This blog post will continue to explore my journey into the Biblical Counseling certification entities, what I learned along the way and where I am now.
Per my previous post, I shared that in 2011, Elyse Fitzpatrick’s book on parenting was my introduction to Biblical Counseling (BC). Six years and two states later, while I was taking seminary classes, I became aware of a Biblical Counseling summer conference near our new home in Southern California. I excitedly attended it. I was eager to gain information on how to incorporate, not necessarily integrate, what I was learning about secular counseling observations with a Biblical Counseling method and a clear theological Gospel-centered precision.
In my counseling studies, I immediately recognized many of the presuppositions of the various modern secular counseling theories and therapies, like….
- Sigmund Freud’s “talking cure” of psychoanalysis
- Albert Adler’s “individual psychology,” – aka Adlerian therapy
- Carl Roger’s Person-Centered therapy
- Carl Jung’s Analytic Psychology (Jungian therapy)
- Frederick Solomon’s Gestalt therapy
- Albert Ellis’ Rational-Emotive therapy
- Eric Berne’s Transactional Analysis
- William Glasser’s Reality Therapy
- Salvador Minuchin’s Structural Family Therapy
- John Bowlby’s Attachement Theory of Attachment
(To name just a few)
….were deficient to truly help those in the body of Christ who are struggling with various mental health issues. However, I also recognized that these theories were not completely useless. It was clear that secular counseling and psychology theorists were competent at keenly observing and identifying, with precise documentation, how human suffering post Genesis 3 resulted in patterns of similar effects (my favorites are Minuchin and Bowlby). Yet, they failed to develop an actual “cure” because they failed to recognize the God who made them and acknowledge how suffering entered humanity.
They were able to….
Observe rightly – yes
Document precisely – yes
Explain symptoms – yes
Cure – no
Offer hope – no
Identify the origin of suffering – no
General revelation was clearly evident in many of the observations of these early psychologists, psychiatrists and researchers. Even though I was new to the counseling field, I was not that new to the Christian faith. I had no preconceived notions that secular counseling theories or therapies were supposed to be the “holy grail” to alleviate suffering. So given the opportunity to start gleaning how to do Biblical Counseling, I ambitiously bought a bunch of books at my first summer conference. Though I can’t remember who spoke, what the plenary topics were or what I learned from the workshops, it was a nice change of pace to sit with a community of believers who zealously sought the same goal I did – to help and encourage the body of Christ through counseling.
One of the motivations I had for seeking to counsel only believers, I knew that those who professed Christ as Savior and King over their lives had the very Spirit of God dwelt in them. I had no doubt that God’s Spirit provided these suffering saints with the truth of godly counsel from God’s Word directly to their soul, mind, and heart. However, I also knew, like myself, that many still struggled in a myriad of areas regarding mental and bodily processing and “felt stuck.”
When I first began to seek Biblical Counseling as a learning professional counselor, not just as a learning parent, I did not yet understand the value and importance of general revelation, common grace or natural theology. These theological terms can be used interchangeably, depending on the theologian or pastor who uses them. Early in my counseling education, I was unsure of how much I should rely on outside-of-the-Bible sources for counseling. I do have to admit that when I was first introduced to Biblical Counseling, the divide in my mind between secular counseling and Biblical Counseling was extraordinarily wide and I did not yet believe there was any valuable overlap. I had not figured out how to take the useful qualities of secular bodies of knowledge to reveal the glory of God depicted in Mathew 5:45. In those early years of my theology and counseling learning, I did not want to welcome any hint of a denial of God or His truths revealed in Scripture by transposing an overly used clichéd term of “all truth is God’s truth” to excuse theories and concepts that, in my limited understanding could not and did not align with the truth of God’s Word. In other words, I failed to theologically understand that God still gave rain to those who denied Him.
Compelling evidence from various counseling education trainings in trauma on the body and as an aspiring theologian, I began to consider the value of general revelation, common grace and natural theology. I realized that it was important for me, as a Christian, to know how God created the intricacies of our body systems and how those body systems have been impacted post Genesis 3. I have observed that many Christians are too quick to welcome basic general knowledge about the body and affirm that sleep, diet, and exercise are good for the physical body and mental health, even so far as becoming hyper-focused on physical fitness as the “cure” for all things “body.” Apart from the research driven non-Bible bodies of knowledge that reveal the proper caloric intake to lose or gain weight or what is the right nutrition or body movement wisdom to grow youthful muscles, it is common for Christians to express skepticism and distrust regarding detailed objective truth from bodies of knowledge outside the Bible on God’s greatest creation – the human body.
Though I began to slowly realize this for myself, I put this topic on the back burner because I didn’t have the Biblical Gospel confidence to express these ideas publicly without being accused of being a liberal or suggesting that the Bible is not sufficient. I prioritized and attended a few more summer Biblical Counseling conferences before I began the Biblical Counseling certification process. Granted, at this time, I did not know there were different ways to get certified in Biblical Counseling, nor did I know there were different lenses that described what makes counseling Biblical. The certification process that I started was the only one I knew about at that time. It included watching hours of ‘talks’ by a well-known male Biblical Counselor, plus some observational videos on marriage counseling. I have to admit, I didn’t agree with everything taught in these videos and did notice, what seemed to be, a bit of unhelpful reductionism in some of the explanations. However, I was not deterred and kept at it.
It took me awhile to finish the videos because after seminary, I started a Ed.D in Traumatology program, on top of working as a part time counselor at two non-profits and being a homeschooling mom/wife. As I look back, I am thankful that I took my time because I discovered another Biblical Counseling certification entity, the Association of Certified Biblical Counseling (ACBC), which seemed to be the “motherboard” of the Biblical Counseling world. I learned that the videos I watched applied to one of the requirements for ACBC so I transferred my video watching hours and started the ACBC certification process. The next step to certification – read 1000 pages from various Biblical Counseling and theology books.
I covered some of the reading in seminary, so I went a bit over what they required in pages. Again, I took my time and after several more months, I completed the reading requirement. I was finally ready to move into the exam portion but, unfortunately, those that approved applicants to move into ACBC exams didn’t seem to like how I answered one question on my application (I believe the question had to do with who can and should counsel others). I They also seemed to have a problem with the doctoral trauma education I was pursuing, in so far that they sent me screen shots of my school’s program description from my school website. For those two reasons, I was in their appeals process.
I’m not going to lie….I felt a bit defeated. I was in limbo for several months while a few emails were exchanged. I began to feel rejected and hurt that this certification entity questioned whether or not to allow me to move forward to become certified as an ACBC certified counselor, despite also having a masters degree from a solidly reputable theologically conservative Baptist seminary. I was really confused at their hesitation. At some point in the appeals process, I dropped my doctoral program hoping they would let me move forward, but to no avail. I was not given the green green light to take the exams.
Lots of tears were shed because I really wanted to be certified through ACBC specifically, even though I simultaneously felt hurt for not being able to move forward to take the exams. It was humiliating to know that someone somewhere was not willing to let me share my knowledge of theology or competency to counsel Biblically via the written portion of the exams. I began to question my own value as a counselor and at times, even questioned my value as a believer. Because of my own past trauma, it does not take much for an experience to make me feel “less than.” My husband kept reassuring me that I didn’t need ACBC to validate me to be a Biblical Counselor. After much prayer and contemplation, I knew he was right and in humble hurt, I withdrew my application.
After the withdrawal, I had time to think about my next step. I didn’t want to be angry with the brothers in Christ in charge of the appeals process. They have every right to deny or question who they allow to represent them through certification (since my withdrawal, ACBC has added some extra requirements to their Phase 1 certification process). I also didn’t want to be disgruntled towards the entire entity of ACBC. So I just retreated into my corner, quietly counseling suffering saints who came to me for trauma counseling.
After more prayer, discussion and encouragement from my husband, I applied to another doctoral program at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary with a hope to research and write about how to incorporate theology with counseling. I got accepted but inevitably I turned them down because my former school started a new Ph.d program in Psychology with an emphasis in theology, which re-excited me. I applied and got accepted.
However, during all of this moving about to and fro between schools and doctoral programs, I stumbled across another Biblical Counseling certification entity, the Association of Biblical Counselors (ABC). For several weeks I prayed about whether or not I should attempt certification through them. I started the process with serious hesitation because of what had previously occurred with ACBC. It took me over a year to finish watching some of their training videos and submit my first written assignment. However, the feedback I got was refreshing and encouraging to my soul, provoking me to keep pressing on to completion. I am just about finished with the certification process. I have one last response paper to write and a few counseling journal session notes to turn in.
With that said, I think this is a good time to share my own perspective on the different Biblical Counseling certification entities since I know a bit more about them.
Journal of Biblical Clinical Counseling & Education 