Christian Counseling is a diverse field with varying approaches, ranging from strictly biblical to heavily psychological, with the integrative approach often seen as a balanced middle ground.
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welcome to the American Institute of
healthc Care Professionals video on
Christian Counseling foundations and
this is an essential video for those who
are in SC 570 because Christian
Counseling has its own science in in
terms of helping people through
counseling but within Christian
Counseling itself there are a variety of
different views and ideas that will make
one Christian counselor totally
different than another particular
Christian counselor so one of the
biggest questions is is Christian
Counseling and biblical counseling the
same thing well I think it's best to say
that biblical counseling is a type of
Christian Counseling but in many ways we
see the words biblical counseling and
Christian Counseling utilized and
interchanged uh little too Loosely if
you really understand what Christian
Counseling is so there's many different
interpretations of how Christian
Counseling is utilized with science and
scripture when I say science I mean modern
modern
psychology so ultimately though all
forms of Christian cantly has some
emphasis on Christ in scripture and it
exists within the Christian ruled view
but the differences between them will
rely more on the extent of its reliance
on Modern psychology versus its Reliance
on scripture some will be more extreme
to one side others will be more extreme
to the others others will be more
professional in their ethical standards
in dealing in a secular field and not
wish to bring religion into the
discussion others may be uh more a
Biblical believing that scripture needs
to be in every counseling session itself
some might want to separate Faith
completely but still have an
understanding that it exists so these
extremes exist I think there is some
usefulness in many of the views that
we're going to look at in this brief
video but at the same time I think the
truth kind of lies in between the two
extremes and I think when you go to most
universities that have some type of
Christian counseling or types of uh
organizations or nonprofits or churches
that have Christian Counseling I think
you're going to find more that lie in
the middle but some might have a
particular me uh a particular betterment
for an individual in a different setting
also so Christian counseling while
espousing a Christian world worldview
can vary far more from secular to less
secular to spiritual to less spiritual
it can be held to a very high clinical
standard or it can be again to a higher
pastoral standard and how that is
reflected I think again depends on the
individual who is going for counseling
the counselor or Pastor who is
administering counseling and of course
the view itself what kind of view does
one have now depending on the Li ensure
the individual training certain
Christian counselors can deal deeper
within the science of psychology and say
a pastor could a pastor has limits so
there are clinical counselors who do
Christian Counseling and there are also
pastoral counselors who do Christian
Counseling but they are limited because
they are not list uh they are not
licensed now the views that we are going
to look at in involve five total the
first one is levels of
explanation we're going to also look at
the integrated approach we're going to
look at Christian
psychology we're going to look at
transformational approach and we're also
going to look at biblical counseling now
some of these are very closely similar
just with a little bit of differences
While others uh are very different in
their uh extreme of their approach one
approaching more of a secular uh
psychological standpoint and the other
just going to completely scripture so
what we're going to do is analyze these
so that in your Christian Counseling
Practice you can have a better idea of
how you want to approach uh your client
and also what you're able to do within
your licensing uh capability or
capacity so first let's look at biblical
counseling and believe it or not
biblical counseling is on the more
conservative uh side of uh the Spectrum
uh those who adhere to Pure biblical
counseling approach within Christian
Counseling are usually pastors most of
them are pastors and they are not
clinical uh professionals but they are
able to counsel at a particular level
with their uh with their flock with the
me MERS within their church and they
stick to more usually a Biblical
approach that uses scripture as its
primary source now a lot of the things
within this concept are very applicable
and also very true uh sin is seen as a
primary issue and of course we all know
that sin is the cause of the fall of
humanity if you are a Christian the sin
of Adam so sin is theoretically the
primary issue but in biblical counseling
it is more than just Theory it actually
is very much more physically present in
what is going on uh there is also a need
for a in biblical counseling a
reconnection with Christ it's a
spiritual moment where reconnecting with
Christ heals and of course that is very
important within all Christian Life it's
a it's a theological concept uh but that
is the primary goal to reunite with
Christ so that Christ can heal we are
looking for a spiritual healing which
will bring a mental healing the biblical
counselor in the strict sense of the
word believes that everything in the
Bible for counseling is
supplied and it is also less observant
hence on secular ideals and
psychological methods so does this
system work well for some it may for
those who are very very spiritual this
type of counseling could really connect
with their heart and trigger a necessary
change it correctly recognizes
Humanity's Fallen nature it recognizes
the role of vice and virtue in moral
theology which many uh modern Sciences
uh dismiss completely and it recognizes
the need of Grace and relationship with
Christ and those are essential in in
maintaining but it does has its
limitations because it cannot be used
outside the faith and is strictly a
secular venue because you have other
individuals with different religious and
spiritual beliefs it can also if not
done properly create a bias within the
counselor and the counsil
relationship what if a particular
individual starts to come to a counselor
and they have a different moral View and
this can create a bias in regards to how
the counselor perceiv
the particular uh counsil or client it
can also overuse scripture Beyond its
spiritual purpose replacing very
important modern therapies and ideas
within psychology just simply by trying
to find it with scripture I think one of
the main thing that other Christian
counselors would say is that scripture
is not a psychology manual it is not a
science book yes there is truth found in
some of it that lays the foundation but
you will find many Christian counselors
who see this particular approach to be
misusing scripture in some ways under
the levels of uh explanation though
which we'll be looking at very shortly
uh it does not put Faith secondhand it
puts Faith first but in putting Faith
first it does does
abandon uh most modern psychological
ideas now Christian psychology is
closely related to biblical counseling
but it does tend to uh touch base with
modern psychology to some extent but it
just doesn't limit its psychological
experience with the last 200 years since
the enlightenment it looks throughout
the entire history of the Christian
tradition and it looks to formulate a
unique psychology that is Christian in
itself that is found within the prism of
scripture and the Christian tradition to
study mental processes and behaviors
from that type of stamp so this
psychology uh and counseling definitely
does work for more religious
individuals it is though less integrated
with modern psychology uh SE wise and it
leans more on the spiritual it is
obviously more pastoral than clinical
because of its strong religious nature
but unlike biblical counseling it is
more open to utilizing psychological
methods with a very strong scriptural
emphasis again if an individual is very
spiritual this might have a very
profound effect so it is obviously
different than biblical uh but it is
still very far from what we would refer
to as levels of explanation which we
will be getting to shortly the
transformational approach I referenced
earlier is the other more leaning
towards scripture more overtly religious
uh push and it is probably a little bit
more so even than Christian
psychology it's a very spiritual
approach that looks to transform the
human person it is again much more
pastoral in nature you're not going to
see as many clinical counselors doing it
and it has a purely biblical approach it
looks well beyond the empirical method
but looks also at phenomenology and
phenomenology is how the object within
science experiences things how the human
experiences and phenomenology is a very
important opening of science because so
long before the object was studied
strictly as it within an a priori system
and every type of scientific approach
through empiricism based everything
under the same criteria however Human
Experience how things are understood and
felt is the lens of phenomenology and in
the transformational approach
phenomenology is taken into account much
more and I think this is a very good
element of the transformational approach
so again it's aimed more for Spirit
spiritual individuals it is a little bit
more suspicious of more modern
psychological methods and like the
biblical approach it strongly correlates
sin and mental pathology as the same and
it looks to uh utilize scripture to help
the individual transform and become more
holy and closer to Christ which is again
a very good
thing now the levels of explanation approach
approach
is the opposite and we'll get into uh
the integrative approach which
personally is the one I think most
mainstream Christians utilize in
Christian Counseling especially those
who are clinical but also some that
might be pastoral that have uh a strong
uh background in Psychology but the
levels of explanation
approach is the opposite of the first
three that we looked at uh it really
puts scripture second it separates
church and state so to speak it relies
more entirely completely on the ideas of
psychology and faith has to conform to
it the ideas so you're not going to have
as much of a religious experience
although uh the counselor probably is
Christian uh but they're definitely
probably also a clinical licensed
counselor and uh the idea of Christ is
important but there is less value in uh
the Christian tradition and the biblical
than the others it's present but it's
not nearly as present at such a
spiritual level so you have the two
Extremes in that regard one that focuses
more on scripture uh and a few other
degrees that Focus maybe a little bit on
uh psychology and then you have a system
that completely uh disregards most of
the scripture that is needed it's almost
secular but it isn't completely the
integrative approach is the approach
that most mainstream Christian
counselors will utilize it is a balance
of biblical counseling and uh levels of
explanation it is done by pastors but
more so clinical counselors because they
usually incorporate various uh modules
of healing that are based off modern
psychology so the integrative approach
exists within the Christian world view
it does not
make spiritual life and the Bible
secondary to psychology but it will
utilize modern psychology now scripture
is the starting point but scripture is
not seen as a psychology
textbook Christ is seen as the ultimate
counselor but modern therapies are
necessary to help with treating various
pathologies so in that is sin seen as uh
a as part of the problem absolutely uh
the integrative approach would not
dismiss s sin as a reason for Illness
but it does not attribute a direct
correlation with it in the moment with
every pathology so sin is the general
problem but when we're facing depression
or something we're acknowledging ver
importance of virtue and vice but we're
also looking clinically and we're using
scripture as a starting point maybe
referring to the fact that Christ did
wept that Christ did console but then we
would in we would enter into a uh very
much a grief counseling session that
would have a variety of dual process
models Elizabeth kuer Ross looking at
grief trajectory iies so it would be
integrated by the name of the approach
itself very well uh I think those with a
religious mindset but also a clinical
mindset it would really work as the two
systems are approached uh unlike the
levels of explanation scripture is never
put second but is a strong starting
point and it also sees uh the importance
of Christian values to help individuals
heal from mental pathology ology but
within the guidance of psychology itself
so there we have a summary of Christian
Counseling but within Christian
Counseling five different schools of
thought I think a lot of them have
attributes that are extremely important
that can be Blended but you will have
some who are more pastorally
conservative that uh might even be
pastors themselves
uh that will just consider biblical
counseling the only way and every way
then you might have some uh Christians
who are a little bit more
liberal and they might put that more
second in their counseling to a
completely psychological look and I'm
not really if you want my opinion as an
instructor of many of these courses I'm
not really a fan of either
extreme I fall with I would say into the
integrated approach where biblical
counseling is a starting point but we
use those concepts of the Christian
worldview in concert with psychology
which is a different science than
Theology and try to find healing through
that the other approaches of
transformational approach or Christian
psychology are a little bit further to
the right than this because it
emphasizes more so scripture than the
science and the psychology so it really
then comes down to the individual what
helps the individual in counseling
better if they're looking for a
religious spiritual counseling uh
approach that can help them heal from
whatever trauma that they are facing so
I hope this helps a little bit uh I
recommend looking into uh these
approaches they can be found anywhere
online and you can learn a lot thought
about this uh I'm sure many individuals
whove just began this course or are also
just looking at the this video about
Christian Counseling are probably
surprised that there's even differences
within Christian Counseling and they
probably thought it was just one thing
or they thought it was Christian and
biblical the same thing so I hope this
video helps clarify some of these things
in some of these different views and
angles below is our Christian Counseling
certification link our number is 330
65277 76 and our email is info aih
cp.org I'd like to thank you for
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