A Word on Life: Counseling

I have been attending an ACBC foundations training seminar on Biblical Counseling for the last couple months. It has been super informational and helped me a ton to get a vision for my future in the church and in ministry. My favorite parts so far have been how they keep in so accessible to people who are busy and of average band width, yet theologically and doctrinally strong enough to actually help people who desperately need the word of God spoken into their situations.

I have to admit that I went into these seminars not expecting to actually be able to use what I’ve learned in any context from now until whenever my life circumstances change a whole lot, primarily because I’m not actually involved in any kind of ministry that would find this sort of a thing helpful. But, through the course of the training I have realized that while I may not be able to do this in a structured church setting There are plenty of people who are going to need help and I can do that in any setting that I have to in order to be able to help them. I would love to be a part of a congregation that appreciates the gifting of their members and encourages them to use them readily, but that’s just not where my church is right now. Not that they don’t want to be. I’m just a little ahead of them, I think.

But, more about the counseling, and less about the deficiencies of church life.

The primary reason I did go to these seminars is so that I would be able to branch out more a little bit in the blogger/internet world. To help where I can here and to be a reliable resource to people for the world of Theology. (Systematic, Practical, Biblical, etc)

My biggest take away from this training so far have been for myself, and I hope that I can share some valuable tidbits of it here from time to time as I continue in this quest, by reading and certification.

So far I am sooooo excited to be able to make a dent in the world of mental health. As you have seen from an earlier post I am a depressive. I am also surrounded by people who deal with a myriad of issues from PTSD, anxiety disorder, sexual tensions and sin, couples on the verge of divorce; to women with negative body image, the self-esteem gospel, addiction, and self abusive behaviors. I have always been a person that doesn’t mind listening and talking about these issues, and I’m glad to be able to soon say “I am a certified counselor” to put people at a whole other level of ease.

Yet, I have a lot of questions here now. What is the impression of Christian Counselors, Biblical Counselors, or just Counselors in general in this format? What is the best way to come at this? Should I start a whole other page for just counseling issues? Should I just keep on interjecting here with a word on life now and again? If there is a place where I can begin here, and there is someone who somehow ends up reading this, please give me a little feed back on it! Thanks to all!