Christian Counseling And Caring For A Person 's Soul

A counselor’s job is to journey along with their client and to provide insight and support to those who are at risk and those who are hurting and searching for comfort and acceptance. If the counselor is a Christian they will also want to share our Heavenly Father’s love with the counselee and help guide them on a path that will lead them to Christ. There are several different techniques that can be used to break through the walls of some people in order to help them recognize the basis for their feelings whether it is such things as sin or faulty

After reviewing the important concepts of the Hawkins and Clinton book, I was able to finalize the 8 most interesting points. During the book review, it was mentioned that as Christian counselors, we need to maintain a steady pace with the progression in research, practice, and treatment (Hawkins & Clinton, 2015, p. 2). From my understanding, enhancing our counseling methods and incorporating valuable resources, will result in a more spiritual work in the ministry of counseling.

McMinn (1996) states, a Christian counselor’s “spiritual life spills over in interactions with everyone, including clients” (p. 13). A few other challenges that McMinn (1996) identifies are as follows: the necessity for a scientific basis, the need for ethical standards, and challenging the dominant models of mental health. While evaluating each religious intervention, McMinn (1996) poses three questions to ponder that consist of asking the reader if the intervention will establish a healthy sense of self, sense of need, and establish a healing

In addition, the new Christian counselor is committed to imparting truth available to humanity through biblical scripture concerning sin, the brokenness and damage people experience because of sin (Hawkins & Clinton, 2015, p.33). Additionally, the Christian counselor is also devoted to knowing God deeply and to the certainty that transformational change is a challenging process that involves specific attention to all components in the human

McMinn (1996) uses a cognitive/behavioral approach. Many clients, especially those in the “Bible Belt” seek our Christian counselors. They look for a counselor that will hold them accountable for their actions and make them question themselves. However, I also believe that the counselor must identify when their client is ready for this approach. Too much too soon can lead to dissolution of the counseling relationship. I enjoyed McMinn’s approach to prayer. I agree with McMinn that God is always a part of the counseling session. Without God we cannot experience healing. In my opinion, the way a counselor displays their spirituality and approaches spirituality in the counseling setting is a key factor in how well the counselor can blend psychotherapy

It is not an exaggeration to say counseling is a one of big parts in Christianity. One of the goals of Christianity is to sanctify and edify the saints with words of encouragement, exhortation, and admonishment. Through a process of counseling, therefore, Christians face problems and suffering of this world as well as being built up in faith. As a

McMinn unveils the realism of what essentially happens in the counseling office. He dives into the fitting together “Psychology, Theology, and Spirituality in Christian Counseling”. McMinn explains how “those who enter therapy in the midst of their pain experience a restorative counseling relationship that brings acceptance hope, and meaning into their broken lives” (McMinn, 2011, p. 20). There are various questions surrounding Christian counseling that McMinn faces head on in this book when it comes to the challenges counselors face as it relates to integrating religion and spirituality in their sessions. Life on the frontier as McMinn puts it, is where counselors face six basic challenges. Challenges such as moving from two areas of competence to three, blurred personal-professional distinctions, expanded definitions of training, confronting dominant views of mental health, establishing a scientific base or even defining relevant ethical standards (McMinn, 2011). Personal journey’s that McMinn has taken throughout his career provide him with the knowledge, skills and abilities to depict how we should face these challenges. McMinn talks about how many counselors have a need to interpret studies, have good psychodynamics and figure out which cognitive therapy is right for their counseling. As he states, “Christian counseling is more complex than other forms of counseling because our goal are multifaceted (McMinn, 2011, p.

Your job is to help people deal with the changes that come into their lives and make changes that will improve their lives (Collins, 2007, pp. 3-4). Additionally, Pastoral counseling can be both distinctively pastoral and psychologically informed. This occurs when it takes the identity from the rich tradition of Christian soul care and integrates appropriate insights of modern therapeutic psychology… (Benner, 2003, p.14). ). The primary goal lies with change; and our change is stemmed by our reliance upon the Father for change and healing and through “Jesus Christ [who] is the only all-sufficient and perfect healer for hurt people” (Wilson, 2001, p. 14).

Christian counselors have a responsibility to their clients to integrate psychology and theology in their therapeutic approaches. Incorporating multiple components however is not as straight forward as one might think. In Psychology Theology, and Spirituality (McMinn, 2011) McMinn discusses the benefits of an integrated counseling approach that strives to promote “both spiritual and emotional growth” (McMinn, 2011, p. 5) by including a third element; spirituality, or more specifically, spiritual formation. Finding the proper blend of elements can be challenging even for a seasoned therapist.

McMinn tells how psychology, theology, and spirituality are used and how they should be used in Christian counseling. A Christian counselor has to look at not necessarily psychology and theology in a counseling session but how religion and spiritually is brought into the session. McMinn (2011) states, “Religious interventions require us to understand spiritual formation, place priority on personal spiritual training as well as professional development, challenge prevailing models of mental health, work toward a stronger scientific base, and sensitively recognize ethical issues” (p. 26). Counselors need to work on their own spiritual foundation so they can are able to help clients. This consists of prayer, scripture, redemption, sin, forgiveness, and confession (McMinn, 2011).

Chapter two starts off with the author talk about his education of true christian counseling before settling on one called the discipleship approach (Collins, 23). Readers explore some people-helper principals; starting with “the helper.” This principal starts out citing Paul’s letter to the church in Galatia in which Paul instructed the leaders there to “restore” the individuals who were apparently struggling with sin and other issues (23). Paul instructs that only those who are spiritual may help the struggling individuals so that the struggling individuals may get the real help they need by means of healthy, loving caring relationships. In principal two, we learn how to help people that can be difficult to penetrate

In the book, “Psychology, Theology, and Spirituality in Christian Counseling”, author Mark McMinn gives the reader information on how these three entities can work together in Christian counseling. McMinn offers several ways in which this can be done including the use of prayer, Scripture, confession, forgiveness, the effects of sin, and redemption in counseling sessions. Through narration of counseling vignettes displaying different results, from different approaches demonstrates for the reader integration. There are very many counselors in different walks in their faith and McMinn helps to explore this area for future and practicing clinicians.

It is evident in the world today that there is a need for guidance and counseling. There are many statistics of issues the world faces that prove the need treatment. For example, 35% of persons who marry end up divorced. 40% of children live in a home where a father is not present. By age 18, 1 in 3 girls and 1 in 6 boys will be sexually abused by someone they love and/or trust. Approximately every 20 minutes a person commits suicide within the United States (Clinton, 2005). This list goes on and is even found within the church. Professional counseling and lay Christian counseling have found a way to help individuals overcome these issues though certain techniques and methods. These techniques and methods are often adopted from secular psychologists such as Carl Rogers who founded Client-Centered Therapy. While both counseling groups have a goal to help individuals overcome their issues, should Christian counselors, specifically, accept secular professional counseling techniques?

In six days God created the universe, the earth, and every living thing on it. This includes human beings, who were made in Gods own image. God created Adam and Eve to have an unobstructed relationship with him, He placed them in a paradise called the Garden of Eden and gave them freedom to live in friendship and trust with him. God saw that everything he created was good and He rested on the seventh day (Genesis 2:2). God left Adam and Eve in the garden with specific instructions: they are NOT to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. However, they rebel and sin enters the world after a serpent tricks Eve into questioning God’s love and motives. In her gullible innocence, she ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 3). Eve shared the fruit with Adam and they spiritually and physically die. This was catastrophic to Gods Order and led to the condemnation of all human

My theological of pastoral care and pastoral counseling I will view all the human being as it was written in the beginning with Genesis 1:27: "And God created man to his own image: to the image of God he created him: male and female he created them." As I know the creation of human being, therefore, my pastoral care and pastoral counseling will also views all human being as spiritual and bodily creatures created by God. As a result, my priority in pastoral care and pastoral counseling is that I was called into relationship with God and with one another. the same way my counseling session with client my main goal with he / her as a clients is to meet them where they are at now in their trials, tribulations, and suffering; we also celebrate their moments of personal growth, self-awareness, discovery, and change. As a pastoral counselor, the stakes are changed in the sense that there is an additional responsibility to look after the client’s journey in towards spiritual growth and a more mature faith. We seek to aid in the process of humanization, psychological wholeness, and well-being where we desire to give our client’s a taste of what is means to be “a fully functioning, free, consciously aware, responsible, and loving” individual. God did not create human beings to suffer any evil; that was the fault of man. Therefore, the ultimate questions I will ask of my clients are these: “What part is God playing in the story of your life?” and “What is God asking of you in this