BOOK REVIEW: THE NEW CHRISTIAN COUNSELOR 1
Book Review: The New Christian Counselor
Shawn Peale
School of Behavioral Sciences, Liberty University
BOOK REVIEW: THE NEW CHRISTIAN COUNSELOR 2
Book Review: The New Christian Counselor
Summary
For counseling professionals who are Christians and wish to, directly and indirectly,
implement Christian and spiritual practices into their area of calling, Hawkins and Clinton
provide an excellent in-depth overview of a variety of concepts and focuses that help the
Christian counselor to be put in the best place for them and their client to succeed. Many ideas
and themes stand out in their book, The New Christian Counselor: A Fresh Biblical and
Transformational Approach. Eight precisely that stand out more than others include hope,
empathetic listening, humility, transformational discipleship, holistic human beings, community,
spiritual preparation, and trinitarian restoration.
Empathetic Listening
One of the most effective ways to build trust in relationships, especially counseling
relationships, is empathetic listening. While this sounds like a prominent theme in any
counseling book, listening is more than just being in a person’s presence while they share. The
counseling professional is encouraged to be “fully engaged, fully for the client, and fully
bringing online all of our training, unique resources, and experiences for this person…”
(Hawkins & Clinton, 2015, pp. 225-226). Listening requires intently noticing firing patterns of
modality, meaning how a client naturally functions regarding the contexts of their life, such as
relational, cognitive, or spiritual dimensions (Hawkins & Clinton, 2015). In this listening, we can
start assessment and move one step closer to helping clients experience breakthroughs. One final
note is that as we listen, we reflect and represent a loving God who will also listen to them.
Humility
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At the heart of empathetic listening is humility. In addition to listening to the client, the
counselor needs to be able to listen to the Holy Spirit and His Word, put aside themselves, and be
willing to adjust when the quarterback (God) or the client calls an audible. This requires great
humility. Humility, as demonstrated by Christ, is highlighted in Philippians 2:3: “3 Do nothing
from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility consider one another as more important
than yourselves;” (New American Standard Bible, 1995, Philippians 2:3). The counselor has to
recognize their partnership with the client, potentially other support systems and the trinity as
they all come together to help the client experience wholeness and transformation. This posture
of humility requires that the counselors are also in a place of listening and humility in wholeness,
prepared to minister to the client (Hawkins & Clinton, 2015).
Spiritual Preparation
Christian counseling is spiritual warfare, and the counseling professional must be
prepared. One note of caution is to find a balance between good and evil attributions to problems
presented by clients. Not everything is evidence of demonic possession, but that doesn’t mean
someone can’t be possessed, either. Nevertheless, As Hawkins and Clinton note, Ephesians 6:10-
12 encourages Christians to put on the armor of God, with the understanding that our battle is not
with people and artificial issues but the devil, his schemes, and realms of evil. Because the nature
of counseling is spiritual warfare, spiritual weaponry is required first for the Christian counselor.
This includes various spiritual disciplines, both before and with consent during the counseling,
such as scripture, prayer, meditation, journaling, music, and other art forms (Hawkins, 2015).
When the Christian counselor is in a place of spiritual strength, in their partnership with God,
they are a powerful vessel in the counseling relationship.
Trinitarian Restoration
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One significant relief for counselors is their partner in this spiritual warfare while in the
counseling relationship. This is The Trinity of God. The Trinity should always be invited into the
counseling relationship at least in one context by the counselor (Hawkins & Clinton, 2015). One
way to ensure that the Trinity is invited during the counseling sessions is to provide a consent
form upfront so that clients are not caught off guard when the counselor asks to pray, shares a
scripture, or suggests a spiritual discipline as part of an action step towards transformation.
One thing to note here is that there may be even many clients who have a skewed view of
God due to trauma and brokenness within relationships (Hawkins & Clinton, 2015). The
relational outlook that a client has with one or more members of the trinity may provide the
counselor with insight into an area of brokenness that the client is experiencing, such as various
forms of abuse and neglect (Hawkins & Clinton, 2015). In restoration, we recognize our need for
God through the Father's love, power, and faithfulness. We accept the grace and truth of Christ
through His life, death, resurrection, and commissioning, and we embrace the empowerment of
the Holy Spirit in gifting and sanctification.
Transformation
In Romans 12:2, Paul encourages the Roman church and readers today not to conform to
the patterns of the world but to be transformed by renewing their minds (New American
Standard Bible, 1995, Romans 12:2, emphasis mine). The authors call this possessing the soul.
This involves taking captive the aspects of the human soul, such as the personality, emotions,
desires, etc, reshaping them out of sinfulness and shaping them into Christ-likeness. This
possession is of utmost importance because the “condition of our souls determines how we relate
to God, our connections with other people, our goals and purposes, and our reactions to the
difficulties and joys of life” (Hawkins & Clinton, 2015, p. 70). It is crucial to note that
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transformation is not often linear and requires great grace, understanding, truth, and kindness.
Since transformation is so complex, counselors need to break down action steps for clients, as
noted in Phase 3, into bite-sized pieces to help the client work towards wholeness (Hawkins &
Clinton, 2015). The goal is not simply to address a symptom but for the client to experience an
entirely new way of living and, if saved, being with Jesus.
Hope
When clients come to us, it’s often because they are experiencing a level of hopelessness
(Hawkins & Clinton, 2015). It isn’t uncommon for counseling to be a last resort to resolving
issues from within. This puts the counselor in a unique position to provide hope to clients. Many
people will have already tried different things because they will engage in “anything to
anesthetize the pain and fill the void in their lives” (Hawkins & Clinton, 2015, p. 13). When a
problem persists, their hope tank becomes empty and dry. The professional is encouraged to
advocate for their client, helping to give them a glimpse of the light at the end of the tunnel
(Hawkins & Clinton, 2015). As part of this, the Christian counselor can provide the hope of a
breakthrough through the gospel of Jesus and assurance of God’s unconditional love and
dedication to His creation through Christ's life, death, and resurrection (Hawkins & Clinton,
2015). Jesus is the ultimate answer to fill any gap or hole in a client’s life caused by themselves
or others.
Community
From the very beginning of time, God created human beings to be relational. Reflecting
on the relationship within the trinity, one of the first acts of God with humanity is providing
Adam with Eve, as He noted it wasn’t good for Adam to be by himself (Hawkins & Clinton,
2015). The first relationship that a human being experiences is the relationship with their
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caregiver, which provides the foundation or secure base for which the human being develops
(Clinton & Hawkins, 2015). This is known as attachment theory. What they receive from their
caregiver will likely determine how they approach relationships with others and God; when
someone experiences not a secure base and healthy attachment but anxious, disturbed, or
avoidant attachment styles with their caregiver, that will likely flow into their relationships and
identity as they develop, creating more relational brokenness (Hawkins & Clinton, 2015).
This brokenness, however, provides an excellent opportunity for healing and grace
through other relationships. “Brokeness occurs in community, and healing occurs in biblical
community” (Hawkins & Clinton, 2015, p. 126). Evidence of this claim is Biblical through
passages that talk about healing through relational confession, forgiveness, help, and
forbearance, all within the community context. The community is triangular as humans have
relationships with themselves, others, and God or views of other god-like beings. In the case of
counseling, professionals are called to operate in Parakaleo. Parakaleo, which means “coming
alongside,” is an accurate definition of the foundation of Christian Counseling (Hawkins &
Clinton, 2015). Providing encouragement, assessment, adaptation, plans, spiritual disciplines,
and accountability is crucial in this coming alongside. Real external change comes from real
internal change, and part of the role of the counselor is to hold the client accountable, always
speaking the truth in love, to restore a correct view of healthy relationships (Hawkins & Clinton,
2015).
Holistic Human Beings
Human beings are not simple creatures in the slightest. When something happens to us
physically, it doesn’t just affect us physically but likely will affect us emotionally, volitionally,
spiritually, and in other dimensions of living. Humans operate in a systematic, multi-modal
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world of which the counselor needs to be aware (Hawkins & Clinton, 2015). These modalities or
modes of the human being can provide the counselor with a more catered approach to an action
plan and how to approach counseling the client in their firing order. For example, not all clients
will talk about their emotions immediately and may lean towards starting with actions or
discussing relationships or thoughts. The authors lay out an excellent table for counselors to fill
out, noting the firing order and other notes about various modalities such as core, thinking,
decisions, feeling, body, temporal systems, and supernatural systems (Hawkins & Clinton,
2015).
Analysis
It would be unwise to invalidate the value of secular counseling contexts, themes, and
ideas. Many of the client’s problems may require their counselor to be knowledgeable beyond
theology and spirituality. For this reason, integration is crucial. Hawkins and Clinton appear to
have a primarily allies paradigm approach to their view on integration. This is also known as
Christ, the transformer of culture approach to counseling and integration. Elements of this
approach include recognizing the good in both the Bible and science, the vital need for an
alliance between science and scripture, and the desire for unity and transformation by any means
notable. Psychological research is essential to the authors (Heck, 2024).
On several occasions, the authors talk about counselors' need to expand their knowledge
pool beyond Christian material and resources because a “narrow and simplistic approach doesn’t
honor God or help those who come to us for help” (Hawkins & Clinton, 2015, p. 37). They also
encourage secular administrative paperwork such as consent forms, confidentiality, and ethical
excellence (Hawkins & Clinton, 2015). Furthermore, the authors discuss various modalities and
dimensions of persons, which aligns with a more psychological approach. The authors also do an
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excellent job of providing scriptures, Biblical themes, and spiritual disciplines. They build on the
concept of the human core or spirit made in the image of God and the Holy Spirit, indwelling the
believer and branching out from there. By utilizing psychological themes, scripture, theology,
and Biblical themes, the authors appear to, on the surface, provide a well-balanced integration.
While, for the most part, Hawkins and Clinton seem to lean towards the allies paradigm,
some parts of their book would indicate two other approaches. The first is a Christ and Culture
approach. The elements of this come from the separation of the dimensions and modalities of the
human being, specifically between dimensions such as emotional and relational versus spiritual
and supernatural (Hawkins & Clinton, 2015). While they incorporate scripture into these
separations, essentially, it is classifying from this author’s perspective and indicates a separation
between psychological problems and spiritual problems. In addition, some concepts are
seemingly sprinkled with scripture, such as the claim that counseling is a form of discipleship
(Hawkins & Clinton, 2015) and some scripture but not much explanation beyond that. If that was
supposed to be a focus, they missed it. This aspect of their writing leans towards a Christ of
Culture approach. In their defense, it is worth noting that integration on any level is not a simple
task, and compartmentalizing aspects of humanity and sprinkling scripture into psychological
concepts makes it easier for the counselor to help the client potentially. Hawkins and Clinton do
an excellent job of a well-balanced integration.
Application
Much can be applied because Hawkins and Clinton touch and expand on so many aspects
of the counseling experience. For me, there were six applications that I plan to utilize right away.
This includes but may not be limited to implementing and analyzing firing orders and
assessment, accountability, preparation, boundaries, and preventing burnout. Each of these
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applications is vital for the new Christian counselor because they provide a solid foundation for
the counselor to build on as they pursue long-term success in their cumulative career
development (Hawkins & Clinton, 2015).
Assessment and analysis are a vital part of the counseling journey. The authors say,
“Counselors must be skilled analysts” (Hawkins & Clinton, 2015, p. 233). The first application
in this is the firing order through the table provided by Hawkins and Clinton on pages 240-241.
The authors talk about how human beings relate through a variety of modalities. In my current
counseling relationships, noting the firing order of a person is extremely valuable because if I
can mention the order in which a client connects, I can approach my questions and even
intervention strategies and tactics with that in mind. Secondly, I would be wise to have an
assessment toolbox appropriate for congregants in the church setting. Assessments such as
questionnaires, checklists, and genograms were the most valuable and easily applicable
assessments. I have had firsthand experience with checklists. However, I would need to talk to
other counselors and find such assessments to utilize.
One thing I’ve noticed is a weak point for me, as I’ve only started counseling in the last
couple of years, which is an understanding of proper accountability. The stark reality of the
transformation journey is that the client has to believe within themselves that they can change
and be free and healed (Hawkins & Clinton, 2015). The counselor, however, has to approach the
client with an accountability balance of comfort, support, challenge, hope, and allowance to fail
(Hawkins & Clinton, 2015). The two aspects I struggle with currently are allowance to fail and
challenge. Moving forward, when a congregant comes to me about something, I will listen for
the Holy Spirit to guide me rather than just jumping in and comforting me. Secondly, continuous
challenges based on goals and maybe even terminating the counseling relationship are things I
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have not done well. Moving forward, I plan to place a relapse timeline of 3 months for
intervention plans, meaning a client has a certain amount of time to complete an intervention
task, and if they don’t follow through, then I may have to terminate the counseling relationship
and refer them to someone else.
There are only so many hours in a day, and counseling is not an easy calling. This is why
preparation and boundaries are essential in preventing burnout. As noted before, Christian
counseling is spiritual warfare. While I have utilized a variety of prayer, scripture, and other
spiritual disciplines in the counseling room, I have not prepared spiritually specifically for each
client. Hawkins and Clinton talk about the need to pray for each client and look over their notes
from previous sessions before a session. I plan to implement this right away. One thing within
this is the tendency to work from home. This is why boundaries are also important. Whether
knowing when to terminate counseling, furthering education, or leaving work at work, the new
Christian counselor has to establish limits to prevent burnout. I intend to draw up a document of
boundaries that will be included in counseling onboarding paperwork for the future to work on
this. At 29 years old, I feel I am on top of the world. However, there may come a time when I
don’t have the energy and drive I have now, and in those times, I have to lean back on disciplines
that keep me healthy. The goal for the new Christian counselor is longevity.
References
Hawkins, R. E., & Clinton, T. E. (2015). The new Christian counselor. Harvest House
Publishers.
Heck, T. (May 29, 2024). Models for Interdisciplinary Integration.
https://canvas.liberty.edu/courses/629720/pages/watch-models-for-interdisciplinary-integration?
module_item_id=67109009
New American Standard Bible. (1995) The Lockman Foundation.
