down his life for the sheep. (Jn. 10:11b) Thus, the wellness of both in and out of the parishioners should always be the concern in the pastors’ hearts. Soul care for the people is essential. Christian friendship is the foundation of Christian soul care. Pastoral ministry including preaching, teaching, and worship forms the broad context of pastoral counseling. Pastoral care is within pastoral ministry but broader than pastoral counseling. God’s love is the source and motivation. Within the pastoral care, there are spiritual direction and pastoral
The counseling session began with the introductions where I introduced myself as the counselor and later introduced my client. This stage is important in any counseling session since it is the time of exploration and focusing according to Gerard Egan as quoted by Wright (1998) in his essay on couselling skills. It is in this session that I was able to establish rapport and trust with my client in order to come up with a working and fruitful relationship with him. During this stage I made use of skills like questioning, where I would pose a question directly to my client, sometimes I would choose to just listen to what the client wanted to speak out while in some instances I would be forced to paraphrase the question if I felt the client did not understand the question I had asked previously. There were also other times when I would reflect through silence. During such a period, I got time to study the client and the information he had given. This being a difficult area, since some clients may not be able to volunteer information to you as the counselor, I decided to assure the client of confidentiality of any information he was willing to share with me with a few exceptions which I also told him about. Being open to him about the only times the information may not be confidential was part of my building rapport and establishing trust with him. I therefore, decided to ask the client what information he wanted to share with me and lucky enough he was ready to speak to me about different issues that he was going through.
...ithin their own counseling theory. It is up to each counselor to weigh all the information provided to them and base their practice on education and Christian principles in order to better provide their clients with the best of both worlds with the common goal to ease the trouble they are experiencing in daily life. It is through our dedicated personal relationship with God that we will see the true path our counseling practice should take.
There will be counselees who do not know the Lord, and it will be important to do pre-counseling with those individuals. If there is an opportunity to share the gospel, the counselor will certainly talk to the counselee about repentance of sin—turning away from a sinful lifestyle and turning to Christ alone for salvation. It is important to understand as biblical counselors that we cannot counsel unbelievers because they have not repented of sin and turned to Christ. Therefore, the counselee cannot do anything to please God. Paul said, “Those in the flesh cannot please God” (Rom. 8:8). The biblical counselor understands his responsibility to share the gospel to those who do not know Christ if there is an opportunity to do