Mcminn 4mat
Psychology, Theology, and Spirituality in Christian Counseling
Sondra Rule
Liberty University
Summary The author of this book Mark McMinn explains how psychology, theology, and spirituality can all be integrated into Christian counseling. He discusses the difference between the three overlapping principles. He wrote this book especially for Christian counselors, pastors, as well as students so that they may clearly understand the meaning of the three principles, allowing them to apply it to everyday problems. The main question this book poses to answer is, How does a Christian counselor integrate their faith into a counseling session in a way that can be beneficial to their clients. He discusses the problems that counselors and clients face in a counseling session and ways to improve them. Some of the ways he mentioned to improve counseling sessions were prayer, scripture, the effects of sin confession, forgiveness, and redemption. This book main purpose is to assist the counselor in integrating the three categories. He feels that if a counselor can master this, then they will be able to give their clients the very best services. The most important thing to realize is that this process will not be easy for the counselor or the client but, if done right it can be very rewarding for them both. The author starts the book by describing some of the challenges that Christian counselors encounter while trying to integrate psychology and spirituality. He explains how spirituality is different from psychology and theology by breaking it down into a simple statement, “We can become more or less competent in the spiritual disciplines, training ourselves to experience God more fully, but we can never be spiritually competent.” (McMinn 2011, p. 11). He goes on to describe psychology, theology, and spirituality, how they are similar and different. His explanations are put in a way that is easy to understand, he also gives examples of how
Sondra Rule
Liberty University
Summary The author of this book Mark McMinn explains how psychology, theology, and spirituality can all be integrated into Christian counseling. He discusses the difference between the three overlapping principles. He wrote this book especially for Christian counselors, pastors, as well as students so that they may clearly understand the meaning of the three principles, allowing them to apply it to everyday problems. The main question this book poses to answer is, How does a Christian counselor integrate their faith into a counseling session in a way that can be beneficial to their clients. He discusses the problems that counselors and clients face in a counseling session and ways to improve them. Some of the ways he mentioned to improve counseling sessions were prayer, scripture, the effects of sin confession, forgiveness, and redemption. This book main purpose is to assist the counselor in integrating the three categories. He feels that if a counselor can master this, then they will be able to give their clients the very best services. The most important thing to realize is that this process will not be easy for the counselor or the client but, if done right it can be very rewarding for them both. The author starts the book by describing some of the challenges that Christian counselors encounter while trying to integrate psychology and spirituality. He explains how spirituality is different from psychology and theology by breaking it down into a simple statement, “We can become more or less competent in the spiritual disciplines, training ourselves to experience God more fully, but we can never be spiritually competent.” (McMinn 2011, p. 11). He goes on to describe psychology, theology, and spirituality, how they are similar and different. His explanations are put in a way that is easy to understand, he also gives examples of how