“Biblical counseling” is not therapy (and it’s dangerous to pretend they are the same)
Biblical counseling is a form of counseling found in many fundamentalist and evangelical churches and church-adjacent ministries that promotes itself as a way of helping people with their problems using the Bible (Deepak Reju); Or, as Howard Eyrich states, “Biblical counseling is the process of dealing with human suffering in the context of God as creator, designer, savior, and enabler.”
Spoiler alert: biblical counseling is not the same as therapy, and it’s incredibly harmful to pretend they are the same (or to tout biblical counseling as a superior form of “treatment”). But before we get into that, let’s unpack biblical counseling a bit more through the words of the people who teach and use this modality.
Defining biblical counseling
Dr. Bob Kelleman, of the Biblical Counseling Coalition, defines biblical counseling as “Christ-centered, church-based, comprehensive, compassionate, and culturally-informed personal ministry that depends upon the Holy Spirit to relate God’s inspired truth about people, problems, and solutions to human suffering (through sustaining and healing) and sin (through reconciling and guiding) to equip people to exalt and enjoy God and to love others (Matt. 22:35-40) by cultivating conformity to Christ and communion with Christ and the Body of Christ leading to a community of one-another disciple-makers (Matt. 28:16-20; Eph. 4:11-16).”
The passages referenced here are:
Matthew 22:35-40 - “One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (NIV)
Matthew 28:16-20 - “Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (NIV)
Ephesians 4:11-16 - “So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. (NIV)
This is not therapy; it is proselytizing.
To be fair, some of the definitions of biblical counseling that are floating around on the Internet do not try to pretend that biblical counseling is therapy, and they are very clear in their definitions that “biblical counseling is the act of one believer coming alongside another to bring the truths of…Scripture to bear on their heart and life…” (Elyse Fitzpatrick).
How therapy is different from biblical counseling
In the article, 3 Differences Between Biblical Counseling and Traditional Talk Therapy, author Dr. Tim Allchin writes that one difference between biblical counseling and more traditional talk therapy is the centrality of “the gospel” (which he defines as “the free offer of grace, mercy, and friendship with God) to biblical counseling. He writes,
“We truly believe [the gospel] should be shared as the answer to the greatest need we all have. Sadly, the gospel doesn’t make it onto the agenda of traditional talk therapy on a regular basis, and this is a missed opportunity…The theories of traditional talk therapy capture and describe the way that people normally respond to life in a fallen and broken world, however they don’t turn back to the cross and to the good news as the answer.”
Grace Fellowship Church Pastor Brad Bigney writes, “The goal in biblical counseling is to come alongside a person who is struggling and seek to apply the principles in God’s Word in such a way that the person responds in an obedient and godly manner to the problems they are facing to the glory of God and the person’s own good.” This definition, and the above quote from Dr. Tim Allchin, are potent examples of how biblical counseling is often poised as a valid alternative to mental health treatment; and this is potentially quite dangerous.
Psychotherapy with a licensed professional is a form of treatment aimed at relieving emotional distress and mental health problems, just as the above definition of biblical counseling claims to do. However, biblical counselors’ (and those that promote it) idea of what relieves emotional distress and mental health problems is predicated on a relationship with [the evangelical, fundamentalist version of] god and is limited to whatever the bible says (based on the interpretation of the particular church or biblical counselor); and, in my opinion as someone who grew up studying the bible in depth, the bible is not a therapeutic manual. Psychotherapy can be practiced in a wide variety of ways, many of which are indeed evidenced based (i.e., research has been done to validate that these treatments work in the way they say they do); and it is always done by a licensed professional who is accredited.
Psychotherapy is different from biblical counseling in that the therapist is not aimed at imparting a particular worldview on a client.
Biblical counseling operates from a worldview which teaches that people are born sinful and the only way to healing and emotional relief is by obeying god.
The type of relationship that is formed in biblical counseling (what many in the field would call “discipleship”) is incredibly attached to a specific outcome, which psychotherapy, ideally, is not. Therapists can support you in your religious journey or spiritual exploration, however, they should never tell you what to believe or impose a particular religious worldview on you.
Biblical counseling is not trauma-informed
In the article What Does God Say About PTSD?, Dr. Lucy Ann Moll does accurately describe Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and it’s symptoms. In this article, they share stories of how survivors of trauma have found hope and belonging in God. I think that this is incredibly valuable, and for many people, this framework is helpful and useful in recovering from trauma.
However, in my opinion, at its core, biblical counseling is harmful because it is not trauma-informed or trauma-sensitive, and it promotes itself as a way to heal from emotional distress and struggle. Dr. Moll goes on to write that “each of us needs to remember who we are in Christ and apply this truth to past experience, even trauma.” They quote biblical counselor Eliza Jane Huie, who writes,
“Having a painful past that still hurts is an opportunity to build a deeper confidence in the truth of God’s Word and what it says about you. This is not an exercise in positive thinking. It is telling gospel truth to yourself. As you speak gospel truth to horrible situations you’ve faced, let it make you desperate for God and for the love He has for you.”
While having spiritual beliefs, including but not limited to belief in the christian god, can be a source of compassion and healing for survivors of trauma, the vulnerability that survivors experience can also be weaponized against them in high-control religious contexts. All trauma is spiritual trauma in that it impacts our sense of meaning and purpose in the world, our view of ourself, and often our relationship to the divine. In high control religious spaces, the experience of trauma can be subtly and insidiously used as a tool to push vulnerable people toward god. I do not want to discount the positive impact that spiritual beliefs may have in the recovery process, however, this is not true for everyone and manipulating vulnerable people is one way that high-demand religions control their members.
Additionally, high-control religions (often the places where biblical counseling is encouraged and available) are often a source of adverse and/or traumatic experiences. In my opinion, biblical counseling does not make space for the way that high-control religions in and of themself can be a source of trauma, potentially even leading to a PTSD or other mental health diagnosis. In fact, biblical counseling can contribute to the harm by reinforcing the idea that mental health challenges are caused by disobedience to god or not following the commands of the bible in the “correct” way.
Shame does not lead to healing, it leads to coercion.
Dr. Stephen Hassan, one of the leading experts in authoritarian groups and cults, developed the BITE model to describe the ways in which authoritarian groups recruit and maintain control over people. Many of these tactics may be present within high-control, high-demand religions, including within the context of biblical counseling.
BITE stands for:
Behavior - regulating and dominating members’ actions and behaviors through strict rules, rewards, and punishments, limiting individual autonomy
Information - control of information flow through censorship and propaganda, restricting members’ access to outside perspectives
Thought - psychological techniques used by groups to shape beliefs and attitudes, suppressing critical thinking and promoting conformity
Emotion - manipulation emotions, fostering dependency and loyalty through love-bombing, guilt, and fear-based indoctrination
These elements may show up in biblical counseling contexts through:
Manipulating and/or narrowing the range of emotions/feelings that are acceptable and labeling some emotions and/or needs as evil, wrong, or selfish (emotional control)
For example, telling clients that having anxiety is sinful
Telling people when, how, and with whom a person has sex (behavior control)
For example, a biblical counselor advising a client that it is inherently wrong to have sex with someone of the same gender or outside of marriage
Minimizing or discouraging access to non-christian or non-biblical sources of information (information control)
For example, limiting potential sources of wisdom, knowledge, and information to just the bible
Requiring or encouraging people to internalize the group’s doctrine as truth (thought control)
For example, telling clients that the bible (as interpreted by the group/church/counselor) is the only valid source of truth
Making the person feel that their problems are always their own fault (emotional control)
For example, being told that if you are experiencing fear it is because your faith in god is not strong enough
Encouraging corporal punishment as a valid form of parenting (behavior control)
Use of us versus them language (e.g., believers vs. non-believers) (information control)
Labeling alternative belief systems as illegitimate, evil, or not useful (thought control)
For example, holding the belief that secular forms of therapy are unhelpful or wrong
Phobia indoctrination: inculcating irrational fears about leaving the group or belief system (emotional control)
For example, using the fear of hell as a motivation for changing behavior
To read more about Dr. Hassan and the BITE model, please check out the Freedom of Mind Resource Center.
Licensure & Accountability
Now, I don’t doubt that biblical counseling can be beneficial, and I don’t want to promote the idea that no one ever gets anything out of biblical counseling or that psychotherapy from a secular worldview is the only way to find healing. That is absolutely not the case. And in the same way that biblical counseling can perpetuate trauma or re-traumatize folks, more traditional forms of talk therapy can do the same thing.
One important difference, however, is that professionally licensed psychotherapists report to a licensing board and are held to certain standards while biblical counselors are not required to do the same. Some options for licensing as a biblical counselor do exist, however, it is not a requirement within the field; and biblical counselors are not required to be licensed in any other professional way in order to call themselves a “biblical counselor.”
One important value of operating under a licensing board is accountability and options for recourse in the event that an unethical or harmful situation has unfolded. When an industry is unregulated and licensure is not standardized, it is very hard to hold that industry accountable.
This is not to say that biblical counseling is inherently unethical (if someone truly understands what they are engaging in and give informed consent), however, the lack of accountability and the fact that biblical counseling is most often found within high-control religious settings makes it an opportunity ripe for abuse to occur.
Takeaways
So, what do we do with all of this? Here are some of the things I hope you take away from this article:
Biblical counseling and mental health therapy with a licensed professional are not the same in a variety of ways.
Biblical counseling comes from a very specific worldview and uses this worldview to design specific outcomes for the counseling relationship.
High-demand groups, including religious institutions that promote biblical counseling, use many tactics of control and manipulation that folks should be aware of prior to joining a group or entering into biblical counseling.
Both therapy and biblical counseling can be harmful, depending on how the modalities are used; however, the lack of accountability within biblical counseling and the promotion of a specific religious worldview make bibilical counseling more susceptible to abuses of power and manipulation.
If you are looking for trauma-sensitive psychotherapy with a licensed professional who can support you on your journey of healing from adverse religious experiences, please feel free to reach out to me. If you are located outside of Massachusetts, you can check out the Reclamation Collective therapist directory to find a religious trauma therapist in your area.
