How is Christian counseling different from secular counseling?
Is the Christian counseling approach more suitable?

    Before we can talk about this difference, we need to make one important distinction.  There is, sadly, a difference between "Christian" counseling and "Biblical" counseling.  In many cases, so called Christian counseling is little more than secular counseling performed by a Christian therapist.  There is usually an emphasis on forgiveness, prayer, faith, and maybe a few churchy clichés, some religious platitudes, and a few Bible verses thrown in for good measure.  Biblical counseling uses as its authority and standard of behavior the teachings of the Bible and, when there is conflict between these and secular teachings, defers to the Bible.  Given this distinction, I will answer the question "How is Biblical counseling different from secular?"  

    One fundamental difference is the premise regarding ownership of life. Secular counseling holds that the client is owner of his or her life and is, therefore, the final authority on what that person chooses to do with and to that life. Biblical oriented counseling asserts that God is sovereign in this area.  From that difference in orientation springs divergent concepts relating to authority, acceptable standards of behavior, goals, solutions, and expectations with Biblical counseling holding that there are divinely revealed absolute answers to many questions regarding thought and conduct.

    A second noteworthy difference is the concept of "healthy."  Secular counseling holds that mental health is relative to the client's culture and the general population.  The client's ability to function in different settings such as employment, social, and personal relationships is compared to that of the "norm" for his peers.  How much he or she deviates from that "norm" has bearing on whether the client is seen as healthy or not.  Biblical counseling holds that there is an absolute standard for health that transcends culture.  This raises the possibility that some counseling issues might be the result of destructive cultural values or practices.  For example, now that homosexuals have their own sizeable culture, homosexuality is increasingly becoming an accepted alternative "healthy" lifestyle, and counselors are being urged, even pressured, to make their services available to help homosexuals enjoy their lifestyle more fully.

    Another significant difference is that Biblical counseling holds that males and females are fundamentally different by design, not evolutionary variations.  Given that God designed us, it stands to reason that directing clients to submit to His design, as opposed to following their own or someone else's ideas, will be the most efficacious counseling.  This orientation includes the roles for husband and wife and the form of marital government within which we are to operate.  Secular counseling is divided on the subject of gender differences, some asserting that these differences are biological and unchangeable, while others insist that they are learned and changeable, or not even an issue.  Secular counseling promotes equality regarding the empowerment of each mate, thus marital government is accomplished by mutual agreement and compromise, with neither mate being more responsible or having more authority than the other, nor subject to the other.  Biblical counseling holds that the man is held fully responsible for all that goes on in the marriage and has authority over the wife.  This authority comes with many boundaries, not the least of which is that the husband does not have the authority to punish or harm his wife -- to be a tyrant over her.

    It should be noted that despite these major fundamental differences, practitioners of both persuasions are able to borrow many counseling principles and techniques from one another without compromising their basic premise.  Wisdom needs to be employed in determining which approach to use with each client.  Certainly one would think that Biblical counseling would always be the more suitable approach for clients professing to be Christians and secular for those who do not make that claim.  However, sometimes professing Christian clients respond better to a counseling approach that leans toward the secular, and sometimes secular clients tolerate, even flourish, by a limited and appropriate use of the Biblical counseling approach.