Tornados and Bounties—Your Counselees in the Real World

Posted on 3/23/2012 by Jay Younts

Life does not happen in a vacuum. Counseling problems are not neat packages, separated cleanly from other problems and events in life. For example:

You are counseling a couple where, among other things, the husband has been insensitive to his wife. He works long hours but he earns a good income. His job is demanding in terms of time and intensity. He tries to make up for this by providing nice things for his family and taking expensive vacations.

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The Biblical Counseling Movement – Because of Adams

Posted on 1/4/2012 by Jay Younts

I have read with interest Heath Lambert’s recent book, The Biblical Counseling Movement after Adams. On balance, I believe there is helpful information in this book. Lambert does accurately point out some of the changes that have occurred, as new ideas and personalities have emerged in the last two decades of biblical counseling. I would caution readers, however, regarding the emphasis of the book.

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Are You Santa’s Helper?

Posted on 11/30/2011 by Jay Younts

The holiday season is often a time of stress for many, including Christians. One contributing factor to holiday stress is that parents may forget whom they are serving. This is a post to share with parents that you interact with to help them reorient themselves to the beauty of serving Christ. 

Little children are dependent upon their parents for everything. This includes more

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Self-Injury and Psalm 23

Posted on 11/4/2011 by Jay Younts

One day two parents bring a fragile soul to your office and tell you she has been caught cutting. They want you to help their daughter stop. But as you look at the daughter all you see is painful detachment. She has no real desire to stop cutting as long as the pain within haunts her soul and entices her to seek relief from a razor blade.

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Individuality and Heart Allegiance: Counseling Those Controlled by the Fear of Man

Posted on 10/5/2011 by Jay Younts

God made each person unique. It is this uniqueness that makes each human an individual, distinct and different from every other human.  Ephesians says that all of us were born following the ways of Satan, so that we naturally followed the cravings of our corrupted flesh. Satan’s deceptive work is to make individual humans believe that true individuality can be achieved only by rejecting God and his ways. So, humans are deceived into thinking that they can be really free only if they reject God and his law. In reality, however, individuality is absorbed into slavish submission to the enemy of God, Satan.

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Irene & Jonah

Posted on 9/9/2011 by Jay Younts

The spectacular events of life grab our attention—particularly “natural” disasters, such as tsunamis, earthquakes, and tropical cyclones. The 24/7 news outlets swing into action, as they did two weekends ago. Hurricane Irene made headlines as it moved up the eastern seaboard of the United States.  For a while it appeared that Irene would strike large cities, from Washington, D.C. to Boston, with the power of a major hurricane. There was a collective sigh of relief as the storm approached land and weakened.

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Wisdom Will Save Your Counselee (and You) from Sexual Immorality

Posted on 8/5/2011 by Jay Younts

Dealing with sexual immorality is a challenge for any counselor. Deeply entrenched patterns of lust have become a part of the counselee’s lifestyle. Sinful relationships have replaced godly ones. Selfishness has won out over selflessness. Yet in spite of these ugly realities, the Holy Spirit makes some bold challenges in verses 12 and 16 of Proverbs 2.

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Your Children and Biblical Counseling

Posted on 7/1/2011 by Jay Younts

From the title of this post, you might think I am going to explain how to counsel your children. But no, actually the post will explain why you should raise your children to be biblical counselors. The connection may not be apparent at first. It took me over ten years to see it myself. I was fresh from  learning about Gestalt Psychology in my days at the University of Miami.

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