Counseling and Community: Using Church Relationships to Reinforce Counseling

by Rod Wilson

Traditionally, counseling has focused primarily on the individual--overlooking the interaction between the community and the individual. Wilson has created a biblically-based counseling model that anchors the individual within the community. The result is a perspective that encompasses all aspects of a person's life, where the community becomes a helper in the counseling process. The thesis of this book is tied to the assumption that we need a counseling approach that is community-oriented rather than exclusively focused on the individual. When this is the case, we will be able to appreciate the biblical emphasis on the people of God. While he prizes a relationship with individuals, God's heart is with a body, a fellowship, a community. Both pastors and private counselors need to reaffirm the priority of community and its power in the healing process. Rod Wilson (PhD, York University) is President and Professor of Counselling and Psychology at Regent College in Vancouver, B.C., Canada. He is also the author of Exploring Your Anger and Helping Angry People.

272 pages, Paperback

First published June 16, 1995

About the author

Dr. Rod Wilson lives in Vancouver, Canada, with his wife, Bev. He was trained in English Literature, Psychology, Counselling, and Theology.

His formative life-long question? What is the relationship between the human and the spiritual? With this question as a backdrop, he notes that people with a high commitment to the human often have little time for the spiritual. Not infrequently, people committed to the spiritual have minimal interest in what it means to be human. He loves spaces where the human and the spiritual are blended seamlessly.

This quest has taken him into various vocational sectors--including education, mental health, the disability community, church, and non-profit--as a teacher, leader, preacher, therapist, mentor, facilitator, and conversation partner. He is grateful that he continues to walk with a metaphorical limp as he learns and grows in a world, which has much to offer
.