We provide a wide range of Counseling services.

Counseling attempts to provide encouragement and guidance for those who are facing losses, decisions, or disappointments.

Counseling can stimulate personality growth and development; help people cope more effectively with the problems of living, with inner conflict, and with crippling emotions; assist individuals, family members, and married couples to resolve interpersonal tensions or relate effectively to one another; and assist persons whose life patterns are self-defeating and causing unhappiness.

The Christian counselor seeks to bring people into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and to help them find forgiveness and relief from the crippling effects of sin and guilt.

Counseling Services Available:

• Individual
• Couples & Family
• Relationship Issues
• Grief and Loss
• Anxiety and Fears
• Depression
• Personal Growth
• Parenting Support
• Stress Management
• Conflict Management

Contact Larry Smith, Ph.D. – (MA Behavioral Sciences) at (409) 762-5566 for additional information or to make an appointment.

Exactly what is Christian counseling and how is it different from other types of counseling?

Christian counseling is counseling that draws upon psychology and Christian teaching. Efforts to combine counseling with Christian perspectives and approaches are called “integration.”

Scientific evidence indicates that rational cognitive therapy which is based on underlying Christian principles is an effective form of cognitive therapy.

Christian counseling attempts to provide encouragement and guidance for those who are facing losses, decisions, was our disappointments.

Counseling can stimulate personality growth and development;

Help people cope more effectively with the problems of living, with inner conflict, external conflicts, and with crippling emotions;

Assist individuals, family members, and married couples to resolve interpersonal tensions or relate effectively to one another; and assist persons whose life patterns are self-defeating and causing unhappiness.

The Christian counselor seeks to bring people into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and to help them find forgiveness and relief from the crippling effects of sin and guilt. Ultimately the Christian counselor hopes to help others become disciples of Christ and disciples of others.

Christian counselors use many techniques that have been developing used by secular and nonbelievers, but Christian counseling has at least four distinct characteristics.

Unique Assumptions – beliefs about the attributes of God, the nature of human beings, the authority of Scripture, the reality of sin, the forgiveness of God, and hope for the future. The Christian counselor believes God has spoken to the human race and created the universe through his son; provided for the forgiveness of sin, and now holds everything together by the mighty power of his Word.

Unique Goals – like the secular counselor, the Christian counselor seeks to help people change behavior, attitudes, values, and/or perceptions. The counselor attempts to teach skills, including social skills; to encourage recognition and expression of emotion; to give support in times of need; to teach responsibility; to instill insight; to guide as decisions are made; to help the counselee mobilize inner and environmental resources in times of crisis; to teach problem-solving skills, and to increase competence and self-actualization. The Christian counselor also seeks to stimulate spiritual growth; to encourage confession of sin and the experience of divine forgiveness; to model Christian standards, attitudes values, and lifestyles; to present the gospel message, while encouraging counselee’s to commit their lives to Jesus Christ; and to stimulate the development of values and their lives that are based on biblical teaching, instead of living in accordance with relativistic humanistic standards.

In next week’s article, we will explore two other distinctive characteristics of Christian counseling