What Is Christian Counseling? Is Faith-Based Therapy Right for Me?
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Faith-based therapy is a great way to get affordable therapy that might be right for you. Not only can it be a great option if religion or spirituality are important to you, it might even be a good option if they’re not. One of the best-kept secrets in the therapy world is that most faith-based counseling centers don’t require you to be a member of the same religion to get therapy there.
In fact, you don’t need to be religious at all. Their services are available to everyone, and they usually won’t even talk to you about religion unless you want them to.
DEEP DIVE
What Is the Purpose of a Faith-Based Counseling Program?
Faith-based counseling programs are an expression of spiritual principles like charity, hospitality, social justice, and welcoming “the stranger” without judgment.
The purpose at these centers is not to convert you, but to engage in what members of the Jewish faith call tikkun olam—repairing the world—or what Christians call caritas or charity.
When you go to a faith-based counseling center, it’s about their faith, not yours. Providing good, affordable therapy to those who need it, and honoring the dignity and preferences of the people they serve, is one way to live that faith.
So, you don’t have to focus on spiritual topics to benefit from these programs. But if you are religious or spiritual, faith-based counseling centers can be an even better fit.
If you want them to, the therapists at these centers can help you address religious or spiritual subjects in your therapy sessions or take a spiritual approach to working on your mental health.
And there are other affordable faith-based counseling options you might want to consider, too, including pastoral counseling sessions at your place of worship. Read on to learn more about faith-based counseling and whether it might be right for you.
What Is Faith-Based Counseling?
Faith-based counseling provides emotional and spiritual support that can help you deal with a wide variety of issues. It comes in many forms, but it is always rooted in the spiritual or religious principles of the person or organization providing it.
Sometimes, that just means your counselor sees their work with you as part of a religious or spiritual mission to serve others. Whether you actually discuss spiritual subjects or incorporate religious practices into your sessions with your faith-based therapist is up to you.
And even if your spiritual views fall outside of the major religions, chances are good that there is a spiritually-oriented therapist out there who is a good match for you. Therapists can incorporate everything from traditional religious views to secular existential approaches into their work.
DEEP DIVE
What Is Spirituality?
Spirituality is an important dimension of the human experience. Even atheists can be spiritual (see Alain de Botton’s Religion for Atheists book and School of Life project for examples).
We all encounter existential questions at some point in our lives. In fact, many of the things that draw people to spirituality are also what bring them to therapy. These are all spiritual questions:
- What is the meaning of life?
- What is the meaning of a particular event I experienced in my life?
- Do I have a purpose? If so, what is it? If not, what am I supposed to do with my life?
- What happens when we die? How should I live, knowing that my life ends?
- How do I make sense of the loss of a loved one? Are they still with me in some way?
- What makes a person a good person? Am I a good person? If not, how can I change that?
- How do I atone for this bad thing I did? How do I release the guilt and shame I feel?
- How do I heal from betrayal and forgive the other person who wronged me?
- How do I find peace living in a world where there is cruelty and evil?
You don’t have to see a religious therapist or get faith-based therapy to engage with these questions. These are spiritual and existential questions that therapy can help you answer for yourself no matter what your—or your therapist’s—religious orientation might be.
If you’re curious about the spiritual dimension of life, a faith-based or faith-oriented therapist can help you connect the work you’re doing in therapy to the spiritual path you follow.
It’s important to find a therapist whose approach to spirituality is compatible with yours. While a therapist from a different religious background can help you explore spiritual questions on your own terms, their ability to engage with you on religious topics or themes will depend on how much they know or understand about your religion or spirituality.
What Are the Different Types of Faith-Based Counseling?
There are many ways to get faith-based counseling. It’s important to understand the differences between these options. Which one is right for you will depend on your reason for seeking therapy or counseling.
Types of Faith-Based Counseling
Different ways to get faith-based counseling include:
- Pastoral counseling sessions with the leader of your religious community;
- Pastoral counseling sessions from a pastoral counselor with a private practice;
- Therapy sessions with a faith-based therapist who can incorporate religion or spirituality into their work with you;
- Therapy sessions with an existential or interfaith therapist who specializes in addressing spiritual subjects outside of any particular religious framework; or
- Therapy sessions at a faith-based counseling center (if you opt into getting faith-based instead of secular counseling there).
Pastoral counseling can be an excellent choice when you’re wrestling with spiritual questions.
On the other hand, you’re going to want to work with a licensed therapist if you’re having moderate to severe mental health issues and need to work with someone who knows how to treat them. So, a faith-based therapist can be a great choice if you need to address mental health issues from a spiritual point of view.
Faith-based counseling centers can be a great option if you’re looking for low-cost therapy regardless of whether your concerns are particularly spiritual in nature.
What Is Pastoral Counseling?
Pastoral counseling can refer to the informal free counseling you get when you meet with a spiritual leader in your faith community. It can also refer to something much more formal.
Many faith leaders seek training in therapy to better serve members of their congregations who are in crisis or who are struggling with mental health issues. Some become licensed therapists, while others become certified by the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education. Some certified pastoral counselors continue in their role as faith leaders, while some open a private practice.
Certified pastoral counselors are trained to address behavioral health issues, though not to the same level as pastoral counselors who also have licensure as therapists. In a few states, pastoral counselors can obtain independent licensure like therapists do. Their focus is usually to counsel clients who want faith-based mental health support.
PRO TIP
When Should You See a Pastoral Counselor?
Seeing a pastoral counselor can be a great choice when you’re struggling with issues at the intersection of spirituality and mental health, such as your mortality, the loss of a loved one, or a spiritual or existential crisis.
It’s important to find a pastoral counselor whose spiritual orientation and approach is in alignment with yours to make sure you get the kind of spiritual help you need.
If your questions or issues are primarily spiritual in nature, and you have a good relationship with the leader of your faith community, meeting with them one-on-one may be all the help you need to get through a personal spiritual crisis. However, you’ll probably want to see a therapist if you’re also seeking treatment for a mental health condition.
You may also be interested in seeing an independent pastoral counselor. If you do, note that while it’s usually free to get pastoral counseling in a house of worship, you’ll usually pay an hourly rate to see a pastoral counselor in an office setting.
The rates pastoral counselors charge can vary. In some cases, those rates may be less than what therapists charge, but not always. So, whether pastoral counseling is more affordable than therapy depends on the counselor and the setting.
What Is Faith-Based Therapy?
To call themselves therapists, faith-based therapists have to get the same license as any other therapist. They have to spend the same amount of time in school and get the same amount of supervised experience before they can practice therapy independently.
This means they have the same qualifications to treat mental health conditions as any other therapist and can address any of the things you’d go to a secular therapist to address. These may include work, career, family dynamics, sex, relationships, stress, trauma, or personal growth.
The difference between regular and faith-based therapists is that faith-based therapists can incorporate a spiritual or religious approach into their work with you if you want.
There are faith-based therapists from nearly every religious background. You can find therapists who are Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, or Hindu. You can find therapists who are pagans or witches, who practice an indigenous or ancestral spiritual tradition, or who have New Age spiritual perspectives. You can find many who take an interfaith approach.
Your best result will come from finding a therapist whose views and values align with your own.
HEADS UP
Do You Have to Talk About Religion with a Faith-Based Therapist?
How and to what extent a faith-based therapist incorporates religion into their work with you will depend on their personal philosophy and your preferences.
If you end up with a faith-based therapist who has different beliefs from you, they should not proselytize or pressure you to embrace practices or ideas you’re not comfortable with. If they do, it’s a sign you’re with a bad therapist and that you should walk away.
All therapists understand that helping you requires them to set aside their own personal agenda and to meet you where you are. Anything less would be a violation of the ethical codes they must follow to keep their license.
That said, if you’re comfortable with it and tell your therapist you are, they can incorporate any number of spiritual practices or approaches into your sessions. This might include prayer, study or discussion of spiritual texts, meditation, mindfulness, ceremony, ritual, or divination. In many cases, however, the way they blend religion with therapy will be subtler.
For example, a faith-based psychodynamic therapist might reference religious symbolism when they interpret your dreams. Or a faith-based cognitive-behavioral therapist might draw from contemplative principles or practices, such as Buddhist meditation or Christian centering prayer, in their work to help you shift your relationship with your thoughts.
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Faith-Based Therapy Isn't Necessarily Cheaper
Given that faith-based therapists are therapists, you can expect them to charge roughly what other therapists in your area charge.
So, you won’t necessarily save money by going to one. Instead, the decision to go to one should be based on whether you want your therapist to have a religious approach.
What Are Faith-Based Counseling Centers and How Do They Work?
Faith-based counseling centers are non-profit or charitable social service organizations that are run by religious groups. They usually have a religious or spiritual mission to provide therapy or counseling to people who couldn’t otherwise afford it by offering it for free or for very low cost.
The important thing to understand about faith-based counseling centers is that getting faith-based therapy or counseling is usually not a requirement if you go to one. This is especially true for large faith-based organizations that receive government funding alongside charitable donations.
Large Faith-Based Organizations
The following organizations are large, well-funded charitable or non-profit faith-based organizations that often offer counseling and other mental health services. Chances are good one or more of them offers mental health services in your community.
- Catholic Charities
- Jewish Family Services
- Lutheran Social Services
- The Salvation Army
- St. Vincent de Paul
- Samaritan Counseling Centers
- Volunteers of America
In some states, clinics run by these organizations participate in the public mental health system, providing free or affordable counseling in places where it can otherwise be hard to find. If one of them has a program nearby, it might be worth looking into as a local source of affordable therapy.
Proselytizing to you would go against the community service mission of these programs. It would also put them at risk of losing their licenses and their government funding.
The professional and ethical standards they follow as licensed therapy providers allow them to have a religious mission, but they’re not allowed to force that mission on you.
This is important to understand because mental health programs run by these organizations are often on the front lines in places where affordable mental health care is otherwise hard to find.
Many faith-based organizations step up to fill in the gaps when public mental health programs lose funding and have to close some of their locations. This means they have to be ready to meet the needs of the public and not just a particular group.
PRO TIP
What Services Do Faith-Based Counseling Centers Offer?
Faith-based counseling centers frequently offer couples and family therapy as well as individual and group therapy. They may also run free support groups and provide other community services.
In cases when their services aren’t free, they usually are still quite affordable. Most accept insurance and have sliding-scale rates for people who don’t have insurance.
You can find many of these programs listed in our affordable counseling database and in the listings for your state’s public mental health system.
If you’re open to going to one, but not sure it’s the right match, you can usually get a free phone consultation or in-person assessment, so don’t hesitate to call to learn more.
Conclusion
Therapy and religion can both help when you’re struggling with spiritual or existential questions. Whether one or the other—or both—are the right choice for you depends on what you believe, what you prefer, and what you need to address.
Faith-based counseling is a great option when you want to address spiritual issues in therapy. It can be extremely affordable, even free if you go to a faith-based counseling center or get pastoral counseling from a leader in your faith community.
Important Facts About Faith-Based Counseling
Faith-based therapy and pastoral counseling can be great options when you’re struggling with spiritual questions or issues that are affecting your mental health.
They’re natural choices when you’re a spiritual or religious person. But they can be valid options even if you’re not religious.
Important facts about faith-based counseling include:
- Pastoral counseling sessions at your house of worship may be all you need if your issues are primarily spiritual in nature. They’re usually free.
- If you’re struggling with mental health issues, you’ll probably want to see a therapist. If you want a therapist to incorporate faith or spirituality into your sessions, you should consider going to a faith-based therapist or a pastoral counselor who is also licensed or certified in behavioral health care.
- Faith-based counseling centers can be great places to get faith-based counseling, but you don’t have to get faith-based counseling if you go to one. You can leave religion completely out of your sessions if you want.
- The mission of faith-based counseling centers is to provide affordable therapy as a community service, and most of them (especially large faith-based organizations that get government funding) can’t and won’t proselytize.
- A faith-based therapist is a therapist first. All licensed therapists are qualified to treat mental health conditions and to address the same issues you’d bring to any other therapist.
Whether faith-based counseling or therapy is right for you will depend on whether you want to address spiritual issues in your sessions and, if not, whether you’re comfortable with getting therapy in a faith-based setting.
Most faith-based counselors will follow your lead when it comes to whether you even talk about religion or spirituality in your sessions. Whether or not you do, they’re well-equipped to help you find your own answers to the spiritual questions you may find yourself asking.
So, if you’ve found a faith-based counseling option that’s affordable and close to you, consider it. A phone call or interview session will help you figure out if it’s a good fit. If it is, it could help you in a profound way. Hope, solace, and healing might be just a call or click away.