Are there different types of Christian counseling?
In a classic article written for Christianity Today in 1975, Gary Collins suggested that today’s Christian counselors fall into five categories. The first category Collins called “the main stream.” Main stream pastoral counselors generally have taken Clinical Pastoral Education training (CPE). The CPE approach takes a pastor with a theological education through an essentially secular training program in counseling. The clinical pastoral education movement has historically been theologically liberal and somewhat antagonistic toward conservative evangelical theology (Collins, 1975). The next category that Collins outlined were the “evangelical pastoral counselors.” The most outspoken of such counselors is Jay Adams, professor of practical theology at Westminster Seminary. Adams advocates Biblical Counseling, in which only the bible is used to support a counseling approach that is primarily educational and confrontive. The third category of Christian counselors are the “Christian professi
