Many think of Christian Counseling as some preacher type thumping his Bible in your face to make you repent of all the evil sin you’ve committed to heal your marriage . Oh, how wrong they are!
So what is Christian Counseling?
Christian counseling (also sometimes called: Pastoral counseling, biblical counseling, faith-based counseling, or religious counseling) is a branch of counseling in which a trained and certified clergy performs various therapeutic type services. It’s primary focus is to teach you biblically sound ways of living life.
A Christian Counselor can be much closer and warmer to your hurts as they’re not just a professional, they’re also ministers. Part of their ministry is to be there for you, even as a close friend or colleague would. Their non-profit status is another sign that their focus is more care and not business/ profit. They can even become an elder or mentor after the sessions are over. It is a much more organic and liberating approach compared to psychology or any new age application.
How does Christian Counseling help?
Christian Counseling is extremely effective as it uses an approach that has stood the test of time. They are not just theories created last week, but fundamental truths that will grow you into a mature person. The idea isn’t just to fix your problems, rather to help find unhealthy habits or lifestyles that are hindering. The problems a counselee faces are usually just symptoms of something greater.
The center of Christian Counseling is the long-term and not just the momentary satisfaction. We use temperament to aid in this.
Why Christian Counseling over psychology or psychiatry?
Being that a Christian Counselor is not limited by the state, it is free to do what is necessary to help the counselee. This means that it does not have to be confined to certain beliefs or counseling methods nor be restricted by being politically correct. These ensure the greatest results for the counselee.
What about a Christian psychologist?
A person can be a Christian and be a psychologist, but in most states (if not all), the two must stay separate. You can not join the two as that would be seen as a conflict of interest to the state and conflict between two different philosophies (biblical vs worldly). There have been cases where Christianity was used to “inspire”, yet the spirit of it neglected, thus only useful for the moment and did nothing for the person long-term. The reality is, it could have been any religion; it just happened to be Christianity in this case.
Overall, Psychologists and Psychiatrists play an important role to mental health, but approach some matters differently then a Christian Counselor would.
