Evaluating Models of Christian Counseling

Evaluating Models of Christian Counseling

George R. Ross

Evaluating Models of Christian Counseling

Copyright © 2011 George R. Ross. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers, 199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3, Eugene, OR 97401.

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Table of Contents

Title Page

Preface

Chapter 1: The Counseling Process

Chapter 2: Psychology and the Counseling Process

Chapter 3: Theology and the Counseling Process

Chapter 4: Spirituality and the Counseling Process

Chapter 5: Integrating Psychology, Theology, and Spirituality

Chapter 6: Evaluating Models of Christian Counseling

Chapter 7: Jay Adams’s Nouthetic Counseling

Chapter 8: Bill Gothard’s Basic Life Principles

Chapter 9: Robert McGee’s Search for Significance

Chapter 10: Kenneth Haugk’s Christian Caregiving

Epilogue

Appendix

Bibliography

Preface

Intended to be used within a course setting, this book challenges the interested student to examine the perplexities present in evaluating how effectively a model of Christian counseling incorporates psychological, theological, and spiritual principles. This book presents an opportunity for the motivated student to develop skills necessary to effectively evaluate models of Christian counseling. A student studying this book will develop sensitivity to the underlying psychological, theological, and spiritual dimensions of four models of Christian counseling, learn how to compare and contrast the strengths and limitations of each model, and learn how to evaluate the efficacy and efficiency of each approach as a legitimate means of counseling.

In the first four chapters of the book a foundation is established. Working definitions of the counseling process, psychology, theology, and spirituality are outlined. Equipped with this set of working definitions, the student is introduced in chapter 5 to several viewpoints outlining the merits, feasibility, and objections to developing a model of Christian counseling that integrates psychology, theology, and spirituality.

In chapter 6 the student is introduced to a carefully crafted three pronged evaluation model designed to unravel the prevailing psychology, theology, and spirituality of any given model of Christian counseling. Chapters 7–10 provide for the student four illustrations on how to apply the evaluation model. Chapter 7 examines the nouthetic counseling model of Jay Adams. Chapter 8 evaluates Bill Gothard’s basic life principles model of Christian counseling. Chapter 9 reviews Robert McGee’s search for significance model of Christian counseling. Chapter 10 assesses Kenneth Haugk’s model of Christian caregiving.

1

The Counseling Process

In order to examine the relationships between psychology, theology, and spirituality and their respective interactions within the counseling process, one must first clearly delineate a working definition of these terms. What is the counseling process? What is psychology? What is theology? What is spirituality? McMinn ( 1996 , 9 – 10 ) explains: For Christian counselors doing interdisciplinary integration, two areas of competence are necessary and sufficient: psychology and theology. But if we are to bring religious issues out of the scholarly journals into the Christian counseling office, we must also understand spirituality and the process of spiritual formation.

Defining the Counseling Process

Oden (1966, 17) understands counseling as a process of conversation with a congruent human brother who mediates empathetic understanding and unconditional positive regard with a view toward resolving destructive inner conflict. Shertzer and Stone (1968, 22–26) define counseling as an interaction process which facilitates meaningful understanding of self and environment and results in the establishment and or clarification of goals and values for future behavior. Truax and Carkhuff (1967, 25) contend that the counseling process is earmarked by three sets of characteristics, accurate empathy, non-possessive warmth, and genuineness. Every major theory of psychotherapy and counseling stress the importance of the therapist’s ability to be integrated, mature, genuine, authentic or congruent in his relationship to the patient, being able to provide a non-threatening, trusting, safe or secure atmosphere by his acceptance, non possessive warmth, unconditional positive regard, or love, and demonstrate the ability to be accurately empathic, be ‘with’ the client, be understanding, or grasp the patient’s meaning.

Eisenberg and Delaney (1977, 72) in their classic work, The Counseling Process, contend that counseling may be seen as a process of a series of stages which include the initial meeting, exploration of client concern and relationship development, goal achievement, development and implementation of an approach to goal achievement, evaluation of results, and termination and follow up. The counseling process is an effort by the counselor to help people make important decisions . . . deal and cope with crisis situations . . . reduce counterproductive behaviors . . . stimulate healthy individual growth . . . and help in making vocational choices (14). In short, the counseling process is a growth and enhancement procedure designed to produce fully functioning individuals that demonstrate qualities of consistency, commitment, self-control, competence, creativity, and self-awareness.

Individuals are fully functioning when they are consistent, that is, when they behave and make decisions that are reasonably consistent both within social roles, through time, and across social roles demonstrating a well-integrated sense of personal identity. Individuals are fully functioning when they demonstrate the quality of commitment, that is, when they are able to commit self to goals and purposes that are enhancing and helpful to self, others, and various groups and organizations . . . and to self-transcending values that give meaning and purpose to life and thus protect from hopelessness, obsessive fear of death, and existential despair.

Individuals are fully functioning when self-control is demonstrated, that is, when emotions that are expressed are reasonable in proportion to the situation related to them. Individuals are fully functioning when competence is evidenced, as demonstrated when individuals can act proactively rather than reactively on the environment . . . oriented more towards anticipatory problem solving than a crisis coping base. Individuals are fully functioning when they can act with creativity. This is evident when individuals are able to produce something new . . . think divergently . . . develop unusual and effective solutions to difficult problems. Individuals are fully functioning when self-awareness exist, that is, when individuals are aware of talents, abilities, and limitations . . . of the motivations, beliefs, and values, feelings, and assumptions that affect personal behavior and decisions (15–16).

Bandler and Grinder (1975, 35–38) stress that critical to defining the counseling process is grasping an understanding of the client’s language structure. They explain: When humans wish to communicate their representation, their experience of the world, they form a linguistic representation of the experience . . . they make a series of choices transformations about the form in which they will communicate the experience. Therefore, for Bandler and Grinder, the counseling process is about transformational grammar . . . the mechanisms . . . in which we represent our experience. The semantic meaning, they explain, which these processes represent, is existential, infinitely rich and varied, and the meta model is an explicit representation of our unconscious, rule-governed behavior. The counseling process is about what linguists have described as the representational system called language. It is about deletion, when we selectively pay attention to certain dimensions of our experience and exclude others. It is about distortion, when we make shifts in our experience of sensory data, for example, using fantasy. It is about generalization, when elements or pieces of a person’s model become detached from their original experience and come to represent the entire category of which the experience is an example (14–16).

Bandler and Grinder (1976, 195) conclude that all forms of therapy, all the techniques of the different forms of therapy—in fact, all learning—can be understood in terms of the process of representation. All the techniques of every form of therapy are techniques which affect the processes of representation, the creation and organization of a client’s model of the world. Change becomes contingent upon changing the client’s model of the world. As a client’s model of the world changes, perceptions change, and so too does behavior. An impoverished representation can be reshaped into one of enrichment. Therefore, the counseling process encompasses our representational systems, our differing ways of representing our experiences of the world (6). Consequently, having understood how a client organizes his experience, which representational system is used and which is the client’s most highly valued one, strategies can be employed to expand a client’s model of the world in a way which will allow him more choices, greater freedom in living, and a richer life overall (25).

Brammer (1973, 55–79) in his classic work, The Helping Relationship: Process and Skills, identifies the counseling process as a helping affiliation for the express purpose of assisting someone to understand a problem, being supportive in the midst of the problem, and/or aiding the person in developing a positive action in response to the identified problem or problems. He explains that from a generalist helper point of view, there are eight stages in the helping process. They include: entry (opening the relationship), clarification (stating the problem or concern and reason for seeking help), structure (formulating the contract), relationship (building the helping relationship), exploration (exploring problems, formulating goals, planning strategies, gathering facts, expressing deeper feelings, learning new skills), consolidation (exploring alternatives, working through feelings, practicing new skills), planning (developing a plan of action, using strategies to resolve conflicts, reducing painful feelings, and consolidating and generalizing new skills or behaviors to continue self-directed activities), and termination (evaluating outcomes and terminating the relationship). Therefore, the counseling process incorporates models of problem solving, skill development, and life planning.

The counseling process also requires the development and employment of special skills. Essential skills needed for promoting understanding in the counseling process include skills of listening, leading, reflecting, summarizing, confronting, interpreting, and informing. Essential skills needed for promoting comfort and crisis utilization in the counseling process include the skills of supporting, crisis intervening, centering, and referring. Essential skills needed for promoting positive action in the counseling process include skills of problem solving, decision making, and