Faithful, biblical counsel has distinctly Christian goals. In light of a biblical counselor’s presuppositions, she has particular counseling aims related to God, man, and the role of circumstances in a counselee’s life.
In this short article, we will look at the aims of biblical counseling, our prayers for our counseling relationships, and the differences between biblical counseling and secular counseling aims. Here are the three sections-
(1) If we intend to counsel faithfully to Scripture, biblical counseling must aim to reorient a counselee’s views to an increasingly biblical perspective.
(2) We pray that the counseling relationship will serve to enhance the counselee’s faith in God as their knowledge, affections, and commitments to God grow.
(3) These aims differ drastically from secular aims because the goals of biblical counseling are Christ-centered.
Aims
If we intend to counsel faithfully to Scripture, counseling must aim to reorient a counselee to view God, himself, and her life in a biblically consistent way. Though a counselor may have various short-term and long-term goals in counseling, her aims are centered on affecting a counselee’s beliefs in three ways.
First, the faithful biblical counselor works to help her counselee understand the counselee’s person and life in relation to God. Nothing in all creation is merely horizontal, meaning that it only has to do with earthly things. God created everything and everything has to do with God, “for from him and through him and to him are all things . . .” (Rom 11:36) In this way, people do not exist for themselves alone. We exist for God. So, “our functional beliefs not only occur coram Deo, they actually have to do directly with God. Our actual mental life transpires either for or against God. Lies and unbelief contend with truth and faith.”1 Biblical counselors must work to help their counselees see that their lives have to do with God. One way to practically relate the counselee to God is by applying the word of God directly to her life. “One of the goals of your counseling is to bring her to understand the relevance of the Word of Christ.”2 The more relevant and accessible Scripture is the more she will see her life in relation to God.
Second, the biblical counselor wants the counselee to see herself as Scripture sees him. Though there are more aspects of personhood, biblical counselors must pay attention to three particular aspects. First, the bible recognizes people as embodied souls (2 Cor 4:14-16). This matters because the body is the physiological platform on which the activity of the inner man is lived out. Sin’s corruptive effect touches both and dysfunction in one affects the function of the other. Second, Scripture holds people responsible for their responses to their contexts. Biblical counseling asks, “is the stage on which we live . . . given decisive and deterministic final say? Or is it rightly seen, not as deterministic, but as the significant context in which we live out our lives before God?”3 Though people are both sufferers and sinners, each person is the active agent in his life. Lastly, Scripture sees each person as a part of a groaning world. Romans 8:18-25 explains that we are members of a groaning creation that longs for the reconciliation Christ will one day bring. As a part of a broken world, we will suffer and have troubles.
Third, the biblical counselor wants to the counselee to see themselves as particularly situated in life according to God’s good design. The Bible’s story, and every subsequent story, has a trajectory. God is working his sovereign will and bringing all things to their eschatological end. Every person’s life is a part of God’s plan to redeem a people for himself. So, counselors need to help a counselee to see their life as not their own but aimed at the glory of God.
Prayer for Change
Biblical counselors know that God must be the one to give growth in counseling, so we pray. Biblical counselors pray that God will cause the counselee to love God and others more and more every day. Though a counselor may be skilled, her attempts at shaping a counselee’s worldview will be fruitless unless God acts to give growth (Psalm 127:1). This leads a counselor to a life of humble prayer. We pray that the counseling relationship will serve to enhance their faith in God as their knowledge, affections, and commitments to God grow. Prayer is especially important in the counseling room. Praying with and for a counselee’s helps to demonstrate the Christ-centeredness of counseling. It reminds the counselee that each person’s life is for God, through him, and to him.
Differences
These aims differ drastically from secular aims because the goals of biblical counseling are Christ-centered. David Powlison alludes to two different directions when he says that “as a gospel- centered approach to helping people, biblical counseling claims to offer a psychotherapy qualitatively different from the various secular psychotherapies.”4 He continues, “Counseling, whatever its formal or informal status, is either foolish (reorienting us away from God and towards our own self-trust) or wise (reorienting us to God).”5 Secular therapy aims at helping a counselee re-experience the world as good and themselves as sufficient.
On the other hand, biblical counseling aims at helping people know Jesus Christ and experience the help and hope that he brings through the application of Scripture. By way of application, Paul Watchel proposes that one way to help an anxious counselee is to help them gain mastery over that which they fear.6 In this, he sees the counselee as the means of helping himself as he finds confidence in his own power and goodness. The counselee is the beginning, middle, and end of counseling.
Alternatively, in biblical counseling anxiety may be addressed by showing the counselee the power, goodness, and wisdom of God in all things and then helping her to activate that truth by practicing various methods of application. The counseling in this case relates the counselee to God and helps her to depend on him for her good and for God’s glory.
David Powlison, “Cure of Souls (and the Modern Psychotherapies),” Journal of Biblical Counseling 25, no. 2 (2007): 24.
Powlison, “Cure of Souls," 24.
David Powlison, “Vive La Différence!: The Journal of Biblical Counseling,” The Journal of Biblical Counseling 28, no. 1 (2014): 4.
Powlison, "Cure of Souls," 16.
Powlison, “Cure of Souls,” 14.
Paul L. Wachtel, Therapeutic Communication: Knowing What to Say When (New York: Guilford Press, 2011), 100.
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