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What constitutes successful counseling?
What
constitutes Christian counseling? These questions are not easily answered,
nor easily integrated. What constitutes successful counseling, by some
definitions, may not have a desirable result from a Christian perspective.
For example, a person who achieves relief for themselves by deciding on a
divorce. Conversely, what a Christian counselor might consider a desirable
result may not appear as success to a non-Christian: achieving the ability
to forgive an abuser, or recognizing value in guilt. Despite conflicts and
entanglements, I believe both questions are important. We can learn from
what is successful, and apply it to Christian goals. I will not attempt to
be comprehensive. For the present, I would like to focus on what we can
learn from research on what makes counseling effective, and apply it
correctively to a common conception of Christian counseling.
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Research on What
Makes Counseling Effective
A book entitled, "Effective Ingredients of
Successful Psychotherapy", by Jerome Frank and colleagues, summarizes
a large body of research on what makes counseling effective, in promoting
behavioral change. What follows is my own summary of their findings:
1. The counselor must establish rapport, trust, and a
perception of himself as a "safe" person by the client.
2. The counselor must approach people differently,
according to their personality, expectations, level of confidence, and
emotional state. For example, a deeply depressed person must be approached
differently than someone who is momentarily discouraged. A confident
person who is suffering a temporary crisis is dealt with differently than
someone who considers himself a lifelong failure.
3. The counselor must have a personal impact on the
client through their relationship, independent of the content of the
counseling. He or she does this through modeling their own approach to
life, becoming involved in the client's thoughts and emotions, and
providing an alternative perspective to the client's perspective.
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Focus on the client,
rather than the counselor.
An article relevant to effective counseling recently
appeared in the American Psychologist. It focuses on the client,
rather than the counselor. The article is entitled, "In Search of How
People Change". It suggests that people who successfully change
behavior, do so in a slow, intermittent, upward spiral, moving through a
series of steps. The path of change is not a steady, linear, progression.
It is fraught with regression, moving backward to an earlier stage,
remaining stagnant for a time, before again moving forward. The person
changing will probably achieve a slightly higher level of success, the
next time, before regressing again and repeating the cycle. The article
suggests that as a counselor approaches a client at different points in
this change process, he needs to be aware that the client will be prepared
for some activities, but not for others. A person may have a vague sense
of discomfort, and be willing to explore its origins, but not be prepared
to make a major change in behavior. The counselor cannot independently
determine the rate of change. Effectiveness cannot be measured by the same
standards at all points in the counseling process.
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What does all of this have to do with Christian
counseling?
Perhaps the most common perception of Christian counseling is
that it consists of an authoritative, prescriptive, approach to problem
solving:
Step 1: Identify the problem.
Step 2: Identify the biblical principle that applies.
Step 3: Apply the principle to the problem.
In light of the above information regarding what makes
counseling effective, there are some problems with this prescriptive
approach.
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Not all people are looking for, or ready to respond to,
an authority.
Some reject such an approach outright, though they may be
amenable to a different approach. Others outwardly conform to the
counselor's expectations, giving the impression of change and success; but
inwardly, perhaps unconsciously, they are not self-motivated. Changes are
shallow and short-lived. A prescriptive approach doesn't allow for
differences in personalities and mental or emotional states, which affect
the client's receptivity to the counselor. Some people respond to
explanation and suggestion more readily than inspiration and exhortation.
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The prescriptive approach emphasizes the content of
counseling over the experience.
Much research indicates that the
experience is the more powerful factor. Most of us can think of a person
who has had a strong impact on our life because of their attitude or
approach to life, rather than what they said. Relationships can be
powerful in themselves. A prescriptive approach can seem impersonal, like
a person attempting to teach river rafting by giving instructions on
shore; then sending the student down the rapids alone.
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The prescriptive
approach does not consider the spiral
process of change, noted above, in which people need different forms of
intervention at different times. It is easy for the counselor to move to a
plan of action prematurely, to satisfy his own need to be doing something
more tangible, when the client has not yet arrived at a conviction to
change behavior.
A
non-prescriptive approach to Christian counseling
assumes that God's will is primarily qualitative.
That is, God desires
development of internalized qualities, rather than temporary behavior
changes. These qualities might include openness to his Spirit, realistic
understanding of self (including the sin nature), and honesty regarding
our real motives, desires, and goals. It also assumes that the counselor
does not have an all-inclusive understanding of the client, but can only
work with that aspect of the person that is available at a particular
time. The counselor is one of many influences God will use to reach and
effect change in the individual.
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The goal of counseling is to move to one level of change to another.
It is first necessary to determine where the client is
in life, and what personal resources she has. Is she experiencing a
nebulous sense of discomfort? Is she focused on a specific source of
distress? Is he looking for a way to change? Is he struggling to maintain
changes already begun? The goal of counseling is to move from one level of
change to another, always bearing in mind the modality most effective with
this individual. The method is to listen to the message the client is
sending, reflect this to the client in a way that has meaning to them, and
present alternative possibilities, decisions, and behaviors when the
client is truly ready to consider them. Neither Christ nor Paul appears to
have used a formula in their approach to people. Jesus approached
Nicodemus differently than the woman at the well. Paul discussed
philosophies with the Athenians and confronted the Corinthians. Yet his
goal for everyone was the same: that they be imitators of him, in order
that they become imitators of Christ.
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