How Do You Help a “Psychologized” Counselee?

In this editorial, David Powlison discusses biblical counseling with a counselee who views their problems through primarily psychological categories (a “psychologized” counselee). Powlison argues that counselors need to do a number of things to effectively help such people. He encourages counselors to not underestimate the hold of the counselee’s current beliefs and remember that they are counseling a person, not critiquing a book. Powlison argues that counselors should not give them what they’ve already tried and instead care for them in ways that communicate and get to know them and their world. He concludes that counselors should build slowly and reinterpret the counselee’s experience and world biblically.