Base Definition
Modern Christian counseling builds from biblical wisdom and Christian spiritual formation, salted with the best of modern mental health clinical practice for client and community betterment. Christian counseling is holistic in that it is oriented toward a bio-psycho-social-spiriiual assessment and intervention. Furthermore, the treatment and prevention of mental/emotional/character disorders is joined with the goal of growing up into Christian maturity. Christian counselors offer dedicated, caring service to individuals, marriages, families, churches, organizations, and communities. At its best, Christian counseling integrates personal living with biblical truths and spiritual practices to produce “Christ-like” character, behavior, and contentment in the lives of the people and systems served.
Christian Counselors
Christian counselors are dedicated to serve others in godly ways. ‘Whenever appropriate, these counselors bring the life of Jesus Christ into the work of counseling, psychotherapy, testing and evaluation, and research.
Christian counselors of all kinds—when in the client’s interest, with their consent, and when appropriate in therapy—pray for and with clients, read the Bible and make reference to Scripture, encourage the confession of sin, the practice of forgiveness, and the making of amends, support the practice of spiritual disciplines, and other specialized practices. ‘When consent does not exist, Christian counselors may be engaged in these activities silently and implicitly, always functioning in the best interests of their clients.
These spiritual practices are not illegal, unethical, or illegitimate, nor are they antagonistic to the fore- mentioned clinical purposes and practices. Christian counseling is not dichotomized into sacred and secular compartments but, is rightly seen as holistic, adjunctive and integrative.
This integrative work is a central aspect of the Christian counselor’s lifelong challenge to become a helper of excellence and ethical integrity. Christian counseling integration is not excessively complex nor is it simplistic and reductionistic. Christian counselors understand and revere the spiritual dimension of human nature and change—best known through encountering Christ and growing in a life of faith in Him.
Tying these various threads together in dinical practice, Christian counselors understand and respect the role of cognitive, behavioral, moral, emotional, relational, spiritual and environmental forces in human and social change. They also invite God’s presence and power to guide this change, and to transform and sanctify the person being helped, properly using God’s Word and the ministry resources of His universal church.
Common Values, Practices, and Ethics
Christian counselors accord the highest respect to the triune God revealed in the Holy Scriptures, our foundation of faith and ethical conduct. They are also dedicated to the best interests of their patients and clients, to the law and the ethical standards of their governing bodies, to their contractual obligations in the church and workplace, and to proven data from the bio-psycho-social sciences.
However, regardless of religious creed or preferred theory, Christian counselors are bound together by these common goals and ethics:
+ knowing and loving God;
+ loving and serving others;
+ avoiding all harm toward clients and others;
+ bringing truth, healing, and agreed-upon change into people’s lives;
+ helping set people free from sin, bondage, mental disorder, and emotional distress;
+ making peace and doing justice; and assisting the church, community and
profession to grow to its full maturity
Christian counselors strive to come alongside those seeking help, listen with both heart and mind, and speak the truth-in-love to those served. They are dedicated to listen carefully to clients, to respect them, to understand their hurts, sins, and fears, and to encourage faith, hope, and love. Christian counselors humbly challenge client distortions and wrongdoing and, by mutual agreement, help clients renounce the ways of sin, and change in the direction of growth and maturity in Christ. They offer the empathic heart of understanding, the consoling voice of comfort, the guiding hope of godly reason, and the assertive challenge to change, whichever is needed at the proper time in therapy.
Christian counselors are committed to disciplined learning and faithful growth in counseling knowledge, gifts, and skills. ‘When appropriate, Christian counselors testify to the saving grace and sanctifying power of Jesus Christ. They avoid imposing their values and beliefs on clients and, at the other extreme; they are not silent about God’s love and grace. Christian counselors strive to maintain their integrity to Christ and His revelation in Scripture, while also contributing to the growth of psychosocial knowledge and clinical skill that is inherent to all counseling practice and development. They are dedicated to a continual evaluation and improvement of their practices in order to fulfill the call to excellence as Christian counselors.
Christian counselors serve clients with excellence and ethical integrity—practicing with the utmost respect, sensitivity, honesty, energy, and capability. They do not use clients for their own personal gain and strictly avoid all client harm and exploitation. They avoid activities that violate or diminish the civil and legal rights of clients and client systems. They do not discriminate in the provision of client services—even if ethical referral is all that is done—on the basis of gender, race, ethnicity, disability, religious creed, denomination, socio-economic status, national origin, or sexual orientation.
Aspiring to honor Christ in all things, Christian counselors are committed to moral purity and honesty, and to maintain personal, professional, and organizational integrity. Aspiring to excellence in service, they know and respect the limits of their competence, do consult, refer, and network with other service providers, and continually study to improve their excellence in service to Christ and to others. Christian counselors maintain professional integrity in relations with the state, with state licensure boards, with the church, with professional associations, and with employers and colleagues. They understand both their duties to the state and other organizations, and the limits of the authoritative powers these state and private institutions hold.
Christian counselors have the right—a right grounded in the Scriptures and protected by the religion, association, and free speech clauses of the First Amendment, and the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution—to identify publicly as Christian counselors and to always maintain this integrated clinical-spiritual practice regardless of professional association or licensure status. This right to explicit Christian counseling practice cannot be abrogated or substantially diminished by any court, state legislature, licensure board, or any professional association.