Counseling and Faith

For more than thirty years I have been counseling people as either, in the beginning, a ministerial graduate student or during my career as a minister in the Christian faith.  So, naturally, people have correctly assumed that I was a Christian.  More specifically, they usually assumed, correctly again, that I was a Christian counselor within the churches of Christ.  With those assumptions they knew that we would agree on many things, including many doctrinal issues that were unique to our particular branch of a specific religious movement in America known as the Restoration Movement.

Having been in private practice for a couple of years now whether or not I am a Christian Marriage and Family Therapist seems to have taken on a new meaning that is fascinating.  Some correctly assume that I am in favor of strong marriages and families as the means for raising strong children from a Christian perspective.   At the same time, most understand that, morally and ethically, I am bound to respect the values of the clients that I see and their individual faith systems.

Much more will be written on this topic.  Today, the important point is that the fact that I am a Christian means certain things across belief systems.  These values are important to me and underlie every aspect of my work with people:

  • Honesty: What good is therapy if we cannot be honest with each other?  Learning to be honest and transparent is an important ingredient to good communication and strong, working relationships.
  •  Integrity: Related to honesty is the intention of the therapist to be a person of his or her word.  Scheming and deceptive practices do not make sense when we are working to strengthen trust and confidence in one another.
  • Respect: Therapy is strategic, solution-focused and, when possible, biased towards brevity.  The time and energy it takes to solve problems and move on is too precious to use for anything other than working to accomplish the goals of the client and to help them move on with life.

The list will go on over time as I update this article from time to time but the point I wish to make is that because I am a Christian I accept people where they are in life, encourage them to overcome obstacles, manage  transitions and achieve their potential as they define their obstacles, transitions and potential.

 

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