So today I was listening to a video of Amir Tsarfati talking about the coronovirus and it came into my mind that the reason I am not counseling as a professional is that counseling today pushes people to their sin; it “approves” of what people want to do with their lives and how they want to live which is in sin most of the time.
I feel that the counseling industry of today is against all knowledge of God, that it is a liberal “interpretation” of how one supports a client in meeting their objectives and goals in life. Of not liking the Word of God as an offer that might give them the strength and see them through the terrible times in their lives.
I’m writing free-style with writing my free thoughts without giving thought to preparing a topic for today’s blog post. I hope you don’t mind!
But had I gone on to complete a license in this state of Washington, I might have been supporting a client wanting a sex-change operation, or someone who is struggling in a three-way marriage, and whatever else we Christians who read this blog believe in. Christians like me who are bible-believing and not into a new age twist of what are comfortable expressions of their interpretations of the bible. I mean true Christians who live each day turning away from sin the best they can and relying on God for all that they have and desire.
My desire is still to help people and I can use my “counseling skills”; listening and receiving the thoughts and feelings of others in a compassionate way, maybe giving “homework assignments” and helping people be “accountable” for their goals. But in nonprofits or psychiatric settings I am not allowed to be who I really am, exercising my belief in the Lord Jesus Christ – and being tasked to help my clients reach their goals. Goals that may be living in sin that I can’t approve of, or support.
Counseling today does not let true Christians share the word of God with those who want to hear. It is a Godless profession. You don’t find teaching the bible in any treatment plan that schools teach. It was designed by pharmaceutical companies to steer patients to receiving their medications, and not knowing and relying upon God.
That’s why in all good conscience I cannot enter the profession of “Counseling” in the world today and it’s a profession I studied while being an unbeliever in Christ Jesus. It was a poor choice, now having hundreds of thousands of dollars in student loans that I will never repay even if I tried. I will not make that kind of money at the rate it’s been, and I am burdened with never getting loans to buy property and never having a credit card for an emergency; but relying upon God to show me the way.
Please may you excuse my unedited thoughts as I typed them out on this blog post, which I may want to edit later.
I found a blog post that caught my eye, entitled, “Beware of Christian Counselors” by an Ohio man named Bruce Gerencser.
It caught my eye because of the title which led me to believe that Christian counselors may not reflect values, principles and teachings of the bible. As we know, many churches have fallen away from the faith and are teaching false doctrines ranging from the New Apostolic Church, to gay teaching from the “Queen James Bible”, or the Unity Church, Church of Scientology and others. Who knows what mixture of humanistic, new-age and other forms of pagan religions are out there these days?
So I read the blog post thinking I had found an ex-counselor like myself who has been trained and working toward licensure, I was surprised to learn that he had been a pastor in a few churches and had found in his life’s journey that he did not believe in God any more; he had become atheist. He shared his gripes about pastoral counseling and the negative experiences he had learned about it’s being used. His story had an unexpected twist. I fully did not expect this as I began reading.
He brings up a quote from Wikipedia’s definition of Nouthetic counseling;
“The aim of Nouthetic Counseling is to effect change in the counselee by encouraging greater conformity to the principles of Scripture.”
He brings up an example of a woman who receives counseling from a pastor who does not share her “egalitarian beliefs” and how her pastor’s goal is not her help her but to “get her to conform to certain theological beliefs”.
I don’t understand what’s bad about learning correct eschatology. But, when it comes to pastoral counseling where I’m told one is to “be the love of Jesus in the room”, it is a hard concept to grasp. After all, Jesus did teach people the wrong ways of their lives, he gave his life for all of us and threw the money-changers out of the temple. But, he was not a “counselor” per se. His whole reason for being was to teach that we have all sinned and needed to be forgiven, and He was the Way, the Truth, and the Life to do that. His love was so great that he died for all so that we may be forgiven and live in heaven one day after the body died.
There are issues here about how counseling is used in the world today. Counseling has become somewhat blurred the way the bible has; Christian counseling does not exist, other than to explain the gospel and hope that a person will seek God out. God gives life and is the Creator and knows best what mankind needs; we do not. Yet the bible is used as a form of counseling “support” in that certain bible verses get used to “heal” a person, but that is not what the bible is about at all. Jesus healed but did so as a way to prove that he was truly God in the flesh, and referred to himself as being “God’s Son” which meant to the Jews that he was God and of God that they knew about in the Pentateuch.
God’s Holy Spirit comes from the belief that Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior, understanding who he was when he was on earth and who he is today. It is a gift from the Lord Jesus, and is given to those who truly believe in Him as Savior and Lord, none other and who has the gift of telling a person in so many ways that they must do this or that, I believe, as we are drawn to do the right thing in a matter. This blog cannot begin to explain how God moves us to be good in our words and deeds, nor how we are given strength to get through our toils on earth, and on and on…
I am telling you only a very elementary description of God’s Holy Word and how he saved us from our sin if we want to know and be near to Him.
It seems that Pastoral counseling can give support to marriages and single people alike but the goal is to bring people to a closer relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ, ultimately. God is the great Counselor among other gracious things, in his loving kindness and as our loving Father and Holy Spirit that guides us. They are One.
Counseling is best done by someone who is wizened to the fact that everyday counseling done by counselors out in the field are not trained in the works of the Lord. They do not know God and so have a limited understanding of how to heal someone.
Now some of you are snickering; mankind cannot “heal” people – it is Our Creator who is the one who heals people, because he created us, and mankind can only prescribe helpful and supportive treatments. But the body’s magic in it’s healing is not inspired by mankind; it is the Creator who put the healing properties in humankind’s bodies and He alone can take our health away and/or make us heal right. If He doesn’t, He may be taking the side of the person who wishes to go without God in his life, or he may have another reason, that we don’t know about to make a person not heal.
In his Word he rewards us with healing, prosperity or punishes us by letting us go farther from Him in people’s sin, because personal choice is afforded to all humankind.
What this blogger misses is that the Bible is not about Social Justice, nor is it about healing done by mankind, but is about how Jesus told mankind about their sins, and that he would take their sins upon himself and die on the cross for us so that we can be forgiven for being the sinners that every one of us is.
He paid the price for all of our sins and gave us Himself, by his Grace and our faith in Him alone, to forgive us and cleanse us from sin, so that we may live on for eternal life in His presence, instead of being separated from His love for us, and for eternity.
Counseling, in today’s world is based upon an atheistic view and that is not compatible with Christian faith. Every topic that a person comes in to see a counselor for is most probably going to be the result of a person’s sinful natures since we are all born into sin. No one understands sin really being that they only label homosexuality or abortion as sins. They don’t understand all the hatefulness in a person’s heart that is at the base of all sin. Hatefulness is rebelliousness against God’s love and direction. Understand Eve’s fall in the book of Genesis and you’ll see more about her rebellion against God’s instruction. The instruction He gave out of love of his children.
My point about counseling today is that with all one is taught in counseling school, on the one hand, being there to listen to someone’s pain with empathy, offering support and maybe resources is all well and good, but a kind person can do that. Learning to sit for long hours providing your personal attention, care and learning some of the tools of counseling while being paid to do so may also be found helpful to some – or many people.
What is counseling meant to do? Ultimately, as a counselor you walk with a counselee (or client) to help them solve an issue: a behavioral problem in themselves or a family member, having suicidal tenancies, self-harm, addiction, emotional problems, or whatever. You come up with a treatment plan, or a “care plan”, and then you assign tasks or homework, you listen and provide helpful feedback or ask gentle probing questions so that a client looks at the logic of what they are saying. There are millions of such tools in a counselor’s toolbox if they have the right experience, and are intelligent and seasoned, caring “therapists”.
But what happens with the person the next time they run into an issue that becomes overwhelming or they need someone to “bounce things off of”? These are things which they learn to go to a human for advice and therapy. How much does it help? Maybe it brings some temporary relief but who is the Creator of all mankind? Why would our Creator be the one left out of a counseling session?
More can be said here but I’ll add another issue which brought me to a crossroads about quitting being a counselor: clients who have issues which I cannot support them in that go against my Christian faith. How would I be able to help them? Clients seeking abortions, or are “transitioning” to the opposite sex, or problems in their same-sex marriage or becoming a same-sex attracted person, would be some examples of those clients which I could not help walk their path. I could not condone those things.
So, getting back to the blog post that intrigued me in the beginning.
He felt counseling is done by mankind, as if mankind can solve all the problems brought to them but with no Jesus Christ to invite into their lives.
Again, the bible is not a manual for how to counsel people. It shows us who God is, what Jesus did on the cross for us and why we need Him. It does not tell us we are to solve problems of others on our own. It is a book for the believers to know and trust God, the One True God and it’s not about social justice warriors, social issues of the day nor what we ought to do with our children who want to change their genders.
It definitely is not about how God is a lesbian, gay man or about homosexuality as being a way to marriage, definitely not! People have turned the bible into all kinds of things because of the sin in everyone’s life and in the world from the beginning of mankind in the Garden, but because people don’t know the bible, they can get away with saying all kinds of things that are made up versions and published versions by mankind. The same mankind who want to become counselors teaching empty bible verses and applying them on today’s problems like a fortune cookie quote would. That’s about the extent of it.
In the blog article I read I may have been a bit misled by the title but now I’m afraid I’m a bit mad at how the author bashed the Word of God, as if knowing God and reading the bible could not help someone – yet it can. He may not have been a true believer in the first place and so has turned to the worldly ways of mankind to help him get through some of his problems. But God’s blueprint for learning his ways and who he is is found in the bible as we read more and learn more through the Holy Spirit that guides us. If you don’t know the bible and don’t truly believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, how can you tell us what is possible through the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ who has given so much to us all and promises eternal life with Him? Sure we will be tested through life, but his strength delivers us in a manner that strengthens our knowledge of Christ, if you believed.
Otherwise, a kind, worldly unbeliever may be the band-aid to help you through tough times. He may be used by the Holy Spirit to help someone, as it is God’s desire that all men are saved, but some will not be because they fail to seek and truly want to know God.
Pastoral counseling is really a person that knows God, can kindly advise and pray for someone and teach them in ways to seek Christ in their trials. That is the best way to start helping someone, by encouraging their faith in Christ Jesus. Becoming a state-licensed therapist and then calling yourself a “Christian counselor” does not make sense because you are still using the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders, or “DSM” which was created by atheist/agnostic unbelievers in Christ Jesus who were against God and so developed their criteria of what mental illness is. Putting a state license first using diagnostic criterion by unbelieving psychiatrists who do not know God should not be the criteria to treat or help a person with mental health issues.
The mind is the workings of the person’s very soul, being and identity.
We are embodied spirits and inspirited bodies, (or, if you will, embodied minds and minded bodies). (Anonymous, 2003)
Psychiatry doesn’t have the ability to treat the mind of a person since they can’t locate the specific pieces of a mind that may need treatment. Doctors are not able to pinpoint the breath of life that God gave us, firstly in Adam, then in Eve. They give overall generalities of behaviors or bizarre ideas of people and label these as “symptoms” of a diseased mind or one that is “sick” in some way in books like the DSM or other medical texts.
Here we get into their ideas of causation and medical treatments including counseling which do address those symptoms but do not exactly “heal” a person. A person’s soul and human behavior are seen as the person’s nature which is viewed differently in the Christian life vs. secular life. Secularists view the person’s soul in as many personal views of each person’s such as something that will be reincarnated as another animal or life, or is an unexplained part of a person’s life that is inside of their physical body. It is not attributed to being the part of a person that goes to the arms of the Lord when the person’s body dies, which is what true Christians believe.
Christians have a definite belief about a person’s soul and a person’s very soul is intimately tied to their mental faculties, feelings, ideas and capabilities. Whether or not they sin has to do with their being a believer or not; a believer will be led away from sin. While Christians walk the earth they are cleansed mentally and in their hearts by the Holy Spirit. This does not happen in the secular world. God is a Holy God and we are being made ready for when we die and reach heaven through the Lord Jesus Christ.
So the mind and heart of a person may be wrongfully led and counseling can endorse rebellion against the Creator who made all life. If you are seeking help my advice would be seek God first and find healing and peace and rest in His love for you, since that is the way in which God created humans in his Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve walked as friends of God’s.
We are not higher in knowledge than our Creator. He has the way and is the light to follow in our trials here on earth.
There is so much more to be written about secular counseling and Christian counseling. These are only my musings of today although I have had many thoughts about my life as a former counselor and what led me to become one before I became a believer. It makes one wonder…
I am thankful that God pulled me out of the field of psychology.
After many bad experiences in the field; people who were unsaved, unbelievers who had their own ideas about how we could help people, but often were mean-spirited toward their clients. I also had problems with them as a coworker, when they were demeaning, prideful, and wanting to harm my ability to practice in my field. I guess it was a type of spiritual war with satan using people to harm my life.
Not being a true believer but having dabbled in Christianity, I suppose I was marked by “the enemy”, since I expressed an interest in Christianity on and off during my adult life. I only guess at this, but don’t really know.
Listening to my course recording, I took more notes about Christian counseling. The instructor, Dr. Jim Newheiser, seems very sober-minded and accurate in his dealing with the issues of why we don’t want to go into secular counseling, but would want to study the bible instead.
The bible is sufficient to train up our children, and teach us as adults, how we are to conduct ourselves in our lives. I strongly suggest all who come here to this blog to know the value of God’s Word in being our ultimate guide in our lives. We have our best counsel in the Lord Jesus Christ and not mankind, as it says in the bible.
Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. – Psalm 1:1
The value in my education and experience in the field of psychology comes in sharing with others that counseling should be biblical counseling, and how the field of psychology of man is not compatible with the biblical world view.
Some may find it helpful to speak to secular counselors because they can share with someone that is supportive and should refrain from being judgmental or invalidating the reality of what the person says. Many people are not trained to give time to the person, but interrupt to talk about themselves or give advice where it is not wanted. They do not have an ability to allow the person who is talking to have space to hear themselves, and process for themselves. It is an art form, in my opinion. You know when to interrupt, question something they’ve said to learn more about their view, and then allow them to continue, sharing the journey of self-growth.
But that is not what the Lord calls for; it is belief in Jesus who gives us sound minds and can heal us from within. We are living souls who need soul-health.
A standard of healing based on man’s understanding of man is not sufficient to heal. A dying soul needs Jesus to heal them, to redeem them, to mold them into the image of himself.
Our training as counselors may observe man’s behaviors and know the language that the secular counselors speak and teach, but the short-fall is that they don’t have a way to address the soul-sickness of mankind that is not saved. There is no middle-ground, no compromising the world-view of the Christian.
Psychology relates to those who’ve rejected Christ and was built around an atheist and secular world-view. We cannot expect that world view to be of help to a dying, sick, soul. Only Christ can do that.
Broadly speaking, I truly believe that in talking with people who are understanding, and taught to take themselves out of the dialogue where they give time to support a person who may seek counseling through them, may be very helpful. We all need support at different times in our lives so I do not want people who seek therapy to feel discounted by what I write below.
Much can be said about how people can help one another by just listening, or offering their guidance and support based on their experience and education, some reliable research about brain chemistry and physiological health, and there are many areas of specialty that are called “modalities”, that may be helpful for some but not others. Having the love from the Father is not present, I believe, at least in my training to become a licensed Marriage, Family and Child therapist as well as from my education in a doctoral program to become a Licensed Psychologist.
My interest in this blog, mainly I think, is in why I don’t want to be a secular therapist because in diagnosing people we don’t ever speak about Jesus, nor what can be done to really help heal a person when there is much more involved in a person’s mental condition than what I’ve been taught in my studies.
Secular humanism always goes back to the person healing themselves. The focus is on us and not asking the Lord for His help. We are able to live in ways that help us stay healthy but we Christians rely on Jesus Christ to help us live in this world daily. We are not of the world as Jesus said in praying to his Father:
They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. – John 17:16
Psychology practices the belief that goes against the belief in Jesus Christ – it is anti-Christ – they leave out God completely. This may be counted as secular humanism and as a Christian believer I think there is danger in this non-belief in all areas of life.
More information about the spiritual realm has been brought to my attention that I think should be followed, discerned and understood. Factual knowledge from the bible tells us that Satan and his demons are real. Any of these spiritual beings operate in a realm we do not understand; they are supernatural have been called “interdimensional” by the likes of researcher and Pastor LA Marzulli.
Marzulli’s work speaks to advanced technology of “nephilim hybrids”, and how human DNA could have been carried on into humanity after the flood. One example of many of his posted works can be seen here: L.A. Marzulli: Nephilim Hybrids, with host Gary Stearman. As you may know, Marzulli’s house was destroyed completely in recent California fires, that some have wondered whether they were started by beam technology through the gas and electric company, PG&E.
PG&E is said to be owned by the Rothschild’s. As of today, you can see that listed on the PG&E Corporate Directors page, Roger Kimmel, is listed, also as “Vice Chairman of Rothschild, Inc.”
As is said by Targeted Individuals around the globe and many others including conspiracy theorist, Alex Jones (is he really a conspiracy theorist?), the Rothschild’s are people behind the One World Order, and meet at the secret Bohemian Grove meetings where “globalists” have met for years, plotting their ways about how to reduce the world population, among other topics.
Now, the reason I have gone ahead down this road here is that in my recent studies of “unclean” spirits and the evil spiritual realm, and how they have interacted with humans – and even animals dare I say – is to see the connection between how mankind is evilly trying to reportedly kill off the human race and how evil spiritual entities, having more advanced knowledge and abilities than we humans, can teach humans how to target people and with advanced technology – leaving people unaware that this is happening to people around the world, and that these people are labelled negatively, and are thrown into mental health wards, treated like they are mentally ill and under some unrealized mental traumatization such as being raised by a cruel parent or something to that effect.
I am known for long, run-on sentences. Perhaps I should use better sentence structure and write in shorter, non-run-on sentences.
Say that the Nephilim were the hybrids born from the women who were taken as wives by Lucifer’s angels. The bible says that the flood destroyed the earth because people had become so evil. But were the spirits of these awful creatures also destroyed? That is a huge part of what I am saying, that we don’t speak of satan, and demons, as having been destroyed in the flood. This topic is never allowed to be discussed as part of secular education or training in the field of “psychology”.
I am leaving out huge amounts of information I am learning through the many pastors and researchers online and I invite you to do your own research into these topics of spiritual evil, the Nephilim and who they were, who the “tall Anakim’s” were (Deuteronomy 2:10), Satan, and the boy who was inhabited by demons that Jesus called out of (Mark 9:14-29) as a starting point.
This is related to the field I have left behind because the spiritual teaching of the bible is left out of diagnosing and Jesus is never mentioned, and I believe the field of psychology has led many people away from learning through the bible and the healing that is offered through the teachings of Jesus as a man who walked the earth, being also fully God, and through belief in Him, and through prayer.
If these evil spirits have technology that mankind can only dream about since they are from the fallen angels that God threw out of heaven, what can they teach mankind who are not believing Christ to harm their fellow man? How evil can it get against humans? If Satan and his demons can inhabit, lead and direct humans, it is not a hard concept to understand that this has gotten into the realm of psychology. That is my fear and that is why I stay away from secular humanistic thought which the field of psychology is based upon.
Again, for people who suffer from strange manifestations, including “hearing voices”, having things or people suddenly disappear, seeing things that are in the spiritual realm, feeling things that touch and even push them physically, feel pain of electricity shot through their bodies, feel inhabited by “other beings” that they know are not part of themselves; these strange manifestations are reasons that I feel the need to explain to the field of psychology why they must open the doors to exploring Christians and their faith in Jesus Christ.
These psychology professors and instructors in secular psychology are not usually going to have read the bible, nor believe it. I was one of those. One may ask, how does the field of psychology resonate with your dreams and auras, after all? Isn’t that what it directs a person to; finding their own spiritual paths for what will heal them?
It comes down to teaching the Christian faith to those who seek and not everyone will seek to find Jesus Christ, nor to understand the Bible and its history.
I feel it best to share my truth as found in the Bible rather than continue to ignore my faith in the field of psychology. I cannot continue down this path that I know to be detrimental to so many people’s lives. Their lives and wellness are at stake.
I applaud the men of God who explore the biblical teachings referring to the Nephilim. These people lead us in the right direction, expose the truth about how technical advances may well be led by the spiritual realm, as well as teaching the need for God today.
When starting my new job I realized that God had a plan for me.
As I’ve blogged about the issue of being a Christian counselor I realized that working in a non-clinical position, but having to use my counseling skills, Master’s in Counseling Psychology degree as a requirement for the position, fulfilled a desire I have to help people but stay away from the DSM part (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders).
That is the part I have real problems with.
To start off with there are no real inferences to what sin causes in people’s lives, nor is there a reference to all Satan can do to a person. Nor does it ever reference God as being Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, so you see – being the healer that he is and having all the answers to life, and healing us from within, starting with the spirit of God working on us to make us healthy, deliver us from our sinful natures and all that stuff, I can’t fully endorse something I don’t believe in.
I would rather have gone to a Christian bible college and learned the ways of God first, then chosen a field of study. I did not have the information then so I chose Psychology. It seemed a comfortable place to begin, while learning about my family issues which are quite extensive.
But they may have been for you or anyone reading this blog.
Where are we today? Is there a God in your life?
If so, which one? Maybe you better examine the Lord God Almighty and then really study the bible to learn His ways. Pray and get guidance over your life. It will be worth it in the end, both literally and figuratively speaking.
Broadly speaking, I truly believe that in talking with people who are understanding, and taught to take themselves out of the dialogue where they give time to support a person who may seek counseling through them, may be very helpful. We all need support at different times in our lives so I do not want people who seek therapy to feel discounted by what I write below. 
When starting my new job I realized that God had a plan for me.
Christianview.blog 