Holy Indifference
Holy Indifference is essential to discernment because it allows us to accept whatever outcome we discern. Holy Indifference doesn’t mean a person doesn’t care anymore. It means they are having trustful surrender to the divine Providence. Many people begin discernment with preset agendas. The more interiorly purified a person is, the more Holy Indifference brings them to their true heart desires.
The Professional Christian Counselor
The 3 Parts of Christian Counseling
Professional Christian Counseling is a wonderful specialization in which the psychologically trained licensed mental health professional integrates their knowledge, skills, and abilities with their Christian faith, values, and beliefs. It’s a match made in heaven, giving you the best of both. The Professional Christian Counselors’ sensitivity to their client’s problems, including a blend of psychological, emotional, moral, and spiritual concerns, combined with their ability to expertly deal with the religious domain, sets them apart and makes them very helpful. To address emotional and behavioral problems with a spiritual connection, for example, when psychological problems represent the fruits of sin, clients will benefit by receiving help for their whole person - emotional, psychological, and spiritual. People who go to a Professional Christian Counselor have expectations different from those who seek a secular scientific therapist. Clients can have the assurance that their fundamental Christian beliefs will be valued.
Hopefully, Professional Christian Counselors have the good qualities of both secular scientific and pastoral counselors. Like the pastoral counselor, they practice their spiritual gifts of discernment and healing and invite the Holy Spirit’s guidance into their counseling process. Professional Christian Counselors embrace this mystery of divine grace and human effort working together. They understand that it is the synergy of God’s healing kindness, the counselor’s gifts and talents, and the client’s hard work that brings God’s healing presence into the lives of their clients. Effective Professional Christian Counseling rests on prayer and fasting, scripture, referral to clergy, and the sacraments, as well as on faith, hope, and love.
Professional Christian Counselors can help clients increase their capacity to hear the voice of Jesus and the witness of the Holy Spirit. They can help clients become more aware of what God is saying to them in a particular circumstance at a specific time. More than giving them a fish (assisting the clients in discerning in a particular instance), they can teach them how to fish (forming clients into discerning persons). Through this, clients can achieve cognitive clarity and emotional maturity. They can also help clients make sense of their spiritual experiences, like locutions and the struggles of Christian development. They can help clients cooperate with grace and remove barriers to grace. They can help clients develop the virtues necessary to be a good spouse and reduce the vices that increase the temptation to do drugs, alcohol, and pornography. They can help empower clients to have victory, be delivered, and experience healing.
The effective Professional Christian Counselor is a morally sound and mature Christian, grounded in God’s Word and regular church attendance, who manifests the gifts of the Holy Spirit to heal the brokenhearted. They are called to Christian service and have accepted this work as a vocation, a sacred trust, and a counseling ministry providing professional counseling in the service of Christ. The Professional Christian Counselor continues the healing ministry of Jesus.