McMinn 4-Mat Review

McMinn 4 Mat Review
Eric Fournier
Liberty University OnlineSummary
    Psychology, Theology, and Spirituality in Christian Counseling by Mark McMinn is a wonderful insight into the counseling office through Christian colored glasses.  Thoughtful and inspirational McMinn offers readers a look through acquired experience from his time and studies and also offers readers the opportunity to view the counseling world through his graduate student’s eyes.  Many times McMinn draws upon research and the lack of research to reiterate his reoccurring point that little has been done to truly understand the benefits, consequences, and techniques of Christian counseling.  A neat aspect of his text is McMinn writes a reflection at the end of each chapter and explains the expansions that have occurred since he wrote the original text in 1996 AD.  In these reflections he summarizes how his thoughts have changed on the subjects he wrote about and explains how new research has effected the original thoughts from 1996 AD.  Throughout the chapters McMinn provides examples and explains to his readers the best outcomes of different scenarios using a Christian tilted outlook.  McMinn often expresses extreme concerns over counseling someone without keeping Biblical principals in mind; but, McMinn does express that Biblical principals should be used with caution. (2011, p 103-105) It’s relieving for an author to take such an honest approach and to read the McMinn admit that using scripture or other Christian practices might not always be the safest route for all clients.  (2011, p 136-138)
    In fact it is encouraging that McMinn is so open about the fragileness of the Christian counseling verses secular counseling fight that exists in the psychology world. (2011, p 21)  Many psychologists do not like Christian counseling techniques because there has been so little empirical study done on its effects, success, failure, and technique usage; also, there exists a boundary between the secular and Christian world due to religious disagreements.  McMinn expresses that both sides are guilty.  Christian counselors bear the burden of proving their techniques and establishing the research base that Christian counseling techniques are valid. (2007, p 8)  McMinn makes an effective argument that Christian counseling can be used effectively, if caution is used; further, McMinn expresses different techniques to use scripture, integrate the concepts of sin and forgiveness, and expresses the usefulness of prayer.  One warning that does come up a few times is that often when research is being conducted on religion within the counseling world, one religion is not pin pointed and the study becomes more about spirituality then religion.  Again, McMinn writes a wonderful text about the beauty of Christian life and gives readers a chance to breathe in a fresh breath of a beautiful world created in the image of how God wants mankind to be.  
Concrete Response
    I’ve always approached Christian counseling with extreme caution after encountering a bad experience in Theophostic counseling.  Again and again McMinn’s text reminded me of that day where I sat in the counselors office trying my hardest to pray my sins, fears, demons, and depression away.  Agonizingly Theophostic counseling failed for me and my trust was broken for both my pastor and counselor.  Unable to expressly trust a Christian counselor has led me to be wary of every technique offered by McMinn; however, gaining an insight into what a true and effective Christian counselor believes, thinks, and feels about the subjects of sin, prayer, forgiveness, and scripture has helped me build a trust that was not there before I read this book.  I believed that counseling is effective, but religion is blind.  Now I am unsure.  I think religion lacks the necessary components for competent care of an individuals mind, soul, and body; but science also lacks those components, only together do religion and science meld in the field of psychology.  It is with great trepidation that I start my journey towards becoming a counselor believing that Christian counseling can cause great harm, but I am comforted in the knowledge that there are individuals putting in the long hard work to ensure that hurts like I experienced do not happen to other people.
Reflection
    Though the original text is wonderful, its riddled with expressions such as, this area needs more research to support claims or benefits of its uses.  In the update it would have been useful if the entire book had been re-written and updated to reflect current research and statistics.  It is difficult to gauge the effectiveness of Christian counseling without such details.  What about a chapter that truly details what it means to be a Christian counselor and to live the life of one.  To McMinn’s credit, he does disburse this information throughout the book, but a chapter dedicated to the life of a Christian counselor and more time spent defining what it means to be a Christian counselor would have been beneficial.  Also, defining the term of Christian counselor is extremely important.  It is the vagueness of the term Christian counselor which makes the term so dangerous; many leave the definition of what it means to be a Christian counselor up to the individual.  Almost certainly there will always be arguments about roles that Christian counselors are meant to fill unless concrete answers can be established about their job description.  One other area that McMinn should have touched on is the relationship between the church and the Christian counselor.  Where does the counselor’s ministry fall in the boundaries of church leadership and should church leadership be able to directly control counseling, techniques, and clients through direct or indirect sources?  
Action
    The parts I walk away with from this book have helped me immensely.  Those parts have shown me that there are counselors out there who are not stuck in a religious mindset and are open to explore the possibility that scripture and prayer is not always the answer to a hurting person’s heart.  However, I am glad that McMinn does not dismiss prayer and scripture as being an important part of the Christian walk.  I hope that what I take away from McMinn’s text will help me in my communication of what it means to be a practicing Christian.  What I mean is that my life should be an example because of who I am, not how long I read my bible or how many stars I have on my church attendance record.  McMinn shows that people hurt and sometimes it is the work of judgmental Christians who cause the hurt.  It all comes from misunderstandings of scripture and expectations of judgmental people for sinners to act a certain way, dress a certain way, attend church a certain number of times, read the bible every day, etc.  With so many expectations on a Christian client already, it seems apparent that it might not be prudent to add onto them another expectation, but to relieve them of expectations and allow them to experience the love of Christ naturally.

References
McMinn, M. (2011) Psychology, theology, and spirituality in christian counseling. (pp 21,     
    103-105, 136-138) Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.