When You Don’t Know What to Do
People don’t know how to listen. We talk, we offer advice, we occasionally work up the courage to confront, but we seldom listen to others. Helping – sharing the burdens of others – begins with listening. Listening starts with simply being present. Don’t know what to do when a friend is depressed or anxious or [...]
Making a Referral: 2
The first step in making an effective referral is believing that referral is an appropriate and professional service which is in the client’s best interest. If we believe that the client is being short changed by our referring them, we will often not be effective in making referrals. The second step in making referrals is [...]
Making a Referral: 1
Nearly all helping professionals at some time or another find themselves needing to make a referral to another specialist. Whether one is a physician, pastor, or a psychologist, we sometimes find that the client’s needs and goals can best be met by someone who has special training beyond what we possess. Sometimes we discover that [...]
What to Expect from Christian Counseling: II
An individual may come to counseling expressing a desire to overcome problems with depression. A counselor needs to hear their client’s own theory about what may be contributing to their depression. The counselor also may help the client investigate new areas they have not considered. In counseling, clients may be helped to discover their blind [...]
What to Expect from Christian Counseling: I
Prospective clients have formed their expectations of counseling based on what they have heard from other people, read, and seen on television and in the movies. When a client comes to counseling, all of these previous experiences lead the client to have a certain set of expectations about what the experience will be like. If [...]
Integrating Psychology and Christianity
Basic Assumptions. The counselors I work with have worked together to compare ideas about the integration of psychology, and marriage and family therapy with biblical theology. Counselors recognize that Christian counseling must first start with a Christian who has been brought to new life in Christ. Prior to our conversion we were dead in our [...]
Different Types of Christian Counseling: II
Since the writing of Collins article in 1975, all five categories are alive and well. Evangelicals have increasingly steered away from the clinical pastoral education movement. Seminaries have strongly embraced the evangelical pastoral counseling and the Christian professional movement in counseling. Many seminaries have developed masters and doctoral programs integrating both theology and the practice [...]
Different Types of Christian Counseling: I
In a classic article written for Christianity Today in 1975, Gary Collins suggested that today’s Christian counselors fall into five categories. The first category Collins called “the main stream.” Main stream pastoral counselors generally have taken Clinical Pastoral Education training (CPE). The CPE approach takes a pastor with a theological education through an essentially secular [...]
What is Christian Counseling
The dictionary defines counseling as “opinion or instruction given in directing the judgment or conduct of another.” The field of counseling today has a very mixed history. Counseling has been taking place for thousands of years. We know in ancient times from biblical history counseling was conducted by spiritual and religious leaders. Christian churches practiced [...]
Family Therapy
Mark Yarhouse has a new book out: Family Therapies: A Comprehensive Christian Appraisal. Dr. Mark A. Yarhouse (Psy.D., Wheaton College) is professor of psychology and Hughes Chair of Christian Thought in Mental Health Practice at Regent University in Virginia Beach, Virginia. A licensed clinical psychologist, he serves as an adjunct faculty member of both the [...]
