This substantially revised and updated edition of a widely used textbook covers the major approaches to counseling and psychotherapy from a Christian perspective, with hypothetical verbatim transcripts of interventions for each major approach and the latest empirical or research findings on their effectiveness. The second edition covers therapies and techniques that are increasing in use, reduces coverage of techniques that are waning in importance, and includes a discussion of lay counseling. The book presents a Christian approach to counseling and psychotherapy that is Christ-centered, biblically based, and Spirit-filled.

Are Christian treatments as effective as secular treatments? What is the evidence to support its success? Christians engaged in the fields of psychology, psychotherapy and counseling are living in a unique moment. Over the last couple decades, these fields have grown more and more open to religious belief and religion-accommodative therapies. At the same time, Christian counselors and psychotherapists encounter pressure (for example, from insurance companies) to demonstrate that their accommodative therapies are as beneficial as secular therapies. This raises the need for evidence to support Christian practices and treatments. The essays gathered in this volume explore evidence-based Christian treatments, practices, factors and principles. The authors mine the relevant research and literature to update practicing psychotherapists, clinical researchers, students, teachers and educated laypersons about the efficacy of certain Christian-accommodative therapies. Topics covered in the book include: devotional meditation cognitive-behavior therapy psychodynamic and process-experiential therapies couples, marriage and family therapy group intervention The book concludes with a review of the evidence for the various treatments discussed in the chapters, a guide for conducting clinical trials that is essential reading for current or aspiring researchers, and reflections by the editors about the future of evidence-based Christian practices. As the editors say, "more research is necessary." To that end, this volume is a major contribution to a field of inquiry that, while still in its infancy, promises to have enormous implications for future work in Christian counseling and psychotherapy. Christian Association for Psychological Studies (CAPS) Books explore how Christianity relates to mental health and behavioral sciences including psychology, counseling, social work, and marriage and family therapy in order to equip Christian clinicians to support the well-being of their clients.

This book provides a forum for five major perspectives on the interface of Christianity and psychology to display their distinctions in a counseling context. Experts in each approach show how to assess, conceptualize, counsel and offer aftercare to a hypothetical client with a variety of complex issues.

How are Christians to understand and undertake the discipline of psychology? This question has been of keen interest (and sometimes concern) to Christians because of the importance we place on a correct understanding of human nature. Psychology can sometimes seem disconnected from, if not antithetical to, Christian perspectives on life. How are we to understand our Christian beliefs about persons in relation to secular psychological beliefs? This revised edition of a widely appreciated Spectrum volume now presents five models for understanding the relationship between psychology and Christianity. All the essays and responses have been reworked and updated with some new contributors including the addition of a new perspective, the transformative view from John Coe and Todd Hall (Biola University). Also found here is David Powlison (Westminster Theological Seminary) who offers the biblical counseling model. The levels-of-explanation model is advanced by David G. Myers (Hope College), while Stanton L. Jones (Wheaton College) offers an entirely new chapter presenting the integration model. The Christian psychology model is put forth by Robert C. Roberts (Baylor University) now joined by Paul J. Watson (University of Tennesee, Chattanooga). Each of the contributors responds to the other essayists, noting points of agreement as well as problems they see. Eric L. Johnson provides a revised introduction that describes the history of Christians and psychology, as well as a conclusion that considers what might unite the five views and how a reader might evaluate the relative strengths and weaknesses of each view. Psychology and Christianity: Five Views has become a standard introductory textbook for students and professors of Christian psychology. This revision promises to keep it so. Spectrum Multiview Books offer a range of viewpoints on contested topics within Christianity, giving contributors the opportunity to present their position and also respond to others in this dynamic publishing format.

Since the beginning of the biblical counseling movement in 1970, biblical counselors have argued that counseling is a ministry of the Word, just like preaching or missions. As a ministry, counseling must be defined according to sound biblical theology rather than secular principles of psychology. For over four decades, biblical theology has been at the core of the biblical counseling movement. Leaders in biblical counseling have emphasized a commitment to teaching doctrine in their counseling courses out of the conviction that good theology leads to good counseling…and bad theology leads to bad counseling. A Theology of Biblical Counseling is a landmark new book that covers the history of the biblical counseling movement, the core convictions that underlie sound counseling, and practical wisdom for counseling today. Dr. Heath Lambert shows how biblical counseling is rooted in the Scriptures while illustrating the real challenges counselors face today through true stories from the counseling room. A substantive textbook written in accessible language, it is an ideal resource for use in training biblical counselors at colleges, seminaries, and training institutes. In each chapter, doctrine comes to life in real ministry to real people, dramatically demonstrating how theology intersects with the lives of actual counselees.

What does a Christian approach to counseling and psychotherapy involve? The 2021 Fuller Integration Symposium Lectures by Dr. Siang-Yang Tan, published in this book, cover this topic with the overall title of: “A Christian Approach to Counseling and Psychotherapy: Christ-Centered, Biblically Based, and Spirit-Filled.” The three lectures in three chapters are on: (1) “A Christian Perspective on Human Nature and Effective Counseling and Psychotherapy”; (2) “Implicit and Explicit Integration in Christian Counseling and Psychotherapy: Christian Faith in Clinical Practice”; and (3) “The Role of the Holy Spirit in Christian Counseling and Psychotherapy.”

Mark McMinn and Clark Campbell present an integrative model of psychotherapy that is grounded in Christian biblical and theological teaching and in a critical and constructive engagement with contemporary psychology. This foundational work integrates behavioral, cognitive, and interpersonal models of therapy within a Christian theological framework. Not only do the authors integrate Christian faith and spirituality with the latest thinking in behavioral science at a theoretical level, they also integrate the theoretical and academic with the pastoral and clinical, offering a practical guide for the practitioner. Christian Association for Psychological Studies (CAPS) Books explore how Christianity relates to mental health and behavioral sciences including psychology, counseling, social work, and marriage and family therapy in order to equip Christian clinicians to support the well-being of their clients.