Faith-Based & Christian Counseling: What It Is & What to Expect

What Is Faith-Based Counseling?

Faith-based counseling involves a spiritual and/or religious approach. These approaches may be entirely religious/spiritual or incorporate secular psychological theories and interventions depending on the education and skill base of the provider.

Counseling vs. Psychotherapy

Understanding the differences between counseling and psychotherapy can be confusing because of the potential overlap. In the broadest sense, counseling can refer to providing information, education, guidance, coaching, advice, and supportive listening.

Individuals who use the title of “counselor” are not required to be licensed by the state and thus do not have to meet minimum educational or clinical requirements. However, “counseling” might refer to professional counseling or psychotherapy in other cases. Professional counselors or psychotherapists will have completed at least a Master’s degree and a supervised clinical internship in a mental-health-related field (e.g., clinical counseling, counseling psychology). They must also meet state licensing requirements to provide these services.²

Core Concepts of Faith-Based Counseling

Faith-based counseling can take many forms based on individual needs, spiritual beliefs, and values.

Spirituality

Spirituality refers to a personal connection with a higher power, energy, divinity, and/or consciousness, which can provide a deeper sense of purpose and meaning in one’s life.¹

Religion

Religion refers to an organized and shared set of beliefs, values, and practices that guide an identifiable religious community to deepen their spirituality.¹

Biblical/Christian Counseling

Biblical counseling is a type of faith-based counseling that is more common among conservative Christian religions. These counselors adhere to the belief that biblical knowledge is both necessary and sufficient to provide the framework and foundational knowledge needed to allow them to counsel their fellow Christians.³

Pastoral Counseling

Pastoral counseling refers to the guidance and counsel of religious leaders (e.g., priests, rabbis, imams, gurus, etc.). Some pastoral counselors will have had one or two counseling courses as part of their religious training. Others will have completed dual degrees in religious studies and the counseling field. The former tend to work in religious settings and are not required to be licensed by the state. The latter will often also work in community settings and be state-licensed to provide professional counseling and psychotherapy.²,³

Faith-Based Psychology, Professional Counseling, or Psychotherapy

Faith-based psychology refers to professional psychologists integrating spirituality or religion into their clinical work. These psychologists have completed doctoral-level studies and are licensed to provide services within their state. Within this group are a subset who identify as Christian Psychologists. 

Christian psychologists focus primarily on the underlying psychology of the Bible and other Christian texts and use this to guide their clinical practice.³ Likewise, faith-based professional counselors or psychotherapists have completed the education and training required for state licensing and integrate their faith and spirituality into their clinical practices.

What Are the Goals of Faith-Based Counseling?

The client and their therapist will determine the goals of faith-based counseling typically during the first session.

Common goals of faith-based counseling include:

• Making sense of suffering and challenges in life
• Learning how to use spiritual or religious interventions to deepen faith and increase coping skills
• Finding purpose or meaning in life
• Identifying religious or spiritual values to help guide life decisions and choices
• Learning how to forgive others or oneself and how to ask for forgiveness
• Connecting or reconnecting with a religious community

What Can Faith-Based Counseling Help With?

Those seeking services from a faith-based counselor or therapist should understand the approaches to ensure these fit with their own spiritual or religious values and goals.

Faith-based counseling can help with:

• Spiritual and religious concerns, including religious abuse
• Interpersonal conflict (e.g., marriage, couple, or family issues)
• Finding meaning and purpose
• Making important life decisions
• Improving and maintaining physical, emotional, and spiritual health
• Reducing distress and symptoms caused by mental illness
• Providing a sense of belonging and connection
• Offering hope

Who Is Faith-Based Counseling NOT Right For?

Faith-based counseling might not be suitable for some people, couples, or families. Some situations might be beyond the scope of certain faith-based counselors (i.e., those not specifically licensed to practice as mental health professionals), and additional specialized care might need to be activated.

Furthermore, individuals may feel worse if a faith-based provider is aligned with religious or spiritual beliefs that believe mental illness stems from sinfulness or a lack of faith. Likewise, members of the LGBTQ+ community who are looking for support might connect with a faith-based counselor who further stigmatizes them based on religious or spiritual tenets, which could cause greater harm.

Conditions requiring additional treatment than faith-based counseling include:

• Psychosis
• Schizophrenia
• Bipolar disorder
• Severe Depression
• Anxiety disorders
• Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
• Active suicidality
• Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)

Faith-Based Counseling Vs. Professional Counseling & Psychotherapy

Faith-based counselors might also be licensed as professional counselors or psychotherapists depending on their educational and clinical backgrounds, their approach to counseling, and whether they have met licensing requirements within their state.

Faith-based counseling can refer to different practices dependent upon the counselor. Faith-based counselors are commonly known as pastoral counselors, biblical counselors, and specific faith-based counselors, therapists, psychotherapists, or psychologists  (e.g., Christian psychologists, Jewish therapists, etc.)

A Biblical Counselor has a background in understanding and interpreting sacred texts within a particular religion and will use these texts to provide their clients with guidance and support from a biblical perspective.³

A Pastoral Counselor will tend to be a leader within a religious community (e.g., a rabbi, an imam, a priest, an elder, etc.) who has completed a course of study specific to their religion – which might include some courses on counseling.

In some cases, in addition to their religious training, pastoral counselors will have also completed a graduate-level degree related to providing professional counseling (e.g., social work, counseling psychology, marriage, and family counseling), which would allow them to be licensed to practice professional counselling or psychotherapy within their state. Pastoral counselors tend to approach counseling from a religious/spiritual perspective.³

A specific faith-based (e.g., Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Hindu) Professional Counselor, Psychotherapist, or Psychologist has completed extensive studies in their faith and a psychology-related field. These counselors will be licensed to practice within their state. They work to integrate both religious and psychological perspectives in a balanced way in their work with clients.³

Common Types of Faith-Based Counseling Interventions

Several common interventions might be utilized within faith-based counseling. Such interventions might include prayer or meditation, the study of sacred texts, the act of forgiveness, mindfulness, and sacred rituals.³

Prayer or Meditation

Prayer is a form of communication in which a person or group directly addresses a spiritual entity to request guidance, strength, or direct assistance with issues or express gratitude and adoration. Meditation might also be a type of prayer, depending on the focus of the meditation. Meditation involves consciously directing attention to reflect on something specific (e.g., a word, a concept, nothingness, or the experience of the present moment) for enlightenment, understanding, spiritual connection, or insight.

Reading and Interpreting Religious Texts

Religious texts (e.g., the Christian Bible, Quran, Tanakh, etc.) are studied to find guidance and direction regarding a framework for life and perspectives on meaning and purpose.

Forgiveness

Each religion has its teachings regarding forgiveness and what is expected of followers. Asking for forgiveness from a spiritual entity or the person(s) one has wronged might be deemed the appropriate course of action based on one’s religious or spiritual beliefs and values. There might be specific steps one is expected to take regarding repentance or making amends for the wrong one has committed. There might also be directives in terms of forgiving others.

Mindfulness

Mindfulness refers to consciously focusing on the moment (i.e., the here and now). It is a foundational practice of Buddhism.⁵ Mindfulness is learning to notice and accept what is, without judgment or trying to change it.

Sacred Rituals

Fasting, repentance/atonement, and smudging are examples of spiritual rituals that might be used as interventions for purification, healing, divination, and strengthening spiritual connection.^6,7,8,9

Faith-Based Counseling Examples

Faith-based counseling varies depending on religious beliefs, personal issues, and provider.

Case Example 1

A 17-year-old woman has made an appointment to see her Catholic high school chaplain. Her father is physically abusive to her and her mother. She is afraid because her father has threatened to kill her if she tells anyone.

When the young woman meets with the chaplain, he starts with a prayer. The woman tells him what has been happening and that she has been praying for years that things will improve at home, but they are only worsening. She wonders if God hears her or cares about her and her family. The chaplain reassures her that God cares, but He has given each person free will, and it is up to her parents to make changes. The chaplain offers her empathetic support and reassurance. He also asks if he can bring in the school social worker, in confidence, to discuss any community support options that would be available to her and her family members.

Case Example 2

A married Jewish couple makes an appointment with a Jewish Professional Counselor. They are struggling with their teenage son who is angry and withdrawn, missing school, and spending his days sleeping. He only leaves his room occasionally to get something to eat. They have tried to talk to him, but he either becomes belligerent or shuts down and ignores them. 

When the therapist meets with them, she starts the session with a prayer. She asks them what their concerns are, listens, and asks some clarifying questions. She empathizes with their concerns for their son and reflects on their love for him. She wonders aloud if their son might be suffering from depression. The mother said she was wondering the same thing. The therapist and parents develop a two-pronged plan to obtain a psychological assessment of the son and for the therapist to continue to provide support and guidance to the parents.

Case Example 3

A First Nations man makes an appointment with an Indigenous Psychotherapist. The man has been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer and has only a few months to live. He has been offered medically assisted death, which is legalized in his state. He watched his father die an agonizing death from cancer. He is afraid to suffer like his father and to put his family through such a death. He is unsure what to do.

The session begins with smudging and prayer. The man explains his situation and his dilemma. The therapist listens and empathizes with him. They explore his fears around suffering based on what he saw his father go through. They discuss his spirituality and beliefs. The therapist shares a sacred story, which talks about approaching death. They reflect on what it means. At the end of the session, although the man has not decided what he will do, he said he will think about their talk before they meet again.

Cost of Faith-Based Counseling

The cost of faith counseling will depend on the credentials of the therapist and the setting in which the service is offered. Services may be free within a religious community (e.g., congregation, school, agency, hospital) if the person is a member.

Health insurance might cover all or part of the visits to specific practitioners (e.g., professional counselors, psychotherapists, social workers, psychologists). Typically, with health insurance coverage, the cost to the client will be $20-$50 per session.¹⁰,¹¹,¹²

How to Find a Faith-Based Counselor 

Christian psychologists focus primarily on the underlying psychology of the Bible and other Christian texts and use this to guide their clinical practice.³ Likewise, faith-based professional counselors or psychotherapists have completed the education and training required for state licensing and integrate their faith and spirituality into their clinical practices.

Biblical and some pastoral counselors may not be willing to work collaboratively with other mental health professionals if they believe psychological theory and practice are inferior or in opposition to their religious teachings.³ Those faith-based counselors with degrees in a counseling or psychology-related field are more likely to collaborate with other mental health professionals.

Faith-based counseling can be offered by:

• Biblical counselors: These individuals have studied religious texts and their interpretations and are knowledgeable about spiritual and/or religious matters.²
• Pastoral counselors: These individuals will have completed religious/spiritual training education and often a degree in a counseling-related field, with a clinical training component (which meets state licensing requirements for mental health professionals).¹³
• Faith-based professionals: These individuals will have completed educational and clinical programs that meet state licensing requirements AND who identify as having a religious or spiritual approach to their clinical work.³

Key Questions to Ask a Faith-Based Counselor or Therapist

If you are a person of faith, your spiritual leader may be willing to counsel you or point you to other resources with similar religious views. Be sure to seek counsel from someone qualified, so ask questions regarding their training and certification.

Below are questions to ask a faith-based counselor:

• What is your religious or spiritual training and education?
• Do you also have counselor training and education? If so, what kind?
• Do you have areas of specialization? If so, what are they? (e.g., marriage and family counseling, depression, trauma, eating disorders)
• What is your approach? (e.g., support, guidance, advice, counseling, therapy)

 What to Expect at Your First Appointment

Your first session with a faith-based counselor might include a prayer or sacred ritual, information about your counselor’s approach, a discussion of your issues, and a conversation about your faith. A counselor will likely explain your role throughout sessions and provide administrative information (i.e., how crises are handled, fees, appointment cancelations, etc.). Finally, you and your counselor will determine how to work on your presenting issues and goals.

Is Faith-Based Counseling Effective?

There is currently a scarcity of research focusing specifically on the effectiveness of faith-based counseling and religious or spiritual interventions. However, spirituality and religiosity are related to a better quality of life, faster remission from depression, enhanced coping abilities, and an increased sense of purpose and meaning in life.^1,14,15

Faith-based counseling may result in improvements such as:

• Reduction in general anxiety symptoms¹⁶
• Decreased stress, alcoholism, and depression¹⁶
• Increased sense of well-being¹⁷

Final Thoughts

Faith-based counseling may be beneficial if you struggle with interpersonal conflicts, marital challenges, or other issues. Finding a provider who shares similar values can aid in improving your mental well-being. However, seek professional mental health support if you experience symptoms of severe mental health concerns.