Showing titles in Counseling

Therapeutic counseling in a Christian context can be highly effective when it maintains narrowly focused goals in a time-limited setting. The details of this proven model of pastoral counseling are described in this practical guide. This second edition of Strategic Pastoral Counseling has been thoroughly revised and includes two new chapters. Benner includes helpful case studies, a new appendix on contemporary ethical issues, and updated chapter bibliographies. His study will continue to serve clergy and students well as a valued practical handbook on pastoral care and counseling.

In Free to Thrive, Josh McDowell and Ben Bennett blend hard-won wisdom and youthful energy to present biblical, time-tested, and research-supported principles for overcoming hurts, struggles, and hindrances to a whole life - a life of spiritual, emotional, and relational wholeness instead of brokenness - the kind of life you were born to live.

No one is immune from life’s difficulties, yet many people are reluctant to talk about mental health or seek professional help when they are struggling. People of faith who are battling issues such as anxiety, depression, life changes, stress, or relationship problems may suffer in silence, believing things will get better if only their faith was stronger, they prayed more, or they had more self-discipline. The stigma about needing to seek help is all too real. But seeking professional help isn’t a sign of weakness.

He was your love. She was your partner. Now your heart is broken. What do you do with all the pain, confusion, and anger? What will life be like? Who are you now? Your heart needs answers. Heartbroken can help. Best-selling author, hospice chaplain, and grief specialist Gary Roe has walked with hundreds of spouses through this painful valley. From their stories he has composed this incredibly practical work that will touch your heart and comfort your soul.

After the fall, the world was disordered from structure to chaos—negatively altering the nature of human emotions. Today, we witness its impact as mental health concerns surge and people continue to suffer. How should Christians approach the topic of mental health? What is the most Christlike way to care for those who suffer? A Christian’s Guide to Mental Illness answers 30 commonly asked questions about mental health from a Christian perspective.

Depression - whether circumstantial and fleeting or persistent and long term - impacts most people at some point in their lives. Puritan Pastor Richard Baxter spent most of his ministry caring for depressed and discouraged souls, and his timeless counsel still speaks to us today. In this book, psychiatrist Michael S. Lundy and theologian J. I. Packer present Baxter’s writings in order to comfort, instruct, and strengthen all who struggle with depression.

If you choose to stay in your marriage, you have options other than punishing, tolerating, or ignoring your spouse; extraordinary growth awaits a woman willing to deal with the pain of her husband's struggles with sexual purity. Even if your spouse will not participate in a program for healing, you can change your own life in powerful and permanent ways. Shattered Vows is inspired by Debra Laaser's own journey through betrayal, her extensive work with hundreds of hurting women as a licensed marriage and family therapist, and her healed marriage after her husband's infidelity.

In Effective Biblical Counseling, Gold Medallion Award-winning author Dr. Larry Crabb presents a model of counseling that can be gracefully integrated into the functioning of the local church. He asserts that counseling is simply a relationship between people who care and that its goal is to free people to better worship and serve God.

Preaching needs to become purposeful, says Jay Adams, because purposeless preaching is deadly. This book was written to help preachers and students discover the purpose of preaching has and the ways that the Scriptures inform and direct the preaching task. Preaching with Purpose, like the many other books of Jay Adams, speaks clearly and forcefully to the issue. After listening to this book, both students and experienced preachers will be unable to ignore the urgent task of purposeful preaching. And the people of God will be the better for it.

Susannah Griffith wishes she had spent less time thinking about forgiveness. But as a Christian minister, a biblical scholar, and a survivor of abuse, she has learned a lot about it.

Even in the middle of brokenness and overwhelming pain, God has a plan and a purpose for your life, and he is ready to heal you in ways you never thought possible. Join Shawn Johnson, lead pastor of Red Rocks Church, as he gives a searingly honest portrait of anxiety and depression and shows listeners how to fight back and live free.

Do you sometimes wonder what happened to the life you dreamed you'd have? Say Yes by storyteller and artist Scott Erickson is a profound, unique meditation on the three arguments of The Voice of Giving Up and the three mental health and spiritual practices that can help you fall in love with your life again.

Have you “tried everything” and are still not healed? Do you experience anxiety or panic attacks? Do you still have symptoms after receiving prayer for physical healing? Are you plagued with emotions like shame, guilt, fear, or anger? Do you feel condemned by difficult events in your past? If your answer to any of these questions is yes, this book may help you receive true freedom from suffering through emotional healing and deliverance.

We all have both good and bad habits in our life. Creatures of Habit reveals how to remove bad habits and replace them with godly ones. But it's not a matter of working hard, of "pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps." That approach simply doesn't work. True transformation is God's work - our job is to listen, obey, and put into practice what he's already directing us to do. Steve Poe has pastored large, growing churches for more than 34 years, and during that time he has counseled hundreds. He's seen that poor choices often become bad habits that in turn cause problems.

Many pastors feel ill-equipped to handle the challenges that arise when a couple is going through marital difficulties. If you are or have been in this situation before, this book shows church leaders how to counsel married couples from both a logical and biblical perspective. Author and pastor Jonathan Holmes offers you a practical guide to get started with the first sessions and then offers specific guidance on nine of the most common topics that come up in marriage counseling.

After twenty years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan, a global pandemic, protests against racial violence, and frequent shootings, more Americans than ever are living with the effects of trauma. The good news is that Jesus was born and died in a traumatized world, and his story speaks forever to wounded people worldwide. Army veteran and Episcopal priest David Peters explores Jesus' life story through the post-traumatic lens with which the Gospel writers first wrote it.

This groundbreaking book, now updated and expanded, furthers its original, effective, time-saving approach that benefits pastors overtaxed by counseling demands. Dr. Charles Kollar presents a departure in pastoral counseling, showing that counseling need not be long-term or depend on psychological manipulation to produce dramatic results. In most cases, the solution lies with the counselees themselves.

The heart, a term used all over the Bible, is a complex reality that captures the totality of a person's inner nature. This book explores the three capacities of the heart (knowing, loving, and choosing), explaining how each is redeemed through the threefold office of Christ (prophet, priest, and king). As listeners comprehend the heart as the source of all their thoughts, fears, words, and actions, they will discover principles and practices for orienting their hearts to truly love and obey God with all that they are.

The desire to answer this question—whether it manifests in self-enhancement strategies or self-serving biases—is part of being human. Yet, through a Biblical lens, we know something has gone terribly wrong with our human nature. Brokenness happened when sin separated us from our Creator God, and the answers we seek are only obtainable when we reconnect with him. Who You Are shows us that the Gospel is the only thing that sets you free from the verdict of sin and justifies you as God's prized possession.

Author and marriage and family therapist Nicole Zasowski knows what it's like to suffer a blow that makes it difficult to look to the future. Despite the struggle, she found the courage to celebrate, and discovered that God is as present in our joy as He is in our pain. Yes, God's purpose for us is worked out in our struggles. But what if it is also worked out in our dreams and our delighted joy? With a psychological and spiritual case for celebrating, Nicole challenges you to let go of the habit of practicing disappointment and fully embrace joy.