Are you a faith-based counselor? Do you feel the need to pretend to either your clients or your therapist that you are all put together because you are faith-based? Do faith-based therapists differ from others? In this podcast episode, Billy and Brandy Eldridge speak with Whitney Owens about Christian counseling not being what we thought it was. Meet Whitney Owens Whitney Owens is a Licensed Professional Counselor and Private Practice Consultant. She lives in Savannah, Georgia, where she owns a group private practice, Water’s Edge Counseling. In addition to running her practice, she offers individual and group consulting through Practice of the Practice. Whitney places a special emphasis on helping clinicians start and grow faith-based practices. Whitney has spoken at the Licensed Professional Counselors Association of Georgia’s annual convention and at Killin’ It Camp. Whitney is a wife and mother of two beautiful girls. This entrepreneur went from a private practice owner to being a consultant. Providing fellow clinicians the tools they need to run a successful practice. Visit Whitney’s website, connect with her on Facebook, listen to her podcast, or consult with Whitney. Email Whitney at [email protected] In This Podcast Summary * A Christian counselor versus a counselor? * Is there a pattern to having a crisis of faith? * Challenges of being a faith-based Christian counselor A Christian counselor versus a counselor? People think that a Christian counselor has to have some kind of huge credential or training and yea its good to have some training and understand how faith integrates into therapy but honestly, I think a Christian counselor is just somebody who’s a counselor and also is a Christian and when appropriate, makes faith a part of the work you do with clients. When Whitney says ‘appropriate’, she refers to when a client is requesting counseling that has a Christian perspective. However, it is possible to see lots of clients that are not faith-based and you can market yourself as someone in the middle who can work comfortably with both sides of people, faith-based and not. Is there a pattern to having a crisis of faith? I do think a lot of people have a crisis of faith because of what I actually just said, the church has hurt them in some way. So then they start to think, ‘so if the church isn’t real, and this is supposed to represent God, if they can’t be real then maybe God’s not real’. Sometimes the church and people’s relationship to God coincides and other times it may not, but what is important is that you try to keep your faith consistent to yourself and not let outside perspectives of people mislead you. Especially so when you assume they are judging you when in fact you may be misunderstanding their actions. When people come to see a counselor, they may try to act like everything is alright when in actual fact they need help. This also happens with Christian counselors and Whitney says people come in with a need to prove their faith to God to their counselor and that this is unnecessary and actually inhibits the therapy process further. People come in like that and I get to see them in their yuckiest moment and I get to love them in the middle of it and they experience God in that. They experience God’s presence when we choose to love and accept somebody and their messiness, then they learn that its okay to be who they are...