by Lacy Enderson

Created on: April 19, 2009   Last Updated: April 21, 2009

Teenage years present some of the most crucial in building character and self esteem, yet these same years bring with them troubling times and depression. Biblical counseling offers teenagers a little bit of hope from a loving God who can and will deliver them from their pain. The following steps in the Biblical counseling process offers access to the greatest amount of success for emotional balance in a teenager's life.

1. Building Involvement. The first step in the biblical counseling process is building involvement with the counselee. Through self disclosure the counselor, in humility, reveals himself as an imperfect vessel that God uses to help others. The counselor in no way should depict pride or egotistical behavior. Just as Paul, in Romans 12:3, advises believers not to think themselves better than others, biblical counselors must not ever give the impression that they are better than the counselee.

Building involvement with the counselee also includes showing sincere concern for the counselee through honest, heartfelt compassion. The counselee must feel that God's servant is a genuinely caring person. Just as Paul declares his love and offers encouragement to the people of Thessalonica in 1 Thessalonians 2:7, 8, 11, biblical counselors must be willing to sincerely carry the burdens of those they strive to help. By God's help and through the Holy Spirits power, biblical counselors must love the counselee with all their heart. Only in this way will the counselee sense an honest commitment.

By praying for the counselee, the counselor is declaring a belief in God's ability to heal the needy. Prayers are offered up to God for the counselor as well as the counselee. Biblical counseling is only as effective as the amount of God's help that is sought. Through significant prayer God is summoned, and spiritual help is bestowed. Throughout scripture Paul prays. In Ephesians 1:15, Paul prays that the Ephesians would have a better spiritual understanding. Praying for the counselee to be filled with all spiritual wisdom calls God on the scene. Without God's enlightenment, health and healing become surface level and not spiritually transforming.

Building involvement with the counselee includes projecting a solution orientation. The counselor does this by dealing directly with the problem, clearly stating the problem, and the best way to handle it, and by establishing a sense of hope. Proverbs 13:12 says without hope our hearts grow sick. Everyone who suffers must have

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