Counseling Religion

Laurie and Matt Krieg are in a mixed-orientation marriage: a marriage in which at least one partner's primary attraction isn't toward the gender of their spouse. In the Kriegs' case, Laurie is primarily attracted to women - and so is Matt. Some find the idea of mixed-orientation marriage bewildering or even offensive. But as the Kriegs have learned, nothing is impossible with God - and that's as true of their marriage as anyone else's. In An Impossible Marriage, the Kriegs tell their story.

What do you do when someone you love leaves? And how do you pursue someone who has hurt you, who has sinned against you? In Letting Go, pastors Dave Harvey and Paul Gilbert share stories of pain and stories of hope as they reveal how to care for the prodigal who has strayed. Whether you are dealing with an unfaithful marriage partner, a rebellious child, or a wayward friend, the counsel they offer will help you to pursue a gospel-rooted approach, grounded in truth and practiced in the midst of Christian community.

Deciding to meet with a professional counselor is a major step for personal mental health. But what comes next? Some people are unsure how the therapy process works, some have had negative experiences, and some simply want to know they're benefiting as much as possible from the time and resources they invest. In this accessible, information-packed guide, Christian psychologist Terri Watson provides an expert's perspective on how to get the most out of your counseling experience.

In an accessible Q&A format, biblical counselor and former financial consultant Jim Newheiser presents financial wisdom that is grounded in faithful biblical exegesis and rooted in sound theology. How can you create and balance a budget? How can you get out of debt? What insurance do you need? He answers these questions and more, providing a go-to resource for laypeople and those who counsel them.

On March 1, 2007, an EF4 tornado with winds in excess of 170 miles per hour struck Enterprise High School in Enterprise, Alabama. The tornado resulted in the deaths of eight students. It destroyed the school as well as the sense of safety of the community. Over the days, weeks, and years that followed, the students, teachers and community of Enterprise struggled to make sense of the tragedy and find a path toward healing. Carol Dean, a Licensed Professional Counselor employed by the school system, was on the front lines of the healing process. In this book, she shares interviews of the ...

We all have both good and bad habits in our life. Creatures of Habit reveals how to remove bad habits and replace them with godly ones. But it's not a matter of working hard, of "pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps." That approach simply doesn't work. True transformation is God's work - our job is to listen, obey, and put into practice what he's already directing us to do. Steve Poe has pastored large, growing churches for more than 34 years, and during that time he has counseled hundreds. He's seen that poor choices often become bad habits that in turn cause problems.

Many people are struggling with mental-health conditions, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and life in our image-conscious culture. But when it comes to helping, it can be tricky to know where to begin. This wise, compassionate, and practical book is written by Steve Midgley, psychiatrist and Executive Director of Biblical Counselling UK, and Helen Thorne, Director of Training and Resources at Biblical Counselling UK. It will help listeners understand and respond with biblical wisdom to people who are struggling with their mental health.

Have you ever noticed that conflict is absolutely everywhere? Though we all want harmony in our relationships and our world, peace seems so hard to come by. No matter its form, conflict always finds us. And often, we let it overtake us. In this short, biblical, and practical book, pastor and author Tony Merida shows us that it doesn’t have to be this way. Merida not only paints a stunning picture of Christ our peacemaker he also shows us how to stop wishing for peace and go make it.

In Your Words, Your Emotions, Rebecca Davis addresses the gag placed over victims and survivors of abuse through words like “Don’t gossip,” “Don’t bear false witness,” “Don’t be negative,” and more, examining the Scriptures behind them. She also explores harmful messages that have been delivered in the name of God regarding our emotions, especially focusing on fear, anxiety, anger, and empathy, laying out what the Scripture teaches about these emotions. A toxic faith needs to be deconstructed and rebuilt on the solid foundation of the true Lord Jesus Christ.

There’s an invisible prison that holds many in its grip, and Jesus is the way out. For the prisoners of both physical and invisible prisons, Behind the Wire is an invitation to discover the path to true freedom. It’s the story of Scott Highberger’s journey from the prison yard to the pulpit.

Questioning our faith and spiritual beliefs, while leaving the familiarity of our religious homeland, can be excruciatingly painful. Loneliness, isolation, and fear of rejection - from God and others - can give rise to shame, guilt, anger, and sadness. In Religious Refugees, therapist and ordained pastor Mark Karris explores this disorienting faith shift through the lens of cutting-edge psychological research, theology, philosophy, and, most importantly, the real world experiences of those who are going through - and have gone through - this arduous and confusing journey.

The wisest counselor to a Christian Marriage is God! "Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: For it was founded upon a rock" (Matthew 7:24,25). Divorce is expensive and can lead to a lifetime of pain. Marriage is too important to get it wrong! Whether you are just starting out, or seeking restoration to your marriage, know exactly what God's advice is for your marriage.

Do you get anxious when you have to make a decision? Do you overthink, overtalk, and overanalyze? When anxiety surrounds every decision, the result can be decision-making paralysis. Learning to trust God, even when the path is not clear, will give you courage to move forward one step at a time. Anxious with Decisions will help you see that God offers you something better than certainty and the absence of risk when you’re faced with decisions both big and small.

In Helping Teens with Stress, Anxiety, and Depression, Roy Petitfils gives parents, pastors, and youth leaders the knowledge, courage, and tools they need to step in, make a difference, and be the presence of Christ for teens in crisis. Roy Petitfils knows what it's like to be an addicted, depressed teenager, filled with self-loathing and desperate for help. He describes himself at high school graduation as by far the largest person in his hometown and yet feeling as though he were "stuck in Harry Potter's invisibility cloak".

Vivimos en tiempos que dejan el alma chamuscada. La avalancha 24-7 de la vida contemporánea, con su fuente interminable de tragedias globales y demandas exigentes de nuestra atención, por no hablar de las presiones ordinarias del trabajo, la familia, los amigos y la comunidad, nos han dejado desgarrados, agobiados y vacíos. Pero si ya no tenemos margen en nuestras vidas, ¿cómo encontramos espacio para cambiar las cosas? En su nuevo libro transformador, John Eldredge destila la sabiduría de toda una vida acerca de la sanidad en una serie de hábitos prácticos.

In today's psychological culture, we have become a people more concerned with solving our problems than finding God. Suffer low self-esteem? Get counseling. Unfulfilled in life? Join a recovery group. But solving problems is not the point, argues Dr. Larry Crabb. In fact, whenever we place a higher priority on solving our problems than on pursuing God, we are being immoral!

I spent many years in the “hell” of bondage to sexual lust. I know the torment it brings. You feel dirty, defeated, ashamed, and hopeless. You are aware that the Bible states that the sexually immoral will not inherit the kingdom of God, but you are unable to escape your enslavement to sexual lust. There is hope. I have been set free by Jesus Christ and his word. There is a biblical pathway to freedom from sexual sin. I am sharing that biblical path in this book. Your deliverance is assured, if you follow the biblical instructions and requirements listed in this book.

Anyone who experiences a traumatic event feels confused, lost, out of control, unsure, and unsteady—disoriented. This kind of suffering leaves marks, sometimes on the body, always on the soul, and sometimes both. In I Have PTSD, Curtis Solomon helps both those who have suffered trauma, as well as their loved ones, to understand the physical, emotional, and spiritual effects of trauma, while offering gospel hope and practical ways to make that hope real in their lives.

So many of us suffer from chronic guilt feelings; we assume that these feelings reflect God’s opinion of us. But then along comes the gospel – exploding the lie with its mind-shattering declaration that not only does He love us, He is the One who “forgives all [our] iniquities, who heals all [our] diseases” (Psalm 103:3). While we tend to conform to our own self-concept, becoming what we think we are, Jesus does something for us that no man can do, He give us a new identity. “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have become new (2Corinthians 5:17).

In the aftermath of the pandemic, even those who have never struggled with mental health have found themselves reeling, looking for answers they don't know how to find. For Christians, especially those who've despaired of help from a church that has too often stigmatized poor mental health as a lack of faith, the way forward can be particularly difficult to see. Jonathon Seidl aims to fix that. Having fought his own way through crippling anxiety, life-altering OCD, and suicidal thoughts, he knows the value of concrete advice grounded in strong biblical truth.