“Should Christians Seek Professional Counseling?”

This was written by Blaine Carman, M.A., Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist who is a part of our team at Four Streams Christian Counseling.

We are living in challenging times with a great deal of uncertainty. This uncertainty can breed anxiety, resulting in behavior which is both self-destructive and harmful to our relationships. Within a marriage, it may cause couples to experience distance from one another and to have conflicts they cannot seem to understand or resolve.

Our faith in God is sometimes tested during these times. Sometimes it’s hard to discern God’s will for us during times of crisis or challenges in specific areas of our lives, such as our jobs, relationships, or our financial situation. Or sometimes we may even have a sense of what Jesus would like us to do in a particular situation, but we have a hard time actually carrying it out.

The Bible gives us the blueprint for life. At times, though, we struggle with how to apply the blueprint because of habits and patterns from our past that still drive our behavior. Even though we have new life in Christ, we can still have habits of communicating or acting toward others in ways which are not very Christ-like, resulting in painful results. Since some of these habits have been learned over a lifetime, it can take a specific process to help “undo them” and allow us to truly give them to God.

This is where professional Christian counseling can help. Together, with the help of God, a professional Christian counselor can help support a person in letting go of some of those patterns so that they can more fully live the life God intended for them. Counseling can help us to better understand our unique issues and to discover solutions that lead us back to individual and family harmony and a deeper connection with God.

Do you know how many times the word “counselor” is mentioned in the Bible? More than 500 times. And Jesus himself was known as the Wonderful Counselor. The Bible teaches us to seek “wise counsel” in times of trouble. Therefore, whether you’re going through a challenging time or just feel you need an outside perspective to gain clarity about what you’re dealing with, consider consulting a professional Christian counselor. This may be a way of God reaching out to you.