Week 5 & 6
The Bible in Christian
Counseling
Welcome to week five of counseling 5-6. And this first lecture on the subject, the use of the Bible
and Christian counseling. Using the Bible is both a necessity and an obligation. If we're calling
ourselves christian counselors. The following are some key scriptures for use of the Bible in
counseling or not, whether we should use the Scripture, but in what way should Scripture be
used? Under what circumstances with which clients? In other words, it's always a mistake to
simply decide ahead of time that we have a certain view of the authority of the scripture and that
we love and trust the Bible has a foundation for our lives. So we're going to use it in the same
way at all times and all places with all clients. That's not at all a very sensitive or professional or
even godly way to use the scriptures. The scriptures or the living Word, the logo us, the word of
God for all people, for all time. But the scriptures also contain aroma of personal living Word to
each person. This is a way we help God. And being conduits through which God can act in a
personal way to give a personal word to those clients. We counsel. So the question is, in what
ways should Scripture be used, under what circumstances with which clients? The next three
questions correlate well with Mick mins earlier map for effective Christian counseling. First,
where does the scripture fit in building a healthy sense of client? There are many scriptures that
speak to the sense of self, both in a healthy sense and in an unhealthy or fallen sense of self, a
selfishness with which people often struggle. Scripture tells us in the great commandment about
loving others as we love ourselves. This is an important biblical principle in order to have a
healthy sense of self. Next, how do we use the Scripture to nurture a healthy sense of need and
the client, how can we help the client see that they are not a sufficient person? And in and of
themselves. They knew God. They need God's word and they need God's forgiveness. Then, how
do we use the Scripture to be a healing relationships? And what ways do our clients need to
know about the grace of God, about reconciliation, about the very specific purpose God has for
their lives. And then this fifth question, why am I using the Scripture in this way? At this time?
This has to do with counselors self-awareness. Are we using this scripture like this? Because we
have carefully discerned. It's in the best interests of the client. Or because this is way we always
do things. Perhaps if you really get honest about your motives and using scripture, you may find
you're not willing to explore other means. The bible is one of the greatest resources we have, but
we must be sure we're not using it for the wrong reasons or motives. Air Johnson has written
about the influence of the Bible and Christian counseling and has identified at least nine ways in
which the scriptures have an impact on what you do as a Christian counselor. First, the Bible has
an influence, a foundational way. For those who revere and trust the Bible as the source of our
core beliefs and as a guide for life in practice. It is foundational. It provides our worldview, our
presuppositions. Second, the Bible has an experiential influence in counseling is through the
Bible that we can look at our experiences and ask, what does this mean? Why did this happen?
What purpose does this experience serve? These are often the questions that our clients have. Not
so much to say This happened to me, but to say, why did this happen to me? What did this mean?
Next? The Bible provides a context for answering questions. It gives a contextual purpose and
understanding of what the world is like. When people wondering, what kind of world do I live
in? Or when we're trying to understand the nature of human beings. The Bible offers a context
for understanding nature and people. Then the Bible is axial illogical, which is a term that refers
to the moral or ethical life. The Bible provides a moral program. It defines what is right and
wrong. It gives a universal standard for ethical behavior. This is especially important in our
present world, where so many people have a relativistic worldview. They're not really sure what
is right and wrong. They're not so much immoral, has they are amoral. And then the Bible is
anthropological. Johnson states that Scripture provides a metanarrative of humanity, meaning a
tails the big story of how all of us yearn to feel a sense of belonging, to feel that we're not the
only ones who are going through problems. This is especially true when we're having very
painful and problematic experiences. The Bible shows the Big Picture stretching from the
beginning in Genesis to the end of all things in the book of revelation. The Bible talks about the
common experience we humans have as creative beings. Next, The Bible is canonical. It
provides a standard of measure for the truth. The Scriptures tell us that Jesus Christ brought us
grace and truth. And that is a fundamental doctrine of elite for Christians in Christ. We have the
personification and embodiment of truth. This is a very important consideration in today's
context in which the truth is seen as being a personal choice. What's true for me is not
necessarily true for you, and vice versa. The Bible provides a standard for all of this. And then
the Bible provides a dialogical influence. It is a resource for discussion and comparison with
psychology. We should not forget that psychological theories and constructs or human theories
and constructs. Often clients have trouble distinguishing between human and psychological
theories and ultimate truth. The Bible provides a resource for talking about and comparing those
kinds of theoretical issues. And allows us to dialogue with people about truth, universal and
timeless, on which they can build their lives. Next, The Bible is creative, a resource for exploring
concepts beyond psychology. Finally, and most importantly, the Bible is transformative. It is the
living word of God for which we can become new creations. It is through the Bible that God is
always working to heal in changes from the inside out. Since there's such a broad influence that
the Bible has on counseling, how do we go about using such a powerful tool? Stand gems has
given us four strategies that allow us to use the Bible at various levels. One of the obvious ways
to use the Bible is to derive techniques directly from the Bible. As an example, if we are working
on issues of guilt, we can remember that in Paul's letter to the Philippians, He speaks directly
about issues of guilt. He says this, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one
thing I do, forgetting was behind in straining toward what does ahead. Press on for the goal to
win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. As another example, in
the Gospel of Matthew, the sermon on the Mount, Jesus speaks directly about issues of
resentment and forgiveness. He says in Matthew 614 through 1540, forgive men when they sin
against you. Your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men and their
sense, your Father will not forgive your sins. In a third example, Jesus tells a parable other rich
full in the 12th chapter of Luke. He addresses issues of greed and money worries that had been
raised by a person in the crowd. These three stories, or just a few examples of the ways the Bible
directly addresses human problems. To draw upon those and to apply them in counseling
situations can be very helpful when you're dealing with clients who are open to the Bible. For
many people, their Bible knowledge is so minimal that the most frequent reaction of clients is
one of surprise. They were unaware that the Bible is such a practical and powerful book on these
kinds of day-to-day issues and dynamics. A second way to use the Bible and counseling is to
draw upon principles that are found in Scripture. Not necessarily direct quotes, but therapeutic
principles that are there. For instance, many people trained in the object relations theory believed
in the idea of dreams. And that there's a value in analyzing the dreams of their clients has a way
of help, helping them to access subconscious issues. This can be seen has a values neutral
technique that is supported in Scripture. Remember all the guidance that came from God in the
form of dreams to biblical characters. Joseph received a number of dreams. Daniel received
messages from Galilee and dreams. Joseph, the stepfather Jesus, received agreeing to leave Israel
and go to Egypt, and on and on and on. Next. How often did Jesus take his disciples On a
personal retreat away from pressures of life to pray and reflect on God's work and their lives as
they walk from town to town. So the notion of using a personal retreat as a therapeutic technique
is another example of a principle supported in Scripture. Jesus also use small groups as a strategy
of working with a very limited number of people, 12 in particular. And among those dwell, there
was an even smaller circle of three whom he befriended in a particular way to disciple and to
build them up. The power of small groups is a principle found in scripture. A third level of
strategic use of the bible would be to engage in practices that are consistent with biblical
principles. For example, we can use the empty chair technique to help clients deal with grief or
relational conflicts they've had in their labs. Or to help them express the powerful feelings in a
way that is not threatening or inviting clients take aren't. Role-play is another example. These are
values neutral techniques that are in no way inconsistent with the Bible. And the fourth level in
using the Bible really has to do more with what not to do and counseling, which is to avoid
counseling techniques that are inconsistent with scripture. For instance, a Christian Bible
believing counselor would never encourage the client to engage in sexual sin as a therapeutic
technique or to take revenge against someone who has hurt them or intentionally engage in
selfish, self-centered behavior that will hurt themselves or their families. As we reviewed it last
week, to the columns found in the metamorphic grade or label spiritual formation principles and
biblical references. These columns provide a resource for including the Bible in your counseling
work. To the extent that their level of faith will permit. It is important to have our clients
involved in biblical reasoning. If we're working with a Christian fly and it is a key principle for
growth in their life. What often happens for those who are immature in the faith is to
compartmentalize the Bible and the faith resources in their lives. The Bible is not used for
understanding and reasoning about live, but has kept out of the counseling sessions. While
secular ways of reasoning about problems are used instead. So an important resource we can use
with Christian clients is to help them learn to reason biblically about their problems. The biblical
reference section of the grid gives you some beginning scripture for doing just that. Depending
on the area of human functioning you're dealing with. You simply go to that section related to the
area of functioning and you will find some appropriate versus this column also gives you some
resources for encouraging clients to meditate upon scriptures and to memorize certain key versus
as a way of correcting their faulty thinking and beliefs. One of the most powerful processes in
human functioning for good or for bad and our lives has to do with our self talk, with our
habitual ways of thinking. Often, when a person is having problems big enough to require
counseling, their normal ways of thinking are quite faulty and distorted. Early on in the
counseling process, it is important to help your clients identify their areas of visual faulty
thinking and beliefs. As an example, remember the verses that speak of the demons that were
driven from a man that then return worse than they had been before because they found Laplace
empty and clean. It's very important that client be guided to replace their faulty thinking and
beliefs with more positive and wholesome and healing ways of thinking. The biblical reference
column also provides you with an axial logical reference or standards in the Bible for right and
wrong and a canonical reference, which is the standards for truth. Many of our clients questions
regarding what they're struggling with, our moral issues. Perhaps they have felt wronged by
another person, or perhaps they are engaging in wrongdoing. Perhaps you're not sure what the
right thing to do in a situation is. They have come to us for help. So having biblical references
are a good beginning places to provide standards to help guide our clients. The last use of the
column is related to you. Your life as a counselor is to promote your intra personal formation. If
you are going to be counseling other people as your ministry, the number one preparation is your
own formation in the spirit of Christ. Your careful study of meditation upon scripture is one of
the key resources you have, informing yourself about the spirit of Christ. And then in your
clinical practice has you're spending time thinking and praying for clients to use the metamorphic
grade as a way of focusing upon some biblical references. That will help you to think about your
clients in biblical terms. Have you ever noticed that often or temptation always comes in relation
to our strengths? Were never tempted to do something that we're not capable of doing. And the
Bible is such a strong resource and counseling that there's a temptation to misuse it. Now I want
to point to five potential problems in using the Bible in counseling. A first problem has to do
with professional identity issues. Many times people come into counseling, even Christian
counseling, after other resources have failed. Have clients come to you who have been to church
and have even talked to the pastor, who have listen to sermons over and over and found that it
just wasn't enough or it just wasn't helpful at all. So they will come to you, a professional
counselor. And if you just use the Bible with them, from their perspective, you're no different
than the other resources they've already tried that failed them. They may say, Hey, I thought you
were a counselor. Why are you not counseling me? I didn't come here just for you to read the
Bible to me. I can do that myself. So it's very important to be aware of what your client's
expectations are and to understand how your use of the Bible fits in with your professional
identity. A second potential trap is to use the Bible in a preachy way where you do all the talking.
And where the Bible is used in overbearing way, preventing rather than promoting dialogue with
your clients. A third potential problem is using the Bible as a smokescreen to stay in your safe
zone. As a Bible believing Christian, you know, you can count on the Word of God and you
know, what that says is true. But this can also be a trap. You could use it as an excuse for failing
to meet your clients where they are or to not venture into those areas where you just do not know
what to say or do. And you must trust the Holy Spirit to guide you. So you use the Bible to create
a buffer zone away from areas you are uncomfortable dealing with. Then there's less chance for
risky things to happen, such as the client crying or just pouring out their feelings, or becoming
very angry, or engaging in other unpredictable behavior. The fourth potential problem has to do
with over-confidence. Overconfidence is always a trap. We know we can count on God's word,
but we must be very careful about always counting on ourselves. The Bible in its application is
an interpretive process. So we have to be very careful to not just slap a Bible verse onto
someone's problems or make a comment on something because we assure the Bible supports us.
Without reflecting on the context of the verse. We have to show some wisdom, humility, not
over-confidence. The fifth potential problem is overreliance on the Bible. This may sound
strange since we, as Christians, depend on God's living warden or lives. But it is quite possible to
rely excessively on the Bible and counseling when other strategies may be more helpful to the
client at that moment. This is one of the reasons that you have been provided the metamorphic
integrative counseling grid. You are given some biblical resources. But also on the same page,
you have references to counseling theories and psychological techniques that are used in a way
that conform to the Word of God in the healing of God's people. Now look over again, which
you've learned about using the Bible and counseling. And please keep reviewing thin
metamorphic grid to become as familiar as possible with this excellent tool.
Using the Bible for Spiritual
Formation
Welcome to the second lecture in week 5 of counseling 500 six. This time we're going to focus
on principles related to using the Bible for spiritual formation. It is critical that Christian
counselors read the Bible on a regular basis. That we have some sort of daily rule for a quiet time
and reading the Bible. But for all of us, we can always become better students of the marble. And
we can all learn better ways to use the Bible as an open door for God to form us more into the
image of Christ. This is also true for our clients for whom we know that the Bible can be a life
changing experience. They will need some specific guidance about how to study the Bible.
While we hope that none of our clients will be spiritually mature. And their use of the Bible,
counseling is an opportunity to show them better ways in which to use the scriptures and how
they come alive and can become a tool for their spiritual formation. Let's look at the formative
idea of reading the Bible. Now this is not the same as informative reading. When you do your
personal Bible study. That can be seen has informative reading. However, when we engage in
personal bible reading, this is more formative for us. Here. We're not so much interested in
knowing what the Bible says, as in learning what the Bible says to us. So it is important to know
that formative reading of the Bible is less like reading a textbook. More like reading a letter from
a close friend. When we read a letter from a close friend, we enjoy the feeling of it. We meditate
upon it. We save those letters and savor the words. We look for. The meaning between the lines.
Reading the Bible is more like that. We want to know what the Bible says about our lives. Or not
just reading the Bible, but allowing the Bible to read us. To be asking as you move through the
Scripture, what does this say about me? Where's my life? Whereas my part of this story, as you
can see, when you read in this way, you cannot be rushing through because to read formatively is
not to read for volume. It is to read for the quality of the experience, not the quantity of how
many chapters you can cover in a single sitting. This means it may be just averse or two. And
then reading those versus many times. Sometimes it may be just a word that grabs your attention
through which God is speaking to you. It is learning to a bad. Really abide with God. Also,
reading the scriptures formatively is an experience of receiving. As a counselor, you spin your
day giving and giving and giving. Sometimes to the point that you have nothing more to give.
For many of the clients that you see, their lives are completely spend. They feel that they are
being pulled down by forces all around them. This may come from major stresses or being in
dysfunctional relationships or because of overwhelming addictions may also come from trying to
deal with any mental health problems they have, such as depression or anxiety, that have become
like bandages in which they are now stuck. They need more than anything else to receive grace
and guidance and transformation of the heart. This is what the experience of formative reading is
really all about. We do face some significant obstacles to formative reading. These are habits of
thought, of the heart, of attitudes that get in the way of a fresh experience of God's Spirit through
the word. Sometimes we approach the Bible with unrealistic expectations. Such as when we're
trying to use the scripture in a way that it was not designed to be used. For example, the Bible
talks about biblical personalities, but we would not use it as a textbook on personality. Our
expectations need to be that God is going to speak to our hearts, but that it will not have a
magical quality to it. God will exercise the spirits freedom, speak to us, has E sees fit. Sometimes
we get impatient for results. We won't instant results in everything we do. Now this is a very
common quality you find in clients who come for counseling. They want to meet with you want
or at most twice, and find answers to the problems that they had been troubled with for years.
They expect a few good words from you. A Bible verse here or there, a prayer, and they're fixed
and done. That is not the way that the problems are solved. And it is rarely the way God works.
Let's be honest. Sometimes we're just lazy. We have become complacent, which results in a
spiritual deafness. Regarding God's word. It's when we pick up the Bible to read that it's just
empty words to us on the page. Deep learnings and deep truths of life cannot be learned
overnight. They can't be learned by hearing them one time. They require spiritual discipline.
They require a return to the word over and over. As you're working with clients, informative
reading. One of the keys is to help them develop beginning discipline. Even just five minutes a
day to learn to spend time in the Word of God. Sometimes we're not able to engage in formative
reading because we have control issues, were unable to let go. And so we start trying to use the
Bible as a tool to solve all of our problems. And it is not that we're trying to learn to give control
of our lives to God. But we are trying to use the word of God as one more tool for us to stay in
control and to control our own problems. Sometimes we have what the desert teachers referred to
as the appreciative desires. Desires like competing and comparing and analyzing, or excessive
attachments to consolations. We just won't. So I'm going to take care of us or to have things
airway. Often were just plain exhausted. Sometimes one of the most spiritual things that post-
modern Americans can do is to take an app. You may feel that yourself, as you do this class,
while having a job, raising a family, having a life, you must take good care of yourself as you
can. So as you read the Bible, if you find that there is just not an openness to it, or you just find
that it is a lifeless page for you. It may be that you are simply exhausted from an overactive life.
Sometimes we deny our limitations. We can have a tendency to believe we're more able to do
things and have more understanding than we really do. We may need a dose of humility when we
come to the word of God to realize that God can teach us, but we will never teach God.
Sometimes we are over serious, or we prejudge the scriptures. We think we know what it says, or
that we must figure out everything that is in the Bible. There are many troubling texts that
scholars have tried to understand for years with no easy resolution. But we must believe that God
is revealing it to us day by day, moment by moment. So it is important to let go of that kind of
attitude towards the scriptures. Now that we've talked about obstacles, Let's look at some
positive conditions to formula of reading. Positive qualities, such as humility gives us an
openness, a teachability, and a realism about the Bible. And important first for our consideration
here is God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. We also need patients. Formative
reading is reading and rereading. It is waiting upon God. It is to believe in the mini promises in
the Bible that those who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. Positive respect for the
Bible initiates positive respect for God. And obedient spirit is an important positive condition. It
goes right along with trust in God, knowing that God is able and that God is working. There is
also the knowledge that we can let go of our strict reliance on ourselves and not feel that we have
to figure everything out or think everything through until it makes sense. Informative. Reading.
A positive condition is to trust the Holy Spirit. Goddess has, God sees fit, and to loosen our
reliance on our own intellect and analysis. One thing we can be sure to expect is the experience
of grace. So for each text we come to, we know it is good news in some way. Now the opposite
condition of complacency is persistence. And to not give into boredom, even when the biblical
text you are reading does not seem to be the most exciting. For instance, reading through
numbers may not be as interesting has reading through Genesis. But both books serve a purpose.
Reading the Bible formatively requires courage. It requires the willingness to ask the hard
questions about how to apply it to our daily lives. The last positive condition when reading is to
have attitudes of hopefulness and joyfulness. To be ready to receive whatever God is going to
give you, to expect a surprise, to believe that God is going to do something in the here and now
that exceeds anything you might have thought about. Or some protestant Christians, the very
word meditation raises warning alarms because meditation has been spoken of in New Age and
spiritual materials that are not connected with Christianity. But meditation is a Christian practice
that is spoken of and described often in the Bible. Christian meditation is distinguished by the
goal of not to get in touch with ourselves, but to get in touch with God. As this almost wrote,
blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, or stand in the way of
centers, or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord. And on his law, he
meditates day and night. Christian meditation is really a change from our usual pattern of seeking
to get to the bottom line and of getting answers on our schedule. It is weighting of dwelling, of
gently receiving. It requires getting still enough to be able to listen to God. Now this can be a
very therapeutic technique with clients who are struggling with chronic anxiety by helping them
day by day to learn to relax. And God, one of the widely used techniques and counseling has to
do with relaxation techniques. And relaxation responses. And these can be very helpful. They are
values neutral techniques that can be used in Christian counseling. But the next level for clients
who have learned to relax a little is to teach them that to meditate on the Lord. To do Christian
meditation is something that we'll refresh their spirit and helps them to learn how to listen to
God. In Christian meditation, we become mindful of the sacredness of everyday life. We begin to
see God at work. In the simplest things around us. The sun and wind on our faces. The stars in
the sky at night. Animals moving in the forest. The beauty of the trees and the flowers and the
grass around us. Christian meditation involves learning to let go of the need to always understand
in favor of trust in God's character and promises. A common complaint of clients and counseling
is that they just want to understand. Take for example, a client who comes for counseling to deal
with the grief, anger, and depression at having suddenly lost their spouse. Often someone in such
a circumstance will say, I just want to understand why. But some things are not going to be
understood, at least not immediately. Krishna meditation is an important technique for helping
people to relinquish that need to understand in favor of trusting that God is working and that he
has only the best in mind for us. Finally, Christian meditation is an important way to overcome
our preoccupation with clock time and to learn to relax. Many of us have an urgency addiction.
We spend much of our time rushing around with more commitments than we can possibly honor.
And that living in such an urgent, frantic way becomes a way of life similar to an addiction. In
Christian meditation, we intentionally let go of urgency and the distractions in our lives and
simply focus upon the Word of God. To finish up this segment, one last thing is to begin to find a
helpful and brief scripture. You can teach your clients to memorize and on which they can
meditate. If they're not prepared to memorize it. You can write it out on a little flashcard for them
and they can use it in that way. One such scripture is Psalm 42, tin be still and know that I am
God. Short. And to the point. I hope this lecture on the use of the Bible for spiritual formation
has been helpful to you as a counselor. And we'll provide some helpful resources for your clients.
The Bible and the Christian
Counselor
Role of the bible:
Becomes a central book in the library of the Christian and the Christian counselor. The holy
Spirit is power from the inside out….not the outside in. The word of God is food to the Spirit of
God. The Holy Spirit is provision with food to be energetically involved in assisting in the
transformation. The Holy Spirit Needs the word of God as a priority in my mind in order to work
effectively in my life.
When we
Effective ways of using Scripture in counseling
Prayer and Christian
Counseling
Welcome to week six of counseling 56. This week's focus is on prayer and Christian counseling.
In this and the second lecture, we will look at specific ways that prayer is used in counseling and
seek to understand how we can become a more prayerful people and how we can help connect
our clients with God through prayer. A starting point for us is to focus on a working definition of
prayer. As we might use in Christian counseling. There have been thousands of books written on
prayer. And the Lord was approached by his disciples with a simple request. Teach us how to
pray. Now, these men and watch Jesus raise people from the dead. They had watched him calm a
raging sea and stormy weather. They had watched him multiply the bread and fish to feed a
multitude. They had watched him heal lepers and the blind and drive out demons. But somehow
they perceived that the real source of power in Jesus came from his prayer life. So they didn't ask
teachers to do Miracles. Teaches how to calm the weather. They said, teach us how to pray. And
that is still our request today. That more and more on a daily basis, we might turn to Christ
himself, has our teacher in prayer. Along the way. Many people have been used by Christ. Teach
us about prayer in the life of prayer. St. Augustan was one of those great teachers. In
summarizing much of his thinking and teaching about prayer, he said, true whole Prayer is
nothing but love. He was cutting through the layers of discussion about techniques of prayer,
about proper wording or posture, places or methods of prayer. To say that prayer is our
connection with the love of God. Now there is a difference between the practice of prayer in the
name of Jesus and human prayer fullness. Some of you may remember the days following the
September 11th terrorist attacks. Churches in chapels were nearly full, even with people who
claim to believe in nothing. But were there praying for relatives, friends, and loved ones who had
yet to be found in the rubble of the World Trade Center destruction. There was a tremendous
outpouring of human prayerfulness, an instinctive response in times of great crisis, an
overwhelming need for a contact with something or someone greater than us. There was a strong
desire for transcendent experience, for help from beyond. The Christian prayer is more specific
than that. To pray as a Christian is to believe in the power of the name of Jesus. To pray as a
Christian is to pray through Jesus. Thanks be to God that the only intercessor we have is Jesus
himself, who was described has being at the right hand of the Father. He is always interceding
for his people. Now there's a great paradox and prayers we seek to define what it is. Prayer is
both something we do and something we couldn't possibly do it as a gift we receive. In church
you've heard stories of believers who were called prayer warriors, or that they had the gift of
prayer. That is an accurate way of speaking of a praying person. Some people do seem to have a
special anointing, a special gift for prayer. The prayer, something that all Christians can do and
are commanded to do. It is an activity that we can learn and that we can teach others to do.
Prayer is a basic receptive attitude. That it is not what we say nor in our posture or any special
words we use. But it is waiting on God, waiting to receive what he has for us. Also, prayer as a
listening attitude. It is responding to the divine voice and call in our lives. Christian counseling
always involves God, as the powerful third party and healing and change. So prayer is that
ultimate therapeutic relationship in which we are connected to God in the work that we do.
Dallas Willard summarize prayer by describing it as the way of the request he offers the
biblically grounded inside. That prayer is really a matter of asking for what we need. Seek and
you will find knock and the door will be opened to you. Now sum of Asked, if clients are paying
for their therapy, should we pray with them? Main points out that the more appropriate question
is, which forms of prayer should we use with which clients, and under what circumstances? As
Christian counselors, we should pray as part of our work. The real questions revolve more
around how should we pray? How should we draw our clients? And in what ways can prayer be
use to open up the hearts of people so that the Holy Spirit might speak powerfully into their
lives. Part of the training and supervision we receive should teach us ways to show appropriate
caution so that we do not violate the empowerment client's ability to self-direct or so that we do
not attempt to draw people into praying in ways that are not appropriate to their level of spiritual
development. What about if we're dealing with non-believers? Do we still pray for them? Well,
of course we do. But do we pray out loud with him in the session? Do we pray silently. Do we
pray outside of the counseling session? Those are just some of the questions you must wrestle
with as a Christian counselor. On the next two slides are laid out a few points that compare the
processes of Outside in change with inside-out change. For long-term transformational change in
redemption. The inside-out process is key. This is not intended to dismiss or do away with the
importance of therapeutic techniques that work from the outside in those are very important to
help move clients towards inside-out change. When speaking of outside in change, people often
go through what therapists referred to as dislocating experiences, such as the death of a loved
one or a terrible tragedy. The counselor hopes to use a dislocating experience to create a moment
in which a person might be teachable to use it as a way to break through the numbness in their
life or to break habits that are causing problems. Another way people may go through outside in
change is the idea of hitting bottom. You hear this term used in addiction circles, such as in the
belief that an alcoholic will finally go to rehab or start getting involved with Alcoholics
Anonymous when they can go no lower. But hitting rock bottom varies with each person.
Sometimes it takes the loss of a job. Sometimes the bottom comes when a spouse has had enough
and walks out, taking the children with them and leaving them alone. Or maybe the individual
has been arrested for number of DUIS and now has lost their driver's license. Sometimes the
bottom comes when family and friends confront the alcoholic in the form of an intervention.
Interventions can be very useful because they are intended to create a bottom without all of the
consequences that might happen later on. Change therapies are methods that are actively
involved helping people to connect with our external pane so that they are more willing to
change. The idea is that there is an internal balance that all of us have where we will continue
doing the things we're doing until they become so painful that the cost is too high to keep doing
them. And then were willing to pay the cost to change. Sometimes you hear speakers talk about
acting your way into feeling and thinking. This can be a powerful outside and type of change.
Showing clients they can achieve the things they need, helping them to change their behavior.
Recall that one of the nine dimensions of human functioning on the metamorphic grid is action
or the behavior of a person. So often a starting point when we want to help people see some
immediate results and begin to build motivation through those results is starting with their
actions. We can do this by helping them through cognitive behavior therapy to identify
troublesome behaviors. Now the remarkable thing is that as our behavior changes, our feelings
and thinking can change to we feel that we now feel differently about ourselves. We now think in
a clearer way, because we change some small actions. Sometimes outside in change also takes
the form of what will it refers to as condemnation engineering. Meaning that in much of our lives
we experience condemnation. That all around us. We find judgmental attitudes, guilt trips,
nitpicking over every little thing. So we want to make sure that we do not do that to our clients.
The one thing we can be sure of with every client we see that each of them is experienced some
form of condemnation in their life. So we need to practice praying for them, as well as praying
for ourselves that we would not have a condemning or judgmental attitude towards them. It can
be a real professional challenge. When you see clients who have engaged in behavior that you've
consider repellent. To be able to receive them with true hospitality, and to really be able to pray
for them has an act of grace. However, you find that you cannot get past the sense of
condemnation toward a client because of what they've done. The professional and ethical
requirement is to refer that person to someone else. You are not required to counsel every person
that walks through your door. Now there are two downsides to outside and change. One is if we
misread our clients motivations, our efforts can come across as trying to force upon others good
things. It is similar to the principal Jesus refers to when he talks about not casting your pearls
before swine. What happens when you feed pearls to pigs? Well, it makes them sick because they
can't digest them. So you've not only lost your pearls. Now the pigs are sick. This is what
happens when we force good things on people that they're not ready yet to receive. The second is
that we have to be careful to not be more motivated than our clients. Or we end up working
harder than they do. And they still do not receive the change. When we went over the
metamorphic grid. Remember that the meta theory behind it is a spiritual formation and so care
model of healing. That is a model of healing based on an inside out change. This is where prayer
works within the core self. Those areas of the person's, we'll their conscience, the awakening of
the image of God and the Holy Spirit within that person. The power to be found in a changed
heart through Jesus. One key area of the core self is the conscience, which is that area of our
inner life in which we discern right from wrong. Now the problem is that true conviction must
flow from the inside out. If we're trying to make someone feel convicted with our words or
trying to force outside in change. Than people make comments like, don't preach at me, or you
hypocrite, stop looking down on me. For true conviction to work. People must feel like it is
coming from them. In the same way, conversion to faith in Christ is an act of the wheel of a
person. It must flow from a person's heart. Paul, writing about this in first Corinthians 12 says,
no one says Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. He was acknowledging how the spirit of
God alone works on the heart of a person to draw that person to the faith. So it is the work of the
Holy Spirit, stirring up the image of God through which each of us are created. That really begins
to move a person toward conviction and then conversion and toward the great purpose for which
they were created. We help this inside-out change through prayer. Prayer is the divine request.
And as a way for us to request a changed heart, we never demand, but are persistent and
passionate about making our request known to God that He might change a person for their
good, for his good, and for the good of the world. I hope this information has been useful.
Continue to ponder the power of prayer in the lives of our clients.
Prayer for Psychological and
Spiritual Health
Welcome to the second presentation of week six of counseling 506. Now, we will look more
carefully at the therapeutic uses of prayer for psychological and spiritual health. We noted in the
first segment that all Christian counselors are praying people. So our challenge is to discern the
best ways to pray with. And for our clients. There's the belief in a Trinitarian relationship in
Christian counseling. This is the powerful truth. God is always the third party in what we do. It is
God who provides all healing and who speaks through our prayers to connect with the client. So
we acknowledge that all healing comes from God as we pray. Whether we are praying outside of
sessions for clients, praying within counseling sessions, or using prayer as homework. Prayer is
also an openness, an attitude of receptivity. Remember the previous lecture, that prayer is both a
request and the ability to receive God's answer to that request. Prayer is also discernment.
Sometimes we can be so obsessed with rationality and thinking and logic that we often forget
that there are other forms of discernment. People use forms of intuitional, an imaginative
discernment. But God also provides Christians with prayerful discernment. Prayer can be a
strong way to discern many aspects of life that elude our logical abilities. Willard writes that
prayer is also an adventure from false certainty to true uncertainty. It sounds strange. Think for a
moment about people you know, who have been absolutely positive about certain facts in their
lives that turn out to be false or miss readings about what really happened. Or they have faith and
a can't miss stock or a business deal and end up losing their investment. But in prayer, we moved
from those types of false certainties in the material life to the true uncertainties of the spiritual
life. The paradox we have is that the greatest certainty we can have is faith in God, which is an
uncertainty because we do not know all the details and timing in the way that God will choose to
work. Prayer is intimacy with God and others. Theo found the recluse, developed a simple
diagram many years ago. He drew in the sand a circle with lines running from the outside edge to
a point in the center of the circle. Picture in your mind what a bicycle wheel looks like. He
pointed out to his disciples that this diagram is the way in which our relationship with God
works. As we move from our lives on the outside edge of the wheel. On one of the lines are
spokes. Towards God as the hub and the center were drawn closer to other people, the other
spokes on a wheel. You cannot move towards the hub in the center or God without moving closer
to others. So as we develop intimacy with God, we also develop intimacy with other people.
There are many ways this happens, but prayer is one of the most powerful ways for this to take
place. Let's review Mick Mans Map for counseling again, in which he focuses on helping clients
to develop a healthy sense of self, a healthy sense of need, and a healthy openness to healing
relationships. But now apply this map to prayer in counseling. When we're focusing on a healthy
sense of self and a client, we're helping people to move beyond their self-absorption, to focus on
God. People who are depressed or going through times of real self-doubt are often drawn into
being self-absorbed, only able to see themselves in their situation. However, this is in essence, a
negative form of pride. As proverbs 3.3.4 reminds us. God opposes the proud, but gives grace to
the humble. To be humble is to turn our focus away from ourselves and look to God to provide
force in ways that we cannot do so. Do you remember that phrase from an earlier lecture
regarding nouns book, reaching out. When he talks about moving from illusion to prayer. Prayer
helps each of us with our negative sense of self. By breaking through the illusions of our
immortality. We have the solutions that we're going to live forever or that we're different from
other people. Prayer helps us to see that our dependence in life is ultimately on God because He
is the pathway to our authentic intimacy. Now there are some cautions Regarding prayer that we
need to keep in mind in the healthy development of self. Our Goal in counseling is not to make
clients dependent on us, but to help them seek to become dependent on God. For instance, if we
are the one who always praise and the counseling session, we may inadvertently create the image
that we are the intercessor for the client. Creating dependency issues. We can also feed inferiority
issues if we're always praying. And the client feels second rate when they pray because of their
lack of experience in praying out loud. This can also occur when we run into the paradox of
trying to draw the client out in prayer. But it actually makes them more uncomfortable. And then
they withdraw from us. Developing a healthy sense of need in individuals is enhanced through
prayer. Another Therapeutic paradox is that in order to begin to heal, we have to become aware
of our brokenness. We have to realize that the way we've been trying to help ourselves is never
going to work. So we need a power greater than ourselves. We need God in our lives. Jesus used
an example of this dynamic when he told the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector in the
Book of Luke. Two men went up to the temple to pray. One a Pharisee and the other a tax
collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself. God, I thank you that I'm not like
other men, robbers, evildoers, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. Why, fast twice a week
and give a tenth of all I get. But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up
to heaven, but beat his breast and said, God have mercy on me, a sinner. I tell you that this man,
rather than the other, went home, justified before God, for everyone who exalts himself will be
humbled. And he who humbles himself will be exalted. It is that kind of helplessness that can be
found in true prayer. Helplessness and prayer is an openness to God. Also, as we pray, we begin
to build a true and healthy self confidence based upon our confidence in God. Remember Jesus's
words in the seventh chapter of Matthew. Ask, and it will be given to you, seek and you will find
knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives he who seeks, finds,
and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. We can have a powerful confidence in the
reliability of God's character. That when we have a need, God has an answer. Through prayer. We
can help our clients to catch a vision that God has for their lives. We can help them move from
their grandiosity and self-centeredness to catch the real vision that God has for them. Now the
caution here is to help clients to avoid wallowing in their guilt and shame. It is imperative to
work with them on issues of forgiveness. Both that a forgiving others and receiving forgiveness.
It is also important to avoid the pitfall of magical thinking that if people would just pray in the
right way, they will get what they want when they want it, on their timing and on their terms. As
a final caution, it is quite easy to fall into using prayer as a motivational pep talk to help people
feel momentarily better. And while prayer does help make us feel better, we need to help clients
understand that the real purpose of prayer is to connect with God. Now let's look at how prayer
affects our healing relationships. When we pray in ways that are appropriate to a client's level of
development, it creates a healthier, more biblically accurate view of God. It also draws attention
to god has the only agent of transformation. Remember that in an earlier presentation we spoke
about inside-out change. We'll specifically, prayer helps us to change our attitudes that are
upward toward God. Attitudes that are outward towards other people, and attitudes that are
inward towards ourselves. Cautions in this area are really a reminder about the dangers of
dependency and concerns about breaching boundaries. Because prayer is an intimate activity. We
also want to be very careful in terms of fiscal contact with clients when we pray. A final caution
is that the focus of prayer should always fall on God, not the counselor. On the next several
slides are a number of forms of prayer. But note that the order in which they are listed is very
intentional. The list starts with forms of prayer that pose the least risk and moves to those forms
that can have the most risk when used in counseling. Now what is meant by risk? Here we're
talking in terms of prayer, having a downside of the possibility of creating negative
consequences, such as dependency or a fracturing the therapeutic relationship, or breaching a
boundary or prayer used to bully clients. For example, if you have a client who's not ready to
pray and I deeply intense way. And yet you are insisting that they do so. This can be an unethical
decision on your part. So let's look at these forms of prayer. Certainly the counselor can pray
outside of sessions for every client, and we don't need their permission to pray for them. As a
matter of fact, sometimes the client who would not understand and who would not give
permission may be the one who most need prayer. Using this mode of prayer also allows us to
intercede or pray for discernment about how to understand this client, how the Lord might want
us to work with them. And we can also pray for ourselves that we get a deeper compassion. If
we're dealing with a client where we are struggling with a spirit of condemnation or feeling
judgmental. We also have the ability to pray silently in the session. One of the great fears,
usually for those who are new to counseling, is what to do with silence in a session. The
tendency is to rush in and feel we have to say something. It is much better to let silence do its
work to use that time to pray for your client. A third way is to use prayer has homework by
encouraging them to meditate outside of the counseling sessions. We spoke about this earlier.
And this can be a very helpful way of teaching people who are dealing with anxiety or despair or
compulsion to learn how to meditate in a way that is not only physically and psychologically
relaxing, but in a way that creates an open door to the heart for their lord. Meditation and
imagery and the session is riskier. Yet another way to use prayer. It offers opportunities for the
healing of emotions, for forgiveness to take place under the direction of the therapist. And as a
way to specifically work with thought restructuring. Praying the Scriptures is a method of using
the Bible to help clients claims specific promises. Build confidence in the character of God. But
we do need to teach them that God's timing is not their timing. And the last form of prayer is
intercessory prayer. In the session. Here's where we pray specifically with a client for their
healing, for the therapeutic relationship. And to ask God to be the one to change and to heal. I
hope these presentations on prayer in counseling have been helpful to you. And I encourage you
to review the slides again for more insights.
Prayer and the Christian
Counselor
Take notes
Prayer is used as an extension of a belief. Rises from the mind of the person that not only that
God is there but that God cares. It is a way of emphasizing that God cares. We are not really
convinced that God really cares.
