Grace-Based Counseling: An Effective New Biblical Model

By Richard A. Fowler, EdD, Natalie Ford, PhD and James N. Sells, PhD

You speak God’s truth when you counsel. But do you also communicate His grace?

The Christian counselor or pastor plays an important role in helping people process the trauma they’ve experienced. Too often, a client leaves the counselor’s office with feelings of guilt and shame. They feel the heavy burden of what they did wrong. But somehow, they’ve missed the grace of God that makes things right again.

A counseling model that stays true to a biblical worldview will overflow with grace . . . not cheap grace, but real grace that acknowledges sin while offering a hopeful path to redemption and healing. In Grace-Based Counseling, professional counselors Richard Fowler and Natalie Ford offer a model that blends the truths of Scripture, the science of psychology, and the everlasting hope of the gospel. In this book you will find:

• New, grace-based counseling model
• Detailed application of the model, with case studies
• Practical toolbox with surveys, assessments, and counseling helps

A Christian counseling model can’t just be about admonishment. That approach only leads to shame and human efforts that are doomed to fail. But when the gospel is brought to bear in the counseling relationship, real life change is possible. Then the counselor becomes an instrument of divine grace in the hands of a faithful God.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Moody Publishers
• Release date: Aug 3, 2021
• ISBN: 9780802499547

Book preview

Praise for Grace-Based Counseling

What a breath of fresh air to read of a counseling model that is bathed and based in the sufficiency of Scripture while providing counselors with the practical tools and profound wisdom necessary to minister to men and women in need of healing and grace. Every pastor and counselor needs this book.

EMIR CANER, President of Truett McConnell University

While the concept of grace is not new to people of faith, incorporating this critically important dynamic and essential change agent into the therapeutic process is long past due. Grace-Based Counseling anchors sound counseling principles with the truth of God’s Word, the presence of the Holy Spirit, and the heart of the counselor. Practical applications offered through various case study scenarios, along with a toolbox of useful inventories, make the GRACE model an excellent equipping resource for lay and pastoral counselors, as well as for seasoned mental health practitioners.

ERIC SCALISE, Senior Vice President for Hope For The Heart; Former Department Chair of Counseling at Regent University

In answering the question, What is the proper way for Christians to counsel?, Drs. Fowler and Ford have crafted a model of therapy that is both biblically sound and psychologically appropriate. Grace-Based Counseling builds a five-step approach to counseling (using the acrostic GRACE) that draws heavily from biblical theology as a framework for the understanding and application of psychological principles and counseling techniques, and the proper use of both in therapy. The model is explained in detail, with specific case studies provided to illustrate the proper use of the model in therapy. The reader is also blessed with the counselor’s toolbox—a treasure of profiles, inventories, and assessments that may be used to assist counselors in their work. This book will be a valuable resource for professional counselors, counseling students, pastoral counselors, and laypeople who want a better understanding of how to counsel as a Christ follower.

JOE COOK, Professor of Professional Counseling, Dallas Baptist University

I am confident that the readers of Grace-Based Counseling will discover the eminently practical and useful information contained within these pages. Having worked alongside Dr. Fowler, I witnessed the outworking of these principles in the lives of real people. Most counseling how to’s outline principles without practices. Grace-Based Counseling will provide its readers both principles and practices all set firmly in the foundation of biblical truth. Enjoy the read!

STEVE FISCHER, Pastor Care Ministries, Stonebriar Community Church

Ford and Fowler provide helpful clarification of what Christian counseling is by focusing on the worldview of the counselor rather than the methods counselors employ. God is good to send Christian counselors into the sin-scarred world He is redeeming, and Grace-Based Counseling is a valuable resource to the professional counselors, pastors, and laypeople who He calls to this work.

CORY BARNES, Associate Vice President of Distance Learning, New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary

In Grace-Based Counseling, Rick and Natalie have offered up a gold mine of resources that are biblical, transferable, practical, and transformative. I have worked personally with both of them and know firsthand their effectiveness and impact both in helping those in need navigate the issues of their life, as well as helping others learn to be frontline responders in life to those who are hurting and in need of guidance that works and produces results. The Tool Kit at the end of the book is worth the price of the book by itself, giving the reader resources with which to help people do self-assessments that can change their life and direction. If you deal with people, you’ll want this book for yourself, your team, and those you train.

BOB RECCORD, founder and chairman of Total Life Impact Ministries

Drs. Ford and Fowler have done a brilliant job funneling over forty years of combined experience into this solidly biblical counseling model. It is a delightful guide, chock-full of information for those of us who want to counsel well, while also remaining rooted and grounded in Truth. I highly recommend it.

LISA SOSIN, Director of the PhD in Counselor Education and Supervision Program at Liberty University

As a member of the pastoral staff, I encounter people at all levels of spiritual maturity who are struggling with deep and difficult issues. So, Grace-Based Counseling gives much-needed help and encouragement to those who minister in the growing area of soul care. This book not only gives an effective model and toolbox to counsel with wisdom, empathy, and grace, but also counsels the counselor, helping these dedicated individuals to come to each session fully prepared emotionally, mentally, and spiritually—for the crucial work they do.

MIKE BUSTER, Executive Pastor, Prestonwood Church, Plano, TX

© 2021 by

RICHARD A. FOWLER AND NATALIE FORD

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

Some content in chapter 2 was adapted from material previously published online.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.lockman.org

Scripture quotations marked ESV are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the King James Version.

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright ©1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

Edited by Ginger Kolbaba

Interior Design: Puckett Smartt

Cover Design: Lauren Smith

Cover Image: Background photo by Pawel Czerwinski on Unsplash

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Fowler, Richard A., 1948- author. | Ford, Natalie, author.

Title: Grace-based counseling : an effective new Biblical model / Rick Fowler, EDD and Natalie Ford, PhD.

Description: Chicago : Moody Publishers, [2021] | Includes bibliographical references. | Summary: A Christian counseling model can’t just be about admonishment. That approach only leads to shame and human efforts that are doomed to fail. But when the gospel is brought to bear in the counseling relationship, the counselor becomes an instrument of grace in the hands of a faithful God-- Provided by publisher.

Identifiers: LCCN 2021013404 (print) | LCCN 2021013405 (ebook) | ISBN 9780802423238 (paperback) | ISBN 9780802499547 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Counseling--Religious aspects--Christianity. | Grace (Theology) | BISAC: RELIGION / Christian Ministry / Counseling & Recovery

Classification: LCC BR115.C69 F69 2021 (print) | LCC BR115.C69 (ebook) | DDC 253.5--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021013404

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021013405

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This book is dedicated to the counseling graduate students at Truett McConnell University. We pray that God will use you to impact the world one life at a time.

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CONTENTS

Foreword

Part 1: The Grace-Based Counseling Model

Chapter 1: Psychological Healing Begins with the Counselor

Chapter 2: At the Hub: The Counselor’s Heart

Chapter 3: God’s Image

Chapter 4: Rebellion

Chapter 5: Altruism

Chapter 6: Connection

Chapter 7: Empowerment

Part 2: Applying Grace-Based Counseling

Chapter 8: Case Study 1: The Christian Living a Lascivious Lifestyle

Chapter 9: Case Study 2: Depression

Chapter 10: Case Study 3: Marital Conflict

Chapter 11: Case Study 4: The Issue of Suffering

Part 3: Counselor’s Toolbox

Chapter 12: How Grace-Based Counselors Answer Basic Inquiries Regarding Christian Counseling

Tool #1: Motivational Profile

Tool #2: Premarital Inventory

Tool #3: Conceptual Comparison of Marital Roles

Tool #4: Marriage Mission Statement

Tool #5: Marriage Relational Inventory (MRI)

Tool #6: Marriage Ranking Assessment (MRA)

Tool #7: Parental Success Blockers

Tool #8: To Win as a Stepparent

Tool #9: Sentence Completion

Tool #10: Your Busyness Scorecard

Tool #11: Running the Bases: The Path of Forgiveness

Tool #12: The One Another Commands Found in Scripture

Tool #13: Antidotes to the Pressures and Feelings That Affect Senior Citizens

Tool #14: Self-Encouragement Exercise

Appendix—One Another Commands

Acknowledgments

Notes

Foreword

MENTAL HEALTH PROFESSIONALS—counselors, psychologists, therapists, even pastors—don’t quite know what to do with grace. Some years back, I was coleading a marital group. The participants include five couples and two leaders. My colleague was a nationally recognized scholar/researcher in the field of marital therapy. The couples were diverse in age and race. By no intentional design, most of the couples shared a common faith commitment. It was not part of the screening but was an unsolicited and unintended link. One of the participants made a passing comment about how they had learned to live well with each other. He said something like, We practice the daily demonstration of grace; without it we would be in a constant bickering mode … Another participant joined in on the grace topic. Soon, they all were speaking of grace—all without the guiding prompts of the group leaders.

After the session, during our private conversation about the couples’ progress, my colleague said, I was totally lost in that meeting. Every couple was talking about grace. They had a common story and experience. You were able to join in the conversation with everyone else. It was clear as I looked around the room, each person was fully engaged, except me. So, what is grace, and what does grace have to do with marriage?

That was a watershed moment in my understanding of our mental health profession, my efforts to think Christianly about the work of human caregiving. Much to my surprise, the way we (both Christian and secular) theorists have come to practice this elegant craft of psychotherapy, has been, by and large, without grace. We may understand cognition, motivation, emotion, and behavior, but we know not grace.

To be a gracious counselor, you must think beyond the common Sunday school definition of grace. We think of grace as the unearned gift of salvation, which has been provided to us by Jesus. Theologically, our faith is grounded in the themes of substitutionary atonement and the argument against a works righteousness, which are both grounded in grace. The Reformers declared, Sola gratia! This grace is the same grace that Richard Fowler and Natalie Ford will teach us in the subsequent pages of this book. It is that and more …

Fowler and Ford teach us that grace becomes the basis of counseling because of the work of Christ. That is where it starts—the work of God through the Trinitarian Jesus to redeem humanity. We have been given the invitation to copy divine grace in human form. Jesus invited, encouraged, and commanded us in John 13:34 when he said, A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another (NIV). And just how had the disciples experienced that love? Graciously. Without preexisting conditions. Absent from the necessity to earn by being good enough, smart enough, rich enough, beautiful enough, or any other enough that could be attached here. As we have been loved by God through the paradigm of grace, so mimic that toward others.

Counseling becomes the beautiful journey of experiencing, receiving, and dispensing unmerited favor. When the healing process in which a redeemed provider of God’s grace is the focus, it transforms those who seek aid from the tragic, cruel, and at times unspeakable evil that victimizes. We may be familiar with the phrase, Hurt people hurt people. That is, those who have been hurt by others easily succumb to causing hurt in others.

Grace becomes the entry to an alternative way of thinking. It is not the panacea—learn this work and say it fifteen times a day. Rather, it is the Big Idea of the Christian tradition that can be used to alter the way our human suffering might be understood in ways that permit us to exhale and be at peace.

I invite you through the pages of this book to think graciously. To see everything through a gifting lens. To permit the idea that I am loved outside of my merit, and that my value comes from the perspective of the one who has loved me. I am speaking to counselors, pastors, and providers of care in this invitation. As the power of grace transforms us as counselors we can become the grace-full conduit of healing.

JAMES N. SELLS, PHD

Hughes Endowed Chair of Christian Thought and Mental Health Practices, Regent University, Virginia Beach, VA

CHAPTER 1

Psychological Healing Begins with the Counselor 

CAN YOU RECOMMEND a good Christian counselor? we get asked time and time again. This is perhaps one of the most challenging questions to answer. Is the person looking for pastoral counseling