Biblical Counseling.pdf - Online Christian Library

E. The Bible has the only clear answer to the problem of sin and guilt.note: Every psychological and counseling system begins with underlying assumptions orpresuppositions. These assumptions influence counseling whether the counselor is aware ofthis or not.Dr. Collins states, "The solution in a Biblical counseling methodology is not to throw outpsychology. Some evangelicals claim to do this in a sincere but misguided desire to have a pure Biblicalapproach to counseling. Such approaches are never totally free of psychology, however. Psychologicalterms, methods, and concepts are "thrown out," only to be distorted and brought back under othernames." Pg. 329.... Helping People Grow“In the future, let us begin with our theologically based assumptions, and then learn what we canfrom modern psychology, accepting that which we perceive to be consistent with the teachings ofScripture. This is easier said than done, but we must consistently seek to evaluate psychology from aChristian perspective, avoiding the tendency to quickly and uncritically accept or reject psychologicalfindings." Pg. 329.... Helping People GrowCollins also accepts the idea that Christian counselors will have many different approaches,each of which may be built on a study of Scripture. The field is large, growing, diverse, andcomplicated. It is populated by counselors and writers who may be sincere, compassionatepeople but whose personalities, theologies, psychological orientation, values, and personalexperiences have led to a variety of sometimes clashing counseling goals, assumptions,theories, and techniques-- all of which are labeled, "Christian." (And so it is!) Pg. 318...Helping People GrowPSYCHOTHERAPEUTIC MARKETPLACEPsychotherapy Is big business in America. As a nation we spend about seventeen billiondollars every year for mental health. While it is difficult to give an exact figure, almost tenpercent, or about twenty million people, have either been in or are now in some sort oftherapy.In the psychotherapeutic marketplace there are about 200 different therapeutic approachesand over 10,000 specific techniques available to the consumer. Morris Parloff reports:New schools emerge constantly, heralded by claims that they provide better treatment, andmanagement of the problems and neuroses of the day. No school has ever withdrawn from the field forfailure to live up to its claims, and as a consequence all continue to co-exist.Man cannot escape his need of the supernatural. He can distort it; he can attempt tosubstitute it; he can deny it; but he cannot escape it. The cosmic loneliness we find inliterature, the reaching outward for union with the seemingly unknown, and the seekinginward to find meaning in life are all indications of the desire to unite with the supernatural.Psychotherapy as we now know it has failed and will fail because it is filled with a simplicitythat defies both proof and denial. At the present state of knowledge no one can prove thefinal cause of disorders of the mind. Psychotherapists can only puff themselves up, use thebest rhetoric they can muster up, and hope that someone will line up behind them.©2000, Revival in the Home Ministries 53