Critical Stages of Biblical Counseling

by Jay E. Adams

This book is a trilogy in which Dr. Adams leads both the novice and experienced
counselor through the three key counseling sessions (or stages) which are common
to the entire counseling process. Getting The First Session What you do in the first session will set the tone for what follows--for good or for
ill. If done well, it will help the counselee to gain confidence in your minister to
him and, more importantly, in the Word of God and the God of the Word. Breaking The Turning Point The turning point in counseling sessions is that point at which the counselor sees the
beginning of appreciable, observable change--a change of knowledge, of
understanding, of determination, of conviction, or of commitment. A turning point is
crucial because true Christian change--of the sort that pleases God--always
involves a closer approximation of the thoughts and life of the counselee to the
"ways" of God presented in the Scriptures. Finishing Termination This final section concerns those basic issues that have to do with closing out a series
of counseling sessions--how to know when, how to do it, and how to follow up.

Genres: Counselling, School

264 pages, Paperback

Published September 5, 2025

About the author

Jay Edward Adams is a Reformed Christian author. He has written over 100 books and these have been published in sixteen languages.
He received a Bachelor of Divinity from Reformed Episcopal Seminary, a Bachelor of Arts in Classics from Johns Hopkins University,a Masters in Sacred Theology from Temple University, and a PhD in Speech from the University of Missouri.
Adams' book Competent to Counsel launched the nouthetic counseling movement, a movement whose aim was to use strictly biblical counseling methods. He is the founder of the Intitute for Nothetic Studies.