"Do we really need another counseling option in Atlanta?" I wrestled with this question a few years ago as I knew of a growing number of counselors and even more counseling organizations in and around North Atlanta. But I couldn't shake this question: "Where is the church's voice in the counseling conversation?". 1 Or put more pointedly: “Shouldn’t the church be the place that offers the best care for people?”
I certainly wasn't the first one to ask this question, nor will I be the last. 2 The more I read, prayed, and studied, the more I knew the Church - specifically my church - should play a role in the counseling conversation. Thankfully, the leadership at Perimeter Church was in agreement.
What would it look like to have a counseling organization that ministered to the people of Perimeter Church, but also to the surrounding community? What would it take to have counselors who were both experienced and wise in studying people (the stuff of psychology) and the Scriptures (the stuff of theology)? What would it look like to have a counseling center that lived inside a church, supporting the leadership and discipleship structures, but not replacing the need for these structures? Could a church-based counseling center strike the balance of both excellent professionalism and loving, pastoral warmth? These questions were the energy behind what we now call Perimeter Counseling.
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The word “counseling” can have a variety of meanings. Rather than seeking to give the most perfect, well-rounded counseling definition in history (an assuredly futile exercise for yours truly), I’ll tell you a bit about us. Here is what we mean when we say “counseling” at Perimeter: We are a Christ-centered, clinically informed counseling center that is redemptive in purpose, holistic in care, and practical in application. Let me unpack what we mean by those terms.
Christ-Centered
If I could have one phrase that defines our counseling, I’d want it to be “Christ-centered”. I tell our counselors that if all else fails and the person in front of you is loved and pointed to Christ - that is a success.
To be Christ-centered is to have one primary, overarching, main goal in counseling: God-glorifying heart change. 3 We want to help you worship God with the thoughts, emotions, choices - and even the desires - of your heart. That's our goal: that Christ would be exalted in each heart as we grow in faith through our union with Him.
How does this make us distinct? Mike Emlet, a faculty member of CCEF (Christian Counseling Educational Foundation), sums up what is distinct about our counseling:
Biblical language is our native tongue. While fluency with psychological conceptualizations and methodologies may indeed be helpful as a second language, our counseling theory and methodology is driven by Scripture's view of people as physically embodied, relationally and situationally embedded, image-bearing worshipers of the living God. 4
Clinically informed
A native tongue is something that naturally flows from you. It is the natural way of speaking, the gut-reaction, the go-to words for any situation. Can someone be fluent in two languages? Certainly. But there is always something about that second language that is just that - secondary.
Our native tongue is Christ-centeredness, as Emlet puts it, being “driven by Scripture’s view of people…” Our secondary language is the way psychology would understand a person, including observations and methods that might be helpful to help that person get better. We believe that psychological research, data, and methodologies can be helpful secondary sources to aid in our goal of Christ-centered heart transformation.
Redemptive in Purpose, Holistic in Care, and Practical in Application
At Perimeter, our counseling is redemptive. We want to locate your story within the context of the redemptive-historical Biblical storyline.
How do we do this? We listen and locate. First, good counseling listens to a person's story and all the "rabbit trails". In the counseling room, people often apologize for going "off track". I quickly remind them that no piece of a story is meaningless, because everything said (or left unsaid) tells a story about your experience. Through listening well, a counselor locates the person’s story within the larger metanarrative of Scripture, connecting our lives to God’s plan of redeeming the world (Ephesians 1:9-10, Rev. 21:5). God is working in your life right now to:
bind up the wounds of your broken heart,
walk with you in your suffering,
break you of sin’s reign and power,
make you more like Him,
bring redemption to those around you,
for the sake of his glory…
and so much more.
We want to help you connect your story - the good, bad, and the ugly - to God’s redeeming work. Because in that you will find purpose, and in that you will find joy. But most importantly, in that you will find Him.
Next, our counseling is holistic. Christian anthropology understands that people are created both body and soul. Therefore, although we focus on the “heart” or “soul” in our counseling, we can’t neglect the influences of the body. Mike Emlet elaborates:
...the Bible…compels us to look at both potential bodily weaknesses and the sin that arises out of the heart. The riches of the gospel apply not to generic “hearts,” but real flesh and blood people struggling in specific situations with specific heart issues. Robust biblical counseling must walk the tightrope of acknowledging real somatic influences while rejecting any world-view that minimizes the coram deo aspect of living, as expressed in obedience to the first and second Great Commandments. Put another way, faith and repentance never occur in a vacuum, but are expressed in the midst of the unique bodily pressures that provoke the heart. 5
Notice what Emlet says here. Understanding this body-soul interaction is like walking a "tightrope". That being said, we approach people’s experiences and bodily influences with great humility and curiosity.
Finally, we aim to be practical in our care. We need tools for change. We need to replace harmful thoughts with helpful thoughts (Phil. 4:8). We need to understand how to grieve, to lament, to forgive, to move forward. If the truth discussed in the counseling room never hits us at street-level, then we will not move forward with lasting heart change. Theology is practical, because God is involved with every thought, word, and deed of our lives.
All of this sounds great and is important - and it is important. But at the end of the day it boils down to this: we want to offer you the same comfort we’ve received from God Himself (2 Cor. 1:3-4). If you need direction, are stuck, are struggling, or in pain - we hope you can find a home here. We know Someone who can help.
1 For more of a backstory, see A History of Pastoral Care in America: From Salvation to Self-realization by E. Brooks Holifield.
2 The Christian Counseling and Educational Foundation’s motto is to "Restore Christ to counseling and counseling to the local church.” I’m indebted to their labors)
3 See Identifying Heart Transformation by Nate Brooks
4 Emlet, Mike. The Biblical in Biblical Counseling, Journal of Biblical Counseling 35:1 (2021), 4.
5 Emlet, Mike. Understanding the Influences of the Human Heart, Journal of Biblical Counseling Winter 2002, 50.
