Response to the Article "Consecrated Counseling"

In the article "Consecrated Counseling," by Rodger K. Bufford (1997) he explains how authors have tried to clarify the distinctive of Christian Counseling. The article revolves around issues such as the motivations and goals of counseling, counselor characteristics, and the perspective of counseling in line with the church and para-church settings. The author believes that there is a need to distinguish between mental health counseling and spiritual counseling. In my view, the author's article was majorly about how consecrated counseling is adaptive to a wide variety of human needs; it entails the kind of the therapist and is consistent with various theoretical models.

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One of the major issues that I find helpful in the article is how the author distinguishes between spiritual counseling and mental health counseling. I agree with him that spiritual counseling is guided by Christian norms and virtues in that the counselor needs to have deep personal faith. Furthermore, just like the author believes that Christian Counseling should reflect Christ's worldview; thus, it should be guided by the use of spiritual resources (i.e., the bible) and intermediations within moral guidelines. The use of the bible is vital in Christian Counseling because, throughout the world, Christians are guided by scriptural teachings. However, I don’t agree with the author when he states that spiritual counseling actively seeks God's presence because it is difficult to determine God's presence since he is unseen. In this case, spiritual counseling is more effective for a person who is saved than a person who is not.

Nevertheless, I agree with the author's view of mental health counseling. It is factual that any mental functioning model is concerned with psychological, social, and biological factors (Guy, 1982). I think social factors result from societal norms and cultural standards, while biological factors result from genetic, biochemical, and anatomical causes. Therefore, just as the author states in the article, I believe that mental health counseling deals with tangible issues. In contrast, spiritual counseling deals with issues that sometimes go beyond human understanding (spiritual matters).

In the article, the author states that counseling is a general term, which I concur with. For instance, accountants offer financial counseling, teachers offer academic counseling, lawyers provide legal counsel, and business consultants offer counseling regarding business management. It is also true when the author states that today many churches offer mental health counseling despite being mostly provided in a professional setting in line with social work, medicine, and psychology. However, I support the author's view that it is hard to draw a line between spiritual counseling and mental health counseling because counselors from both sides often deal with common issues.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it is clear that Rodger K. Bufford, in his article "Consecrated Counseling," focused on various authors' works as they try to establish the distinctive of Christian Counseling. I find some issues in the article t useful, i.e., the nature and history of counseling. It is also true when he states that counseling is a general term because it is used across different fields such as law, medicine, business management, churches, etc.

However, I find the article contradictive since the author fails to distinguish between spiritual Counseling and mental health counseling. More so, he states that Christian approaches to consecrated counseling are more similar to non-Christian approaches. Generally, I agree with the author’s view that the main factors that differentiate Christian from non-Christian views on mental health counseling pertain to counselor's motivations and personal character.

References

Bufford, R. K. (1997). Consecrated Counseling: Reflections on the Distinctives of Christian Counseling. Journal of Psychology and Theology, 25(1), 111–122. https://doi.org/10.1177/009164719702500111

Guy, J. D. (1982). Affirming Diversity in the Task of Integration: a Response to “Biblical Authority and Christian Psychology.” Journal of Psychology and Theology, 10(1), 35–39. https://doi.org/10.1177/009164718201000104