Date

7-22-2025

Department

Rawlings School of Divinity

Degree

Doctor of Ministry (DMin)

Chair

Todd Hardin

Keywords

CACREP, Christian principles, clinically informed, counseling, counselors, dissonance, ministry, Secular Humanism, training, worldview

Disciplines

Counseling

Abstract

This action project focuses on addressing the need for a research-based activity to understand the operational worldviews related to the counseling practices of the counselors at the Abundant Life Counseling Center. With the increasing demand for clinically and theologically informed counseling, the study explored how a counselor's worldview affects faith integration into a clinically based, therapeutic approach. The goal is to equip counselors to provide wisdom through theologically grounded and clinically informed training within a Christian philosophical framework, improve their Christian counseling skills, and reduce dissonance caused by the lack of integration skills in Christian-principled counseling (Prov 29:18). Every Christian-principled counselor should have the opportunity to provide counsel from a faith-based perspective and receive training that enhances wisdom and knowledge of the Lord. To create an environment and culture of faith-based training, a qualitative action research project was implemented to determine the worldviews of the counselors, enabling the provision of Christian-principled and clinically informed training. An interview process, informed by counseling literature and ethical standards, was administered to twenty-two licensed and student counselors to determine the relationship between the counselors' worldviews and the delivery of Christian-principled counseling. The interview process results proved to be a valuable tool that will aid in developing clinically informed, Christian-principled training, spiritually competent counseling, and further research into the integration and expression of faith-based counseling.

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