Introduction to Drug and Alcohol Counseling.
In this lesson we will review the previous lessons and prepare you to take your first exam. We will also include some steps that you as a counselor will need to help your counselees find deliverance from dependency, some of the don’ts for deliverance and some spiritual guidance for recovery. Be sure to take notes.
In Lesson 1, we learned the essentials of Christ Centered Counseling which starts with a heart that has been formed by God. We learned that a good Christ Centered counselor's heart that has known suffering and has experienced God’s loving mercy and His healing power. It includes the formation of Godly character that has come about through a long series of choices to do things God’s way and having learned not to rely soley upon human knowledge and intellect, but to rely upon the Holy Spirit for leading and guidance. We also learned the necessity of entering into a process of transformation out of carnal thinking to a lifestyle of surrender. We saw that an effective counselor is one who has nurtured a deep, abiding, personal relationship with Jesus Christ that includes an understanding of the gifts of the spirit that have been imparted by the Holy Spirit, and a willingness to apply them.
Then as we watched The Berean Call film clips we were introduced to several critiques of conventional “wisdom” concerning psychotherapy. We were introduced to Sigmund Freud, the accepted father of modern psychology, who was a trained medical doctor. In the late 19th and early part of the 20h century, Freud developed psycho-analysis, a theoretical method that he used to treat patients with hysteria. Not a science but only a theory, his teachings ultimately paved the way for more than 500 separate theories and approaches to psychotherapy, none of which have been proven to be superior to any another.
We saw clearly that the difference between modern psychology and Christianity was the fact that psychology views man as intrinsically good while the Bible states that mankind is born with and develops his sinful nature. Romans 3:23 “all have sinned and fallen short.” It was in the middle of the 20th century that local associations of fledgling mental health professionals started to hold luncheons for ministers and priests in order to offer their counseling services thus convincing many clergy that they were not sufficiently trained to adequately counsel their members.
In Lesson 2 we saw that Christian addiction counseling has to be a calling from God and as such is a God Given Gift. We were introduced to the Biblical-Ethical Foundations of the American Association of Christian Counselors Ethics Code. The 1st of the 7 foundations presented by the AACC was that Jesus Christ—and His revelation in the Old and New Testaments of the Bible—is the pre-eminent model for Christian counseling practice, ethics, and care giving activities.We discovered that in 1952 that the American Psychiatric Association produced their own “bible” named DSM which stands for Diagnostics and Statistics Manual of Mental Disorders. Originally it list 106 disorders but today it has increased to 374 mental disorders. The DSM classifies hostile behavior of a child towards authority figures as an Oppositional Defiant Disorder. The symptoms include loosing one’s temper, arguing with an adult, and even blaming someone else for his/her mistakes. According to the DSM even shyness is a mental disorder. We were challenged to rethink even the definition of mental illness by understanding that the mental is the mind and illness is the body. The brain can become ill but the mind cannot thus the term mental illness itself is inaccurate. We ended Lesson 2 with the understanding that “mental illness” is not a disease. You have illness and you have mind but you do not have illness of the mind.
In Lesson 3 we learned that you don’t really have to be professional to counsel. Studies have shown that amateur counselors produce significantly better results than highly educated processionals. Studies also have shown that Christian Counselors are unique. The Christ Centered Addiction Specialist is not only concerned with abstinence from the addiction but seeks to stimulate spiritual growth in counselees; to encourage confession of sin and the experience of divine forgiveness; to model Christian standards, attitudes, values, and lifestyles; to present the Gospel message encouraging counselees to commit their lives to Jesus Christ; and to stimulate counselees to develop values and live lives that are based on biblical teaching, instead of living in accordance with relativistic human standards.
All counseling techniques have at least four characteristics
1. They seek to arouse the beliefs that help is possible.
2. They correct erroneous beliefs about the world.
3. They help to develop competencies in social living.
4. They help counselees accept themselves as persons of worth.
We concluded in Lesson 3 that psychology infringes on Christianity and that psychology itself is a religion. The greatest Counselor of all time was Jesus Christ, known as a simple carpenter from Nazareth.
In Lesson 5 we explored world view and the effects that it has had on counseling. Every philosophy assumes some view of God, a view we can fit loosely into one of the following four categories:
• There is one God (Christianity, Judaism, and Islam).
• There is no God (humanism, utopianism).
• There are many gods (pantheism).• All is god (New Age).
Clarifying one's worldview is critical for the counselor as well as for the counselee, since both have a controlling belief regarding the world in which they live.
Finally in Lesson 5 we learned that Biblical counseling means that you rely on truths from the Word of God as you seek to give wise counsel. Christ-centered counseling is giving advice, encouragement, and hope to others based on biblical truth while relying on Christ to provide the power for change.
The qualifications for a Christ Centered Counselor are simple:
· Be in a growing relationship with God
· You love Christ and care about the needs of others
· You accurately handle the Word of truth
· You are called by God to counsel others.
The greater your dependence on the Word of God, the wiser you will be.
As a Biblical Counselor who is sincerely serving Christ your will want to:
-Help those who are off course get on a "correction course" to move toward wholeness and spiritual maturity
Lead an unbeliever into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ
Present wisdom from God's Word to enable strugglers to live in victory.
CONGRATULATIONS! You have finished Module 1 and now you are ready to take your first Certification Exam.
click GO TO CERTIFICATION EXAM
or
if you just want to continue on and take the exam later
click GO TO MODULE 2
