Biblical Counseling - Does Nothing Else Work?

I was intrigued by an article I read recently, "Why Biblical Counseling Works and NOTHING Else Does." It is on the website of the Texas-based Center for Christian Counseling, and is written by the Center's founder and president, Jerry Meade.

He separates three types of approaches - secular psychotherapy; what he describes as "integrated Christian counseling;" and what he calls "authentic biblical counseling."

The first of these is based on "man's best ideas of how things work." But in essence so, he says, is the second, even if it is in the hands of "good Christian people" who have blended Scripture and secular psychotherapy. They cannot succeed, he says.

The problem as he sees it is that the secular approaches - even when employed by Christian counselors - focus on the symptom of the problem, rather than the root.

By contrast, he views biblical counseling as "a process of intense discipleship aimed at changing people's hearts."

He writes:

A metaphor I often use in counseling is that secular approaches to human problems “is like taking aspirin for a headache caused by a brain tumor – it may provide momentary relief from the pain, but it never addresses or treats the underlying, root cause of the disease”.

This is why in twelve years of secular private practice I never saw any real, lasting change in people or their marriages/families. I saw and provided chemical band aids and “techniques” that made people feel better for the moment, but never was there any real healing or transformation of lives. The psychotherapy offered was empty of power to heal, and over time I could no longer deny the impotency of it. The reason for this was that it never went after the real problem, or proper “target”.

It is an intriguing article, although to me it raises the question: is not biblical counseling - as he defines it - what goes on in church?

March 22nd, 2009

Most Viewed

Coming...

Contact
Privacy Policy