Blog : Q & A

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12/27/2007 4:43 am

Q & A

Question:

At the moment, my major is psychology. I really started doubting the teachings of psychology because it seemed to contradict my faith as a Christian. My first thoughts was to be patient because I may be feeling this because of my lack of knowledge and understanding. But the more I learn the more I feel psychology is decieving. So I started to do research and I came across your website. By the way, I am looking forward to getting your book and reading it.

However, I am 3 semesters away from graduating with my B.A. in psychology and I am not sure if I should even continue in this major. I have to do an internship soon and I am thinking about attending a faith based ministry. Is it wrong for Christians to get certified in counseling or their LPC for state requirements reasons? Or should we as Christians totally shun this?
I'm a little confused right now and in the need for some Godly wisdom.

Answer:

Thank you for your email. That's wonderful that you are sensitive to the Holy Spirit in this area. You're feeling in your spirit that something just isn't right about psychology - that's the Lord! Listen and heed it - it's Him warning you and giving you discernment.

Now that you know psychology is not godly or biblical, the question is, what now?

Before we share our opinions/knowledge, know that God has a plan for each person's life. One person may leave the field, another may stay and be a light to those in darkness. We don't know God's plan for you, but we do know you're listening and we're sure He will be faithful to guide you as you seek His direction.

Getting licensure requires you to prove your knowledge of psychological theory to the testing board. You need to tell them how you would treat someone and what theories you would use. If you mention the Bible or biblical concepts like sin and repentance, you will almost always fail the exam (psychology views biblical Christians as delusional if they hear the voice of God, for example). So you'll have to tell them what they want to hear to pass.

Once licensed, the licensing board will look down on you and potentially take away your license to practice if they find you are making judgments on people's lifestyles and "pushing the Bible." You basically have to go where the wants to go. If they don't want to hear the Bible, you need to revert to psychology, which is a bad route to take for both you and the .

You also need to take continuing education units (CEUs) to keep your license. These CEUs are classes that push psychological theory and shun the Bible, further eroding your faith in the sufficiency of God's Word to care for souls.

Having said all this, we have met Christians in the industry who are breaking all the rules, but by God's grace are still practicing. But one got his license taken away for discussing demon possession, and consequently moved to another more liberal state to practice his Christian counseling.

Another option to opening your own practice is to align yourself with Christian counseling organizations that explicitly shun psychology and drugs. One of the best ones we know of is IABC )and these counselors operate out of their respective churches.

Although some organizations offer certification, we don't believe certification is necessary to do biblical counseling (see chapter 12 of our book). Every Christian should do biblical counseling - it's called discipleship of other believers... the Great Commission. We believe God never meant for Christian counseling to be a career choice that requires business income to function. Counseling should be a free-of-charge ministry in the church for all who need God's wisdom from another person (Matt. 10:

.

Since you've almost wrapped up your degree, our advice would be to stick with it and get the degree. God may use the degree to open doors in other areas where He wants you to go.

If the faith based ministry you mention explicitly shuns psychology and drugs, by all means investigate them to see if you can provide purely biblical counseling to others through their organization. But if they "integrate" psychology with the Bible, or they encourage psychiatric drugs, we would recommend not being a part of the organization. It's the equivalent of adding a few drops of cyanide poison to a pure glass of water. No one would ever drink that and live, but Christians are drinking Christian psychology and dying spiritually because of it.

We hope all this info helps! Let us know if you have any other questions. May God direct and bless all that you do in His name!

Lisa and Ryan Bazler