Grace-based Counseling…Coming Soon

Frequently, I get calls from friends looking for “a good, Christian counselor.” I’ve learned over the years that this means different things to different people. Some want to speak with someone who knows God but focuses on the secular theories of psychology. Others want someone to counsel them only using God’s Word. Others mean something in the middle.

This past year, my colleague, Rick Fowler, and I developed a new, Biblical model of counseling we call “Grace-based counseling.” We believe that when Christian counselors actively seek the Lord in their personal lives, it spills over into their counseling. We can’t (nor should we) turn off our faith when counseling; there is no such thing as bias-free counseling. However, we do have to be careful not to impose our beliefs onto our clients.

In Grace-based Counseling, we discuss ways to counsel others while simultaneously remaining true to our faith and respecting individual differences of our clients. I am thrilled to share that Grace-based Counseling will be released this August by Moody Press. We believe it will be helpful to clergy, lay-counselors as well as professional counselors.

I’m curious, what qualities are important to you when looking for a “good, Christian counselor?”