No matter what career you’re in, you may have started to develop your identity around your role. I have friends who are attorneys, teachers, and stay-at-home moms, all who incorporate their career as part of their core identity. When you have a career as a therapist or counselor, it is perhaps even more prevalent to see a blurring of the lines of role versus identity. Because the job requires significant emotional energy, it is easy to move from one sphere of life to the next with the same attitudes, skills, and priorities. Unfortunately, this often leads to “compassion fatigue,” in which individuals become exhausted from caring for others.
Therapists who are Christians may feel an even greater burden of compassion as well as diminished separation from work and the rest of life. That is because we are both called to “love one another” and we are trained to see the emotional need of others. When a Christian therapist* considers her own identity, she must first do the work of understanding her identity as a follower of Christ. If your relationship with Jesus goes deeper than checking off a box on Sunday mornings, you may have started to understand that your identity is first “Christ follower” and “child of God” and then “parent,” “sister,” “therapist,” or “Bible study leader.”
So when you simultaneously hold multiple identities that all shout “care for other people” loudly in your brain, how do you distinguish between ways you can earn money as a therapist and ways that you can simply serve for the good of your community and the body of Christ?
Depending on your specific discipline as a mental health provider, you may have language in your code of ethics that encourages service and advocacy, for example, social workers are strongly encouraged to make this part of their work. But even if you’re not in the social work field, you probably entered your counseling career because you care deeply about others. Here are some ideas and guidelines–ways you can use your therapy skills and mindset to advance the Kingdom of God.
Referrals and Access the Therapy
I’ve heard from many Christians that they are hesitant to engage in therapy simply because they do not know how to access services. One of the ways you can help is by teaching others in your congregation and social circles how to find a therapist. This might mean explaining how insurance billing and in-network lists work, or it might be informing them about how to use the directory on PsychologyToday.com. It definitely helps if you put in the time and effort to create a local network of other providers who are also Christians.
Because I attend a small church, I draw a hard line about not offering counseling services to people with whom I worship on Sundays. It’s how I protect confidentiality and neutrality. However, I’m frequently asked if I can suggest a therapist for someone from church. Without my connections in the therapy community, I would have difficulty knowing who exactly offers counseling from a Christian perspective and who does not.
Crisis Management
This is an area that will require firm boundaries and larger stores of emotional energy, but it is true that therapists have a greater capacity for managing crisis situations than those who don’t have our training. This may be deescalating an abuse situation or a panic attack, or it may be responding with grief support or trauma intervention in the case of a tragedy. Again, unless your church is very large, or you live in a rural area without alternative services, it is wise to avoid providing services to people in your specific church community. That is another reason why it is essential that you put effort into developing your network of local therapists who can take the referrals that you can’t take. However, there are many times when we can use our skills to handle acute situations that occur within our congregations. It would be useful to talk to your pastors about how you might be called upon in those difficult situations. Short of an official role, you will likely find yourself responding to individual situations among your acquaintances.
Pastoral Support
Some churches have ministries called “pastoral support,” referring to the team that visits people in the hospital, connects people with access to material goods, and responds to pastoral counseling requests. When I say “pastoral support,” however, I’m talking about actually supporting pastors in your community. Pastors can be some of the loneliest and most stressed people in our communities. They bear burdens that the rest of us don’t even know about. If you have a heart for pastors and appreciate the work they do, think about how you can offer support. Can you be a listening ear? Can you offer church staff in-services to help pastors and leaders understand burn out, mental health issues, or other hot topics? Can you offer guidance and support for pastors who offer counseling? Your clinical training is more in-depth than 99% of the counseling background that most pastors have. How can you use your knowledge and skills to help pastors succeed?
Community Education
There are a variety of topics in the mental health field about which you have significantly more understanding than the average church-goer. Whether it’s a seminar, small group, or conference, you have information and coaching that you can offer to the people at your church and other local churches. If you’re an expert on mood disorders or anxiety, offer to host a training on how Christians can deal with these problems. If you work with couples, you might lead a marriage focused small group. Parenting is always a hot topic at churches, and if you regularly work with children, you have something to offer parents in your church community. Maybe there’s even a church newsletter, podcast, or local Christian radio station to which you could donate your expertise.
This article is specifically geared towards ways you can use your training and experience to serve the Kingdom of God in your local church community. None of these ideas had anything to do with giving away free therapy. Next week, however, we will look at some ideas on how to give away therapy effectively while protecting yourself from burnout or from being taken advantage of. If you’re passionate about your role as a therapist and you also love Christ and His Church, this is the place for you!
*I use the term “Christian therapist” in this article because it is easier to say than “therapist who is Christian.” However, please note that Soul Grit Resources is here make integrating faith into counseling more doable for “therapists who are Christians,” even if they have not been trained as “Christian therapists.”
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