Confronting Sin during Counseling Session
McMinn discussed guidelines when confronting sin during a counseling experience and the lectures reviewed some factors as well.
- Why can a sensitive Christian counselor not just automatically and quickly confront obvious sin in the life of the counselee? Of the cautions mentioned by the class sources, which ones do you think counselors most often overlook? Why?
- Now, consider the following case. What forms of confrontation do you think would work best in this scenario? Why did you answer as you did?
Case Study:
Jean (pseudonym) was diagnosed with schizophrenia. She reported having very little memory of her childhood. Her mother was severely depressed and, on several occasions throughout Jane’s early childhood, the mother spent several months at a time hospitalized for her depression. When her mother returned home, she would at times “lose control” and start beating on the children. Jean’s father left her mother when Jean was only three years old. Jean was eventually removed from the home and placed in foster care. She moved around from one foster care parent to another, and finally came to live with a pastor and his wife who raised her in a warm, loving family. Unfortunately, Jane started “looking for love in all the wrong places.” Jane became promiscuous and eventually got pregnant. This was a great disappointment to the pastor and his wife. Jane had been attending church regularly before the pregnancy and had made a profession of faith in Christ. She felt extremely guilty about the pregnancy. The pastor’s wife told Jean that she was extremely disappointed with her and that she was embarrassed to have her in her home. Not long thereafter, Jean secretly got an abortion. She then ran away with a young man to a hippie commune in California (during the late 60s). Jean is now 55 years old and has been in and out of counseling her entire life. Recently, she was referred for therapy following an attempted suicide.
How would you decide when to confront this woman’s sin in counseling? What form or forms of confrontation should be used?
Required Text Book:
McMinn, M. R. (2011). Psychology, theology, and spirituality in Christian counseling (Rev. ed.). Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House. ISBN: 9780842352529.
Solution Preview
While a Christian counselor is counseling a client, he or she should not just decide to confront the counselee’s sins. Such decision is likely to lead to the client feeling worse than before, and in some instances might end up not attending the counseling sessions….
(377 Words)