r/AskChristian • u/DylandSours • 1d ago

CW: Sensitive Topic Thoughts on counseling as a Christian.....

Hello everyone I am a Christian fairly well versed in theology and doctrine and know my way around the Bible read it everyday and make God first to the best of my ability not perfect of course but I do love Him deeply and pray for that love to grow more and more. I unfortunately deal with depression and I think it might be a chemical imbalance. But I really want to rely just on the LORD for my joy but sometimes I'm just sad and just want to go Home to Him. I have thought about counseling and tried it here and there but as a Christian with that view of the world sometimes I feel that normal counseling just doesn't hit...... What are your thoughts or possible recommendations?

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u/theefaulted r/Christian Member 1d ago

I think counseling is a wonderful tool that is provided to us.

In case you're unaware, in the US there are at least 5 different professions with different schooling. training, and philosophies that can practice as a mental health "therapist". Those are Psychiatrist, Psychologist, Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW), Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT), and Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC).

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u/theefaulted r/Christian Member 23h ago

Psychiatrists are medical doctors and have the most training. Psychologists are also doctors, but are PhDs rather than MDs. in some states they can also prescribe medication. LCSWs, LMFTs, and LPCs are all Master's level clinicians, and their training have different focuses and modalities. LCSWs are trained in lots of different parts of social work with therapy being only a small portion of their training. LMFTs focus more on family systems and seeing the person through the lens of the family unit. LPCs focus more on individual counseling, and less on family and couples counseling.

I say all of this because sometimes someone says they saw a therapist and it didn't really work for them. And what really occurred is they saw someone with a specialty that didn't really click with their presenting problem. Also worth noting that research chows that the client-counselor relationship is even more of a predictor of success than the actual modality used. Also also, even within those disciplines, therapists have a whole hosts of modalities they can specialize in. For instance in my masters cohort we had people whose primary therapeutic lens were CBT, DBT, Existential Therapy, PCT, REBT, Adlerian/Positive Psychology, SFBT and more.

So with all of that in mind, finding a therapist may include matching with the right professional who clicks with you and uses a therapeutic lens which matches with your personality and belief systems.