Neil T. Anderson's approach to integrating spiritual and secular counseling

¶ … Dr. Neil T. Anderson's book, Discipleship Counseling. In this book, the author explores the role of spiritual counseling in a secular world as well as the role of secular psychological treatment in spiritual health endeavors. They also explore the idea of mental health in both senses.

At the same time, Dr. Anderson explores the role of the counselor and the role of the counselee as well as the organizational structure of discipleship counseling. The book is broken into two parts, which take different approaches toward applying Discipleship Counseling toward the masses and helping everyone come to God on their own terms.

Discipleship Counseling: Dr. Neil Anderson's Take on Spiritual and Secular Mental Health

In the book, Discipleship Counseling by Dr. Neil T. Anderson, the idea of Christian-based counseling is explored. There are three core concepts explored in the book, and these concepts are what power the entire theme of the book. Dr. Anderson explores the idea of integrating psychiatry on a secular basis with the teachings of theology. There is a certain structure that must be adhered to when it comes to discipleship counseling, and this is another theme explored by Dr. Anderson. There are also a variety of barriers that must be overcome to help the person being counseled come back to God and find his discipleship. All of these three ideas are explored in Dr. Anderson's book and lead to one central theme: discipleship counseling can be used to help others come back to God and become disciples in His image.

Discipleship Counseling and Coming Back to God

"Discipleship and Counseling" is the second half of Dr. Anderson's book. In this section, the author begins to examine the process of counseling people and helping them to reestablish their relationship with God. Dr. Anderson begins with a discussion about the best candidates for discipleship counseling. The different defenses, people to pray with and the intricacies of the meeting between counselor and counselee are discussed. It is important for Christians and those who want to live as Christians to know their place in the spiritual world. The Bama Research Group report that less than one out of every five people understood themselves in the Biblical Sense (Bama Research Group, 2009). Anderson even suggests that, "Western rationalism and naturalism is out of sense with Biblical reality," (p. 36), going on to suggest that the type of secular psychological studies that are done fail to include the spiritual needs of a person. Anderson suggests that life is a struggle between good and evil and with the spiritual, Christian self.

According to Dr. Anderson, secular psychologists have problems solving mental health problems for one main reason: they neglect to take into consideration the spiritual aspect of mental illness. From a Biblical standpoint, belief in the nature of God and in the nature of yourself as expressed in the scriptures is essential for mental health. The Council of Christian Colleges and Universities even suggests that, "psychological theories are not proven, and since the proximate cause of mental-emotional problems is spiritual, one should rely on Biblical principles for [emotional] healing" (Mills, 1999). In the book, Dr. Anderson even suggests that mental illness is a form of distortion of our understanding of who a person regards themselves to be and the way they view their relationship with God. When this is distorted, it can result in what is secularly considered to be mental illness.

In this sense, it is quite natural for people to wonder when a condition should be diagnosed as a psychological problem and when it should be treated as a spiritual problem. According to Dr. Anderson, this is completely antithetical to the holistic form of treating people, as both conditions affect one another. There are two central ideas that make up Christian Discipleship Counseling: they are having the right view of the world in a Biblical sense and the centrality of the Bible and the Gospel in general. The latter will determine the way in which the counselor approaches counseling their subject, whether they encourage them to walk according to what God commands or help them to bring glory to God so that their life will be better. Having the right worldview in the Biblical sense is important, as this is where true healing can come from.

The Structure of Christian Discipleship Counseling

The organizational structure of Christian Discipleship Counseling is another central theme discussed in Dr. Anderson's book. As scripture states, "For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Jesus Christ" (Holy Bible, Timothy 2:5). As described in this scripture and in Dr. Anderson's work, there is only one real mediator between the person who needs counseling and God, and the counselor does not serve to replace God in the person's life (Anderson, p. 38). The counselor has certain responsibilities toward the person they are counseling, including praying for themselves and the person they are counseling, recognizing their role in the spiritual guiding process. They should also be ready to completely serve and be dependent on God, as John 6:44 says that "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him."

A counselor has a responsibility to resist from arguing with the counselee. John Scott is quoted in Dr. Anderson's work as saying that, "you cannot pander to mankind's intellectual arrogance, but you must cater to their intellectual integrity." This is because there are many people who will purposely incite argument. There are others who need help. It is not the job of the counselor to deal with those who seek out argument, but to have the clarity of mind to see the difference between those who quarrel for attention and those who genuinely take issue with something.

Discipleship counseling is about helping people be mentally and spiritually healthy and helping everyone come to God on their own terms. It is often regarded as a person's duty to help others come to Christ and discipleship counseling is just one way of doing so.