Lay Counseling

By Dennis McCallum

The Nature of Lay Counseling

Because troubled people have different levels of need, there is definitely a place for the highly trained professional clinical counselor. For many, nothing less than a medically trained therapist is needed. On the other hand, there are many people who would respond positively to counseling from a trained lay counselor, especially if medical professionals are consulted at the same time.

Lay counselors are needed for several reasons. In the first place, professionals are typically quite busy, and do not always have time to work extensively with non-clinical cases. Unfortunately, even psychotic clients must sometimes be returned to the streets after receiving little more than drug therapy.

Secondly, the cost of professional counseling services is prohibitive to many. This has the effect of making counseling help unavailable to any but the wealthy or those with insurance. Of course, there are governmental funds available for the mentally disabled. But often those requiring counseling are not disabled, and therefore not eligible for funds. Such people may just need some teaching or advice on how to respond to their problems.

Thirdly, there are many people who want to understand their problems in the context of the Christian world-view. Although there are clinical professionals in every large city who are Christians, they are usually even more in demand than secular counselors.

Finally, the lay counselor can have frequent contact with the individual. Typically, professional counseling sessions are limited to periodic one-hour sessions. The lay counselor, on the other hand, can provide instruction and then observe how the individual responds. Consequently, feedback is more immediate and the lay counselor has the opportunity to provide encouragement or correction closer to the observed behavior.

We should also note that the Bible calls upon the local church to train its members in providing primary counseling services. For instance, Rom. 15:14 and Col. 3:16 both use the Greek words noutheteo and didasko (admonish, counsel, or instruct) as applying to average members of the local church. The objection could be raised that an arrangement suited to the first century is no longer adequate for the problems of modern society, and that the counseling profession has rendered lay counseling unnecessary. Of course, there were no professional counselors (in the modern sense) in ancient society, and thus no option but lay counseling. On the other hand, principles of biblical living are applicable to all ages if adapted correctly. It is therefore reasonable to expect considerable lay counseling activity in a healthy local church.

Several steps are necessary if such a counseling ministry is to be developed. First, the needs of people in the group should be divided into those needs which can probably be handled by lay counselors from those which will require the attention of a health professional. Lay counselors will need to be taught to tell the difference. Secondly, suitable lay counselors will need to be trained to identify specific behavior and attitude patterns that they understand and to which they can match helpful therapy. Finally, a definite plan of communication will be needed. This paper deals with the first two issues.

Clinical and Non-Clinical Cases

If lay counselors are to avoid causing damage in people's lives, it is essential that they be able to tell which cases require professional attention. In this area it would clearly be best to err on the side of caution, since some conditions will deteriorate if not tended to. It is important that the lay counselor sees the professional therapist as an ally, not an enemy. There are cases, especially in fundamentalist circles, where professional counselors have been viewed with suspicion because of their secular theories and the profit motive. This is a good reason for the church to obtain the services of an acceptable Christian counselor for the purposes of consultation. Lay counselors need to be trained to welcome the input of the professional therapist, and to view it as necessary in many cases.

Among situations calling for consultation are:

• Suicidal ideation
• Schizophrenia
• Clinical depression
• Mania
• Situations involving violence, including child abuse
• Some anxiety disorders
• Personality disorders

Papers have been written describing each of these situations for the lay counselor. [See Amy Merker, M.D., "Recognizing Emotional Disorders, When to Refer for Professional Help,"  It should be studied carefully. The first question in any new counseling situation is that of feasibility. The lay counselor has to know when she has met her match.

Identifying and Treating Specific Behaviors

When it is determined that a person does not require professional help, the lay counselor can begin to seek solutions. Before anyone can effectively treat problems, there must be a way to understand patterns of human behavior. Unless there is a theoretic that allows the counselor to prioritize issues, she swims in a shoreless ocean of detail. In this ocean, isolated behaviors and attitudes are identified and confronted without anyway of determining which ones are serious and which ones are not. As a result, the counseling tends to be haphazard, ineffective, and frustrating for both counselor and client.

In order to identify patterns of behavior and evaluate the overall effect of those patterns on the well-being of the client, it may be correct to consider types of personality as one component of the question. Personality typing is simply the process of observing different types of behaviors and identifying categories into which those behaviors fall. These categories (or types) will form patterns or tendencies in some cases. Such patterns emerge finally as a loose description of a personality type.

If we are able to recognize personality tendencies, we may be able to form an idea of general directions in which various personality types should move.

A personality type is not a behavioral straight-jacket, but a general description created in light of the knowledge that behaviors often tend to appear in groupings or patterns. These patterns can be assigned names which will enable the counselor to begin the process of conceptualizing the inclinations of others. We all have referred to someone we know as"short-tempered." Such a description should not be understood to mean that this short-tempered person never has any patience. No doubt he shows patience in some situations. Nevertheless, this does not render the designation "short-tempered" meaningless or immoral. The fact is that some people are relatively short-tempered, which means that in general, they manifest anger externally more quickly than the average person.

Other common descriptions might include "shy,""friendly," "talkative," "mean," "docile," etc. Each of these words describe more than one specific behavior. In fact, each one describes an entire collection of behaviors which more or less frequently are found in certain people. Other people might manifest the same behaviors, but more rarely. We could also gather behaviors together into even larger categories in some cases. For instance, one might observe that those who are shy also tend to be more sensitive. Shyness and sensitivity point to entirely different behaviors even though they are often connected in cause or result.

It may even be possible to describe larger categories which include whole complexes of behaviors. For instance we might take someone who is talkative, friendly, humorous, loud, restless, demonstrative, short tempered, and aggressive, and call him"extroverted." The word extrovert does not refer to any specific behavior, but to a rather large collection of behaviors. The value of such large categories is that it may be possible to predict kindred behaviors which might be helpful in understanding the person. Also, it should be easier to avoid simply curtailing one negative behavior by shifting to another in the event that we know other likely problem areas in advance. The client can be put on guard to watch for their own tendencies, thus leading in the direction of self-counseling.

The exact way that these similar personality types are described is unimportant, as long as the description is relevant to the counseling needs of the person. Several attempts to characterize personality patterns have been made. The Taylor Johnson Personality Inventory, Meyers and Briggs' book, Please Understand Me, and the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory all attempt to create useful generalizations about personality types. In some fundamentalist circles, the four-fold ancient Greek evaluation of personality types has been revived and elaborated with some success. A less well-known system used for generalizing behavior and affective tendencies is that defined by Dr. Ralph Ankenman of Columbus, Ohio. Ankenman calls his system of diagnosis and treatment "Love Therapy."