Seasoned counselors and professors Tim Clinton and Ron Hawkins provide a landmark reference that offers a capstone definition of the emerging profession and ministry of the Christian counselor. Appropriate for professional counselors, lay counselors, pastors, students, and teachers, it includes nearly 300 entries by nearly 100 top Christian counselors. This practical guide focuses on functional aspects of Christian counseling and explores such important topics as...Christian counseling as a profession, ministry, and lay ministry; Spiritual and theological roots; Social, emotional, and relational issues; Skills and essentials in Christian helping; Ethical and legal considerations; Intake, assessment, diagnosis, and treatment planning; and Premarital counseling, family therapy, and substance abuse. Counselors will also find up-to-date information on solution-based brief therapy, cognitive therapy and biblical truth, and trauma and crisis intervention. An essential resource for maintaining a broad and up-to-date perspective on helping others.

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.

Master the essentials of effective biblical counseling Christ-Centered Biblical Counseling is a comprehensive resource that will help you understand how to minister from God’s truth to change lives. With the cumulative wisdom of almost 40 contributors with exceptional credentials and experience, you’ll discover a valuable model for counseling that explains… The Why of Biblical Counseling Why the Bible is sufficient and relevant for addressing every issue we face Why biblical counseling is so effective in helping people face life’s struggles in Christ’s strength The How of Biblical Counseling How you can lead struggling, hurting people to the hope and strength available only in Christ How to counsel in a way that is Christ-centered and God-glorifying Every chapter provides a wonderful blend of theological wisdom and practical expertise, and is written to be accessible to everyone who wishes to extend Christ’s love to others—pastors, church leaders, counseling practitioners, instructors, lay people, and students. In this massively important new book…leading figures in the biblical counseling movement set forth a wealth of wisdom. We have needed this book for a long time. —Dr. R. Albert Mohler Jr., president, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary Christ-Centered Biblical Counseling is warm, personal, gentle, always wanting to listen and know the person, confident in the Spirit’s working through the Word of Christ. —Dr. Ed Welch, CCEF faculty, author of Shame Interrupted

This proven guide in pastoral counseling has been extensively expanded and revised by the author to include recent developments and research, new resources, and attention to newly urgent needs such as AIDS, eating disorders, homosexuality, and violence. Written with clarity and sensitivity, this volume builds on biblical foundations and the best resources of professional psychology. It reflects the insights the author has gained from many years of Christian counseling. New Sections include: The Legal, Ethical and Moral Issues in Counseling The Multicultural, Multiracial Issues in Counseling Conflict and Relationships Dealing with Death and Grief Alcoholism and Other Substance Abuse Crises and Trauma Counseling and Terrorism

Editor Randolph K. Sanders assembles a team of scholar-practitioners to forge a comprehensive ethical approach to Christian counseling. Christian psychotherapists, pastors and others in the counseling profession will find here a ready resource for a wide array of contemporary clinical scenarios.

A client raises spiritual questions. Can a Christian therapist working in a government agency talk with a client about faith? A young couple with two children asks a Christian counselor to help them negotiate an end to their marriage. What responsibility does the counselor have to try to repair the relationship? A youth group member confidentially reveals to the pastor that he is taking drugs. Should the pastor tell the boy's parents? A counselor who teaches a college course has a client show up for class. What should she do? These are just a few of the complex dilemmas that therapists, counselors and pastors face nearly every day. Handling these situations appropriately is critical for both the client's progress and the professional's personal credibility and protection from liability. State and federal codes, professional association statements and denominational guidelines have been drawn up to address ethical issues like competence, confidentiality, multiple relationships, public statements, third parties and documentation. In this book you'll find them all compiled and interpreted in light of Christian faith and practice. Written by qualified professional counselors and respected academic instructors, this book is an indispensable resource for understanding and applying ethics in Christian counseling today.

The American Association of Christian Counselors and Tyndale House Publishers are committed to ministering to the spiritual needs of people. This book is part of the professional series that offers counselors the latest techniques, theory, and general information that is vital to their work. While many books have tried to integrate theology and psychology, this book takes another step and explores the importance of the spiritual disciplines in psychotherapy, helping counselors to integrate the biblical principles of forgiveness, redemption, restitution, prayer, and worship into their counseling techniques. Since its first publication in 1996, this book has quickly become a contemporary classic—a go-to handbook for integrating what we know is true from the disciplines of theology and psychology and how that impacts your daily walk with God. This book will help you integrate spiritual disciplines—such as prayer, Scripture reading, confession—into your own life and into counseling others. Mark R. McMinn, Ph.D., is professor of psychology at Wheaton College Graduate School in Wheaton, Illinois, where he directs and teaches in the Doctor of Psychology program. A diplomate in Clinical Psychology of the American Board of Professional Psychology, McMinn has thirteen years of postdoctoral experience in counseling, psychotherapy, and psychological testing. McMinn is the author of Making the Best of Stress: How Life's Hassles Can Form the Fruit of the Spirit; The Jekyll/Hyde Syndrome: Controlling Inner Conflict through Authentic Living; Cognitive Therapy Techniques in Christian Counseling; and Christians in the Crossfire (written with James D. Foster). He and his wife, Lisa, have three daughters.