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God’s love in our work with clients, be they Christian
or not (p. 26). However, discussion of implications for
counseling non-Christian clients seem to go little deeper
than this and, as such, further elaboration in this area
would have been appreciated.
My second area of concern is that the word
“better” in
Theology for Better Counseling
is left largely
assumed or implied and any evidence that theologically
reflective counseling is indeed better counseling is not
explicitly addressed in the text. As a psychologist-in-
training, I am curious as to whether or not theologically
reflective counseling is indeed effective and whether
or not it is equally effective across therapeutic orienta-
tions and various client factors such as religiosity and
presenting problem(s). Furthermore, the introduc-
tion of common factors in the discussion may actually
unintentionally undermine the importance of theo-
logically reflective counseling since it highlights the
relatively small proportion of client change attributed to
elements of specific therapeutic theory and technique.
Is theologically reflective counseling more than just an-
other one of the many “delivery systems through which
common factors work” (p. 70) and, if it is, what makes
it unique (i.e. better)? That being said, I do suspect that
there is merit to this approach and although theologi-
cally reflective counseling is unlikely to be a candidate
for a thorough and systematic randomized-controlled
study at some point in the near future, it is nevertheless
an interesting question for future consideration.
In summary, as an aspiring psychologist with no
formal training in theology, I found this book to be
very useful. While knowledge of theology is important
in itself, it also needs to shape who we are and what we
do as Christians. This can be particularly challenging
when therapists have little training in theology or its
application in counseling.
Theology for Better Counseling
not only calls us to think and counsel in theologically
rich ways, but also shows us how we might begin to do
this within the therapy room. This book is easy to read
and provides an excellent outline of what it means to
counsel Christianly. I expect that this will be a helpful
resource for both students and experienced practitioners
alike, regardless of prior formal training in theology,
who are looking for practical ways of bringing theology
into counseling.
References
Richards, P. S., Rector, J. M., & Tjeltveit, A. C. (1999).
Values, spirituality, and psychotherapy. In W.
Miller (Ed.),
Integrating spirituality into treatment:
Resources for practitioners
(pp. 133-160). Washing-
ton, DC, US: American Psychological Association.
Invitation:
Readers of
Christian Psychology
are invited to submit reviews of books that they have found
stimulating and that fit into the discussion of Christian Psychology. Please contact the book review editor to
explore this possibility. The book review editor of
Christian Psychology
is Lydia Kim-van Daalen. Her email
address is
