I am indeed pretty lucky to have a counseling pastor and infrastructure like we do here at Summit. I think your point about speaking the truth may illuminate one of the critical fault lines in the conversation around clinical/Biblical/integrationist counseling in terms of the end state and therefore trajectory and process of said counseling.

I do wonder whether this conversation really pertains to me and others like me and if so, to what degree. It’s encouraging to hear you welcome a clinical perspective. I have a small blog I’m starting mostly for my professional identity but have started putting my foot in the water of discussing the church and mental health and have been wondering whether topics like this are ones I ought to engage.

As for structured medical model ‘therapies’ like CBT and DBT, not even all clinicians agree on which are truly helpful at the deepest levels as opposed to being quick ‘symptom reduction’ fixes. I personally don’t see a truly Biblical view of the change process being easily confined to a medical model approach, but in fairness I’m not a medical model guy so I’m biased.

Your encouragement is appreciated and I hope that I can enjoy many positive and life giving relationships with my brothers and sisters in Christ who are Biblical counselors in the future. Take care and God bless!

Dave Hughes

I would love to see clinicians involved in this conversation, especially in demonstrating how insights from psychology can be incorporated into biblical counseling. Some biblical counselors do accept the input of empirical psychology (things like sleep science, impact of digital technology, etc). However, most are resistant to learning from things like CBT, DBT, etc. I would like to see evidence of the necessity/helpfulness of such therapies working under the same model as I’ve outlined in my conversations with Pastor N. T. Grayshon.

And yes, I would encourage you to seek out biblical counselors as mentors, colleagues, and potential referrals. I know of many who do excellent work and I would always regard them as an important ally in many counseling situations. I’ve learned a ton from them. I am one! Although some do not like me claiming that label

I’ve found very few who subscribe to the current direction/rhetoric/tone of some of the BC leadership.

Thank you for your thoughts on this (and for the hat tip to my counseling pastor). I’ve been reading Brad’s responses and keeping an eye to the situation at SBTS with regard to the ongoing discussion on Biblical counseling. Although it’s not entirely my arena, it certainly pertains to me and it’s left me with a few thoughts. Not sure if you will find them helpful or thought-provoking, but here they are:

Brad mentioned in one post (I think his most recent) that there are some mental health professionals who are believers, living much in the way of the business-as-missions movement. As an emerging professional myself, I wonder what we are to take from such conversations as we watch from the sidelines.

What role, if any, do those of us who are clinicians play in this conversation?

Should I be seeking out Biblical counselors as mentors, colleagues, and potential referrals?

What does this discussion say about what my relationship should be toward the church vs. the scientific community?

I am encouraged by your writing, as well as that of others who are bringing needed perspective to this conversation. I am lucky to have started my education at a university that required a theological integration section at the end of every paper as I studied theories of personality and theories of therapy. I was forced early on to start from my theology and filter everything from that point, and I can tell you that starting and ending with scripture really does make all the difference in how you understand the science. I’m just not always sure that we are considering the fact that there ARE Christians doing just that in this and other scientific communities. This blog post made me feel a bit closer to the conversation, thank you.

Every biblical and Christian counselor I know is an integrationist to some degree. Even Jay Adams allowed for some scientific input. The only questions about the integration that everyone is doing are:

1. How open and transparent are we about it?

2. How consistent are we with our presuppositions?

3. To what degree do we integrate biblical knowledge with other knowledge?

4. What criteria do we use to decide the degree of integration?

5. How do we control the integration? Above Scripture, beside Scripture, or under Scripture?