What Christian Counseling Is

Is it not wonderful news to believe that salvation lies outside ourselves?

Martin Luther

Christian Counseling invites you to experience a spiritual transformation that can only be accomplished in the context of a relationship with God. What is the central concept of this process? That our minds are renewed and our hearts are transformed by the gospel of Jesus Christ.

But what exactly is the gospel?

The modern theologian Tim Keller says: "The gospel of justifying faith means that while Christians are, in themselves, still sinful and sinning, yet in Christ, in God's sight, they are accepted and righteous. So we can say that we are more wicked than we ever dared believe, but more loved and accepted in Christ than we ever dared hope—at the very same time. This creates a radical new dynamic for personal growth. It means that the more you see your own flaws and sins, the more precious, electrifying, and amazing God's grace appears to you. But on the other hand, the more aware you are of God's grace and acceptance in Christ, the more able you are to drop your denials and self-defenses and admit the true dimensions and character of your sin.” As a Christian counselor, the core of my work is done and accomplished through the lens of this gospel-centered belief—thus, Christian counseling. Often as we try to grasp what something is, it is helpful to note what it is not. Christian counseling is not a strategy of self-rescue that employs herculean mind-over-matter feats of willpower. Discipline, perseverance, and self-control are valuable qualities, but if they are one's strategy for change and growth, one quickly becomes weary, spent, and unable to maintain or proceed in grace, courage, and love. Christian counseling recognizes the reality of the gospel— that we are unable to save or change ourselves. It is God who rescues, saves, and changes us. Our job? That we—by faith—join with Him in the deep gospel work He is already accomplishing in us. In that place, discipline, perseverance, self-control, and all the other virtues become what God accomplishes in our hearts. It is only the gospel of Christ that enables the virtues take their proper place in the complex journey of growth and change. Christian counseling is not an exercise in dos and don'ts. So often we think that if only we could alter our behavior—stop doing what we shouldn't, and start doing what we should—then our problems would be solved. But the gospel accomplishes something else entirely. It transforms and reshapes our motivations and desires. In light of the gospel, negative behaviors are revealed for what they are: manifestations of a heart determined to protect, save, and give itself meaning apart from God. In that same gospel light, positive behaviors are also revealed for what they are: manifestations of a heart learning to lean more fully upon the grace of God. A heart that is transformed by the gospel is a heart that is changed from the inside out. Christian counseling does not advocate the extermination of our deepest desires. Rather our desires are viewed as doorways through which we enter the deepest and most profound regions of our soul's interior. At the seed and center of our desires—even our desires that have gone awry—we are again and again pointed to the One who created us to desire good things. How often in life are our desires unmet, misunderstood, dismissed, or even disdained by others and ourselves? But not so with the gospel. The amazing and beautiful thing about the gospel is that it redeems and makes all things new, including our desires. Christian counseling is not powered by shame. Shame separates us from God and others, accomplishing little more than one more bullied attempt to "fix" or motivate ourselves enough to be acceptable to God and presentable to others. Built on the gospel's supremely kind foundation of love and acceptance in Christ, Christian counseling dispels shame and gives us the courage to see our sin for what it truly is—more damaging and self-serving than we imagined, and ourselves as we truly are—valued, accepted, and supremely loved by God through Jesus Christ. Similar to other therapy, Christian Counseling begins by discussing the challenges and concerns that have led you to counseling. Exposed pain and admitted struggle are the beginning of the process where you are able to feel the depth of your brokenness before God and admit your inability to obtain change for yourself. In this open and honest place, a Christian counselor can validate that pain and guide you as you begin to grapple with God's relentless commitment to your rescue and the gospel's startling implications for your heart. The next step in the process might be for the therapist to help you identify and repent of the lies you believe that are in discord with God's word and His desires for us. These lies are often core beliefs that substantially influence and direct our reactions, decisions, and trajectories, as well as reveal our idolatries—the places where we believe there is something other than God that will save us and grant us meaning. In other words, the deep places where we have not yet seen the gospel's light dispel darkness. It takes time to recognize, unearth, and process the core beliefs that have dictated the behaviors we long to be free of. A key step in Christian therapy is for you to hear and experience—many times over— that you are loved by God. A therapist can encourage and affirm you as together you begin to witness the many ways the gospel is beginning to transform your heart, your desires and motivations, and your behaviors. A therapist can offer much needed support as you continue to accept God's transforming grace and turn (repent) from your old beliefs and behaviors and embrace gospel truth. Through repentance we experience gospel transformation and renewal, surrendering our will to God as He extends grace and forgiveness to us. This transaction—Christ's blood covering our sin—provides us new life and freedom as we walk in the truth of His love, a love we never earn, but that came to us at great cost: Christ gave His life for us. While Christian Counseling takes place in relationship, continued spiritual healing is accomplished as we live our life openly and transparently in the midst of community. Isolation leads to self-deceit and further attempts at self-sufficiency. But life in community continues our redemption as we avail ourselves more and more to the truth of the gospel—that we are more sinful than we dare to believe and more dearly loved than we know. Christian counseling holds the gospel at the center of the work done between the counselor and the client while equipping the client to apply the gospel in a real way to their life in community.