Mary and Bill have been married for 17 years. Their marriage has been floundering for most of those years. The boys are in their late teens and Mary is facing the soon-to-be empty nest years with more dread than hope. Now that the boys are mostly out of the home she is realizing that she knows very little about Bill and the little she does know about him is not encouraging.
She went to her pastor for help and he asked her to look for a local Christian counselor because he did not feel qualified to help them through their marriage problems. Mary then begins an Internet search for a Christian counselor.
She stumbles upon your Facebook page and learns that you do Christian counseling. She sends you an email with a brief description of her problems and asks you one direct question:
Are you NANC certified?
Application Questions
- You answer her question with a “yes” or “no” depending on whether or not you are certified. Based on your answer, what else would you say to encourage her to come to you for counseling?
- What does being NANC certified mean? Is it necessary to be NANC certified? Why or why not?
- What is the difference between a Christian counselor who is NANC certified and one who is not?
- Are you certified? Are you not certified? Which is more important? Why did you answer that way?
- Is it necessary to be certified by any organization? Why or why not?
Other articles in this series
- Case Study: Counselees and the Local Church
- Case Study: Are You NANC Certified?
- Should I Be NANC Certified?
- To Certify or Not to Certify: That is the Question for Counselors
- Counseling Solutions Training Program to Equip Counselors
- Desire and Burden Do Not Make a Biblical Counselor
- Inherent Liabilities with Biblical Counseling
- Counseling Today: Standing on Jay’s Shoulders, Pt. 1
- Counseling Today: Standing on Jay’s Shoulders, Pt. 2
- Can’t the Local Church Do This?
- Two Ways to Become a Better Counselor
- My Top Choices for Counselor Training
- Do I Need a License to Be a Christian Counselor
Checkout some of our training videos on our YouTube Channel
If someone asked me that question, I would probably think they want to be assured that I have the skills necessary to help them. If I could answer yes, it might give her the confidence to pursue biblical counseling further.
I think certification can give both the counselor and the counselee confidence and hope.
My answer would be not yet. I think that NANC certification will help instill confidence in my skills, but more important than that is my knowledge of the Word of God and love for people. I seek to be prepared to serve people in the best way possible, but I have found that it works well even without certification. My biggest problem is time (with 3 kids 4 and under) and location. (we haven’t found any local churches that do the certification.)
While I seek to be equipped in many different ways (different evangelism and apologetics classes, and discipleship books) I think we must remember the Word should be the focus. Nothing else, no matter how good is infallible. We are wanting to become certified, but feel prepared to serve until the day we can make that happen because we are in the Word and love the Lord!(and we have great people that we can message if we have questions or concerns!)