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Why Choose Christian Counselling?

For a Christian, Christian counselling ensures that matters of faith and theology, and Biblical and spiritual wisdom are integrated into the counselling journey.

We’ve almost all experienced those times in our life when things get a little tough. It might be responding to issues of grief and loss after the death of a loved one, or grappling with challenges in our marriage, family or relationships. It might be coping with high levels of stress and anxiety in life or the workplace. In recent years we have become more aware of the challenges of maintaining good mental health. Life can be tricky.

In times such as these, the help and support of a counsellor can be invaluable. A good counsellor can bring an outside perspective and help us identify the challenges we’re facing, and develop and implement strategies in response. A counsellor can help us get to know ourselves better and develop a set of tools to help navigate those rough patches. Far from being something to be anxious about or ashamed of, working with a good counsellor can be a positive, healthy and valuable experience. They can help us keep moving forward.

Christian counselling takes that same approach one step further. Christian counselling ensures that matters of faith and theology, Biblical and spiritual wisdom are integrated into the counselling journey. For a Christian, the questions of whether and when to consider working with a Christian counsellor are good ones. Let’s take a look in a little more depth.

Christian counselling Australia

When to Consider Counselling?

As we mentioned above, there are times in life when counselling can be invaluable. Stress and anxiety brought on by the challenges of life, workplace stress or family and relationship issues are some examples. Others include making significant life choices, dealing with anxiety, severe illness, financial challenges, anger, dealing with grief and loss and so on. All these, and more can be threats to health and wholeness in life.

The Value of Counselling

Counselling helps us to process and respond to many of these sorts of challenges. Counselling helps us to understand our responses and behaviours, take responsibility for them, and develop techniques and strategies to respond. Counselling helps us make sense of emotions and experiences that can be felt but are hard to articulate.

Counselling Areas

Beyond that simple introduction, here are six specific examples of areas where counselling can be helpful.  

Mental health:  When dealing with stress, anxiety and depression at the mild to moderate level.

Family and marriage:  From pre-marriage sessions to dealing with significant issues within a relationship, and identifying and responding to the challenges of parenting. For more, take a look at our article on Christian marriage counselling.

School and education:  Supporting students through the experience of education, considering and making career choices, or even the social environment of the school or university.

Grief and Loss:  Helping people process situations of loss, which could include loved ones, relationships, or health and navigating the challenges that lie ahead.

Drugs, alcohol, addiction:  Helping people grapple with profound challenges around the use and abuse of drugs and alcohol – including ceasing or reducing use or rehabilitation.

Rehabilitation:  Responding to physical, mental or emotional injury, disability, accidents, health conditions or social disadvantage.

Christian therapist Australia

Why Christian Counselling?

Christian counsellors like secular counsellors, can help us identify, navigate and respond to challenges in our lives. The difference is the capacity to incorporate a Christian worldview and a faith-informed response. A Christian therapist will understand, acknowledge, and take seriously your faith as part of the counselling journey. They’ll also bring biblical and spiritual wisdom to the situation.

Christian counsellors know God has a plan for your life

Faith Entwined

For a Christian, faith is not an add-on to life, or a set of nice principles to consider. Faith is integral to who we are. Our relationship with God is entwined in our very identity. For this reason, a counsellor needs to know and understand the importance of matters of faith in the counselling journey. Beyond theoretical understanding, the counsellor should know personally the faith journey, and the place Jesus takes in our lives and hearts.

Bringing Biblical Wisdom

Biblical teaching lies at the heart of the Christian life, influencing our values, priorities and choices, our behaviours, and our self-understanding. Christian counselling techniques do involve all of the wisdom and insight that any other therapeutic approach would. Importantly, they also consider the richness of theological and biblical insights. The Christian counsellor knows and understands God has a plan for your life. They’ll know that Jesus came so that you “might have life in all its fullness” (John 10:10). They’ll want the best for you in this light. As you work together, a Christian counsellor might well pray with and for you. They might explore lessons from scripture and insights from the Spirit with you.

Where Does it Happen?

Christian counselling, like any other counselling, can take the form of individual, couple, family or small group sessions. The format will depend on your preference and the topics you’re exploring.

Local Church or Counselling Centre

Some counsellors work independently, while others will be based in a Christian counselling centre. Often a local church will offer Christian counselling services. A discussion with your local church or Christian counselling centre can help identify the most appropriate options for you.

Online or by Video Link

While often taking place in person, Christian counselling online is an increasingly common offering. Telehealth and other forms of online meetings have grown tremendously in popularity in recent years, and the technology is relatively cheap and widely available. Where time and distance are a challenge, online, telephone or video counselling is a viable option you could consider. Sometimes your counsellor might suggest meeting in person for a first session, and then moving online afterwards. Talk with your counsellor about the best option for the work you will do together.
online Christian counselling

Retreats

Counselling can also occur in the setting of a Christian retreat where you share with others in a time designed to help build healthy habits for life, sharing in prayer, biblical study and reflection. Retreats might vary from a single day to a weekend or longer. Some retreats are designed to focus on a particular issue, while others simply create space for your own reflection and processing of life’s interesting challenges in a calm, supportive environment.

Short Courses

Some Christian counsellors offer short courses designed to help in a particular time of need, or with a particular issue. One such example is a grief and loss program helping us process a significant loss. A second is a marriage preparation program, or marriage enrichment course that can be shared with other couples. There are some issues you might prefer to explore with a counsellor in the privacy of a one-on-one conversation, but others where a small group or short course format is valuable. The sense of peer support and encouragement from a small group can be a powerful part of our journey toward a healthy life. Talk with your counsellor to see if a small group or short course program might be right for you.

Making the Right Choice

Finding the right counsellor is an important choice in what can be difficult moments. Considering the benefits of Christian counselling is an option we recommend you consider. Finding the “right” counsellor for you is critical, and there are many factors that go into such a decision. To explore some of those factors, read our article on Choosing a Counsellor or Psychologist.
Scott-Guyatt-writer for Local Christian Life
Scott Guyatt is a writer, speaker, trainer, and facilitator who has served the church in Australia for more than two decades. Scott’s experience includes helping the church explore mission, discipleship and leadership practices in local communities across the country.

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