Although secular psychology addressed a great deal about how we come to be the way we are and how we might live more efficiently, it can offer nothing in terms of why we exist or how we should use our lives, - writes Gerald May in this classic discussion of the nature of contemporary spiritual guidance and its relationship to counseling and psychiatry. For millions turning for answers to the world of the spirit, May shows how psychiatry and spiritual direction are alike, how they complement one another, and how they ultimately diverge.

A Proven Path to Move from Shame to Healing

If you persistently feel you don't measure up, you are feeling shame--that vague, undefined heaviness that presses on our spirit, dampens our gratitude for the goodness of life, and diminishes our joy. The good news is that shame can be healed. With warmth and wit, Lewis B. Smedes examines why and how we feel shame, and presents a profound, spiritual plan for healing. Step by step, Smedes outlines the road to well-being and the peace that comes from knowing we are accepted by the grace of One whose acceptance of us matters most.

An excellent book that covers the wide variety and deep complexity of seemingly impossible biblical counseling issues in the challenging culture in which we live. The gospel brings liberty to men, women, and children bound by every conceivable sin and affliction. Psychology provides a tool for applying the power of the gospel in practical ways. Drawing on biblical truths and psychological principles, Counseling for Seemingly Impossible Problems helps us--Christian counselors, pastors, and church leaders--to meet the deep needs of our communities with life-changing effects. Marshaling the...

"Counselors unanimously find that marriage and family problems outnumber all other counseling problems combined. For that reason alone, counselors should want to learn all they can about marriage counseling." --Jay Adams This book will help counselors understand and deal with the typical problems that arise in a marriage. The approach is to offer not merely solutions, but biblical solutions. Chapter by chapter, each problem that is brought into focus is addressed by Scripture, and a solution arising from Scripture is developed. Unless one understands what a biblical marriage is supposed to...

A Theology of Christian Counseling connects biblical doctrine with practical living. Salvation, that central concern of Protestant theology, is often too narrowly defined. It is thought of as "being saved from the consequences of sin." But God is doing much more. He is making something new out of the old sinful nature. He is, in Christ, making new creatures. "No counseling system that is based on some other foundation can begin to offer what Christian counseling offers. . . . No matter what the problem is, no matter how greatly sin has abounded, the Christian counselor's stance is struck...

A Classic in the Field of Christian Counseling Competent to Counsel has helped thousands of pastors, students, laypersons, and Christian counselors develop both a general approach to Christian counseling and a specific response to particular problems. Using biblically directed discussion, nouthetic counseling works by means of the Holy Spirit to bring about change in the personality and behavior of the counselee. As Dr. Jay Adams points out in his introduction, "I have been engrossed in the project of developing biblical counseling and have uncovered what I consider to be a number of...

This companion volume to Competent to Counsel and The Christian Counselor's Manual is designed to help you assimilate and apply the principles of nouthetic counseling. It is an excellent tool for any Christian counselor who wants to develop a scriptural approach to counseling. Based on actual counseling experiences, the cases are typical of the various problems encountered in ordinary church and pastoral counseling. This workbook provides * practice in learning how to identify problems according to biblical norms * practice in laying out biblical plans of action * familiarity with a...

"While touching on many aspects of counseling, this book . . . is specifically designed to elucidate the process of counseling. I have often mentioned and illustrated that process, but not in the focused and systemic way that the four-step biblical process is set forth here. . . . This book presents a fresh perspective not only on how to counsel, but also on what measures to take at what stages of counseling."--Jay Adams, from the preface Change is the essential goal of the counseling process. And, in the author's words, "substantial change requires the alteration of the heart." How can a...

This is a handbook for the architects, the supporters, and all the various workers who make a lay counseling program work. In it one will find all the information needed to begin, to continue, and to revise the program one has chosen. Lay Counseling is not itself a program. It directs people to appropriate structures, plans, programs, and resources. It is a book that allows one to see the whole terrain of lay counseling, to make appropriate choices, and to begin or continue the process of building. Lay Counseling includes many useful resources such as appropriate forms and questionnaires...