Do Christian Counselors Show More Empathy Toward Christian Clients Than Secular Clients? An Examination of the Relations Between Counselors’ Empathy and Counselor–Client Similarity in Christian Commitment

This study investigated the association between counselors’ Christian beliefs and their counseling. One hundred fifty-eight participants, including 13 counselors and 145 counselors-in-training who were assessed for levels of Christian commitment, were randomly assigned to view one of two versions of a videotape (i.e., a client with or without Christian commitment) and respond in writing to the client’s problem. Two trained raters (i.e., a licensed counselor and an advanced counseling intern) evaluated counselors’ levels of empathy. Counselors with low and high levels of Christian commitment showed similar levels of empathy for non-Christian and Christian clients, while counselors with moderate levels of Christian commitment showed more empathy for Christian clients. The implications of these findings and directions for future research are discussed.

Towards a Rigorous Basis for a Natural Law Theory of Integration

Fr. Bernard Lonergan (1904-1984) proposed that human desire can prove the existence of God. The structure of human thought implies a Final Answer to the set of all questions, which can only be what everyone calls “God”—but what implications does this fact have for human happiness, and for counseling? This paper argues that counseling must have, as its ultimate aim, helping people to know Goodness, Beauty, and Truth, which is God. The fact that we can observe the facts about human cognition means that Catholic Christian counselors can ethically and effectively work with people from any faith tradition.

Child Sexual Trauma, Dissociation, and the Soul: A Christian Psychology Conceptualization

Over the past 30 years, the field of knowledge and insight into the phenomenon of structural or pathological dissociation has grown immensely. Recent findings have shed light on the etiology of complex traumatic stress disorders (CTSDs) like dissociative identity disorder (DID) and the intimate connection between chronic childhood sexual trauma and the persistent barriers to psychotherapeutic remediation in adult survivors. Modern scientific and theoretical advances notwithstanding, Christian counselors and pastors who counsel may benefit from a conceptualization of severe dissociative disorders, their treatment, and therapeutic outcomes that entails a thoroughgoing Christian perspective. This integrative task requires a broad survey of the pertinent psychological literature in the light of the Bible’s teaching on interpersonal suffering, the gospel of Jesus Christ, and the healing power of the triune God.

The Holy Spirit, Common Grace, and Secular Psychotherapy

This paper seeks to demonstrate how the Holy Spirit, through common grace, may be actively working and using secular psychotherapy in light of the dual reality of belief and unbelief in this world. The Triune God desires to bring a world fallen in sin to his desired goal of reconciliation with Him through the redemptive work of Christ. The Holy Spirit works through common grace in order to help people experience the goodness of God to draw them to him. As such the Holy Spirit may work through secular psychotherapy to bless people in general, restrain sin in this world, prepare for salvation, or aid in the progressive sanctification of believers. The Holy Spirit's activity through secular psychotherapy entails for Christian counselors and scholars a challenging call to engage wisely with secular psychotherapy in order to bless humankind, to be a witness, and to use potential blessings for the sake of distinctly Christian psychotherapy.