Purpose: "Christian Counseling" can actually translate to many different types of counseling, each with their own strengths, tools, techniques, and limitations. It is important to understand the distinction between each, both for clarity in your own future choices and accurate education of others about available options. Discussing these options with your classmates will help achieve this goal. By exploring faith-based organizations who partner with mental health providers, you will also learn about different real-world options that put these various labels into practice. This will help make the distinctions between these labels more concrete and clear.

Post: ,describe/define biblical counseling, pastoral care and counseling, integrationist counseling, and secular counseling. Choose an issue that an individual might wish to seek help for from one or more of these providers. Discuss what they could expect from each of these options, including: what would the focus of sessions be? What theories/models for help would each professional bring? How would an individual go about choosing each professional? What considerations/questions should a client have for each?

Then, explore one of the organizations/associations mentioned in Overview of American Christian Engagements with Mental Health and Mental IllnessLinks to an external site. or The pew versus the couch: relationship between mental health and faith communities and lessons learned from a VA/clergy partnership projectLinks to an external site..

Report back:

• Describe mission/purpose/goals of the organization
• Identify target audience(s) and resources available for those audiences
• What is this organization's approach to reconciling the historic tensions between Christianity and psychology?