Counselling in the Light of the Christian Gospel (1)

What is often missing in the counselling of those in trouble is an understanding of the larger context in which all counselling takes places. Deep realities revealed in the Christian Scriptures are at work whenever helping is undertaken.

These realities are more than doctrine--although doctrine is important and has its place; more than narrative--a common reduction of today--even though narrative has its place too. 

These realities of which I speak can only be understood as: the things that God has done, His mighty acts as Creator, Sustainer and Redeemer. God, the holy Trinity, made the creation and continues to sustain it by his mighty word of power.

Moreover, when our parents defied Him and were unfaithful to Him, He set about to rescue them, to save them from the penalty of sin that they had brought upon themselves.

He raised up a people to be a light to the nations and from that people He brought forth His unique Son, Jesus of Nazareth to be the saviour of the world. His death paid the penalty for our sin and his resurrection assured us that we have a future with Him in the new heavens and new earth.

All these mighty acts are revealed in the holy Scriptures and are witnessed to by the ecumenical creeds.

Moreover, these acts of God directly affect how we do counselling.

(For the counselling graphic above I acknowledge http://passionforpreaching.net ) 

Needs and Psychotherapy

It's fascinating the large part that the concept of 'need' plays in the psychological world these days along with the accompanying concepts of 'addiction' and 'recovery'.

'Need' has got completely out of hand so that we have about as many needs as once was said we had instincts. In fact, 'instincts' and 'needs' seem to be similar explanatory ideas from different eras.

All persons are said nowadays to have a set of universal needs -- shared by everyone else -- but the needs' lists themselves vary among themselves.

One authority says, 'Needs are more than the things we can't live without. They represent our values, wants, desires and preferences for a happier and/or more meaningful experience as a human'. According to this view, all humans have a common core of needs: when these needs are met, then positive feelings follow; when these are unmet, then negative feelings are experienced.

This understanding does not seem to reckon with the fact that some people's needs are not proper or legitimate. 

The 'need' for affluence is illegitimate because it fails to take account of the needs of others both present and in the future for a reasonable standard of living. However, over-riding even that consideration is the deeper religious issue that needs ideology seeks to find revelation for human living within the human person. Hence, in that respect it is humanistic and unchristian. Needs are important but they are not to be the drivers of human action, the oughts that push behaviour.

Christians find divine Revelation in the Word of God and as the community of Christ it positivises or gives concrete form to what it hears from the written, spoken and non-verbal Word (Ps 19.1-4).