Essay On Lay Therapy

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In addition to the numerous formal schools of Christian counseling, there are many schools of lay therapy that have emerged and affect the lives of people in the church and in professional therapy. Active listening lay therapy focuses on providing help and healing to hurting individuals. Active listening integrates Rogarian Client-centered therapy techniques such as "...empathy, positive regard, and basic listening skills..." with Biblical practices (pp. 114). One of the most influential schools of this therapy is Stephen Ministry, started in 1975 by Dr. Kenneth Haugk, a psychiatrist and pastor. Official lay therapists receive at least 50 hours of personal training while lay leaders receive further training. Some of the pros to this therapy are the availability of education, the desire for healing, the warmth, and the focus on the relationship of the counselor/counselee relationship. A particular problem that occurs with this model of therapy is the lack of a solid theological basis and a model for sanctification and accountability. While seeking healing from the destruction and death in this world is admirable and Biblical, it is also …show more content…

In summary, the counselor seeks to change the false thought and beliefs the person experiences, exhorts them to live according to the Bible’s teaching (having been set free by Jesus), while trusting in God to perform the supernatural act of transforming the heart (Crabb 2013). I have been greatly influence by Dr. Crabb’s book Effective Biblical Counseling, where he writes for both lay and professional counselor. Dr. Crabb also emphatically encourages a Christian community focus of therapy, where all Christians, pastor, lay counselors, and professional counselors work together at different levels of counseling to provide the best possible therapy and support network as a part of the Christian

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