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Discuss the theory and practice of Christian counseling
Discuss the theory and practice of Christian counseling
Discuss the theory and practice of Christian counseling
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What Does a Christian Counselor Do?
What a Christian counselor does depends on their specific religious organization and their branch of Christianity. However, all Christian counselors rely on religious principles and techniques to assist their clients with their personal problem. Below explains the details and duties of working as a Christian counselor.
What is Christian Counseling?
Christian counseling blends elements of psychology and Christian theology to offer clients Biblically based therapy. Christian counseling is based religious principles, but integrates concepts from psychotherapy, therapeutic counseling and other academic fields.
What are the Basic Principles of Christian Counseling?
There are shared basic principles of Christian counseling. For example, the foundation of Christian counseling is the Bible. Many Christian counselors also use the writings of the early church fathers and contemporary Christian counseling experts. Christian counselors believe that God has the ability to heal and change through the power of love and the Holy
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Spirit. The ultimate goal of Christian counselors is to help their clients reestablish and reaffirm their relationship with God, themselves and their social circle. In fact, these are the Three Dimensions of Healing. Christian counselors strive to help the client overcome spiritual, mental, social and behavioral problems within the framework of these three dimensions. As part of this, Christian counselors use the principles of redemption, forgiveness and transformation. How is Christian Counseling Similar to Mainstream Counseling? Most Christian counselors believe in the BEST principle, which stands for Biblically-based, Empirically-Supported Treatments.
As a result, what a Christian counselor does is based on Cognitive-Behavior Therapy (CBT) as their theoretical basis. CBT is one of the most popular and effective forms of psychotherapy. The goal of CBT is to help the client solve their problems through changing negative or destructive thought patterns. As a result, the client will be better able to control and manage their behaviors. CBT has strong scientific roots and is based on solid empirical research. CBT uses goals, assignments and measurements to help their clients. Similarly, Christian CBT also focuses on isolating and replacing negative thought patterns with scriptural based truths. However, Christian CBT goes a step beyond just changing the mind and focuses on changing the heart and soul of the client through spiritual
transformation. How is Christian Counseling Different from Mainstream Counseling? Psychotherapy and mainstream counseling is based on scientific principles and empirical research. Mental health problems are addressed based on the unique perspective of the psychology branch. For example, the psychoanalytic approach focuses on the subconscious. The behavioral psychology approaches understands human behavior as mere conditioned reactions to the environment and external stimuli. Overall, psychotherapeutic counselors will use peer reviewed and industry approved guidelines and methodologies. How are Christian Counselors Certified? Christian counselors are either certified through their church or the State. Christian counselors who have religious certification must adhere to the rules and regulations of their accrediting religious body. State certified counselors must follow the local state’s education, examination and licensure requirements. The American Association of Pastoral Counselors (AAPC) is the leading certification organization for Christian counselors. There are other certifying bodies, such as the American Association of Christian Therapists (AACT), National Christian Counselors Association (NCCA) and International Christian Counselors Alliance (ICCA). Psychotherapy counselors generally have a Master’s degree, 3,000 years of experience and certification through the National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC). http://www.aapc.org/ http://www.nbcc.org/Certification/CertificationorLicensure To recap, Christian counselors help their clients deal with problems through religious principles and modern counseling techniques. While what a Christian counselor does depends on their specific job and religious organization, all Christian counselors take a caring, holistic approach to helping others.
In the first chapter of Psychology in Christian Perspective by Harold W. Faw the author talks about psychology as a subject, the different aspects of the subject and how psychology fits into the Christian world. Faw begins the chapter by describing what others think psychology and his views on psychology as well. He describes that “psychology can be described as a systematic attempt to understand human behavior and conscious experience” (Faw, 1995, p. 12). He then goes on to describe the many different types of specialties of psychology which include, neurobiological, behavioral, cognitive, humanistic, and psychoanalytic. These specialties are then integrated into the Christian worldview. They are all different so they all fit into
In Tan’s article, “The Use of Prayer and Scripture in Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy” published by the Journal of Psychology and Theology in 2007, he discusses integrating prayer and scripture with Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. Tan uses examples of integration from real-life counseling sessions that he has been involved in, as a counselor. Tan’s article first discusses the usefulness of CBT and other behavioral techniques in counseling (Tan, 2007). Tan discusses very early in his article that CBT is as effective as antidepressant medications and is more effective that cognitive therapy alone according to a recent placebo study (Tan, 2007).
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is a hands-on form of psychotherapy that is empirically based, which focuses on the interrelationship between emotions, behaviors, and thoughts. Through CBT, patients are able to identify their distorted thinking and modify their beliefs in order to change their behaviors. Once a patient changes their distorted thinking, they are able to think in a more positive and realistic manner. Overall, CBT focuses on consistent problem solving strategies and changing negative thought distortions and negative behavior. There are different types of CBT, which share common elements. Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is a kind of CBT, which falls under the umbrella of CBT.
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
Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is a counselling model based greatly on talking therapy. It focuses on peoples underlying thoughts and past experiences, and how they influence current habits and behaviours. CBT tries to correct these and learn alternative ways of processing information to alter the undesired behaviour and/or habits. This is done through a combination of cognitive therapy (looking at the ways and things you think) and behavioural therapy (looking at the things you do).
Mark McMinn purposely writes this twofold book to first, address the pragmatic assimilation of psychology, theology, and spirituality. Secondly, he explores the spirituality of a Christian counselor, and how this aspect of character affects the methods he or she may use to represent Jesus Christ when dealing with clients. Altogether, this book discusses the dual need for Biblical Counselors to multitask with clients while pursuing personal development in spirituality to advance a Christian worldview. The objective is to “help Christian counselors and researchers unite around certain key questions and perspectives so that our interventions become increasingly relevant and effective" (p. 6).
Throughout reading Caring for People God Way, Chapter 1, I began to ponder the question why do people chose to come to Christin counseling? If a person thinks about it, just because a person wants to attend Christian counseling does not mean, they are Christian person or they believe in Christ. A person may have to console and induvial who has problem does not go to church. According to Clinton, Hart and Ohlschlager (2005), “they believe that Christ is facilitated by a helper who assist this redemption process, helping another get unstuck and moving forward on the path too spiritual maturity and psycho-social-emotional health” (p.16). Christian counseling allows the person to confront their internal conflict. People attend Christian counseling because they feel
Cognitive behavioral therapy commonly known as CBT is a systematic process by which we learn to change our negative thoughts into more positive ones. CBT is a combination of two types of therapy, Cognitive Therapy and Behavioral Therapy. Cognition is our thoughts, so cognitive behavioral therapy combines working with our thought process and changing our behavior at the same time. Cognitive behavioral therapists believe that our behavior and our feelings are influenced by the way we think; also our mood is affected by our behavior and thought process. So CBT tries to tackle our thoughts, feelings and behavior. Scientific research has shown that cognitive behavioral therapy is affective for a wide range of mental health problems. The purpose is to bring positive change by alleviating emotional distress such as depression. CBT starts by breaking down your problems into smaller components, often trying to identify particular problematic thoughts or behavior. Once these problems are broken down it is then suggested a straightforward plan in which the patient and therapist can intervene to promote recovery.
the theories, and the techniques dealing with Christian and secular counseling will require different tactics and approaches for it to be effective
As a Christian many people and myself was raised up in attending church every Sunday, Bible Study, and programs that was involved within the church. Christian people do Christian things according to God. Not only was being a part of church, but learning and reading the bible was an exceptional as a Christian. Especially when I was growing up as a child. Counseling is a person life and work of the counselor.
...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.
One aspect I found striking was the role of advice giving in counseling. Prior to this class, I knew that counselors did not typically give opinions or advice to lead a client in a certain direction. What I did not know was the entire reasoning behind this. A counselor might avoid giving advice so that a client learns to make his/her own decisions, does not become dependent on the counselor, and to ensure that a client will not later blame the counselor if the counselor’s advice did not turn out well. In this context, I have a better appreciation and understanding of why therapists refrain from telling the client what to do.