Summary Of Caring For People God's Way

When it comes to counseling, not everyone is cut out to a counselor. The reason for this is because counselors have to be kind-hearted, caring people who put the emotional needs of their patients above their own. In “Caring for People God’s Way”, Tim Clinton outlines some of the characteristics that are associated with Christian counselors. According to Clinton, “A Christian counselor’s success depends on several distinguishing characteristics including personality, spiritual gifts, professional training, commitment to the gospel, and a biblical worldview.” (Clinton, Hart, Ohlschkager, 2005, page 34) I believe these characteristics are extremely important to a Christian counselor because commitment to the gospel and having a biblical worldview are the very foundation of what sets a Christian counselor apart from a secular one. It is also important as a Christian counselor to demonstrate the core conditions and the core skills that are associated with Christian counseling. Core conditions are important “for establishing an effective environment that are almost universally seen as important
Active listening, empathic response, probing, and goal setting are essential to the Christian counselor. By active listening, the counselor is hearing what the patient has to saying, and by giving an empathic response, the counselor is “responding to the client’s dialogue in a way that reframes what the client has said and that focuses on the emotion being communicated.” (Clinton, Hart, and Ohlschkager, 2005, pages 39) However, in order to get a patient to talk to the counselor about a difficult situation, the counselor will use what is called “probing”, which is just asking a series of questions along the lines of words like “who, what, where, when, or how.” (Clinton, Hart, and Ohlschkager, 2005, pages 39) Then there is goal setting. This is simply developing a course of action for the patient, so they can begin