Counselling Christians?

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Some Questions about this Blog

I have never written a blog directly related to my Christian faith before.
I know bringing religion up in a usually secular context is problematic for many.
As a result, I felt it was appropriate to answer questions some people may have about why I am writing this blog. I hope I have guessed the right questions and provided satisfying answers.

1 - Who am I writing this blog for?

2 - Why take on such a topic of counselling for Christians?

3 - Should Christianity have nothing to do with secular-based counselling therapy?

My attempt to answer

1 - This blog is primarily for those who call themselves Christians.
I am considering Christians to be anyone who practices the Christian faith and considers it their primary guide in life.

2 - I have taken on writing this blog because I hope it will encourage Christians to view counselling as an acceptable part of their support structure.
- I want to expand my reach to those within the church.
- As a practising Christian, I enjoy being able to utilise my faith directly in the counselling room.
Writing this blog will help me to understand how that works.

3 - There is a stereotype that Christians do not accept secular therapy.
This is because it is perceived as rejecting God and promoting human-made views of life.
This is a primary obstacle for some individual Christians to seek secular counselling and for some Church leaders to promote it.

Why Christians may not enter into Secular Counselling

I acknowledged that some counselling theorists are strongly anti-Christian in their mindset.
Many of the developers of modern-day psychotherapy rejected Christian input into their work. This article highlights that history.

Christians perceive many secular counsellors as holding unacceptable beliefs on issues in society, such as gender identity, the beginning and ending of life, etc.
Here is an HSE webpage presenting views on gender identity that many Christians would disagree with. Some Christians may feel the HSE unfairly represents their position in this piece.

My purpose here is to overcome the stereotype of counselling among Christians. I firmly believe that good counselling principles are helpful to Christians as they work through their life struggles while maintaining faith in God’s love for them.

A Personal Disclaimer

Christians have a history of being very divisive.
I am certain that some Christians will disagree with parts of what I have to say.

I accept that. All I can say is that I am doing my best to be very general about what is meant by Christianity to include as many under that banner as I can.

People with varying degrees of Christian commitment may find this blog relevant. It may even help some people better understand Christianity.

As I discuss counselling theories in a Christian context, I am doing it from the basis of my own understanding of how Christianity works. God knows it’s limited, but that is not a reason to avoid writing this blog.

” For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.”
1st Corinthians 13:12 NIV

Deciding to enter Counselling: A Christian perspective

The process for a Christian deciding to enter counselling is much the same as for a non-believer.
The difference is that the Christian must first decide what role their faith and Church group will play in that process.

In this blog, when I refer to a client’s faith, I am referring to how they relate personally to God and whatever practices they have to support that.
When I refer to any form of Church community, group or fellowship, my definition is any close group of people who come together regularly to encourage each other and practice their faith together.

For the Christian to decide what role their faith or their church community will play in their decision to enter counselling and their work in counselling is a very personal one.
Some Christians may decide that it is best not to involve their church fellowship or directly mention God or Christian practice in any way. This may be because they have felt hurt by their group in some way or are feeling personally distant from God. The client may just want to explore counselling separately from a religious connection, as they may want to have a more secular experience.


If a Christian’s issues stem from a spiritual misunderstanding of God, they are best addressed within their Church community. If the lay people in the group believe they need help in providing spiritual support, they can request help from the Church leader.
Sometimes clarifying their relationship with God can have a very profound effect on improving a client’s mood and mental state.

Some clients may decide to go directly to therapy without involving their church. They may already believe their problems require professional support, or believe church support is unhelpful.

The person’s problems are possibly already apparent to the group, or the person may have disclosed the problems to their church friends. In this situation, the people within the client’s close church family will collaboratively decide the best option for the person.
Deciding if the person’s problems can be best dealt with within the church group or a service provided by the broader church depends on the person’s area of difficulty and its severity. Does the Church have the resources to provide the needed help?
If not, then utilising professional therapy is the next step. The person should be involved throughout the process and agree to it.

The person deciding to attend an accredited counsellor can still avail of Church support. Prayer support is very helpful for a Christian client engaging with therapy. It helps them to know they are not alone and are cared for.
Support from their Church fellowship connects the client to their faith in God and assures them of his ongoing care for them. This can sustain them. when they are enduring unpleasant times in their counselling.

Should a Christian go to a Christian Therapist?

That’s down to them.
In theory, a Counsellor who does not have a Christian faith should be able to work with a Christian client.
Unconditional Positive Regard is a core condition of most counsellors’ practice. UPR means that a therapist accepts the client as they are and works within the clients world view.
To learn more about this, click here.
In the context of this blog, it means the counsellor would accept their client's faith and religious practice. A secular counsellor will encourage a client to use their faith and the support of their church to heal hurts and promote positive change.

A Christian client may automatically prefer to attend a Christian counsellor.
If that is so, they shouldn't be in the same church community, i.e. with people with whom they already have a preexisting personal relationship. Maintaining personal and professional boundaries is a key to successful therapeutic engagement.
Prior experience with each other outside the counselling room will interfere with work in the counselling room.

Working with a Counsellor from outside your faith group may mean working with a different culture in practising the Christian faith.
This is likely because the Irish Church is now more ethnically varied.
The client should believe the therapist supports their faith practice.
The therapist can ask the client how they want to engage their own faith in the therapy sessions. Also, would the client be comfortable with the Counsellor sharing their own spiritual observations? Such sharing can enhance the client’s set of spiritual skills in managing their situation.

What stops a Christian from starting Counselling?

Primarily, the same as what stops anybody.
Not recognising the effect the problem is having on their life, and therefore not thinking that Counselling is needed.

The added layer of complexity for a Christian to consider Counselling is guilt.

Some Church attenders may believe that using Counselling is a rejection of God and an embrace of human thinking instead. They may feel guilty because they think they lack enough faith in God to resolve their problems.

It is possible that a Christian could be personally comfortable with counselling but believe that their Church would judge them as being of weak faith for embracing secularism.

My argument against that is that all that is good is from God, James 1:17, 1st Timothy 4:4.

Yes, some therapeutic principles or approaches do not align with Christian teaching and practice. However, I believe it is possible for a Christian client to navigate this.
The client can say to the counsellor what they disagree with if the session is going against their beliefs. If the counsellor is unable or unwilling to change their practice, reassessing their arrangement is suitable.

It is my own experience that good counselling theory and practice reflect the universal truths that are evident in God’s created order.
For example, empathy, the ability to understand onothers life from their viewpoint, is a key skill of the therapist that is present in Biblical teaching also. Jesus calls on his followers to treat others as they would want to be treated, Luke 6:31.
Jesus is empathetic with his followers, Hebrews 4:15. He understands human weakness and the tests of remaining faithful to His Father’s teaching. Therfore he does not condemn those who genuinely follow his ways.

Christianity can give extra depth to the truths found in many Counselling theories and approaches.

How do Christians use their Faith in Counselling?

“There is a time for everything under Heaven” Ecclesiastes 3:1

The Church in Ireland is very varied in how it expresses faith.

Some Churches are traditional, using relatively set liturgies. Sacraments administered by a Priest are used within Roman Catholicism to help its members receive God’s grace.

In newer, evangelical Churches more spontaneous, lay-member-led, one-to-one prayer is more likely.
It is individual to each congregation how much the laity will direct church ministry. Evangelical Churches hold scripture study to remind them of God’s grace that is theirs in Christ.

For practising Catholics, a therapist can not administer the sacraments unless he is already an ordained Priest. Apart from that, the counsellor is free to bring the client’s faith into the discussion of their therapy.
Set or spontaneous prayers can be said if the counsellor and client are comfortable with this.
If the Counsellor believes it appropriate, they could ask the client if they would say a prayer at an appropriate time.
The Sacrament of Reconciliation can be very helpful for Catholics during the therapy process.

Pentecostal Christians are more informal in their expression of faith. Christians from Pentecostal traditions may be comfortable with long prayers, expression of emotion and laying on of hands.
It is important that both the client and counsellor have an understanding beforehand of what is acceptable to them or not.

Christians from evangelical settings may practice silent prayer as a contemplative exercise for a client. Bible study material related to the client’s issues would be helpful for use in between sessions.

Regardless of the circumstances, whether they are seeing a Christian Counsellor or not, the client should be assured that God’s Holy Spirit is with them. Their work in therapy is ultimately part of God’s work in them for their good.
“..in all things God works for the good of those who love him..”
Romans 8:28

Counselling Principles in Christian Practice

The subheading to Prevail is Renewed Mind Transformed Life.
I adapted this from the Biblical passage, Romans 12:2.
It reads;

“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

I take from this a call to test if our thoughts are true, or if they are based on what we believe we are supposed to think because of our life experience.
We are called to transform ourselves by changing how we think.
Christians will be able to see this transformation is successful by observing if their thoughts, emotions and behaviours are more in line with God’s principles as outlined by their Church’s teaching.

This focus on renewing the mind is a central principle of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy.
CBT is based on the principle that our thoughts dictate how we feel.
It is the primary therapeutic approach I use. For a more detailed description, you can read a blog on it here. To read a more general introduction from the website, read this.

In early Church history, the forgiveness of sins involved public confession and penance.
The focus was on external behaviour to conform to perceived church teaching. This was considered harsh.
It was Irish monks who started the practice of private confession. They emphasised a confessor’s internal disharmony with God’s ways, and that confession was to reconcile them to God.
According to Rodden 2022 this made the person receiving the confession a soul doctor. The purpose was to rescue the confessor from the sickness of their soul.
This sounds like a crude form of therapy to me. Perhaps Freud wasn’t the first after all, :-)

The Bible is primarily a call by God for people to come to him by faith.

The book of Psalms contains many reflections on the author striving to be faithful to God.
In Psalm 55, King David of Israel describes feeling anguish, terror, fear and horror in his heart because of the actions of others towards him. When David calls out to his Lord, he is cared for, heard, rescued, and sustained.

In First Thessalonians, Saint Paul says in chapter 5, verse 11 that Christians are to encourage and build each other up.
In verse 14, Paul urges Christians to adapt their care for each other according to the individual needs that they present.

The Bible presents God as a loving father who offers grace to his children in this life and the next.
The Bible outlines that Christians are to love one another equal to how they should love themselves, Leviticus 19:18.

I propose that the Bible and Church practices are very supportive of psychological care once they are aligned with the principles that the Bible upholds.

This very brief overview of therapeutic principles within Christian practice highlights that counselling theory is not something Christians should be fearful of.
I would suggest that just as most Christians accept medical interventions, they can also accept psychological care as well.

Christian Counselling and Prevail

I am happy to work with people in a Christian context. I welcome clients actively expressing their faith in the counselling room.
If it is an expression I can not personally engage with, I will inform the client. Only if I have a strong reason to believe that a religious practice may psychologically harm a client would I discourage them from it.

I believe the hope that faith gives can be a true anchor, getting people through the troubled waters of their lives.

As a native Irishman, I would learn from a client from a different ethnicity how their faith works for them. I personally enjoy that kind of process. Broadening my experience of Christianity, I beleive is healthy, even fun.
I am open to sessions containing prayers, Bible discussion, and even singing.

My life experience makes it easy for me to facilitate either the Catholic or Protestant practice of Christianity. What matters is the genuineness of the client’s faith practice.
A genuine Christian faith from whatever background is always helpful in the healing that can be done in a counselling room.

All Bible verses used in this blog are from The New International Version.

And if you have time?

This is a link to a video that I have found very helpful in forming my opinion on this issue.
https://youtu.be/2JFmxGYtEXk?si=j1SPVnyPl-DbHkgP

The presenter is Dr Gavin Ortland. He is a very well-respected theologian and protestant pastor.
He is expressing his concerns regarding another very well-respected pastor, John McArthur, now deceased.
Gavin Ortland states that John McArthur supports “Mental Health Denial”, that Christians should not have psychiatric or emotional illness.

Gavin Ortland says such a belief prevents people from accessing the professional therapeutic support that they need.

Dr Ortland promotes secular counselling as a type of common grace.
Common grace, he says, is the blessings of God on all people regardless of their faith.
Christians benefit from the work of non-believers in nearly every aspect of their lives all the time.
Gavin Ortland considers secular counselling to be another element of God’s universal grace to all people.