Current Discussions
Recently, some biblical counselors have been claiming that biblical counselors should not include physiological interventions in their biblical counseling. I’ve collated several examples. Today, I will share two.
Greg Gifford, in his just released book, Lies My Therapist Told Me, stated:
“When you go to biblical counseling, the counselor should say, ‘Hey, your sleep seems really off. You should talk to your doctor.’ If your biblical counselor says, ‘Hey, your sleep seems really off. I am going to make it a part of your homework to eat salads, get rid of caffeine, and sleep eight hours per night,’ then your biblical counselor has just stepped into medical, which is not their lane. This is where the holistic biblical counselors go wrong: they blur their jurisdictional lines with a medical doctor. Steward your brain with wise advise from medical professionals. That is their exact realm of expertise” (257). Note: I interact with and biblically evaluate Greg’s statement here.
On February 18, 2025, Sean Perron stated that:
“I used this machine before my open lung biopsy and I’m using it today. I believe in common grace and breathing exercises. However, I don’t encourage counselors to use breathing techniques in counseling for fear and anxiety. Why not?” “When breathing exercises become a regular part of discipleship, it is subtly teaching people to place their faith in that method rather than in Christ. They learn exercises are the first thing that calms them down. Breathing or muscle relaxation becomes the entry way to peace. This ought not be.” Note: For the rest of Sean’s quote, and for my interaction with and biblically assessment of Sean’s thinking, see: Is It Biblical for a Biblical Counselor to Recommend Breathing Exercises?
My Engagement with These Issues: Soul Physicians of Embodied-Souls
Of course, no one is just “body.” No one is just “soul.” We are all embodied-souls—a God-designed, complex, interconnected, interacting unity of body/soul.
I’ve been addressing compassionate, comprehensive embodied-soul biblical counseling for over four decades now. Recently, I’ve started describing my approach as being a soul physician of embodied-souls. God’s Word calls us to minister to the whole person—body and soul—embodied-soul. I’ve collated well over 100 free resources about this topic that you can find here: 161 Resources for Counseling the Whole Person: Soul Physicians of Embodied-Souls. That post asks:
What does the Bible teach about biblical counseling, the body, the embodied-soul, traumatic-suffering, research, science, and neuroscience?
Today’s post is more focused. It only highlights resources directly related to the question:
Should biblical counselors counsel about the body?
For each of these 32 resources, I provide the title, a direct link to the resource, and a brief summary of the resource.
2 Posts Interacting with Recent Biblical Counseling Claims
A Little Post About Little Sleep
How should a biblical counselor respond if a counselee says, “I’m not sleeping well”? It is in this post that I engage with Greg Gifford’s belief that biblical counselors should focus on the soul and not on the body.
Is It Biblical for a Biblical Counselor to Recommend Breathing Exercises?
This is the post where I engage with Sean Perron’s contention that biblical counselors should no recommend breathing exercises. The post shares over a dozen prompting discussion questions (PDQs) for a healthy public conversation about biblical counseling and embodied-soul practices.
2 CCEF Posts
Deep Breathing and Biblical Counseling
This post introduces Todd Todd Stryd’s Journal of Biblical Counseling article from 2018:
“Take a Deep Breath”— How Counseling Ministry Addresses the Body. Stryd teaches, and I agree, that, counseling ministry should not operate as a super-spiritual, hyper-cognitive way of meeting with and helping strugglers. In this CCEF article, Stryd addresses how we can minister to the embodied-soul comprehensively when dealing with issues such as anxiety, fear, worry, and depression.
Of Course, Biblical Counselors Counsel About the Body
In this post, I summarize how biblical counselor, Dr. Mike Emlet, of CCEF describes biblical/theological reasons why biblical counselors should address the whole person, body and soul—the embodied-soul. I also link directly to Mike’s Journal of Biblical Counseling article: A Biblical Rationale for Embodied Spiritual Practices.
3 Church History Posts
6 Lessons from a Depressed Puritan Pastor: Timothy Rogers
What can we learn from a depressed Puritan pastor about counseling people who are struggling with depression? The Puritan Pastor, Timothy Rogers, lived from 1658-1728. Rogers was a godly and competent pastor. On at least two occasions, each lasting an extended period of time, Rogers was overwhelmed by severe depression. Wisely, Rogers notes that there is danger, “That the bodily physician will look no further than the body, while the spiritual physician will totally disregard the body, and look only at the mind” (emphasis added).
Richard Baxter on Depression, Scrupulosity (OCD), and the Embodied-Soul
Christians today, including biblical counselors, can learn much from Richard Baxter’s comprehensive, holistic understanding of the cause of and care for depression and scrupulosity. Baxter consistently connected depression and scrupulosity to physiological causes. He also repeatedly encouraged soul physicians and spiritual friends to engage in physiological interventions to minister to those struggling with depression and scrupulosity.
Spurgeon’s Depression…And His Body/Brain/Embodied-Soul
Spurgeon did not believe that his many bouts of depression were simply spiritual problems. He saw his depression as an embodied-soul matter. In this post, I interact with a fascinating article from The Spurgeon Center at Midwestern Seminary: 11 Reasons Spurgeon Was Depressed.
4 Nouthetic Counseling Posts
Jay Adams on Embodied-Souls, Trauma, Neuroscience, and Physical Interventions
In February, 1992, Jay Adams gave a lecture on The Biblical Perspective on the Mind-Body Problem. That lecture was later published in a two-part series by The Journal of Biblical Ethics in Medicine. Adams delved into several interesting issues that remain extremely relevant now over thirty years later, including: avoiding dualistic gnostic thinking about the body, the body’s habituated responses to suffering and the brain’s storing of memories, being neuroscience informed, and physical interventions for progressive sanctification.
Jay Adams, Nouthetic Counseling, and Neuroscience
From the very beginning of his ministry, Jay Adams delved into and counseled people about physiological issues, including sleep, rest, diet, and more.
INC: Informed Nouthetic Counseling
This post documents historically how classic nouthetic counseling has always engaged with the science and neuroscience of their day to assist counselees via physiological interventions.
When a Biblical Counselor Battles Depression
This post collates primary source quotes from the very personal writings of biblical counselor Bob Somerville about his battle with depression, and about the physical causes and physiological interventions related to his depression and recovery.
3 Very Personal Posts
I’m Never More Christ-Dependent Than When I’m Doing Deep Breathing Exercises
In this very personal post, I share about my own process of embodied-soul care for myself. As I say in this post, “When I engage in deep breathing exercises, I am consciously acknowledging to myself and to my God that I am a jar of clay.” This post also introduces a biblical/theological case for using embodied-soul practices in biblical counseling.
Of Spirituality and Ice Cubes: A Psalm and a Palm
This is a follow-up on my post about deep breathing. It asks and answers the question: “What does the Bible say about the spirituality of physiological interventions in biblical counseling and in progressive sanctification?”
Anxiety and Our Physical Bodies
This post summarizes some thoughts from my Anxiety booklet—biblical principles I apply in my own life with my own struggles with anxiety. The post encourages biblical counselors and counselees to ask, “What physical and life-situational changes might you want to consider making in order to comprehensively address your struggles with anxiety, fear, and worry?”
5 Biblical Studies Posts
560 Biblical Passages on Embodied-Souls
The Bible comprehensively teaches that God created us as complex, interconnected, interrelated embodied-souls. This post collates 560 biblical passages about embodied-souls to develop a biblical theology of biblical counselors as soul physicians of embodied-souls.
Jesus: Soul Physician of Embodied-Souls
Jesus ministered to the whole person. As biblical counselors, if we minimize or neglect ministry to the whole person—to the embodied-soul—then we are not Jesus-like soul physicians. This post includes 102 Gospel passages (618 Gospel verses) where Jesus focused on ministering to, caring for, and healing the body—the embodied-soul.
The Gospels, Traumatic Suffering, and the Embodied-Soul: 50-Page Free PDF Resource
This post collates half-a-dozen posts on how Jesus focused on the embodied-soul. It includes a link to a free download of a 50-page PDF: The Gospels, Traumatic Suffering, and the Embodied-Soul.
Jesus, the perfect Shepherd, practiced what He preached. He rested His embodied-soul. This post contains a collation of four dozen Gospel passages depicting Jesus in solitude, rest, reflection, withdrawal from people, and prayer to His Father.
Talking to Our Soul Physician About Our Embodied-Soul
Psalm 42 teaches us about talking to our embodied-soul. In this post, we learn the following: “Don’t just let your body and emotions talk to you. Talk to God—your Soul Physician—about your embodied-soul. And then, in Christ, talk to your embodied-soul.”
8 Theological Posts
6 Biblical Counseling Convictions
What makes biblical counseling truly biblical? I describe my approach to biblical counseling as seeking to be a:
Gospel-centered/Christ-centered, theologically-saturated, relationship-focused, church history-informed, research-aware soul physician of embodied-souls.
Nature Yourself Calm: Consider Creation and the Creator’s Caring Control
Question: What prescription does our Soul Physician write for our anxieties and cares?
Answer: “Consider creation and the Creator.”
The Dangers of Integrating Secular Western Dualism into Biblical Counseling
In our desire to be biblical counselors, sometimes we overreact to the world, pulling the pendulum too far. The world often sees us as all body—the materialistic view. Sometimes we biblical counselors act as if we are all soul—the spiritualistic view, the idealistic view, the angelistic view. That perspective is more like secular Platonic thinking, more like unbiblical Gnostic thinking, more like secular Western dualistic thinking. The Bible calls biblical counselors to be soul physicians of embodied-souls who deal compassionately and comprehensively with the whole person.
Do Biblical Counselors Focus on the Soul, or on the Body, or on the Embodied-Soul?
What should garner the majority of a biblical counselor’s attention? The body? The soul? Or the embodied-soul? What does the Bible say?
Unity of Body and Soul: Embodied-Souls in Herman Bavinck
What did the great Reformed theologian, Herman Bavinck, teach about the Bible and ministry? “In Scripture, body and soul are always most intimately related, influencing one another and working together” (Herman Bavinck).
Comprehensive Biblical Counseling and the Body: Soul Physicians of Embodied-Souls
God’s all-sufficient Word provides us with the authoritative reason and motivation to focus on the whole person. As Paul Tripp notes, we must avoid unbiblical extremes. The world’s extreme is to “biologize” every issue. The biblical counseling counter-extreme is to “spiritualize” every issue. Biblically, we are soul physicians of embodied-souls.
Your Body, Your Suffering, and Your Pain Matter to God: Biblical Counseling and Your Body
Your body, your suffering, and your pain matter to the embodied, incarnate Son of God. Your body, your suffering, and your pain ought to matter to your biblical counselor.
The Bible clearly describes us as much more complex than simply volitional/choosing beings. We are complex, interactive beings. We are embodied-souls embedded-socially in a fallen world system under the prince of the power of the air (Satan). We are relational, spiritual, social, self-aware, rational, volitional, emotional, physical beings in fallen flesh in a fallen world, called to progressive, comprehensive sanctification that, biblically and theological, includes much more than just “emotional voluntarism” (feel right, do right, instantaneously by sheer willpower).
3 Neuroscience Posts
Can Biblical Counselors Be Committed to the Sufficiency of Scripture and Use Neuroscience Findings?
Biblically, what is the relationship between sufficiency of Scripture and neuroscience research in biblical counseling?
A Biblical Counseling Perspective on Neuroscience and the Soul
This link provides you with free access to download a 20-page manuscript of my 2006 ETS (Evangelical Theological Society) paper/presentation. This paper suggests that the history of soul care, historical Christian theology, scriptural exegesis, modern neuroscience, and biblical psychology/biblical counseling all unite to teach holistic functionalism—that we are embodied-souls.
Neurodiversity and Our Embodied-Souls: Ministry Insights and Applications
If we do any Christian ministry, then we would be wise to familiarize ourselves with current thinking on neurodiversity.
2 Collations
This post is for those of you who have an interest in an in-depth, robust biblical understanding of how God designed us as embodied-souls.
161 Resources for Counseling the Whole Person: Soul Physicians of Embodied-Souls
Here’s my collation, mentioned earlier in this post, of 161 free resources addressing what the Bible teach about biblical counseling, the body, the embodied-soul, traumatic-suffering, research, science, and neuroscience.
I read the book None of These Diseases years ago. I read the Bible first and was thrilled to see that God used ‘scientific’ or ‘medical’ information to prevent diseases. He, not Louie Pasteur, discovered the germ theory.
I feel rather foolish trying to write about something that escapes a clear description of the Creator of all things to ‘discover’ his creation.
Despite God revealing the germ theory to Moses and all the people, they failed to conclude it was a universal truth or pass it down to the following generations.
His instructions included specific counseling instructions about washing, building toilets, etc.