Christian Counseling Review

It is also vital to look at Wilson’s view on the practice of forgiveness and how if an individual decides to ignore it, it can place a road block in their process of change. She believes that God speaks about forgiveness for the following reasons:” (1) we are all sinners with whom to relate so we’ll need to become skillful forgivers (2) God makes forgiveness a centerpiece of our healing process because living in un-forgiveness is so much worse (Wilson, 2001).

In this paper I will review the article “Interventions that Apply Scripture in Psychotherapy.” (Garzon 2005). Overall counseling can be very tricky, especially when the client is religious. This will require the counselor to use multiple resources, such as the Bible, when coming up with a treatment plan. The word of God is superior when it comes to healing. “For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” Hebrews 4:12 (NIV)

Psychology, Theology and Spirituality in Christian Counseling by Mark R. McMinn (McMinn, 1996) covers a Christian counselor's life in and out of counseling sessions. McMinn's book is dedicated to recognizing and developing the relationship between counseling and Christian faith rather than a dry Theology. This resource work divides the discussion into 8 chapters, each addressing a vital aspect of Christian psychological counseling and each having a section outlining challenges, methods and anticipated outcomes. The first chapter is co-written with James C. Wilhoit and stresses the importance of the counseling/faith relationship while presenting various challenges confronting the counselor and possible approaches to facing those challenges. The second chapter enumerates the Christian faith's major

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).

Mark R. McMinn’s (2011) Psychology, Theology, and Spirituality in Christian Counseling establish a way to bring Psychology, Theology, and Spirituality to Christian Counselors. He introduces a replica of how to integrate the three disciplines in the counseling office. The purpose of the book is to instruct counselors how to integrate categories of Psychology, Theology and Spirituality into Christian Counseling. McMinn (2011) contends that many challenges both professional and personal face Christian Counselors on the frontier of intradisciplinary integration. (Intradisciplinary integration is the new emerging frontier for Christian Counselors).

Christian counselor must be well prepared to address six interdisciplinary integration challenges when clients come to the office for counseling. According to McMinn(2011), the first challenge for Christian counselors doing interdisciplinary integration is, “Moving from two areas of competence to three”, “two areas of competence are necessary and sufficient: psychology and theology” and the third area of competence which is “the process of spiritual formation” (p.9,10). The second challenge the spiritually sensitive Christian counselor face is, “Blurred personal-professional distinctions.” There is a distinction between the personal and professional life of the counselor, which is clear by the most professional-ethics code.

In the book, Christianity and Counseling: Five Approaches, Eric Johnson invites representatives from each of these five different perspectives to share their approach and practice in regard to psychology and Christianity. Chapter 1 of our course material gives a broad overview of the five approaches to psychology and Christianity. It is incredibly important for believers to take seriously these approaches as we seek to help point people to the ultimate healing we find in Jesus. The levels-of-explanation approach is rooted in these three basic tenets: “(1) science and Christianity both point to a need for humility and awareness of human fallibility, (2) much science provides support for the Bible and theology, and (3) occasionally science will

McMinn similarly emphasizes a pattern of healing based on a client’s healthy sense of self, need, and relationships. The basis for said model of healing includes the integration of such biblical principles of prayer, Scripture, sin, confession, forgiveness, and redemption into therapy. Mark McMinn (2011) examines the biblical principles of prayer and Scripture and how the respective doctrines not only correspond with appropriate intradisciplinary integration, but how counselors’ implementation of each varies extensively. (p. 81) Supplication is essential to the psychological and spiritual health of the client. The problem with integrating prayer into counseling, however,

& Passantino G. (2009), “While many Christians may contest the degree of success such Christian psychologists have had at bringing secular therapies into a Christian worldview, it is at least logically possible to affirm that “a Christian psychologist can within limits practice any one of many counseling techniques and approaches; and may choose … to use several methods, depending o his skills and the particular problems of his clients” (p. 16).

The reading discusses two different models of forgiveness, Enright’s process model and Worthington’s REACH model. The Enright’s model has four stages that the person goes through: uncovering anger, deciding

One of those concepts was forgiveness. This essay will explore the concept of forgiveness and

The focus of this book “Psychology, theology and spirituality in Christian counseling” is the significant of integrating the relationships of spirituality, psychology and theology in the counseling office. McMinn explains how counselors can realistically integrate these relationships for our clients. McMinn describes six challenges in the life of the frontier. The life of the frontier are personal and professional challenges that are faced by Christian counselors. However, this book gives counselors the techniques that can be beneficial in a counseling session.

The writer (Tan, 2007) presents how inner healing prayer and scripture can be incorporated in practicing a Christian approach ethically, how it influences in counseling sessions in delivering service to clients, and also details step by step instruction for implementing prayer and scripture into cognitive-behavior therapy(CBT). CBT is one of the most empirically supported treatments(ESTs) available for a vast category of psychological disorders (Tan,2007, p.101). Tan (2007) presents two principal methods of integration the therapist use in CBT, which are implicit and explicit (Tan, 2007). Implicit integration is an indirect approach of application of spiritual resources; however, explicit integration is an open dialogue between counselor

This book provides insight into how counselors can use their knowledge, training, and insight to become more effective in counseling their clients. Make the reader more aware of the problems counselors face when incorporating religion into theology. In addition to it, they should also possess the characteristic of spiritual maturity. If a counselor has all three disciplines, they will be in a position to well address the elements of prayer, sin, revelation, compassion, tolerance and scripture. The healing model that is put forth by Mc McMinn starts with a healthy sense in relation to one's own self, moves into the phase of needs resulting in a healthy relationship of a person with his Creator and all other human beings.

Students critically examine the implications of a Christian worldview for counseling and marriage and family practice. Ethical issues relevant to the use of spiritual and religious interventions with individuals, couples, & families are considered, along with current research related to spirituality and counseling.