It is one thing to pretend for an hour or two on Sundays, but rarely can a person pretend every hour of every day. If I have learned one thing in counseling, it is who Bruce Gerencser really is. After I learned the questions she asked me, I began asking myself similar questions during my thinking time, at home, to facilitate my healing time. Ill leave that to another day. A careful process of training, evaluation, and supervision demonstrates counseling skill. Of course, I never went back. They build that persons trust with very easy questions to help them understand that we care from the depths of our heart how well that person is faring and whether or not theyre really suffering. Diet You pastored wrong, you counseled your congregants wrong, and you never understood or believed a word of scripture. In the twenty-five years I pastored churches, I never had one person ask me if I was qualified to be a counselor. That seems reasonable, no? Christian counseling began between the late 1960s and early 1970s with the Biblical Counseling Movement directed by Jay E. Adams.Adams's 1970 book Competent to Counsel advocated a Christian-based approach which differed from the psychological and psychiatric solutions of the time. I am not opposed to church members seeking advice from their pastor. Atheism is the triumph of reason over fundamentalism (in many cases religious belief at all), not a wound that has resulted from it. Theological education plays a major role in that because where a pastor chooses to go to school will often shape the way that he thinks. Personality Disorders Do you do Biblical counseling? Hes involved with this Evangelical group: Much more I could say, but Ill wait until I write another post concerning Christian counseling. He tells her that she needs to repent, walk in the Spirit, be filled with the Spirit, put on the whole armor of God, withstand the devil, etc. The 4 Great Challenges of Christian Counseling | CT Pastors What is meant here is that the counsellor should not be the source of the clients guilt. . Five Hidden Dangers of "Christian Counseling" - Jim Rose Thousands of people differ with you, finding my writing helpful. I think there is an distinction that must be made between Christian counseling and pastoral counseling. As an LPC, you are educated, thoroughly trained, required to pass a test in your state of practice, and must complete continuing education credits in order for your license to remain active. Not one time did I tell people that they needed to see a medical professional or a psychologist. I firmly believed the Bible had all the answers. Actual training in the fundamentals of the ministry and the Bible is often quite limited. Christian Marriage Counseling: Pros and Cons - GuideDoc etc. Uh, I was a pastor for 25 years. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. You should have, at the very least, made an attempt to read and understand my story. When we think about some of the ideas and ideologies, I think its important that we still have an ear to the ground relative to the humanism that influences us. If we cant accomplish overcoming indulgences of the flesh by the power of the Spirit, then its not really biblical counseling. I have no idea what you are talking about. I speak authoritatively when I say that pastors can and do counsel people, often without any relevant training. & hurt to the core. Humanism is just simply faith and hope in mankindin our wisdom, in our abilities, in what we believe to be our own goodness. After seeing him quite regularly, I found out that the church was putting him on a sabbatical indefinitelyfor cheating on his wife. The fact that the counseling is done through the church exempts the pastor from any governmental oversight. Jesus couldnt save me, but my counselor did. For example the Christian counselor with dual accreditation around here seems to have found a synergistic way to employ his services: The church helps him get new patients, provide him with an office and a venue, and once cured they can then just become tithe paying members of the church. I had to leave my denomination to be able to cope with an eating disorder. Weve heard for years and years in our culture that if you have depression, or if youre diagnosed with depression, then you have some sort of chemical imbalance. This is not a problem if the counselors are able to compartmentalize their religious beliefs, but many counselors who are Christian cant or wont do this. We have failed to teach true pastoral theology that instructs pastors on how to interact not just in corporate preaching of the Word, but then also in personal ministry of the Word. Some clients who are not ready to pray in the first few sessions may initiate prayer themselves after the counsellor has helped them to work through their psychological and emotional wounds. I also began to do Biblical counseling with people in the church and community, and I went through the rigorous yet valuable process of becoming certified with what is now the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors. How does psychology work with biblical counseling? One way is relative to depression that often carries with it the monoamine hypothesis, which is a way of describing the serotonin theory of deficiency. Copyright 2023 The Life and Times of Bruce Gerencser Powered by Flywheel. We all have the right of choice, no matter how extinuating the circumstances may be. By Larry C ~. Bruce, thank you for your response. I couldve been mad at her friend who was my friend too for not warning me. . Wives, obey your husbands; that sort of verses. January 2013 The longer I live without religion and the Bible, the easier it becomes, but these things can, when I least expect it, come to the forefront and cause emotional and mental problems. Thanks, Randy. Steven Furticks Elevation Church Leaves the SBC, Subscribe to CT magazine for full access to the CT Pastors archives, Home delivery of CT magazine and CT Pastors special issues, Over 120 years of magazine archives plus full access to all of CTs online archives. I feel you have a legitimate argument there with pastoral counseling. Kit Hill: I am concerned that your atheism is more of a result of a wound from fundamentalism than it is rational thought.. As in 16 credits of college work, with the capstone class being a huge dose of this is what you know, all the stuff you dont know and how to tell the difference. Without those ingredients, most relationships are doomed to fail. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Rebuilding Church Community: Whats Actually Working? I just found your site. Christian counsellors would do well to take heed of Jesus actions here. The Spirit in Counseling. This week on the podcast, we are going to deal with several different threats to biblical counseling. Christian counsellors can learn about tactfulness and timing by analyzing Jesus conversation with the woman at the well (John 4); it was the woman and not Jesus who initiated the spiritual part of the dialogue. Even though she worked as an LPC in a church counseling center, she told me she had clients who were not Christians and she did not force faith or Christianity on them. I know that some readers of this blog have similar pasts and are all too familiar with pastoral counseling and how the Bible is not the answer for whatever ails a person. They came to her for professional (state-licensed) counseling, and that was what she was ethically bound to provide for them. We both concluded that many pastors dont counsel to help but to get the person being counseled to think right thoughts. Again, the Bible becomes the solution to whatever problem a person may be having. When I questioned him, he told me that he was unqualified to help the man. Christian Counseling: Definition, Techniques & Efficacy - Verywell Mind You cant separate a skunk from his smell, and neither can you separate an Evangelical Christian from his or her presuppositions and beliefs. Idolatry Let me fix that now. In July 11, 2011, he said, In truth, the chemical imbalance notion was always a kind of urban legendnever a theory seriously propounded by well-informed psychiatrists. And hes recently written articles that say the same thing. Where serotonin is low, it was propagated and theorized that one would be depressed. After seven years of pastoring this way, I knew something needed to change. Bible Study This only grew worse when my preacher, who is unsatisfied with not being able to baptize someone every month or every week, and taking that as evidence that he wasnt following the Bible right, located a fast-growing Church of the same name is the church I went to but involving the elements of a cult. The following year we began offering an advanced track, as well as continuing our fundamentals track. The message is clear: If you are still having a problem it is YOUR FAULT! Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. This passion for Christ's relevance in counseling is our heritage and heartbeat. Anyway, thank you very much for your condolences (sp?). Stephen Hyman said, There is no compelling evidence that a lesion in the dopamine system is a primary cause of schizophrenia. Kenneth Kendler in Psychological Medicine in 2005 said, We have hunted for big, simple neurochemical explanations for psychiatric disorders and have not found them.. With your permission of course. That, however, is not how "biblical" has historically been . Ive been more at peace with her death since then, & I believe this has to do with the fact that Im not lying to myself anymore about where she is or isnt, nor am I accepting the good-intentioned, unwitting lies of those who still believe. The training produced a series of changes, starting with me and my family. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder When we talk about the chemical cure, its interesting because secularists even, especially recently since the DSM-5, have been writing profusely against this idea of the chemical cure. When counselors believe the Bible is an authoritative text, and the standard for moral and ethical conduct, its impossible for them to counsel someone objectively. The first thing we have to be aware of when we think about secular psychology, its propagation, and its continued growth, is the secularism thats promoted. None of these people dragged their religion into counseling, and all of them helped, though their approaches were different and one persons approach worked better than the others for me personally. We have to be cautious about this because even the secular world has made statements very clearly denying the idea of the chemical cure. Bruce Gerencser, 62, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 41 years. Sadly, many people think pastors are experts on everything. One of my goals, that maybe you can pray with me, is that we see in theological education a movement once againa revival if you willof pastors being taught how the church should care for the souls of people. A few months after the divorce, I had a deep conversation with one of her BFFs who admitted that ex2 had second thoughts about our marriage, and probably never loved me at all. Its one thing if people have questions about the Bible or are questioning their faith. people with clear mental illness who needed help, not to be told they were hiding sin or not trusting god enough. You are the perfect example of a victim of crazy church counseling, who will they were not able to destroy. That's what this article is about. At the heart of my difficulties was Evangelicalism and the Bible, and they had to be confronted head-on. database. Most pastors are overworked. I suppose he just was incapable of providing good counsel because his world-view was in the way. Brandt also sports certification from the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors (ACBC) a Fundamentalist group established to give pastors the appearance of training and certification. Many Christian counselors are guilty of ignoring the divine Counselor. The only thing I feel that I am in a good position to share is my experiences with religion and cults. On their Our Approach page, ACBC states: Listen to the following three minute ACBC video that answers the question, What is Biblical Counseling?. I am a Christian, and I agree with you. Prefrontal Cortex When I was 19, I was in an abusive relationship at the behest of my parents. It should be noted, however, that Unconditional Positive Regard doesnt mean that a Christian counsellor has to leave his or her morals at the door and condone sinful or self- destructive behaviour. Youre very bad at it. Ep. 72 - The Importance of Christian Counseling - Living Waters Thats the most horrible thing I can imagine. Im talking about them discouraging meds that can really help people. One need only to read Biblical Answers for Schizophrenia on ACBCs website to see that I am likely not being harsh enough. I understand the sentiment of this article, however, the title may discourage individuals who need therapeutic intervention from receiving treatment based on seeing the word Christian anywhere near a therapists name. January 2014 We see secular psychology promoting humanism constantly in self-help books that crop up in bookstores, and even in Christian bookstores. Some of the dangers of shame, and particularly toxic shame, include: . The next year we offered a second track. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. She later tried to encourage me that maybe my life could serve as a warning and prevent others from being put on a shelf. In principle, it means they use only the Bible in counseling people; nothing else is helpful, and anything else is compromise. Ive heard of that happening. Reviews aren't verified, but Google checks for and removes fake content when it's identified. I can see why someone might want to mix the two. Nouthetic counseling (Greek: noutheteo, to admonish) is a form of evangelical Protestant pastoral counseling based upon conservative evangelical interpretation of the Bible.It repudiates mainstream psychology and psychiatry as humanistic, fundamentally opposed to Christianity, and radically secular.Its viewpoint was originally articulated by Jay E. Adams, in Competent to Counsel (1970) and . Counselees with schizophrenic characteristics are not used to that, at least in my experience. They are quite useless & even dangerous, imho. November 2013 Victoria did an excellent post on this recently: Biblical Counseling Exposing the Darkness Disguised As Light, My first thought, on reading the title of this post was Beware of ANYONE who advertises their services or products and has Christian on the label.. They show a new love, forgiveness and patience for others. If a woman has egalitarian beliefs, what should she do? Frankly, I didnt know how to do it. Search words used includ-ed lay Christian counseling, the names of a vari-ety of lay Christian models (See Garzon, et al., 2009, for a table listing these models), the names of lay Christian counseling model developers, Subscribers receive full access to the archives. I actually agree that clergy should be able to counsel without licensing and government interference, though they should have to disclose that they dont have a secular license before they begin. That may be anxiety, depression, ADHD, an eating disorder, or something else. I think it is far more radical and useless to denounce people or endeavor to tear down people groups simply because of our personal offense at their beliefs. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Realizing this was probably the greatest sense of liberation Ive ever felt. Good on him for recognizing this. A coin is both heads and tails. Elim Counselling Services Michael Hart on CHRI . Food So, we have to be cautious about that threat. Even though your counselor felt ethically bound to give secular counseling (seems like tailored to the demands of the patient) I wonder if this is typical or if it runs a gamut of those who get a secular degree for various reasons but instead just talk and pray. However, in therapy, good counsellors will not cause their counselees to feel pressured to change their church or cause them to feel that their religious beliefs are wrong because they do not line up with that of the counsellor. Safety In biblical counseling, I think its important that we assess periodically what some of those threats look like. He actually wanted me to conceal from her that I was attracted to men. Jeff Hawkins https://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/articles/onsite/biblicalcounseling.html. Problem is, the counselor is hired to serve the clients needs and not accomplish the Great Abusive Commission. A pastor friend of mine recently said, I wouldnt be in the ministry today if it hadnt been for Biblical counseling training. I agree. He thought I was telling him that I slept with men. For us in biblical counseling, we want to look Scripturally at people to understand them in wholeness and in fullness. We are an association of professional, independently licensed Christian counselors with more than 20 office locations throughout Washington state for . Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. All first-time comments are moderated. If real counseling is going to undermine someones belief in a certain sectwell that probably needs to happen. Violence, I love Christian Counseling! Once graduated, it is another 2 years and 3,000 hours under supervision to become fully licensed. Well, I find that interesting because in the common language today this idea of the chemical imbalance still exists very prevalently. I have seen some true "miracles" of positive change happen to persons who were diagnosed and then treated properly with therapy and - if needed - medication. Evangelical pastors believe they are called and ordained by God to minister to the needs of their congregations regardless of their qualifications and education. We went to see him a few times, and it became apparent that he (the pastor) was not going do anything but throw Bible verses at us. Well, that depends. I learned to keep the perspective that we all have the same basic needs and humanness that I can stand on that. Nevertheless, Christian counsellors need to make sure they do not preach to clients, promote their religious agenda, or impose spiritual practices, instead of focusing on the needs of their clients. The first questions I asked were this: Are you a Christian? I decided to keep the baby, but later miscarried. For more information about Bruce, please read the About page. But I was so far deep down trying to fit into the fundy Christian rabbit hole that I wasnt paying attention to what was right in front of me. Bacon Christian Reflections on Mental Illness Sexual Sanity for Men Explaining the difference between nouthetic and biblical counseling is a bit like asking whether a coin is heads or tails. Instead, he told the man that he needed medical help. I wanted to thank you for sharing this. Now, there are other threats that I think we should consistently be aware of, which we dont have time to talk about today. If asked, I would have told them I took a one-semester counseling class that was more about debunking secular counseling than in techniques to help people. It was there I learned from three pastors what the Bible says about the real problems my people were experiencing, that I was experiencing. This article will deal with some potential blind spots about gossip in counseling. Although Elim incorporates psychological techniques and interventions used in other clinical settings, Elim counsellors are also trained in understanding spiritual issues which are often raised by clients. Religion and man do not have all the answers. Through the counselling we offer, many of our clients who were faced with very difficult challenges have likewise found rest, hope, and peace after coming to us with major challenges in their lives. I guess you have no choice to if you equate many with all. In like manner, well trained Christian counsellors will ask questions that will lead a person to make right decisions and change self destructive behaviour. Here in Ohio, a pastor is not required to have ANY training before counseling someone. Effects of stress eating Questions: Should People Trust Christian Counselors with Degrees from Secular Schools? Derek Flood I think there are a li of trapped women in Evangelical churches, especially in the far right extreme of Evangelicalism. (Please seeBarbara) I considered psychologists and psychiatrists to be enablers who encouraged people to continue in their sin. He created us and in creating us hes described who we are, what our needs are the most, and how we repair those things when theyre broken. A woman should submit, a husband should rule, etc. I didnt want to go, but I couldnt take another loss. I know that I can talk to him about anything. We divorce ourselves from any authoritarian structures, and we flourish as we trust more in ourselves and hope more in ourselves. The husband was treated to one session of, basically, Dont do that, and Get a mentor. The wife had to go back for expensive weekly sessions, and was given, for homework, a long list of Bible verses to memorize. I would like to see the same regulations apply to pastors/churches, but that aint going to happen. I do emphasize with your frustration about pastoral or Biblical counselors that actually hurt patients. My brother became very bitter over a church related wound from 30 years ago and still struggles with that. After reading a chapter in Disciplines of a Godly Man by Kent Hughes, and verses from Proverbs that address the issue, some of us were tempted to stop talking all together! I think that unnecessarily divides man in a way that the Bible never divides man. We started going on the road to do training in other places, even overseas. Aside from the legal & educational requirements for counselors, I also have an emotional objection to pastors providing counseling. The client is pregnant and is thinking about getting an abortion. God has described who we are as beings. Steven Stahl in Essential Psychopharmacology in 2000, said There is no clear and convincing evidence that monoamine deficiency [which is talking about the idea of the chemical cure relative to depression] accounts for depression. She said, You are a perfect example of what could have been, but never will be. This only breeds more pain and hatred in an already separated and hurting world. We want to look Scripturally to see how to deal with these varied problems that we have on earth, looking forward to the beautiful redemption that is to be found in Christ, where he will redeem usbody and soulin fullness. December 2021 Its forced us to appeal to the flesh of people as opposed to looking specifically at how we grow someone spiritually. I got raped, which led to a pregnancy, which finally gave me the sense to get out. Are you on Social Media? Bruce, It sounds more like you were in a fundamentalist church or a very rigid evangelical church. Why I Thought I was Qualified to Counsel Others, General Association of Regular Baptist Churches, The Value of Training in Biblical Counseling, Association of Certified Biblical Counselors, The End of the Road: Twenty Years Ago, I Pastored My Last Church, Short Stories: The Perry County Jail, the Baptist Preacher, and Beavis and Butt-Head, Jim Denison Says Millions of Christians Committed Adultery Watching Oppenheimer Movie, Now Headed for Hell, I Wish Christians Would Be Honest About Jesus Three Day Weekend, Black Collar Crime: Baptist Pastor Gregory Neal Pleads Guilty to Stealing $130,000 to Pay Off Gambling Debts, Sentenced to Eighteen Months in Prison, Update: Black Collar Crime: Evangelical Pastor Edward Williams Pleads Guilty to Having Inappropriate Relationship With a Student, Sentenced to Probation. Secular Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (S-CBT) was developed in the 1960s by Dr. Aaron T. Beck and centers around the belief that "distorted or dysfunctional thinking (which influences the patient's mood and behavior) is common to all psychological disturbances." I consider him to be a lifesaver. All I remember I had to write several KJV-only verses on 35 index cards and store them in a plastic box, and I was required to memorize them all before the next counseling session. We must guard againsteven in biblical counselingdrifting in the wrong direction, drifting toward a secular understanding of explaining man. The strangest thing happened when I did: the false hope of seeing Alyssa again in the afterlife and the longing for her that came hand-in-hand went away.