Counseling is altogether a theological matter. Always, whether or not a given counselor recognizes that fact. All counselors deal with the same human problems to which the Bible speaks. By implication, they are either faithful or false. I am speaking in principle, of course. Because of sin and the varieties of grace, counselors and systems are more or less faithful, more or less false. Often common grace brightens up secular models and practitioners (though sometimes they are utterly false and wicked). Inevitably remnant sin dims biblical models and practitioners (though by the grace of God his children sometimes shine very brightly). Only Jesus was and is utterly faithful, rich and simple. You should aim to become a counselor who is more faithful and less false, who is full of riches and less impoverished, who is simpler and not simplistic or complicated. Aim to learn and to offer counsel that expresses Christ’s gaze and intentions, rather than any other framework for making sense of life. 

Every counselor brings a “message”: an interpretation of problems, a theory that weighs causalities and context, a proposal for cure, a goal that defines thriving humanness. How does the message of biblical counseling compare with their messages? Simply consider what our culture’s other counselors do not say.