Christian Counseling Ethics Paper

In a secular environment confronting sin as a Christian counselor may be thought-provoking. Ethical standards for practice is essential for the Christian counselor that’s stated week eights presentation. Christian counselor should consider the worst possible case scenario, not be negative, but aware. The scripture used in the ethical standard of practice was “be as wise as serpents and innocent as doves” (Ethical standards, n.d.). McMinn also shared that Christian counselors find themselves caught in the middle of the secular and Christian worldviews and each prefers a different attributional style (McMinn, 161). The question was asked, why can’t a sensitive Christian counselor just automatically and quickly confront obvious sin in the life of the counselee? My taught on the

matter would simply be that as Christian counselor must understand sin from a theological perspective as well as a spiritual.

This is why some Christian counselor overlook the cautions mentioned by the course materials (McMinn, 190).

Dealing addiction can often be problematic to treat, as well as have a lot of controversy surrounding that causes the addiction. There are a lot of factors that might play a role in the abuse of drugs and alcohol. The most common factors are psychological, biological, social, and physiological. In Jim’s case the work of the Holy Spirit is needed. McMinn states in week seven, lecture two that healing begins with the admission of powerlessness, we deal with the person and let God deal with the sin. As a Christian counselor, confronting Jim’s sin, would take on the counselor’s part, discernment on the best way to confront the issues in his life. Prayer in Jim’s case is essential. One of

the “how to” of confronting sin is prayer because prayer will come against spiritual bondage and attacks. The sex and drugs are both manifestation of the sin in Jim’s life, so being silent at the beginning of the session will me to pay attention to my body language and facial expressions to avoid giving approval to the abuses issues. I would give Jim set achievable and empowering short-term goals as he work to overcome his addiction. I would also consider the questioning method also for confronting his sin because this gives Jim ownership of the decisions he is making and it will avoid explicit expectations (Counseling Methods, n.d.). The road to recovery for Jim would be a 12-step program, which is most popular in clients with addiction problem. Jim may require being hospitalized in a psychiatric facility for in-patient rehabilitation. The last concept that I would use in the “how to” of confronting sin is Acherit. This will assist with the 12-steps program that gives Jim a visualization of the issues with the end in mind.