What is a Christian Counselor? A CCU Professor's Perspective
Dr. Andrew Wichterman is an assistant professor in Colorado Christian University's Master of Arts in Clinical Mental Health Counseling program, offered through the College of Adult and Graduate Studies.
How Can You Be a Christian Counselor in a Secular Setting?
The question here is not how a counselor conducts Christian counseling but how a Christian conducts counseling in a secular setting without betraying one’s values. This is an especially difficult question to answer considering societal positions on social issues that are in direct contradiction to biblical claims and growing hostility toward Christian values.
Further complicating any answer is a counselor’s responsibility to avoid imposing “personal” values on clients (The American Counseling Association, 2014). Biblical counseling emphasizes using scripture to guide individuals toward spiritual healing and personal growth.
One of the fathers of Christian counseling, Gary Collins (2007), claimed Christian counselors have many of the same goals as secular counselors but go further in attempting to “stimulate spiritual growth in counselees; to encourage confession of sin and the experience of divine forgiveness; to model Christian standards, attitudes, values, and lifestyles; to present the gospel message …” (Source).
Understanding the faith-related issues of Christian clients is crucial in providing effective mental health support. This is what makes Christian counselors different from secular counselors. Christian counselors address mental health issues by integrating psychological techniques and spiritual principles, providing holistic support that respects the client’s faith.
Maintaining Integrity with Biblical Principles in a Secular Setting
Initially, maintaining integrity seems impossible for a Christian whose loyalty lies with Christ, but there are ways to navigate these waters without violating the client's rights or God's commands. Biblical principles are crucial in guiding therapeutic processes, facilitating spiritual growth, and providing a moral framework for clients.
There are many ways that Christian counselors seek to integrate Christianity and Psychology (e.g., Ethical Integration, Levels of Explanation, Christian Psychology, and Integration approach).
Still, on a broader level, and in my experience, there are two main ways a Christian counselor approaches integration in a secular setting. The first is Explicit, in which a counselor works with a Christian client who desires to participate in Christian counseling. Prayer, scripture, and discussions of God may be used in this session. The second is Implicit, which can occur regularly in a public setting.
The counselor does not lose who they are in Christ. They believe someone has external value simply because they were created by a loving, just, and compassionate God. The client should feel the difference in how the Christian counselor approaches them compared to a non-Christian counselor.
A deeper question here is, when counseling with implicit integration, how does one properly work with a client of opposing viewpoints and maintain integrity? After all, conducting value-free counseling is impossible as encouraging the absence of counselor values is a value in itself.
Nearly all counselors struggle working with people with different values and beliefs. Nevertheless, the Christian faith plays a pivotal role in promoting mental well-being and healing, highlighting the significance of spirituality, prayer, and biblical teachings in counseling.
Christians have great examples of Christ’s interactions with the hurting and broken, where He forgave and exhorted his counterparts to make changes in their lives. Let us consider the gospels' examples in relation to our discussion.
Counseling sessions are essential for applying learned skills to direct client interactions, especially within Christian counseling programs. These sessions help differentiate between various therapeutic approaches and incorporate psychological principles and spiritual guidance.
The Example of Christ in Christian Faith
John 4
Jesus knew the Pharisees were upset that He was making disciples and that his disciples were baptizing followers. Because the time of his death had not yet arrived, he went away to Galilee. On his way, Jesus stopped in Samaria. Around noon, the disciples went to buy food while Jesus rested by Jacob’s well.
Hart described this journey as a divine obligation, "Jesus violated social, cultural, and religious conventions to demonstrate God's love for an outcast people.” (Hart, 2014) Like most Jews of that time, Jesus could have gone around Samaria. Jesus, already violating societal expectations, sits as the woman approaches to draw water at an unusual hour.
Customarily, women drew water in the evening, so this was seen as an attempt to avoid others because even in her culture, she was considered immoral (she had five husbands and was having an affair). Jesus asked the woman for a drink, and she responded with amazement that Jesus would speak to her.
Jesus then offered her “living water”, a sign that he was the Messiah. He was also able to dig deeply into her life, offer forgiveness, and extoll her to make personal changes.
John 8
Jesus was in the temple when the Pharisees brought to him a woman caught in adultery. They did not bring the man. However, the law required the stoning of both men and women in adulterous situations (Leviticus 20:10 & Deuteronomy 22:22). Hart claimed this showed the Pharisees malicious intent and disregard for the law.
The Pharisees asked Jesus, “Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such [adulterous] women. So what do you say?” Hart wrote, “If Jesus called for her stoning as an adulteress, this would put Him in defiance of the Roman government’s sole authority to try capital cases and carry out executions.”
If He chose to free her, He would disobey the Mosaic law. When asked, Jesus bent down and wrote in the sand. What he wrote in the sand coupled with the statement, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her” convicted those in the crowd, and they walked away. Jesus offers no condemnation but extolls her to “go and sin no more.”
The Application to Mental Health Issues
In both examples, Jesus is ministering to a society that is hostile to everything He teaches and His existence. Both the woman caught in adultery and the Samaritan woman represented brokenness and hurt. They made mistakes, committed sins, were affected by their respective societies, and were entrenched in pain.
Jesus authentically empathized with them, understood their pain, and did not condemn them but extolled them to make changes. Any changes were made not because of anything within themselves but because of their relationship with Him. We know that we are not Christ (though we are in Him), but we know that if we believe in the person of Christ, receive the Holy Spirit, and enter into the process of sanctification, we can become more and more like Him every day (1 Corinthians 6:11).
The answer to our question is simple: A Christian counselor generally does not practice in a secular setting. However, a Christian counselor can practice in a secular setting by utilizing implicit integration and exhibiting the characteristics of Christ.
A Christian therapist integrates spiritual beliefs with modern psychological practices, aligning therapy with the client's faith journey. Christians may encounter situations where an organization's or client's values conflict with their own.
It is the job of Christian counselors to do their best to maintain professionalism as outlined in the ACA Code of Ethics (American Counseling Association, 2014) and ultimately follow Christ's example by listening and learning about their clients, valuing their personhood, acknowledging their free will, and offering them the love that only one who is indwelled with the Holy Spirit can give.
In 2024, the School of Counseling at Colorado Christian University surveyed all site supervisors who provided clinical supervision to CCU students during their practicum and internship experience between August 2023 and May 2024.
Of those that responded, 100% reported that CCU students were proficient or superior in their ability to provide non-discriminatory clinical practices compared to other counseling students. 97% reported CCU’s counseling students were proficient or superior in their awareness and application of ethics into their practice, and 97% reported a proficient or superior level of clinical preparation for CCU students.