Reference no: EM133286141

Greg and his wife Shelly meet with you in your office at church. You are a full time staff member and ministry leader at your church. Greg and Shelly have been faithful members of your church for years. You know them more in passing than in depth. However, Greg usually is upbeat with highly optimistic energy. In fact, Greg's extroversion can seem over the top to some people. As He enters your office you notice a startling difference from his normal mode. He is dressed like he just got out of bed without his hair combed. He walks in slowly and hunched over. Every movement he makes is slow and lethargic. When you speak to him he is slow to respond and struggling to focus. Shelly tells you that a big change has happened with Greg. He seemed fine until a few weeks ago after they got home from a romantic vacation with time away from their 3 kids. The trip was a huge disappointment for Shelly feeling that the resort was not as advertised. She was upset the entire time and they left to come home early. When they returned from home, Shelly wanted to book a better trip but Greg felt it would be too much money. Greg admits to being very tight with money even though he has a good job and Shelly receives annual money from a family trust fund as an only child. A huge fight ensued in which Greg "blew up" in Shelly's words and both admitted that he never gets angry. Ever since then Greg has struggled to get out of bed. He has taken two weeks off of work which he never does. Greg is a 45 year old white male, professes to be a Christian even though by His admission he grew up in a "legalistic" religious setting.

Use the content from this class (lectures, reading, and research papers) to answer the following questions. Your grade will be based on your use of the class content to so be sure to reference the content you are referring to.

1. Given what you know, what areas of Greg's life would you want to explore with him as his counselor and what insights from those areas might be useful in counseling Greg? What are some possible ways you might understand what Greg is going through that you would want to explore?

2. What doctrines might be playing a functional role in Greg's issues? What doctrines might be useful in helping Greg improve?

3. What is the role of the counselor in the church for Greg and Shelly? What does a healthy counseling connection look like? What might need to be guarded from in order for the counseling to avoid being unhealthy?

4. What might a process look like for Greg's counseling? How would you begin and organize your counseling with him? What other resources might you want to consider referring Greg to? What are your therapeutic goals? What does a path of healing look like for Greg?