Counseling and Christianity – Five Approaches

What does authentic Christian counseling look like in practice? This volume explores how five major perspectives on the interface of Christianity and psychology would each actually be applied in a clinical setting. Respected experts associated with each of the perspectives depict how to assess, conceptualize, counsel and offer aftercare to Jake, a hypothetical client with a variety of complex issues. In each case the contributors seek to explain how theory can translate into real-life counseling scenarios. This book builds on the framework of Eric L. Johnson's Psychology Christianity: Five Views. These include the Levels-of-Explanation Approach, the Integration Approach, the Christian Psychology Approach, the Transformational Approach and the Biblical Counseling Approach. While Counseling and Christianity can be used independently of Johnson's volume, the two can also function as useful companions. Christians who counsel, both those in practice and those still in training, will be served by this volume as it strengthens the connections between theory and practice in relating our faith to the mental health disciplines. They will finally get an answer to their persistent but unanswered question: "What would that counseling view look like behind closed doors?" 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.

Table of Contents:

Foreword by Eric L. Johnson
1. Setting the Stage for the Five Approaches
2. Moving Models into Practice
3. A Levels of Explanation Approach, Thomas G. Plante
4. An Integration Approach, Mark R. McMinn
5. A Christian Psychology Approach, Diane Langberg
6. A Transformational Approach, Gary W. Moon
7. A Biblical Counseling Approach, Stuart W. Scott
8. Distinctives and Dialogue
9. Conceptualization and Contextualization
10. Case Scenarios for Further Exploration
Author and Subject Index
Scripture Index

Timothy A. Sisemore (Ph.D., Fuller Theological Seminary) is Director of Research and Professor of Psychology and Counseling at Richmont Graduate University in Chattanooga, TN, and maintains a clinical practice at Richmont's CBI Counseling Center. He is author of several books, the most recent being The Clinician's Guide to Exposure Therapies for Anxiety Spectrum Disorders (New Harbinger).

Eric L. Johnson trained as an academic psychologist and is Lawrence and Charlotte Hoover Professor of Pastoral Care at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. He is the author of Foundations for Soul Care and the director of the Society for Christian Psychology.

Stephen P. Greggo (PsyD, State University of New York, Albany) is professor of counseling and chair of the counseling department at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, training mental health professionals and clergy for a Christian ministry of soul care. He is author of Trekking Toward Wholeness, is a licensed psychologist and ordained minister, and maintains a long-standing association as partner and consultant with CCAHope in Delmar, New York.