This book is a trilogy in which Dr. Adams leads both the novice and experienced counselor through the three key counseling sessions (or stages) which are common to the entire counseling process. Here you will learn, in detail:
- how to conduct these sessions
- what temptations and dangers you are likely to face
- and what to do when you fail.
Getting Started: The First Session
What you do in the first session will set the tone for what follows—for good or for ill. If done well, it will help the counselee to gain confidence in your minister to him and, more importantly, in the Word of God and the God of the Word.
Breaking Through: The Turning Point
The turning point in counseling sessions is that point at which the counselor sees the beginning of appreciable, observable change—a change of knowledge, of understanding, of determination, of conviction, or of commitment. A turning point is crucial because true Christian change—of the sort that pleases God—always involves a closer approximation of the thoughts and life of the counselee to the “ways” of God presented in the Scriptures.
Finishing Well: Termination
This final section concerns those basic issues that have to do with closing out a series of counseling sessions—how to know when, how to do it, and how to follow up.
