Jay E. Adams, in his book How to Help People Change illustrates four Biblical approaches to counseling (Adams, 1986). The four steps mentioned in the book do not only present new ideas in the field of counseling, but also introduce new measures to be observed at different stages of counseling.
Citing second Timothy, 3:14-16, the book’s outline acknowledges the Bible’s ability to enrich its readers with wisdom, knowledge, and salvation (Adams, 1986). Currently, both Adams’s and Backus’s approaches to counseling are received with mixed reactions. Some counselors find the books’ steps helpful while others find them disconcerting.
Basing his concepts on Biblical teachings, Adams depicts scriptures as mandatory in counseling (Adams, 1986).Through this, he believes that psychology has been wrongfully introduced into counseling. To assert his views, Adams notes that counselors should always use the Bible as their guidebook in their daily activities, and they should not add or subtract from its scriptures.
Adams’s book illustrates four approaches to counseling (Adams, 1986). Through the book, the author’s position on counseling and ministry is overemphasized. Adams strongly believes that through ministries, counselors should always instruct, encourage, and help their followers implement the Bible’s teachings (Adams, 1986).
Though most Christians will integrate Adams’ models of counseling, one should note that his work is solely based on theological assumptions. For instance, Adams believes that if Christians endorse his models as a process for counseling, the society will experience tremendous changes (Adams, 1986).
In addition, Adams unreasonably considers these changes only acceptable if they are geared towards righteousness. While this view is in accordance with Christian values, the authors’ approaches, in the context of counseling, alienate individuals basing on their salvation. On the contrary, counselors should always offer their services and help, even if the services contradict with the scriptures.
Despite the fact that most Christians admire Adams’s teachings, they should note that his teachings are exclusively Bible based (Adams, 1986). In this regard, the author’s models are not only difficult to implement in the contemporary society, but also fail to tackle numerous counseling issues.
On this note, the author fails to acknowledge that the Bible alone cannot fully address current problems, and should have allowed God’s truths to be evaluated through human ingenuity. Equally, Adams’s opinions on methods of psychology are misleading. Consequently, Adams should advise his readers to adopt approaches that are in line with Christian values, and reject those that oppose the scriptures (Corey, 1996).
Similarly, Adams’s models of counseling propose that individuals should embrace the gospel and be saved. In an ideal world, this approach cannot be the first step in counseling. In my opinion, this approach would only work best if it were supplemented with other approaches. In turn, counselors must understand their clients’ background for effective therapeutic relationships (Corey, 1996).
Thereafter, it would be appropriate for the counselors to introduce the idea of salvation into individual’s life. Correspondingly, it would be suitable if Christian counselors accept the fact that some people will never embrace salvation as a counseling therapy regardless of their diligence. Thus, it is their responsibility to help these people attained their desired lives regardless of their faith (Halbur & Halbur, 2006).
In the book Telling Yourself the Truth, William Backus with Marie Chapian affirm that people can improve the quality of their lives if they improve their thoughts (Backus & Chapian, 1980). Based on the Christian principles, the book illustrates that the truth sets individuals free from anxiety, grieve, guilt and uncertainty.
Unlike Adams, Backus and Chapian’s book presents biblically based behavior-approaches people can exploit in the contemporary society. Although, the book offers numerous teachings on individual’s self-worth, the authors’ flaws are portrayed through their counseling models (Backus & Chapian, 1980).
In their book, Backus claims that their approaches would help their readers to discover their happiness and their sense of worth. However, after reading this book, most readers realize that the authors only focus on what we desire at the expense of what God desires. In doing so, the book’s outline has been inspired by Ellis’s writings rather than by the Bible’s teachings as the authors claim (Backus & Chapian, 1980).
However, Backus acknowledges Ellis’s ideas in their book, yet Ellis’s ideas are still questionable to some Christians. Ellis’s teachings, as an atheist, contradict with most religious values. For instance, Albert Ellis’s writings do not only depict his hatred for Christianity but also disrespect God’s virtuous principles (Backus & Chapian, 1980).
Similarly, Backus asserts that Marcus Aurelia’s teachings had a great influence on their work. By correlating Marcus and Ellis’s teachings, Backus and Marie naively believed that their work would be regarded as biblically based (Backus & Chapian, 1980).
Just like Adams, Backus and Marie’s counseling approaches hold true with some certain assumptions. In their book, the authors wrongfully believed that their counseling approaches would work because they are based on psychological theories. As a result, readers might tend to believe that man alone can derive happiness, desires, and changes through cognitive adjustments (Backus & Chapian, 1980).
Contrary to this, Christian teachings emphasize the purpose of God’s power in man’s life. Similarly, the two authors assume that human sufferings are due to their hands and not God’s hand. To Christians, the assumptions are false; as God through Job showed that he is sovereign and sometimes ordains human sufferings.
While advocating for their approaches, Backus and Marie believe that their model would be more effective than secular approaches. To support their claim, the authors emphasize that many scientific investigations backed their ideas. However, the two authors fail to substantiate their claims, as their work lacks sufficient references to document these scientific experiments.
Backus and Marie’s book in chapter 3 portrays a severely depressed woman who is regularly neglected by Christian counselors. The counselors associate the woman’s sorrows with her unhappiness and frequently inform her to be cheerful to end her sufferings. Further, in this chapter, the authors explain three misbelieves about counseling. Although the authors believe in their statements, they fail to illustrate whether Christians counselors should incorporate psychological procedures of counseling with God’s word.
From my experience, as a counselor, Adams and Backus’s models have proved to be inappropriate to tackle trauma-based concerns. To deal with such cases, counselors should apply the bottom-up effective reactive approach, rather than the cognitive-behavioral approach emphasized by Backus.
Similarly, Adams and Backus’s models are ineffective when solving attachment disorders. For instance, I have confirmed that most of the males, who have engaged in rape, are suffering from attachment disorders. After conducting a thorough research, I realized that most of these individuals do not necessarily lack the social skills. According to my hypothesis, these individuals are acting in response to their emotional distress.
In both books, counseling models presented fail to offer appropriate structures for personality organization. Instead, the models presented encourage individuals to resist from external influences. From my experience, counselors and psychologists who have tried to outwit each other, through unnecessary criticism, have achieved very little in their career accomplishments.
Therefore, it would be appropriate if all Christian counselors stop criticizing non-Christian counselors. Together they should strive towards developing and integrating helpful counseling theories in our society (Halbur & Halbur, 2006).
References
Adams, J. E. (1986). How to help people change: the four-step Biblical process. Grand Rapids, MI: Ministry Resources Library.
Backus, W. D., & Chapian, M. (1980). Telling yourself the truth. Minneapolis, Minn.: Bethany Fellowship.
Corey, G. (1996). Theory and practice of counseling and psychotherapy (5th ed.). Pacific Grove: Brooks/Cole Pub. Co..
Halbur, D., & Halbur, K. V. (2006). Developing your theoretical orientation in counseling and psychotherapy. Boston: Pearson/A and B.