When you are moving towards counseling it is an important thing to consider asking questions of the therapist before booking an appointment with them.  There are many differences in what people are offering as counseling and even more differences under the guise of Christian or Biblical Counseling.  Secular counselors who are competent will allow you to talk about your faith and God but might have little idea of how this faith might affect your personhood and struggles with issues.  I liken a believer going to a secular counselor to taking your car to a bicycle repair shop, the rules are just different for fixing a bike. 

Now Christian counseling centers or counselors can be two different animals as well.  One type of Christian counselor or counseling center is a person or group of people who are counselors that just happen to be Christian.  In this environment, they believe, they speak about God, but their “tools” or methods are likely based heavily in secular ideas and research.  Their concept is “I’m a Christian who uses proven secular theory to practice in order to help others”.  It would likely be that you could speak of God and Christ often as you liked, but their base of knowledge and concept of how to help you are coming from Psychology.  The second kind of Christian counseling center or counselor would be a center/person who believe they are a Christian Counselors.  It is likely that these counselors have more biblically based methods to their counseling and believe that Christian issues are unique, likely to deal with the heart as well as sin, faith etc.

A Biblical counselor comes in two forms as well.  One type of Biblical counselor is a Christian counselor who believes that the Bible and its scriptures are to be used heavily and often they quote scripture that you are to use, memorize or recite when situations come up in your life.  The other type of Biblical counselor is much like the Christian counselor mentioned in the second part of the previous section.  They believe in God, believe that there should be a biblical framework with which to work and to conceptualize from that Biblical framework.  They will tell stories, believe in the use of scripture (although not heavy), and will move you towards what your heart was biblically designed to experience. 

All Licensed counselors who are competent and ethical should be able to help you incorporate your faith into sessions.  Also any good counselor should be able to adapt to your needs whether you are a Christian or not.  This posting is merely to help you understand that there are differences, and labels, unlike those at a grocery store are not the same in the counseling world.  It would be helpful before you make an appointment to ask questions as to how the therapist uses scripture, what techniques do they use, what is there basis of theory, what do they think of your faith, are they step oriented etc.  The more question you have prepared before the phone call, the more information you will attain from the therapist. 

Gateway Biblical Counseling believes that any competent Christian Counselor or Biblical Counselor can be helpful to you.  We do believe that it is imperative for you to choose a Christian or Biblically motivated counselor if you are a Christian.  We are in the Dallas Area and do provide many services (see services page) ranging from Premarital, Marital and Individual counseling.  Contact us if you have any questions.