CHRISTIAN COUNSELING ROOTED IN A CHRISTIAN WORLDVIEW
I.CHRISTIAN RELIGION AND OTHER RELIGIONS
A. Pre/post-Biblical Religion and Biblical Religion
1. polytheism, monotheism, atheism
2. arbitrary vs. morally relevant
3. moralism vs. grace
B. Biblical Anthropology
1. in the image of God
a) the centrality of religion
2. neighbourliness
a) inter-relatedness
b) interdependency
c) unity in diversity and vice versa
d) com-unity vs. uniformity
e) diversity of giftedness and neediness
II.APPLICATION TO CHRISTIAN COUNSELING
A. Professional and Community
1. common compassion
2. caring for pay
B. Pastoral Counseling and Psychological Counseling
1. the heart and the periphery of the matter
2. the importance of specialization
3. the limits of specialties
C. Christian Counseling
1. self-involvement
2. reduction of anxiety
3. Christian eclecticism
4. respect for persons
5. psychotherapy: one healing agent among many
CHRISTIAN COUNSELING ROOTED IN A CHRISTIAN WORLDVIEW
This paper does not discuss the Christian approach to counseling but my Christian approach to counseling. It is far too pretentious to think that I could speak for all Christians involved in counseling. My insight is fallible and I want to be corrected by others. Even so, we can speak of Christian counseling, as opposed to counseling that is led by some other religion or ideology. Christianity is a religion. Thus, it makes sense to explore how my Christian religion influences my counseling. I must say something about my Christian world-and-life view first. I find this hard to do since I am normally not aware of my worldview. I just live it. To give an account of how my Christian worldview influences my approach to counseling requires that I look back, reflect, retrospect. Maybe what I think I do, and why, is not what I actually do. Do I walk the talk? What I will say has the character of confessing. I am trying to be honest about what I think and do, what motivates me. I am not trying to prove anything. I intend to tell you where I am coming from. I will not bother you with my whole view, only with those features relevant to my kind of therapy.
I.HOW IS THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION DIFFERENT FROM OTHER RELIGIONS?
Why am I a Christian, and not an agnostic, a pagan, a Buddhist, or a Muslim? Because I believe that the Christian religion is unique.
A. PRE-BIBLICAL RELIGION AND THE BIBLICAL RELIGION
1. poly-theism, mono-theism, a-theism
Religion has to do with ultimate trust and ultimate allegiance. 'God' is usually associated with matters of ultimate conviction, rather than with just preference. Hence, I begin with talking about polytheism, monotheism, and atheism.
Historically atheism is last. It is a rejection of theism. Prior to atheism all people were religious, i.e. believed in god(s) as a matter of givens.
Before the bible was written, religions as a rule, were polytheistic. These religions believed in the existence of many gods, each requiring a different way of serving and worshipping. Biblical religion is monotheistic, i.e. there is only one God, all others are no-gods or idols. People may serve or worship the Christian God in many different ways, but there is only one God. This confession implies an exclusiveness that does not sit well with many today because they adhere to the religion of democracy. My view is that democracy only works well if there is a common base, a common ideal in terms of which to differ. So, I would advocate a Christian democracy which has one conviction, but many expressions.
2. arbitrary vs. morally relevant
Both in pre-biblical paganism and in post-biblical atheism there is no connection between religion and morality, between how we relate to, or what we do for God and how we relate to, or what we do for fellow human beings and fellow non-human creatures. By contrast, in the biblical religion there is an intimate connection. When you serve God well, the bible states, you are a blessing to your neighbour. God gets angry when you hurt your neighbour. You serve God by being good to your neighbour (human or non-human) and by serving God you are good to your neighbour. Religion (serving God) and morality or ethics (being good to your neighbour) are inextricably intertwined. In short, it is religiously and morally impossible to be a Christian and not be your neighbour's keeper. Christianity is morally relevant. This holds true, not only for Christianity, but also for Judaism and the Muslim religion, which all have a biblical basis.
3. moralism versus grace
There is, however, a basic difference between Christianity and either Judaism or the Muslim religion. In the Christian religion access to God does not depend on the morality of human beings, but rather, God comes down to human beings in order to make them moral. So, religion does not depend on morality but morality on religion, i.e. the fact that God became a human being in the person of Jesus Christ was for the purpose of making people neighbourly to one another. God became good for people so that people would become good for one another. Why did God do that? Purely out of the goodness of His heart. He sets no conditions beforehand. He demands nothing in return. He makes us good for nothing. He did not come down to good people only, but also, and especially to bad people, not to winners, but to losers, to the weak/needy rather than the strong. His love for people, while not unconditional is pre-conditional. Everyone has unrestricted access to Him, and it’s free, like the internet. According to the bible people are saved by grace.
The implications of this doctrine for me is that, according to the bible every human being is carried by God and pointed in a saving direction. So, every Christian ought to know: “I am not alone. Life can be incredibly painful and confusing, but I can always go to Someone for help. I am supported by someone bigger than myself and I am constantly pointed in the right direction. So are all other human being whether they believe it or not.
FOOTNOTE: I am talking about a promise held out in the bible, as I read it, not about how real Christians actually live their life. Real Christians often do not believe half the stuff they are reading, let alone that they should live according to it. Real Christians are as dumb as the next guy, and sometimes meaner to others than pagans and agnostics.
B.BIBLICAL ANTHROPOLOGY (view of the nature, view of humankind)
All this has implication for how I view human beings, for my view of human life.
1. in the image of God
We have an open line to God. When I don't know where to turn, He is there, when I don't know what to do, He shows me. I am not alone. This, I think, is what it means that human beings were made in the image of God.
a) the centrality of religion
To be human is to have an open line to Someone or something. It is to have religion, convictions and values. The basic fact about human beings is not that they have reason, or that they are at bottom reasonable but that they have religion, that they are religious, that they believe, that they are convinced of something, that they value some things deeply.
Every human being who is alive has convictions. To deny a human being her beliefs is to rob her of her humanity. Religion is essential to being a human being.
Frequently, my access to God and God’s access to me goes via people. Sometimes other people obstruct that access.
2. neighbourliness
Another, equally essential fact about human kind is neighbourliness. Human beings are first and foremost neighbours. They are in the world to care for one another and to depend on each other. In addition they are called to care for their fellow non-human creatures and to depend on them. Similarly, they are admonished to keep the garden-environment they live in because they depend on it.
a) inter relatedness, and b) interdependency
What this implies for me for the way we live together is that human beings are interrelated and interdependent. No human being is an island. Nor is anyone self-sufficient. I derive these statements from the model of I Cor. 12. which is a description of humankind as a body.
c) unity in diversity and vv.
Just like a human body has many organs/members and nevertheless is one body, so mankind is a unity in diversity and vice versa.
d) comunity versus uniformity
Just like the members of a body belong to the one body, but differ each from the other, so all human beings belong to mankind but all are different from one another. They are not the same, they need to be different to belong to each other. Mankind is a com-unity, not a uniformity. This implies that in a true community people respect each other's uniqueness. No discrimination is allowed. Just because some people are not black, yellow or white does not mean they don't belong to mankind. Quite the reverse, those people whom others despise (uncomely parts, butt/stomach that stick out) receive extra respect in a true community. They are treasured for their uniqueness.
e) diversity of giftedness and neediness
The diversity in this model is not an abstract diversity of traits, but a diversity of giftedness and neediness. We all have gifts or aptitudes, none excluded, and we all have needs or handicaps, again, none excluded. We can all help and we all need help. This is another great status leveler. In principle there are no professionals and patients, nobody is useless, and no one is so competent that he does not need help. But my abilities are not your abilities and my needs are not your needs. In a true community my abilities serve your needs, and my needs are met by your abilities. Actually we do not even have abilities, only response-abilities. When gifts are matched with needs, the community blossoms and God smiles, because that is exactly what He is after.
In the next section we will explore what all this means for therapy.
II.APPLICATION TO CHRISTIAN COUNSELING
A. PROFESSIONALS AND COMMUNITY
In the previous section I tried to show how I view human life and, hopefully, live human life. Next I want to show what all this now means for the way I view and do therapy.
1. common compassion
If anything became clear in the previous section it is, I hope, my conviction that neighbourliness, that is, people caring for people, is central to human life. To be human people ought to be helping people. Everybody is called to do it. This is what I call common, ordinary, no big deal, everyday compassion. We all do it. We are all officials for one another, we all do things on behalf of others, mechanics do it, so do bankers, bakers and psychotherapists. Common compassion is as essential to human life as breathing, eating and sleeping.
I have also said that, from my Christian vantage point, that kind of moral activity is intimately connected to religion. Our relation to God comes to expression in the extent to which we are human, i.e. in the extent to which we show common compassion, the extent to which we care for our neighbour.
2. caring for pay
But now, professional counselors such as clinical psychologists, and social workers seem to be experts in this activity. They get trained to do things for people, to help them. They become good at doing good. It becomes their job, their profession and they get paid for doing it. Therapy of any kind is expert helping for pay. How do these professional activities relate to the community activity of common compassion, since there seems to be no difference in the kind of activity? In my view the relation is something like this, clinical psychologists, social workers and counselors in general do what every human being can do, only they do it better and more often. They are more gifted than the average person in doing it and that is why they make it their full-time profession, their specialty, and they get paid for it.
But this raises another question. Does this than mean that if only people were more compassionate, we would not need them? No, in the ideal world, where everyone would practice compassion, we would still need professional counselors. These counselors do not only fix thing when they have gone wrong but they also counsel people how to do things better. By virtue of their special giftedness they counsel people how to feel better, think better and do better. They not only do therapy (heal, medical model) but also teach (educate, normalization model) and they get paid for doing therapy and teaching. They are experts at feeling, thinking and doing. That is their specialty. It is their way of contributing to the common compassion of the community, on par with fixing cars, handling money, baking bread.
B. PASTORAL COUNSELING AND PSYCHOLOGICAL COUNSELING
Another question is one of the relation between the counseling which pastors or ministers do and Christian psychological counseling. Presumably, both are Christian, so what is their difference?
1. the heart and the periphery of the matter
If I were to ask, “What is the difference between a (Christian) mechanic and a (Christian) pastor,” you might say: “Mechanics just fix cars.” Implied in this answer is the assertion that mechanics deal with the periphery, the incidentals of life, whereas the pastor deals with the heart of life. Well, the same holds for clinical psychologists. The specialty of pastors is to deal with the heart of the matter, with religion and morality. The specialty of clinical psychologists is to deal with one aspect of the periphery, with feeling, thinking and doing. This implies that thinking, feeling and doing are less central to life than religion and morality. This does not mean that pastoral counseling does not deal with feelings, thoughts or behaviors, nor that psychological counseling does not deal with religion and morality. The difference is one of focus, of specialization.
2. the importance of specialization
Modern life is too complex to be dealt with effectively by one specialty. So, don't let the pastor fix your car and don't let the mechanic preach. Pastors are not good at clinical psychology, nor clinical psychologists at what pastors do.
3. the limits of specialties
The point is that pastors and clinical psychologists are specialists. They ought to refer to one another when the problems they face are beyond their expertise. And both ought to refer to other specialists. Pastors make lousy psychologists and psychologists lousy pastors. The effect of pastoring and clinical psychology is limited.
C.CHISTIAN COUNSELING
Thus far I have sketched the relation of Christian psychological counseling to its context, to the common compassion of the community and to pastoral counseling.
But what can I say now about Christian psychological counseling itself, about its nature, its structure?
1. self-involvement
The first is that I, as a Christian psychological counselor, cannot just be a professional. In my counseling I am necessarily self-involved. Another way of saying this is that I cannot do anything else but Christian counseling. Already early in my career I learned that I cannot hide the fact that I am a Christian. People have told me time and again that I not only talk like a Christian but also walk like a Christian. Apparently there is no escape. Even when I try to hide my religious affiliation my body language betrays me. I rather like that. It frees me from having to wear labels and from having to use words to announce my Christianity. But it also makes me more aware of my behaviour and teaches me the importance of walking circumspectly in my counseling.
2. reduction of anxiety
Every counselor will agree that to be an effective counselor one must be free from anxiety about one’s own performance in counseling. It has to be quiet and peaceful inside. Professional counselors usually achieve this state of mind by going into counseling themselves. In addition I believe that Christians can achieve this peace by talking and listening to God. This idea may seem strange to some people, especially if God talks back to them, so let me explain more clearly what I mean. As I have stated before, I believe that to be human one must have access to God (and I think everyone potentially has). But if I believe that, then I must also believe that the insights I need to be effective in counseling are gifts rather than achievements.
For me, therapeutic wisdom comes from outside. So, when I run stuck in counseling, and I don't know what to do next, I grow quiet inside, I talk to God, I listen to God--I wait for God to give me the insights I need. Other therapists may do it differently (for example, Jung may listen to his ‘unconscious’, and Rogers to his ‘organism’) but the structure is the same: to rid oneself of anxiety one must develop a receptive, listening attitude. When we do that it becomes quiet inside and this absence of anxiety works therapeutically on the clients counselors try to help.
3. Christian eclecticism
I notice that counselors who call themselves Christian almost all have an aversion to reductionism. This is no accident, I think. It stems from a respect for the rich diverse complexity of human beings, and a disbelief of all assertions which state that you can obtain emotional health in a few easy steps or via one approach. This may be the reason why almost all Christian counselors are eclectic in their approach. Somehow, their Christianity fosters an appreciation for the complexity of human life, an openness only to that which works, and the modest recognition that non-Christians are, for the most part responsible for the insights we have into the psyche of people.