Transformative Encounters: The Intervention of God in Christian Counseling and Pastoral Care

What would it mean for Christian counseling and pastoral care to take seriously the idea that God intervenes in the world? What would it look like for therapists and pastors to see themselves as opening the door to a miraculous divine encounter? How would counseling change if the intervention of God was not merely a theoretical idea but a lived experience? Building on Gary Collins's classic work, The Rebuilding of Psychology, the essays in this volume explore what a God-centered model of Christian counseling or pastoral care would look like. The contributors share the conviction that God is able to bring about lasting psycho-spiritual change here and now. Some of the topics discussed in the book include:

• Inner healing
• Prayer ministry
• Deliverance
• Christian holism
• Contemplative prayer
• Cognitive-behavioral therapy
• Emotion-focused therapy
• Group therapy
• Forgiveness
• Visualization and EMDR
• Addiction
• Life coaching

This book seeks to encourage and aid counselors, pastors, church staff, clinical practitioners, academics and students in developing this kind of God-encountering, Christ-centered ministry of miraculous change.