What is Christian Counseling?

– Rich Blue

I suppose there are as many definitions of Christian counseling as there are Christian counselors. Let me share my perspective and what I think makes counseling Christian.

I discovered Christian counseling by accident.

I discovered that I intuitively knew how to be Christ with someone even before I had professional training. It happened when I was working as a chaplain at Northwestern University. Unexpectedly, a number of students began sharing with me their untold stories of having been sexually abused as children.

I will never forget my first time hearing a person’s confession of the buried shame of abuse. I was stunned. I was overwhelmed. It was unimaginable.  I had no words of comfort or passages of scripture to read. I was embarrassed to offer to pray—prayer seemed almost trivial in contrast to their suffering.

What I didn’t know was that unknowingly in spite of my lack of professional training I was being Christ at the moment to these people. I was doing Christian counseling. I was simply concerned, caring, listening, and engaging authentically. I said nothing, allowed my tears to flow freely, and simply was with them in their pain. We shared the moment of authentic vulnerability together.

Christ was present at that moment through me. Without offering any advice or fixing anything these precious students felt a profound sense of comfort and grace. Christian counseling is incarnational—it is manifesting and embodying divine love, care, concern, and presence in the here and now.

Christian counseling is characterized by an experience of truth and grace. Christ’s power is expressed and experienced through His presence. Healing, insight, instruction, and empowerment come through an experience with Him. The stories of Christ’s interactions in the Gospels reveal that He didn’t say much nor did He do a lot. Jesus spoke the truth about what was happening between Him and the person He was within the moment. The healing truth was the truth about what was happening

Christ touched people through His presence, through a powerful existential experience with Him in the here and now. He is the way. He is the truth. He is life. Christian counseling uses all the truths and technologies of psychology to introduce people to themselves in the presence of the unconditional love of Christ.

Rich Blue, M.A., LCPC, IBCC, NCC, CLE’s Founder and Clinical Director, is a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor with over 25 years of experience. Rich first placed his faith in Jesus Christ in 1972. He joined the staff of Campus Crusade for Christ where he served for seven years and later became Campus Director at Northwestern University. It was through this ministry that Rich first discovered his love for counseling. Known for his insight, compassion and a no-nonsense approach to therapy, Rich believes that Christ has an infinite love for all and each of us can be a vehicle for his love. As an avid athlete, he believes in competition, which brings joy and aliveness as the result of living life with dedication, purpose, and passion.