Representing Christ in Counseling
I have experienced a strong call to be a mental health counselor in my adult years. As a mature Christian, I was looking for a counseling school to provide a valid, useful Christian framework for my future vocation as a therapist. I was blessed to find a place where professors confirmed my belief in the sanctity of human life. We were taught that every human person is created in the image of God, made in love and for love, called to friendship, communion, and flourishing. What is the benefit of knowing we are created in the image of God? It provides a faith-based acknowledgment that, even in the face of unhealthy values, poor choices, and disordered behavior that we may observe in some of our clients, each of them possesses an indelible dignity, goodness, and relationality. Each of our clients is called to flourish and is loved by God, and we are called to serve them on their life journey. I prayed to God to lead me to a place of internship where my calling to see each client as a precious child of God would be affirmed. God has answered my prayers by bringing me to the Beacon of Hope. Beacon of Hope is a safe, welcoming, and nurturing place for both counselors and our clients.
Now, as I work at a wonderful place and I am equipped with some good solid knowledge, I have to learn how to truly be a good listener. In his powerful book The Good Listener, James Sullivan writes about the powerful force of attentive and compassionate listening that helps us to enter into another person's world. A renowned Christian psychotherapist, Father Stephen Muse, echoes Sullivan's words about the counselor's responsibility to be a good and responsive guest in the client's inner world. He believes that, depending on the quality of our listening, attention, and respect we show to our clients, the clients may invite us further into their inner world. In the process of counseling, our clients can find confirmation of the value of their own humanity and glimpse the presence of Christ in our midst.
As a new therapist, I am often asked about my favorite therapist or theoretical approaches. Carl Rogers' person-centered therapy is dear to my heart. Rogers' humanist view of a person with its emphasis on universal human dignity and the importance of happiness is very close to the ideas of Christianity, from which it has been borrowing for centuries. The main doctrine of Christianity is the incarnation. The Son of God became human for the salvation of humanity. It was and will always be the best illustration of empathy. He became human and suffered not for some abstract humanity en masse but for each one of us, regardless of our social standing or mental health. A counselor is not always in a position to reveal her religious beliefs. Still, if she considers herself a Christian, she represents Christ in the relationship with every client she encounters.
-Natasha Busscher, Counseling Intern
