When someone calls me for the first time, faith usually comes up in one of two ways. Either they say, almost apologetically, "I'm a Christian, and I want a counselor who gets that." Or they say, a little warily, "I saw the name of your practice. I'm not religious. Is that going to be a problem?"
The answer to both is the same. You lead.
I named my practice Called to Heal because that is how I understand my work. I am a Christian and a Licensed Professional Counselor, and I do not pretend to be only one of them. But there is a difference between a counselor who has a faith and a counselor who imposes one, and that difference is the whole subject of this post.
What it is
Faith-informed counseling means your beliefs are treated as part of who you are. For a lot of people, faith is where they go with grief, where they learned what forgiveness means, where their community is, and where the hardest questions about meaning get asked. A therapist who treats all of that as irrelevant, or as a symptom to be managed, is missing a large part of the person.
So if your faith is part of how you understand your life, it can be part of how we work. In practice that can look like:
- Opening or closing a session with prayer, if you ask.
- Talking about a passage of Scripture that has been on your mind, and what it stirs up.
- Naming forgiveness, calling, sin, grace, or providence in your own language rather than translating them into clinical terms first.
- Taking your church community seriously as a support, and sometimes as a stressor.
- Sitting with doubt, anger at God, or a faith you have drifted from, without anyone trying to fix it.
Underneath all of that, the clinical work is ordinary clinical work. I use cognitive behavioral therapy and acceptance and commitment therapy with anxiety and depression. I do slow, careful trauma-focused work. I think in family systems when I sit with a couple or a parent and grown child. Faith does not replace any of that. It sits alongside it.
What it isn't
It is not pastoral counseling. Your pastor has a role I do not have, and I have a license and training your pastor may not. I will not tell you what to believe, how to interpret a passage, or what your church should have done. If those questions are what you need, I will say so and suggest you take them to someone whose job that is.
It is not a religious requirement. You do not have to be Christian to work with me. You do not have to be anything. I bring my own faith to this work, and I respect yours, whatever it is or isn't. If you never want to hear the word God in session, you won't.
It is not "pray more" as a treatment plan. Depression is not a faith deficit. Panic attacks are not a failure of trust. Trauma is not something you should have prayed your way past. When faith is used that way, it stops being a resource and becomes one more thing to feel guilty about. I do not do that, and if it has been done to you, we can talk about it.
It is not a substitute for medical care. If I think medication, a psychiatric evaluation, or a higher level of care would help you, I will tell you. And this is not an emergency service. If you are thinking about suicide or are in danger right now, call or text 988, the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. Any time, any day.
When faith is where the hurt is
Some of the people who find me were harmed inside a church, or by teaching they absorbed young, or by a family that used religion to control. They want a counselor who understands the world they came from without needing it explained, and who will not defend it either.
That is delicate work, and it is work I do. You do not have to decide in advance whether you are staying or leaving. You do not have to protect anyone's reputation. We can hold what was good and what was harmful at the same time, and you decide what you keep.
How to know if it is right for you
Ask yourself a few plain questions.
- When something terrible happens, do you pray, or wish you could?
- Have you ever left something out in therapy because you thought the counselor would roll their eyes?
- Would it help to be able to say "I think God is asking something of me" and have the person across from you take it seriously?
If yes to any of those, a faith-informed counselor may be a good fit. If no to all of them, you may still be fine with me, as long as you know that faith stays out of the room unless you bring it in.
The way to find out is to talk. I offer a free 15-minute consultation to every new client. Tell me what you are looking for, including how much or how little you want faith to be part of it, and I will tell you honestly whether I am the right person.
