Therapeutic Expedition

Equipping the Christian Counselor for the Journey

John C. Thomas, Lisa Sosin

• Publisher: B&H Academic
• Year: 2011
• ISBN:
  9781433675782
• Topic: Bildung
• Subtopic: Bildungsberatung

For undergraduates and those pursuing a master's degree in counseling, psychology, social work, or pastoral counseling, Therapeutic Expedition is the only comprehensive basic helping skills textbook built upon a biblical world- view. Authors John C. Thomas and Lisa Sosin pull from their combined fifty years of clinical and classroom experience to prepare future counselors for their professional journey, fostering specific skills application in the areas of:

Creating a helping relationship
Assigning homework
Exploring the counselee's concerns
Spiritual strategies
Facilitating the sessions
Using metaphors
Assessing the counselee

The book's unique combination of qualities-a practical approach highlighting professional and personal growth based on authoritative, interdisciplinary, and biblical worldview outlooks-makes this an outstanding text within its field. Workbook excercises to foster skills application are included with each chapter.

Section 1

The Heart of the Helping Process

A good counselor is like a seasoned guide who artfully and skillfully leads lost, wayward, confused, frightened, or disheartened travelers (counselees) on a transformational journey to the place they (counselees) want to go. They have a destination in mind, a challenge to master, a dream to fulfill, and it is calling them to take up their gear and get on the trail. Many are weary, if not broken, void of hope, lost in darkness and perplexity. Some are bewildered and disheartened, travailing the same worn paths that have led them only to destruction. Others are hungry physically, mentally, emotionally, and/or spiritually; lost on a sea of relations with whom they are unable to connect. They have used up their reservoir of resources trying to cross a seemingly tumultuous and endlessly expansive terrain. They know that they need help, yet they are ambivalent about embarking, keenly aware that the expedition will be costly and that they will be like sojourners in unfamiliar lands. Some fear that it is a journey so threatening and arduous that stepping on the trail is like stepping into the abyss. Yet they know they must step off, and as a result of their courage and humility they have called on you to lead the way. This book is about equipping you for their journey.

The first section of the text contains four important chaps. In chap. 1 we focus on critical foundations by exploring the significant relationship between a counselor's worldview and his helping. The focus is on the importance of worldview, the components of worldview in general, and a biblical view specifically, and the connection between one's worldview and his skills and techniques.

Chap. 2, "The Fundamentals of Helping," addresses the value and effectiveness of helping. An explanation of counseling as both a science and art is provided as well as a discussion on the importance of counselors working from an explicit model. The chap. closes with an exploration of counselor intention and the noteworthy place of technique in the counseling process.

The counseling journey has risks. For that reason chap. 3 addresses the hazards of helping that can befall both the counselee and counselor. A special focal point of this chap. is helping you learn how to appraise and avoid the hazards.

Chap. 4 spotlights the person of the counselor. Counselor characteristics, development, and attitudes that affect the counseling process are presented. Highlighted is how the counselor becomes the person God has called him to be as a representative of Himself in the therapeutic relationship.

Thinking again about counseling as an expedition, I (Lisa) recall my days of leading young people on self-discovery journeys. Each youth had a mission in mind: to conquer their fears, to push through their limits, to recognize their strengths. I and the group of explorers were working as one to reach their goal: the last mile, the opposite side of the lake, the other end of the mountain. This was their chosen event, this was their goal, and this was what they wanted to do. They needed a knowledgeable guide, but it was their expedition, their hard efforts, their character-growth opportunity.

I recall awakening in the mornings on Lake Michigan, preparing gear with the only hint of day the slight edge of scarlet cutting across the still-blackened sky. With stars receding I lifted up each element of the coming day to the One who keeps the paths straight, to the One without whom nothing of lasting value could emerge from the passage. The three days before me meant leading a group of insecure fourteen-year-olds, girls and boys, biking for miles and miles and miles along the Michigan shoreline. We traversed hiking trails, taking up canoes against the battering of winds, the torrents of rain, the harshness of sun, and whatever other wild mysteries awaited us from within and without. These were three days of pushing through, three days of providing comfort, direction, protection, encouragement, boundaries, parameters, guidance, food, drink, fun, and bug repellent. My job was to "shepherd" them and God's job to bring forth the fruit. Some made it through the passage—the motivated, committed, and hardworking ones. Others dropped by the wayside here and there, picked up by the van appointed for those who could no longer travail. They were not yet ready, willing, or able.

You and your counselees are on a similar expedition. We pray that as you study how to guide others successfully, you will abide as close to the one true Guide as possible. As you do, He will guide you, and through you He will do great and wonderful things that you could not have asked for or imagined. May your days of leading others be as filled with joy and awe as ours have been.

Chapter 1

The Foundation of Helping

“Psychological, social, and political revolutions have not been able to transform the heart of darkness that lies deep in the breast of every human being. Amid a flood of self-fulfillment, there is an epidemic of depression, suicide, personal emptiness, and escapism. . . . So obviously the problem is a spiritual one. And so must be the cure” (Dallas Willard, 1988, p. viii).

“I observed everything going on under the sun, and really, it is all meaningless—like chasing the wind. What is wrong cannot be made right. What is missing cannot be recovered” (Eccl 1:14–15, NLT).

“And these are but the outer fringes of his [God’s] works; how faint the whisper we hear of him! Who then can understand the thunder of his power?” (Job 26:14, NIV).

CHAPTER OBJECTIVES

• To highlight the importance of worldview to helping
• To delineate the key components of worldview
• To elucidate the importance of having an accurate worldview
• To explain the components of a biblical worldview
• To connect worldview to skills and techniques

CHAPTER OUTLINE

THE HELPING HOUSE

THE NUTS AND BOLTS OF A WORLDVIEW

The Importance of a Worldview

The Raw Material of a Worldview

The Accuracy of a Worldview

Summary

THE ULTIMATE GUIDE: THE ROLE OF CHRIST IN COUNSELING

CHAPTER SUMMARY

CHAPTER 1 ACTIVITIES

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Russ grew up in a Christian home, with parents who came from a strong faith tradition. Around 10 years of age, Russ found that a department store catalog offered opportunities to see women in their underwear, lingerie, and bathing suits. From his first look he was hooked. It didn’t take long before Russ saw his first pornographic magazine when a neighbor boy took one from his father’s stash. The pornography was taken to a new level when Russ discovered masturbation. These activities stayed with Russ through high school and into Bible school. While in Bible college Russ met a beautiful young freshman, Carol—the daughter of missionaries—who he thought offered the promise of control over his sexual urges. After graduation Russ and Carol married and set off on their honeymoon. To his amazement, the wedding night failed to live up to his expectations. Soon Russ was masturbating to fantasy images of girls he had met and ones he saw on TV. Knowing that his position on a church staff could be jeopardized by buying pornography, Russ avoided it until he discovered it on the Internet. Through the Internet Russ’s acting out progressed rapidly.

After the birth of their first child Russ developed a close relationship with a girl, Beth, in the youth group. Beth had not talked to her father in years since he was arrested for sexually abusing Beth and her sister. Russ provided a much-needed male role model in Beth’s life. He met with her often, offering counseling and encouragement. When Beth went off to a Christian college, they stayed in touch. When she returned home for Christmas, she met Russ at his office where they talked for hours. Russ never believed he was capable of being sexual with her, but he did. Their sexual encounters happened regularly over the holidays and continued into the spring semester. When he could arrange it, they would meet halfway at a motel where they would have sex. Just before the spring semester ended, Beth paid Russ a visit to report that she was pregnant with their child. Instantly Russ knew his world had collapsed. Nothing would ever be the same. Carol learned of the pregnancy and moved out. Russ resigned from his job as youth pastor as the entire church community learned of the affair.

Jennifer was a 40-year-old wife and mother. She and her college sweetheart, Ben, had been married 16 years and had a wonderful relationship; the kind of relationship that many women envied. Jennifer and Ben worked with young married couples in church, taught premarital courses for the pastor, and were active members of the church choir. Their three children were beautiful and sweet, ranging from 13 to 6 years of age. One weekend, following a choir rehearsal for their church Easter cantata Ben and their oldest girl were traveling to a piano concert while Jennifer and the two children went in an opposite direction for their middle son’s swimming event. Jennifer enjoyed watching her children compete in their sports and musical activities and would often get lost in the experience as she reminisced about her own swimming competitions; a swimming career that left her highly decorated. While lost in the nostalgia of her past successes, her cell phone rang. Nothing could have prepared her for the news that her husband and oldest daughter had been killed by a drunk driver while driving to the concert. In one split moment Jennifer lost her lifelong companion and friend and one daughter.

Sam is an 11-year-old, fifth-grader who has been diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) by his pediatrician. Recently Sam has been misbehaving to the point where neither his mother nor his teacher could handle him. Sam’s mother had raised him with little help from her former boyfriend, who broke up with her when he learned she was pregnant. With stretched finances and lack of support, Sam’s mother was at her wits’ end. She was bothered by her ranting and raging while at home, but felt that she could not control him anymore. She knew it was not good for Sam to see her being frequently abused by her new live-in boyfriend, but Sam had to get control of his behavior if she was to survive.

Cases like Russ, Jennifer, and Sam are a few of the types of counselees you will encounter through your counseling. They each pose their own challenges because their backgrounds, personalities, circumstances, presenting problem(s), resources, and goals make them unique. Thus, counselors need a wide range of knowledge, skills, and abilities if they are to provide effective help. A recipe approach to counseling does not work. What works with one counselee and problem might be disastrous with another (Corey, 2005). The greater your ability to conceptualize cases and the more tools you possess in your “helping bag,” the greater the likelihood that desired change will occur in the counselee’s life. The bottom line is that effective counselors need a strong base of counseling skills that can be adapted as necessary to meet the needs of counselees.

We have orchestrated this textbook to outfit you with the requisite gear to lead counselees of all shapes and sizes. It is not a textbook about counseling, but a manual on how to counsel. It is a skills-oriented resource that provides a boot camp experience in the helping skills. Throughout the textbook and in the chap. activities, you will be oriented to and drilled in the knowledge, skills, and strategies that will equip you to help counselees like Russ, Jennifer, and Sam. The Therapeutic Expedition is about helping people make their personal journey of change and healing. Simply put, our task in this textbook is helping you to help people.

We have chosen to begin the instructional journey by laying the foundation on which you can develop a repertoire of helping skills and strategies. Your personal worldview lays the foundation and orients you on how to counsel. To that end, this chap. describes aspects of a worldview. The accuracy of a worldview is measured by how closely it aligns with biblical truth. Also your worldview interfaces with helping skills and techniques. We will look beneath the surface of what is done in counseling to why it is done. Thus we will view the components of a worldview in general before seeing what constitutes a biblical worldview.

THE HELPING HOUSE

In addition to our major metaphor of the therapeutic expedition, we will employ other metaphors throughout the book. The metaphor of a house nicely depicts the role that worldview plays in our counseling skills and strategies (see Figure 1.1).

All buildings are designed and constructed with a particular purpose in mind. A house serves a purpose very different from an office building, for example. Both buildings might be aesthetically pleasing, but the design, construction materials, occupancy, and use of the space differ dramatically. Houses are primarily designed and built to provide sanc...