Returning to Maloney & Augsburger’s, Christian Counseling: An Introduction (see initial post on 5/22/07) we see them tackle the topic of what makes Christian counseling Christian. This chapter sets an overview for the remaining chapters in this section on foundational assumptions. Here are some points they make: Continue reading
What is Christian Counseling? Chapter 1
Filed under book reviews, christian counseling, christian psychology
Unscience Monday: Insane reporting rules
At last staff meeting, Diane Langberg reviewed some new rules for PA re: abuse reporting that she learned at a recent CE seminar. Some of these make your head spin.
1. Psychologists are mandated to report to child and family any child engaging in sex (not well defined) before age of 13. Okay, this is good.
2. However, if 14, then it can be consensual (and not reportable) if the other person is not more than 5 years older. This could be considered consensual.
3. If a 15 year, 11 mo child has sex with someone more than 5 years his/her age, it is statutory rape. However, if a 16 year old has sex with someone more than five years older, this can be consensual. So a 50 year old can have consensual sex with a 16 year old. And yet, a child is still considered just that until 18. Go figure. You can have sex with anyone, but you can’t smoke, drink, vote, or go to war. Do these lawmakers have teenage daughters?
There are some good changes in other parts of the law but these just boggle the mind.
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Keller on sacrifical love
Today at staff meeting, we listened to a Tim Keller sermon (in the Mark series). His main point is that all love must sacrificial, hence Jesus had to die. Whether it is a parent who gives up the right to serve his/her own interests for a child or a victim who gives up the “right” to seek vengeance, love is sacrificial. He went on to talk about the fact that self-serving acts of love Carnot provide any form of happiness or joy.
One quote grabbed my attention. He quoted the first Harry Potter book regarding the tremendous power of sacrificial love to show that even those who are not believers are moved by sacrificial love.
Dumbledore speaking to Harry:Your mother died to save you. If there is one thing Voldemort cannot understand, it is love. He didn’t realize that love as powerful as your mother’s for you leaves a mark. Not a scar, no visible sign [but]…to have been loved so deeply, even though the person who loved us is gone, will give us some protection forever.
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Filed under Biblical Reflection
Squirrels!!!
Got any great suggestions on how to stop squirrels from eating my strawberries? I have several nice plants with ripening fruit. So far I have yet to eat a strawberry because the little varmits got to them first. I put some plastic netting over the plants but they just crawled under and took what they wanted. Worst of all, they didn’t eat the whole thing, just one bite to ruin the berry.
My 7 year old suggests electrifying the plants to zap the critters. Have any ideas?
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Filed under gardening
What is Christian Counseling, anyway? A review
Today I’m going to start a careful review of a new book by H. Newton Malony and David Augsburger entitled, Christian Counseling: An introduction (Abingdon Press, 2007). Malony and Augsburger are well established professors at Fuller Seminary. In this book they attempt to answer the question, What should Christian Counseling look like? How will they try to answer this? “We have no intention of doing a survey and, on the basis of the results, describing what Christian counselors do. In an unapologetic manner, we intend to detail the parameters of what we firmly believe should be the foundations and applications of Christian counseling” (viii). Since this is a question that has been on many students minds, I’d like to summarize and comment on their short book of 14 chapters (some 160 pages of text).
I’ll start with their preface… Continue reading
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Filed under book reviews, christian counseling, christian psychology
Science Monday: What is the best way to teach ethics to counselors?
Saturday marked the first class of my Ethics class. In honor of that, I want to use this space to talk a bit about the teaching of ethics. What is the best way to teach aspiring counselors the ins/outs of ethical care of their counselees. Here are some options: Continue reading
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Filed under counseling science, counseling skills, ethics
2007 NBCA Conference Presentation
Lord willing, tonight I will be addressing the attendees of the 2007 National Biblical Counselors Association conference. I plan to review the present state and future of the biblical counseling movement. The last written review of the movement was published in 1988 by David Powlison (Journal of Pastoral Practice, vol. 9). Its time we took stock of ourselves and where we yet need to grow. Slides I’m using to keep me on track are posted on my slides and things page (see the top of the page).
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Filed under biblical counseling
7 things you can do to vastly improve your marriage
I presented this in class as the ending of our Advanced Marital Counseling class (where we looked at Gottman, Markman and Stanley’s PREP, and Susan Johnson’s EFT). Originally, I and my wife have presented this earlier in a SS setting. Notice that while education about your mate’s love languages and communication skills are helpful, much of what we can do to improve our marriages has to do with what is going on inside us. So, here they are: Continue reading
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Filed under marriage
When grading is really fun
Am working on grading some papers for my Advanced Marital Counseling class. I had my students interview a couple to discern strengths, weaknesses, characteristics of the emotional and relational dance, and then write them a letter summarizing what they observed and possible recommendations. While grading papers aren’t particularly fun, reading these letters was very exciting. Here’s what I observed: Continue reading
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Filed under marriage, teaching counseling
Website for adoptive dads
Check out the this website written by several adoptive dads. Its just starting but there is some good information there (e.g., financing adoptions when you have little income): http://www.adoptivedads.org/ Check it out or pass on the info should you know somebody who could benefit.
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Filed under adoption
Musings on Faith and Psychology 