Biblical Counseling vs. Secular Therapy
Secular talk therapy is caricatured all the time. This is due to the father of the American Psychiatric movement, Sigmund Freud, who had all his clients Secular talk therapy is caricatured all the time. This is due to the father of the American Psychiatric movement, Sigmund Freud, who had all his clients lie on a couch. I have had many people come into my office and then half-kidding look at the couch and with tongue firmly in cheek ask, “Should I lie down?” Similarly, biblical counseling is caricatured. We picture a stodgy old man or woman with lips pursed and a copy a Bible opened to the book of Leviticus and with a judgmental look demand “… just stop sinning!”.
Neither is true. Most secular therapists never studied the Freudian method of psychoanalysis, nor do they practice anything close to Freud’s methods. Most biblical counselors are not harsh sin hunters. It is my experience that men and women go into counseling because they genuinely care for people. However, there are two stark differences that need to be considered so that you choose your counselor wisely.
Where is Truth Found
Where does your counselor go for foundational truth to determine the best course of care? Where indeed? Well to start with we all have been “psychologized”, a verb that I may have invented, but I use to help others understand that, to a certain degree, we all have a world view that has been influenced by psychology. It is “the soup” of this world that “we swim in.” It takes the form of personality theory, think enneagram, or various psych labels taken from the pages of The DSM 5. We use clinical diagnoses to describe our everyday lives. For example, we refer to the lady who cuts you off in the parking lot at Target as “crazy”. We describe ourselves as feeling “so depressed”. When feeling scatter-brained have you ever stopped and muttered to no one in particular, “I am so ADD.
For the biblical counselor informed by psychology these are descriptors that have a deeper root. If we slow down, the word of God exposes this root. I believe the best biblical counselors are clinically informed so they can speak this language intelligently and deepen their client’s understand of their presenting problem in biblical terms.
As a biblical counselor I look to reframe the issues my counselees are describing as they use this psychologized language. This “reframing” is really me listening closely enough to a counselee’s words and then internally passing these words through a biblical filter. Reframing includes asking clarifying questions so that the person knows they have been heard and then synthesizing their problem and the solution in biblical terms with biblical and practical examples. This brings the counselee to the foundation of biblical truth.
How Healing is Measured?
This leads to the second key difference; how is someone declared, “Healed!”? Again, in secular therapeutic terms and biblical terms these often look and feel very different. The goal of secular therapy is mood change and behavior change. These are high goals and very useful. Who doesn’t want to feel better? Secular therapists and biblical counselors want the anxious person to no longer feel fearful (mood change) and to courageously use their voice in awkward or fear producing situations (behavior change). Both biblical counselors and secular counselors want the abusive spouse to stop his or her abusing.
Biblical counselors go another layer deeper to the heart level looking for a deeper motivation. The Bible teaches that every soul is worshiping something, and the biblical counselor tries to help the counselee understand at the deepest level that they have desires that are not being met and are using emotional or behavioral tools to meet them. Sometimes the only tools at a person’s disposal to satisfy these drives are harmful to self and others. It’s like when. My dad used a screwdriver as a chisel when fixing a screen door. The right tool for the job always produces better results.
The biblical counselor who loves people and loves the Lord will give his or her clients biblical tools that will lead to an experience of peace and hope. Peace and hope are first experienced vertically with God and then bent horizontally to key human relationships.
Reframing problems and peeling back layers of our souls in biblical counseling will produce mood change and behavior change and will result in a worship filled heart that has new strength and peace. This will lead to strengthened relationships and a more abundant life.
It is simple, but not easy and a biblical counselor can help you find this peace through counseling methods founded on God’s word and a desire to produce a changed heart and therefore a changed life with changed relationships.
