Tag Archives: biblical counseling

A Biblical Counseling Methodology

Posted by on January 29, 2009 1 comment

Had my second Biblical Counseling class tonight. Again, very interesting. I thought I’d post what my teacher said his counseling methodology was. It was very insightful. Here’s what he does when he counsels:

Listens for unbiblical thinking and counters it with Biblical truth.

He said he doesn’t address if they’re on drugs or not (though if they ask him to help them get off any medications they might be on, I know he’ll work with a doctor to develop a regimen or method for weening them off the meds). His main point is to help them begin to think rightly. The emphasis is that if a person can encounter Biblical truth and allow that to affect them and change the way they think (so they are thinking more Biblically), then change will inevitably come to their lives.

Oh, and I am so blogging this over my break in class…

started my Biblical Counseling class

Posted by on January 23, 2009 3 comments

Had my first class last night. Biblical counseling. Actually pretty good. The counseling professors here at SEBTS definitely don’t agree with the psychological approach to issues. The professor spent most of the class going over how most of the psychological approach (such as Dr. Phil uses) is based off of observable data and conjecture – not science. It is more akin to art than science, actually.

An eye-opener for me was when he showed the results of a study done in 2002 wherein the efficacy of drugs for helping with depression (such as Zoloft, which was one of the drugs included in the study) was explored. The irony is that while the drugs helped almost 25%  of the participants given drugs made a recovery, while over 30% of those given a placebo (a pill of only sugar, no drug) made a full recovery. On the other hand, when they were told they hadn’t actually been given a drug at all, many of them had their moods dip back down again.

The point to highlighting this and other things as arguments against the psychological approach was to emphasize that a pastor or Biblical counselor can confidently approach any issue an individual may bring before him or her with the understanding that he or she will be able to effictively address and help the individual deal with whatever situation he or she might be in. The key is that the counseling be based on the Bible – not pop psychology.