Counsellors & Counselling

Catalogue of leather couches?

COUNSELLORS & COUNSELLING
By Noel Due
Rutherford House. 69 pages. £3.99
ISBN 1 904429 02 5

This little book is a 'quick-read' guide for church leaders on the essentials of the current counselling scene and issues a challenge to the church to develop a deeper biblical understanding of human psychology.

Short chapters cover the topics of who does counselling, what the roots (Freudian, Rogerian, etc.) of the various counselling schools are, who their clients are and what happens in a counselling relationship. The later, and for this reviewer the more interesting material, covers whether counselling works, and what the various responses of influential Christians (from Jay Adams to Gary Chapman) and secular sceptics have been to counselling.

The book ends by looking at how Christians as prospective counsellors and/or clients should approach the issue, and how the church should take pastoral care forward. One quote is a gem: 'We need to recognise the valid, preventative role of true Christian pastoral care (and) ƒ the therapeutic effects of the worshipping believing community. When the church is operating truly as it should, with the Word of God at its heart and the ministry of the Spirit uniting hearts to God the Father through that Word ƒ many of the situations that necessitate counselling intervention are circumvented.' Amen!

My review copy will be passed on to the eldership team on Sunday as a valuable little resource to that end.

Trevor Stammers (Dr.)

© Evangelicals Now - March 2005
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Main Articles

• Why I resigned from the BBC
  Antony Pitts, Senior Producer from BBC Radio 3, explains
• The Commentary
  Hope I die before I get old?
• They believed God!
  L'Abri 50 years on
• Alien at home 3
  What's good about non-Christian parents?
• Bribery and corruption
  Sir Fred looks at a worldwide phenomenon
• Give her a break!
  A Christian family helps a wayward niece
• Demonstrating what?
  As Easter approaches, Bob Horn asks: 'What does the apostle Paul teach about the cross?'
• Foxed for a witness? ... try hunting
  As fox hunting is banned, Phil Sampson gives a perspective on the issue
• Monthly media and arts column
  Art behind the headlines in Turkey and Iran
• Monthly youth leaders column
  Keeping ahead of the game
• Letter from America
  A hug says it all
• The Music Exchange
  The last trumpet
• The Third Degree
  The big 'seven five' - UCCF's best year ever!
• A brother indeed
  An interview with Brother Andrew, reflecting on 50 years of his ministry

Other articles

• Assessing Europe's 'headscarf law' debates
• Vera Drake
• Votewise
• Where is God when things go wrong?
• The best of Sixpence None The Richer
• Dying thoughts
• Straw dogs - Thoughts on human and other animals
• Evil and the Cross
• Deaf perspectives - Challenging Dominant Christian Thought Conference papers from Deaf Christian Link UK and The London School of Theology
• Peace, toleration and decay
• The essence of family
• Understanding Islamic terrorism
• The parables of Jesus
• The NIV/Message Parallel Bible
• Hope, respect and trust - valuing these three
• The case for traditional Protestantism
• The Ultimate Christian Library DVD
• An iron pillar - the life and times of William Romaine
• Counsellors & Counselling
• David and Goliath - (and three other 3D childrens books)