It is a privilege to be a part of this very
encouraging blog. As a counselor, I am constantly connecting my clients to helpful resources and groups that will augment the work that we are doing in session. This is one of those resources.
I am looking forward to sharing with you what biblical counseling is and why it is important. As a biblical counselor, God’s Word (the Bible) is the foundational lens through which I see and guide my clients. Since we believe that God made us, He is the Creator, and wrote the instruction manual (the Bible) to help us to understand who He is and who we are in relation to Him, as well as how to live life to the fullest. He communicates His lavish love to us so that we can experience the abundant life that He meant for us to enjoy.
However, you don’t have to look too far around you to see that the world is broken, and so are we. We all need help, especially this past year! The Bible is relevant even today, and speaks to every aspect of our lives. David, for instance, who wrote many of the Psalms in the Bible, communicated this heartfelt declaration in Psalm 142:1-3,
“I cry aloud to the Lord; I lift up my voice to the Lord for mercy.
I pour out my complaint before Him; before Him I tell my trouble.
When my spirit grows faint within me, it is You who know my way.”
I think we can all relate to these words. David is overwhelmed with trouble and pain, so much so- that he is crying out loud- and it is not one of those whimpering cries, but it is one of those ugly, gut wrenching, ‘life is out of control’ bellows from the deepest part of his heart. It is a cry that gushes, saying, “I don’t understand what is happening in my life, and I am not handling it well.” This is why the Psalms are so helpful! They were written thousands of years ago, and yet they are accurate and give us words that we need to express in order to assist us in making sense of life. If we don’t have words to express the overflow of our hearts, it makes it difficult to identify what is wrong. It is not surprising that science backs this up. Dr. Dan Siegel, a clinical professor of psychiatry at the UCLA School of Medicine states,
“In the brain, naming an emotion can help calm it. Here is where
finding words to label an internal experience becomes really helpful.
We can call this “Name it to tame it.” …Your inner sea and your
interpersonal relationships will all benefit from naming what is going
on and bringing more integration into your life.”
Biblical counseling guides us in seeing that difficult things happen to us (suffering) and that we often don’t handle things well (sin). God helps us to diagnose our problems and also gives us answers to the deepest questions in our hearts (for example, “why does sin and suffering happen in the first place?”). The verse in Psalms shows us a helpful pattern of how to seek help from a biblical perspective. The Psalmist is crying out in his anguish, recognizing and taking responsibility that he did something wrong (crying out for mercy) as well as stating that trouble is happening to him that he had no fault in (suffering). Finally, he is seeking the only One who can understand his pain (God sees all and knows all), provide him guidance in solving his problem, and providing comfort because ultimately, he is not alone (God says, “…and I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Matthew 28:20).
There is so much more to say about biblical counseling, but I hope that this gives you a basic understanding of what it is and why it is important.
Hope Family Counseling, LLC
8984 Darrow Rd #4
Twinsburg, OH 44087
hopefamilycounseling.com
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