The purpose of this course is not to transform the student into a counselor, but rather to give the student the basic foundations on which that student can eventually become a counselor that offers hope and help to others through sound Biblical referencing and advice.

We all need to be careful about liabilities involved in practicing the profession of counseling. Be very leery of going into a private practice clinical situation, especially if this course is all you have to claim as an educational base. A professional counselor needs a comprehensive and thorough education with hundreds of hours of role play and mentoring before stepping into a clinical situation alone.

Let’s define what a counselor is. A counselor is a person who gives advice, guides or makes recommendations. A good counselor is also a good counselee. That means that the counselor must have had the experience of being a counselee. This should produce genuine humility in the counselor. A Biblical counselor is a person who gives sound Biblical based advice that will guide the counselee back to spiritual health, recovery and/or safety. A Biblical counselor is not one who necessarily is trained to corrective or realign cognitive (thought related processes) in the counselee. That is a whole other counseling genre.

Proverbs 19:20-21 says “Listen to counsel and accept discipline, that you may be wise the rest of your days. Many are the plans in a man's heart, but the counsel of the LORD, it will stand.”

There are several specific Biblical counseling fields which a Biblical Counselor can participate in. They are; Pre-Marital counseling, Marriage counseling, Family counseling, Behavioral counseling, Relationship counseling, Financial counseling, Spiritual developmental counseling and Career counseling.

THOUGHT FILTERS IN PEOPLE’S PERCEPTIONS

People think through four basic filters. These filters help them interpret the stimuli (input) in their lives on a daily basis. Every person has all four filters in their psychological make up, but generally one of them is the primary filter that they see and interpret the world around in.

The following four filters are not listed in any specific order. One primary filter is not better than the other in any person. It takes people who have any one of these four filters as their primary filter to balance out societal thinking and balance communities and culture. 

Analytical Filter  “I need to know.”       

These people are often called “THINKERS” 

What makes this function?

How does this function?

Why did this happen?

Luke’s Gospel is a great source to start from when counseling.

Emotional Filter “I need to feel better”     

These people are often called “FEELERS” 

Why do I feel this way?

Why did they do this to me?

What did I do to deserve this?

John’s Gospel is a great source to start from when counseling.

Motivational Filter “I need to finish this”     

These people are often called “DRIVERS” 

Why can’t I move on?

Why won’t this end?

Why won’t they cooperate?

Marks’s Gospel is a great source to start from when counseling.

Plausible Filter “I need to know the options”

These people are often called “DREAMERS” 

Will this help me?

Will this fix my problem?

What are the other potential issues?

Matthew’s Gospel is a great source to start from when counseling.

THE PROBLEMS OF SIN AND GRIEF  

Romans 3:23 says “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”. The reason there are problems in people’s lives and in the management of any issue in this world is sin. The Bible tells us that no one, except Jesus Christ has lived without sin in their lives. Problematic issues are generally connected in relationships between two or more people and are incased in grief because of the loss of perfection.

There are three primary attitudinal issues created in all of us by sin in our lives. They are; My expectations are not met; Those are not the rules I live by; That doesn’t benefit me. In these three issues we find the problem. The key to solving sin issues is exposing the “unholy trinity” which is “me, myself and I”. The basic sin issue always comes back to our own selfishness. John the Baptist set an amazing example of how the Christ centered life should be lived when he said to his disciples in John 3:30 "He must increase, but I must decrease.”(NAS) 

But because we are all born into the sin of a sinful world, we have and face these issues. The Biblical texts are obvious to these facts. Proverbs 12:15 The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man is he who listens to counsel. Proverbs 21:2 Every man's way is right in his own eyes, but the LORD weighs the hearts.

Over 90% of all counseling issues require some grief counseling and care also. The psalmist said in Psalms 119:28 “My soul weeps because of grief; strengthen me according to Thy word.” Grief is the sense of expression when experiencing and acknowledging loss.

God created us so that grief is normal in the fact that everyone experiences it as much as they allow the experience to be a productive one. God created us so that grief is natural because He built into all of our psychological process for our own benefit.  God created us so that grief is necessary in that it is an adequate tool that God has given us to help us handle the loss we encounter in this human experience.  

BASIC  BIBLICAL COUNSELING TECHNIQUES

A Biblical counselor should use God’s Word first and foremost in every situation. The counselor must have a practical knowledge of the Bible and be able to navigate through Scriptures comfortably. The effective Biblical counselor must also know God intimately to understand what He has written in the Bible. No one understands the Bible completely, but we should all strive to know it better.

The Biblical counselor must also be able and willing to draw from personal knowledge and experience. This means that the Biblical counselor must also experience a certain amount of vulnerability. The Biblical counselor should use his or her own life experiences as an example when applicable. The Biblical counselor should also know how to use first hand anonymous illustrations when applicable. These are illustrations and/or life stories that  the counselor knows personally to be true that can be shared without the counselee being able to identify who the counselor is referring to in the illustration.   

The Biblical counselor should always support and define knowledge and experience with Scripture. In other words, the Biblical counselor should always have a scripture reference to support the illustrations or examples he or she gives to the counselee. The Biblical counselor should use the illustration to point to the referenced scripture and vice verse.

A competent and compassionate Biblical counselor should always exercise strict confidentiality with everything they hear. The Biblical counselor should not share anything with anyone else unless the counselee authorizes you to. The Biblical counselor should never break this confidence with the counselee unless there is an undeniable and proven potential of physical harm or loss of life to the counselee or the other people involved in the counselee’s life situations or circumstances.

When we use the word “proven” is used, it does not mean “possibly” or “maybe”. It must be proven by convincing evidence that can be transferred onto someone else. This would include such things as the spoken words of a counselee that express a genuine threat or harm to something or someone, or actual tangible evidence such as (but not limited to) a gun, knife or other instrument of real physical harm. Usually it is very wise for the Biblical counselor to bring in more help at such a time as this. This may include making a referral to more qualified counselors in the arena of cognition and human psychology.  

SUMMARY

In conclusion there basically three primary problematic areas that Biblical counselors address in their counseling work. They are: 1). Fears and Anxieties 2). Complicated and/or layered grief 3). Moral failures which include sins of omission (things we don’t do that we should have done) and sins of commission (things we do that we shouldn’t have done).

Understanding this will help the Biblical counselor define more accurately his or her role and be very effective in their listening skills and Biblical based advice they yield. Remember, biblical counselors are not teachers and preachers, they are a tool box that uses God’s word to guide, restore and correct others on a more productive and fruitful journey in this life.