Is Venting Biblical?

Because of the pervasive attitude of “therapy” often counselee’s assume we are here to listen to them vent and that we are their sounding boards to bounce things off of. While talking is our methodology, we do not encourage or even tolerate venting. If a counselee tells me something and it contains unbiblical thoughts, beliefs, or attitudes I will challenge them. We are not therapists, we are conduit. Our goal is to help the counselee to understand what needs to change is their heart and then help them to implement changes that apply to the wrong behaviors and attitudes. If you wish to counsel biblically, you must be confident in God’s Word. You must truly believe that God’s Word is enough to change the heart and life of a person. You must believe that it has the answer to every single problem man faces. You must believe that God’s Word is the only unchangeable source of material we have written by an infallible Author. There are certainly times we will be tempted to go to a secular source, but we will find no answers there that are long lasting. Also, the counselee has most likely already tried to go to a secular source for answers and found none and they may be nearly hopeless from that encounter. They come here deeply desiring something different and something that will actually work! I have had counselee’s tell me they went to “Christian counseling” and the counselor never opened their Bible! These counselors used psychological theories and jargon and the counselee walked away as empty as they arrived. Do not apologize for making the Word of God your standard. His Word is all we have that is concrete and applies across the board. It does not discriminate.