Affirmations and Denials: Embodied-Souls, Whole-Person Sanctification, and Psycho-Physiological Care (Physiological Interventions) in Biblical Counseling

 Soul Physicians of Embodied-Souls 

Questions, Questions, Questions… 

Is the following saying true or false?

“Physicians care for the body; biblical counselors care for the soul.”

These Affirmations and Denials seek to address that saying. They also seek to answer—from God’s all-sufficient Word—similarly important questions such as:

• Is it within the biblical counselor’s “lane” to address the soul and body—the embodied-soul?
• Are biblical counselors soul physicians of souls, or soul physicians of embodied-souls?
• Are “physiological interventions” (what this document calls “psycho-physiological care”) a legitimate aspect of faithful biblical counseling?
• Where exactly does the biblical counselor’s “lane” begin and end when counseling people God designed as embodied-souls?
• How does one determine where on a “continuum” of embodied-care a biblical counselor might veer off of their “lane”? Talking about stewardship of the body? Discussing presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice? Counsel about disciplining our body? Interactions about fasting or Sabbath rest? Engaging counselees about sleep, diet, exercise? Discussing gluttony or laziness? Conversing about relaxation, breathing, deep breathing exercises, progressive muscle relaxation, grounding exercises…?
• Are those examples even a “continuum,” or do they represent different categories entirely?

Questions like these are frequently discussed and commonly debated within our modern biblical counseling movement. And rightly so. They deserve our focused attention.

Answers: The Bible Is Sufficient to Equip Biblical Counselors to Be Competent Soul Physicians of Embodied-Souls 

The Bible comprehensively and authoritatively addresses embodied-soul care from Genesis through Revelation. We are not the first generation to explore the nature of the embodied-soul, not the first to examine whole-person sanctification, and not the first to provide “psycho-physiological care”—care for the intertwined body/soul. Theologians, pastors, and one-another ministers have wrestled with these issues for two-thousand years.

This document—Affirmations and Denials: Embodied-Souls, Whole-Person Sanctification, and Psycho-Physiological Care (Physiological Interventions) in Biblical Counseling—speaks to these issues biblically, theologically, and historically (church history). This document is built on one primary affirmation:

We affirm that the Bible is sufficient to equip biblical counselors to be competent soul physicians of embodied-souls.

Of course, most biblical counselors would affirm that statement. The disagreement is in the details. This document dives deeply into those details. 

You’re Invited! 

You’re reading “Draft 1.0” of Affirmations and Denials related to embodied-soul care in biblical counseling. Though I’ve examined a biblical-theological anthropology of the embodied-soul for over four decades, this is the first time I’m collating that extensive study into a set of affirmations and denials.

I invite your iron-sharpening feedback to help this first-draft document best reflect a biblical, theological, and historical statement on embodied-souls, whole-person sanctification, and psycho-physiological care (physiological interventions). I echo David Powlison’s words about his Affirmations & Denials: A Proposed Definition of Biblical Counseling.

“They are also up for criticism, debate, and refinement. This is a proposal, a current best effort. I sincerely believe it can be improved” (25, emphasis in the original).

I’d outline these Affirmations and Denials in the following manner:

• Definition of Terms: Affirmations and Denials #1-2
• Biblical-Theological Foundations: Affirmations and Denials #3-5
• Biblical Counseling Identity and Implications: Affirmations and Denials #6-7

We start by answering the question, What do we mean? That allows us to speak the same language and avoids talking past one another. Then we move to the vital concern, What is our authority? Here we’ll focus on the sufficiency of Scripture as our foundation for addressing whole-person ministry. We finish with the question, What does this mean for biblical counseling practice?

After these seven Affirmations and Denials, you will find a substantive section called, The Biblical, Theological, and Historical Foundation for The Affirmations and Denials. The Affirmations and Denials provide my conclusions. The biblical, theological, and historical material generated these Affirmations and Denials. Combined, they provide the detailed documentation you need to assess the evidence for yourself as a “good Berean” who examines the Scriptures to test the validity of these Affirmations and Denials (Acts 17:11).

As soul physicians of embodied-souls, we affirm and deny the following biblical convictions about embodied-souls, whole-person sanctification, and psycho-physiological care (physiological interventions) in biblical counseling.

Affirmation and Denial #1: Definitions—On the Embodied-Soul 

Affirmations 

We affirm that throughout church history theologians have used various terms to communicate the biblical truth of the intricate interconnection of body and soul, including embodied-soul, ensouled-body, biblical holism, holistic functionalism, duplexity (Jay Adams), holistic dualism, psycho-physical unity, and psycho-somatic whole (many, including Jay Adams and David Powlison). We have chosen primarily to use embodied-soul, with a precise theological anthropology definition provided in the next affirmation.

We affirm the Bible’s theological anthropology of embodied-souls, including this working definition of the embodied-soul:

God fearfully and wonderfully created us as a comprehensive, complex unity of body/soul—embodied-soul—intimately intertwined and intricately linked with a continual interaction, interconnection, and mutual ongoing effect flowing bidirectionally between our body/soul.

We affirm that the Bible alone (sola scriptura) provides the inspired, inerrant, comprehensive  Creation/Fall/Redemption/Consummation understanding of the embodied soul:

• Creation: How God fearfully and wonderfully designed us as embodied-souls.
• Fall: How our fall into sin impacts us as embodied-souls.
• Redemption: How our redemption in Christ impacts us as embodied-souls.
• Consummation: The nature of our eternal hope in Christ as embodied-souls.

We affirm the biblical-theological anthropology presented in the Biblical Counseling Coalition Confessional Statement. “Biblical counseling must be comprehensive in understanding. We believe that biblical counseling should focus on the full range of human nature created in the image of God (Genesis 1:26-28). A comprehensive biblical understanding sees human beings as relational (spiritual and social), rational, volitional, emotional, and physical. Wise counseling takes the whole person seriously in his or her whole life context.”

We affirm that every intervention/act of care engages the whole person and potentially impacts both body and soul because of the scriptural truth of the intricate, intimate, intertwined nature of how God designed image bearers.

We affirm that faithful biblical counselors are soul physicians of embodied-souls, and, therefore, comprehensive care includes the intentional application of biblical truth to every dimension of embodied life.

Denials

We deny materialistic reductionism—the view that we are only body/brain and that the material realm is ultimate—which leads to biologizing issues.

We deny spiritualistic reductionism—which functions as though people were merely souls and which spiritualizes issues by minimizing or neglecting the intricate body-soul connection.

We deny the integration of Platonic dualism into biblical counseling with its unbiblical teaching that the immaterial realm is perfect and is superior to the imperfect material realm—which functionally leads to prioritizing ministry to the soul, rather than focusing ministry on the whole person.

We deny that verbal ministry that functionally treats people as disembodied souls adequately reflects Scripture’s doctrine of humanity or adequately provides comprehensive biblical embodied-soul care.

Affirmation and Denial #2: Definitions—On Psycho-Physiological Whole-Person Care and Physiological Interventions 

Affirmations 

We affirm that the term “psycho-physiological care” more accurately captures the comprehensive nature of whole-person embodied-soul ministry than the phrase “physiological interventions.”

We affirm the following overlapping biblical-theological-historical definitions of psycho-physiological care (physiological interventions):

1. Psycho-physiological care is the intentional biblical ministry of comprehensively and compassionately caring for the whole person. It recognizes Scripture’s teaching on the reciprocal relationship between body/soul and, therefore, ministers wisely to the embodied-soul.

2. Psycho-physiological care is the biblical ministry of applying God’s Word to the whole person based upon the recognition that Scripture regularly calls believers to embodied practices that foster progressive sanctification.

3. Psycho-physiological care involves ordinary, non-medical embodied practices employed as ministry to embodied-souls in dependence upon the Lord and submission to Scripture by attending wisely to the combined and intertwined material and immaterial dimensions of the person.

We affirm a variety of terms and concepts that help capture a theological anthropology of caring for the whole person: “psycho-physiological care,” “psycho-somatic care” (a term Adams and Powlison both used), “whole-person care,” “embodied-sanctification,” “embodied-soul progressive sanctification,” “embodied-soul care,” “embodied spiritual practices/disciplines,” and “physiological interventions.”

We affirm that psycho-physiological care is not a technique applied to a body as though the body were separable from the soul. It is biblically-governed, relational, compassionate whole-person care that wisely stewards the interactive nature of the body/soul. The language of “care” better reflects the biblical shepherding relationship than language that could suggest the isolated application of a technique or intervention.

We affirm that interventions ostensibly aimed at the body are not merely physical. God designed body and soul to interact intricately, reciprocally, and continuously—the soul interacts with and impacts the body; the body interacts with and impacts the soul.

We affirm that psycho-physiological care is one aspect of comprehensive embodied-soul care, not the primary or exclusive focus of biblical counseling.

Denials 

We deny that any intervention or act of care should be understood as only or exclusively targeting just the soul/mind/inner person, or just the body/brain/outer person.

We deny that addressing the biblical importance of the body prioritizes the body over the soul, or makes psycho-physiological care the primary focus of biblical counseling, or that biblical psycho-physiological care (physiological intervention) reduces people to their physiology.

We deny that psycho-physiological care involves mere techniques applied to the body in isolation from the soul.

We deny that biblical psycho-physiological care is built upon or dependent upon secular “bio-psychiatry,” neurology, science, or trauma theory.

We deny, with David Powlison, that secular “bio-psychiatry” can explain who we actually are.

We deny that our soul is simply a by-product of our material brain/body.

Affirmation and Denial #3: On the Sufficiency of Scripture and Embodied-Soul Care 

Affirmations 

We affirm the sufficiency of Scripture as the final and ultimate authority for biblical counseling—the personal ministry of the Word.

We affirm that Scripture alone governs our comprehensive ministry to the whole person according to a biblical theological anthropology of embodied-souls.

We affirm that Scripture alone governs our understanding and use of psycho-physiological care (physiological interventions) for whole-person sanctification and embodied-soul care.

We affirm that psycho-physiological care for embodied-souls aligns with the teachings of God’s all-sufficient Word.

We affirm that psycho-physiological care for embodied-souls stands in continuity with historic Christian pastoral theology, pastoral counseling, pastoral care, and congregational one-another ministry.

Denials 

We deny that embodied-soul psycho-physiological care diminishes the sufficiency of Scripture since the practice of such care is founded on Scripture.

We deny the independent authority of extra-biblical information, believing instead that the Bible is sufficient to teach us how to evaluate and engage with extra-biblical information.

We deny the exclusion of every use of extra-biblical information, believing that by precept and practice the Bible teaches us how to evaluate, engage with, and potentially incorporate (or exclude) extra-biblical information about the interaction between body/soul.

Affirmation and Denial #4: On the Theologically-Saturated Foundation of Embodied-Soul Care and Psycho-Physiological Care 

Affirmations 

We affirm a three-fold foundation for embodied-soul ministry and psycho-physiological care: biblical, theological, and historical (church history).

Biblical: We affirm the Bible’s comprehensive teaching—by precept and practice (contained in at least 560 passages)—about embodied-souls and whole-person psycho-physiological care.

Theological: We affirm that comprehensive biblical change requires comprehensive biblical counseling grounded in a robust Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Consummation theological anthropology of the embodied-soul.

Historical: We affirm the consistent witness of church history to embodied-soul care through psycho-physiological care.

We affirm the Creation Mandate’s call for image bearers to progressively develop and apply knowledge of God’s creation to whole-person care (Genesis 1:26-28). Scripture does not teach that Christians are limited to knowledge of the created order available in biblical times. Jesus did not teach His disciples how to develop penicillin, but His silence does not make later use of it unbiblical. Christ did not circumvent the Creation Mandate; He left image bearers with the ongoing calling to study, understand, and wisely steward God’s creation.

We affirm that all faithful biblical counseling is necessarily embodied-soul ministry and, therefore, always has psycho-physiological implications because God designed image bearers not merely as souls, not merely as bodies, but as intricately interwoven, interconnected, interacting embodied-souls.

Denials 

We deny that embodied-soul psycho-physiological care finds its foundation, motivation, or legitimacy in secular psychology, modern neuroscience, or bio-psychiatry.

We deny that a biblical, theological, and historical approach to embodied-soul whole-person ministry using psycho-physiological care constitutes borrowing a competing counseling system or adopting a secular anthropology.

We deny that a biblical, theological, and historical approach to embodied-soul whole-person ministry using psycho-physiological care is a novel, modern development.

We deny that Paul’s statement in 1 Timothy 4:8 implies that ministry to the body/embodied-soul is of minimal importance. Instead, Paul teaches and models (1 Timothy 5:23) that bodily care, whether in the form of training, exercise, diet, or bodily discipline, is valuable, useful, and beneficial for this present life.

We deny that the use of psycho-physiological care previously unavailable implies that God withheld necessary truth for life and godliness from His people until the present age. Rather, advances in our understanding of God’s created world—including the body, brain, and their interrelationships—are not additions to God’s special revelation, but are part of humanity’s ongoing calling to fulfill the Creation Mandate to study, steward, and develop God’s creation.

Affirmation and Denial #5: On the Place of Psycho-Physiological Care Within Whole-Person Sanctification 

Affirmations 

We affirm that Scripture authoritatively defines the person (theological anthropology), authoritatively defines the goal (whole-person progressive sanctification), and authoritatively provides the governing principles (whole-person stewardship). Biblically-governed case wisdom applies these authoritative truths to specific people and particular embodied circumstances, including appropriate psycho-physiological care.

We affirm that progressive sanctification is whole-person sanctification. God sanctifies us as embodied-souls. Therefore, biblical counseling seeks to help the whole person become whole in Christ—our whole life increasingly reflecting the life of Christ.

We affirm that Scripture describes our sanctification as embodied: presenting our bodies to God, yielding our bodily members as instruments of righteousness, disciplining our bodies, and glorifying God with our bodies.

We affirm that embodied-sanctification practices are biblically-wise, embodied responses by which God’s people participate in progressive sanctification according to Scripture’s pattern of addressing the whole person.

We affirm that whole-person sanctification includes whole-person stewardship. Because our bodies belong to God and are temples of the Holy Spirit, believers are called to steward their bodies wisely, gratefully, dependently, and purposefully for God’s glory.

We affirm that psycho-physiological care is one legitimate, subordinate aspect of whole-person stewardship within progressive sanctification. Wise bodily care does not bypass the soul or automatically sanctify. Rather, it recognizes that God designed us as an intricately interconnected unity of body and soul and seeks to serve the larger purposes of faith, love, obedience, and increasing conformity to Christ.

We affirm that verbal biblical counsel, implemented as one part of God’s overall means of grace, is sufficient for comprehensive, whole-person, ongoing change—progressive sanctification.

Denials

We deny that progressive sanctification is a soul-only, heart-only, or disembodied process in which the body is incidental to sanctification or outside the proper concern of biblical counseling.

We deny that psycho-physiological care automatically produces sanctification, that physiological regulation or symptom relief is itself sanctification, or that immediate bodily relief is the ultimate goal of biblical counseling.

We deny that whole-person stewardship and psycho-physiological care compete with, diminish, bypass, or replace the personal ministry of the Word, dependence upon Christ, heart change, or the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit.

We deny that Scripture must specifically name every particular application of whole-person stewardship for that application to be biblically permissible or wise. Biblical case wisdom applies Scripture’s authoritative anthropology, sanctification truths, and embodied stewardship principles to particular people, problems, and embodied circumstances.

Affirmation and Denial #6: On Our Identity and Ministry as Embodied-Soul Care Givers 

Affirmations 

We affirm that the Bible, by precept and practice, teaches and models that it is the Christian’s “lane” to minister to the whole person—the embodied-soul. Scripture repeatedly portrays God, Christ, and God’s people providing psycho-physiological care (1 Kings 19:1–9; Matthew 10:42; 25:31–46; 1 Timothy 4:8; 1 Timothy 5:23; James 5:14). Therefore, soul physicians of embodied-souls are not “operating outside their lane” when they provide biblically appropriate psycho-physiological care.

We affirm the apostle Paul’s theological anthropology applied to ministry in Romans 6–12. Paul refuses to separate what God has united—the embodied-soul. Paul does not say, “renew your mind” or “present your body.” Instead, he presents the surrendered body and renewed mind as mutually reinforcing dimensions of sanctification. Paul seamlessly unites the verbal ministry of the Word, the soul, and the body—not as competing ministries, but as inseparable aspects of counsel about progressive sanctification.

We affirm, with Jay Adams and David Powlison, that the following statement is simplistic and unbiblical: “Physicians care for the body; biblical counselors care for the soul.” Adams rejected as “simplistic categorization” the view that “the nonorganic is the province of the pastor; the organic is the province of the physician” (The Christian Counselor’s Manual, 438). Likewise, Powlison rejected this way of describing biblical counseling because “it over-bifurcates soul and body.”

We affirm that throughout the Bible, and throughout church history, pastors and one-another ministers provided comprehensive care that blended the personal ministry of the Word (pastoral counseling, one-another ministry) and the everyday ministry of shepherding and caring for the whole person, including psycho-physiological care (pastoral care, one-another care, diaconate, mercy ministries, etc.).

We affirm that a biblical counselor’s primary identity is a “shepherd-discipler” caring for the whole person, not a “talk therapist in an office” caring only for the immaterial dimension of the person.

Denials 

We deny the idea that pastoral care and counseling must only involve spoken ministry focused only on the soul. That view is an impoverished version of biblical ministry that capitulates to and imbibes a modernist, secular, professionalized, psychotherapeutic model of talk therapy.

We deny that practicing comprehensive embodied-soul care, including psycho-physiological care, implies that verbal biblical counsel is insufficient for comprehensive change or implies that something must be added to the personal ministry of the Word.

We deny that verbal counsel that minimizes whole-person embodied-soul care can consistently produce comprehensive biblical change because it is built on an inadequate theological anthropology.

We deny that engaging in biblical non-medical psycho-physiological care implies that biblical counselors begin functioning as healthcare providers.

We deny that true shepherds and true one-another ministers should say, “I’m just your counselor. I only take care of your soul.”

Affirmation and Denial #7: On Biblical and Historical Examples of the Continuum of Psycho-Physiological Care 

Affirmations 

We affirm not only that psycho-physiological care is permissible in biblical counseling; we also affirm that faithful biblical ministry has historically included psycho-physiological whole-person care.

We affirm that particular embodied practices possess differing kinds and degrees of explicit biblical warrant. Some practices are explicitly commanded, instituted, commended, modeled, or counseled in Scripture. Others are biblically permissible wisdom applications of Scripture’s theological anthropology, theology of sanctification, and principles of whole-person stewardship.

We affirm that Scripture presents and commends a broad range of embodied practices within worship, discipleship, sanctification, and comprehensive whole-person care. These include explicitly biblical spiritual practices such as fasting, Sabbath rest, and embodied worship,  as well as ordinary bodily stewardship and care involving such matters as diet, sleep and rest, physical exercise, illness and bodily weakness, and meeting material needs.

We affirm that church history and the history of the modern biblical counseling movement provide numerous examples of Christians applying biblical principles of whole-person psycho-physiological care to particular embodied needs. The following examples are illustrative, not exhaustive. The purpose is to provide a biblical-theological framework for evaluating psycho-physiological practices, not to produce an exhaustive catalog of approved or disapproved practices. These historic whole-person practices include a continuum from offering the body as an act of worship, glorifying God with the body, stewardship of the body, disciplining the body, fasting, Sabbath rest, sleep and rest, diet and exercise, attending to bodily weakness, seeking medical care, adjusting routines and activities, recreation and restorative activities, relaxation practices, deep breathing exercises, progressive muscle relaxation, grounding exercises, and similar psycho-physiological activities, practices, and homework. These historical examples can inform our wisdom and demonstrate that attention to embodied care is neither novel nor foreign to Christian shepherding, while never possessing the authority of Scripture.

We affirm that biblically-governed case wisdom may apply Scripture’s authoritative teaching concerning embodied-souls, sanctification, and stewardship to particular psycho-physiological practices not specifically named in Scripture. Such practices should be evaluated individually and contextually according to Scripture, and informed by peer-reviewed science, including consideration of the particular person, problem, purpose, embodied circumstance, and relevant common-grace knowledge.

We affirm the need for biblical counselors to develop appropriate competency in any area of psycho-physiological care they recommend or employ, whether through biblical-theological study, biblical counseling training, or informed training in that physiological area. The level of competency should be proportionate to the nature and complexity of the care being provided.

Denials

We deny that all psycho-physiological practices possess the same kind or degree of biblical warrant simply because they involve bodily care, bodily stewardship, or produce physiological benefits.

We deny that the explicit biblical warrant or case wisdom of one embodied practice establishes the biblical legitimacy or wisdom of another embodied practice. Identifying a practice as “psycho-physiological care” does not render that practice biblically legitimate. Each proposed practice must be evaluated individually under the authority and sufficiency of Scripture, and informed by peer-reviewed science.

We deny that historical precedent—from church history or the modern biblical counseling movement—possesses biblical authority or, by itself, establishes the legitimacy of a particular psycho-physiological practice.

We deny that the discovery or use of a psycho-physiological practice within a non-Christian worldview, by itself, establishes either its biblical illegitimacy or its biblical legitimacy.

We deny that disagreement concerning the biblical wisdom, scientific validity, or appropriate use of a particular psycho-physiological practice invalidates the broader biblical category of psycho-physiological care. Christians may legitimately debate which particular practices are scientifically sound and biblically wise while affirming that biblically-governed care for the body belongs within comprehensive care for embodied-souls.

Additional Resources 

In addition to the extensive biblical, theological, and historical foundations presented later, the following resources provide further support for these affirmations and denials:

Biblical-Theological Foundation 

• “Feed My Sheep”: The Biblical, Theological, and Historical Basis for Whole-Person Embodied-Soul Care
• Yes, I’m Christ-Dependent When I’m Doing Deep Breathing Exercises
• Of Spirituality and Ice Cubes: A Psalm and a Palm
• 6 Biblical Counseling Convictions
• Gospel-Centered Counseling: How Christ Changes Lives
• Jesus: Soul Physicians of Embodied-Souls
• The Gospels, Traumatic Suffering, and the Embodied-Soul
• The New Testament Church Regularly Provided Practical Care for and Counseling About the Body: 432 Verses from Acts to Revelation
• Do Biblical Counselors Focus on the Soul, or on the Body, or on the Embodied-Soul?
• 10 Questions About Biblical Counseling and Neuroscience: Becoming Soul-Physicians of Embodied-Souls
• Fearfully and Wonderfully Made: Becoming Soul Physicians of Embodied-Souls
• David Powlison,  Slow Growth
• Mike Emlet, A Biblical Rationale for Embodied Spiritual Practices
• Todd Stryd, “Take a Deep Breath”— How Counseling Ministry Addresses the Body

Collated Lists of Resources 

• 560 Biblical Passages on Embodied-Souls
• 161 Resources for Counseling the Whole Person: Soul Physicians of Embodied-Souls
• 60 Christian Books on the Body and Soul (Embodied-Soul): “Theological Anthropology”—A Biblical View of Humanity
• 21 Resources on the Bible and Physiological Interventions in Biblical Counseling
• Should Biblical Counselors Counsel About the Body?: 32 Resources 

Historical-Theological Retrieval 

• Spurgeon’s Depression…And His Body/Brain/Embodied-Soul
• Richard Baxter on Depression, Scrupulosity (OCD), and the Embodied-Soul
• 6 Lessons from a Depressed Puritan Pastor: Timothy Rogers
• When a Biblical Counselor Battles Depression
• Modern Biblical Counseling Is a Shrunken Version of Historical Pastoral Care
• Jay Adams on Embodied-Souls, Trauma, Neuroscience, Sanctification, and Physical Interventions
• What Did Jay Adams Believe and Practice Regarding Physiological Interventions in Biblical Counseling?
• David Powlison, Deep Breathing Exercises, and Biblical Counseling 

The Heart of the Matter: Caring for the Whole Person 

The central issue is not whether biblical counselors should focus on physiological interventions. We should not. We focus on the whole person—the embodied-soul. Because God created us as embodied-souls, faithful biblical counselors seek to provide theologically-saturated, compassionate, comprehensive whole-person ministry.

Psycho-physiological care is one aspect of that comprehensive care. As soul physicians of embodied-souls, we seek to follow Christ’s call to feed His sheep by ministering God’s all-sufficient Word wisely to the whole person God fearfully and wonderfully made.

These Affirmations and Denials arise not from science, neuroscience, bio-psychiatry, or trauma-informed therapy. Instead, they arise from biblical exegesis and theological anthropology, and are informed by church history. We turn our attention now to those three categories of support for these Affirmations and Denials: biblical, theological, and historical.

The Biblical, Theological, and Historical Foundation for the Affirmations and Denials 

I derived these summary Affirmations and Denials from the following biblical, theological, and historical foundations. As I used these biblical passages, theological concepts, and historical retrievals to develop my affirmations and denials, so you can use these materials both to assess my conclusions and to develop your own convictions about the role of psycho-physiological whole-person care in biblical counseling.

Think of these as concepts leading toward a biblical, theological, and historical foundation. There are at least 560 biblical passages (passages, not just verses) about embodied-souls. So the following “brief samplers” simply seek to provide a beginning summary upon which any biblical counselor could build a model of psycho-physiological care for embodied-souls.

Biblical Foundations: It Is Biblical to Offer Psycho-Physiological Care: A Brief Sampler

It is biblical to offer psycho-physiological care as part of pastoral/congregational care and counseling. What follows is a brief sampler of biblical passages regarding the Bible’s call for comprehensive, compassionate care for the body—the embodied-soul.

1. 560 Biblical Passages on the Embodied-Soul 

The Bible has a comprehensive theological anthropology of the intricate, intimate, interrelated interaction between the body and soul. No one has ever ministered only to the soul because there is no such thing as a living disembodied soul. All biblical ministry is ministry to the whole person—body and soul. See: 560 Biblical Passages on the Embodied-Soul.

2. 102 Gospel Passages; 618 Gospel Verses on Jesus and the Whole Person

Jesus ministered to the body. Jesus ministered to the whole person—the embodied-soul. Jesus came to heal the sin-sick soul. The Gospels make abundantly and consistently clear that Jesus came to heal not only the spiritually sick, but also the physically sick. If you want to be a soul physician like Jesus, then be a soul physician of the embodied-soul. See: Jesus: Soul Physician of Embodied-Souls.

3. 48 Gospel Passages on Bodily Rest

Jesus models the importance of relief and rest for the embodied-body. The same Jesus who said that in Him we will find rest for our souls (Matthew 11:28-30) also recognized, modeled, and taught the embodied necessity of rest, renewal, withdrawal, solitude, and Sabbath. No matter how spiritually mature we are, our bodies are finite and frail, and we require embodied rest and embodied ministry. See: 48 Gospel Passages about Jesus and Embodied-Soul Renewal.

4. 103 Biblical Passages; 432 Biblical Verses on the Body of Christ and Our Physical Body 

The New Testament church never neglected or minimized ministry to the body. The New Testament church focused on comprehensive care for the body. If we want to be biblical counselors like the New Testament church, then we must care for and counsel about the body, not just the soul. See: The New Testament Church Regularly Provided Practical Care for and Counseling About the Body: 432 Verses from Acts to Revelation.

5. Exodus 20:8-11; Leviticus 11, 13-15, 17, 21, 22; Numbers 5; 19; Deuteronomy 14, 23

The law addresses physical health, physical rest, and psycho-physiological care. True biblical counselors who counsel like the Bible and from the Bible will counsel about the embodied-soul.

6. 1 Samuel 1:7-18; 16:15-16, 23; 1 Kings 19:3-9; Psalm 3:4-6; 4:8; 16:8-9; 34:5; 73:26; 131:2; Proverbs 3:1-2, 7-8, 15-18, 21-22; 4:4-6, 10-13; 9:11; 14:30; 17:22; Ecclesiastes 9:7-9

The Bible provides counsel about the impact of wise living on the embodied-soul. True biblical counselors who counsel like the Bible and from the Bible will inevitably counsel about the embodied-soul.

7. 1 Kings 19:1-9

God responded to Elijah’s fear and depression with embodied ministry: food, drink, and rest. If we want to minister to suffering saints in ways that follow how God ministers to His children, then we will not minimize ministry to the whole person.

8. Psalm 23:1-3

Our Shepherd cares for us body and soul. “The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul.”

9. Proverbs 5:11-12, 23; 6:12-15; 8:35-36; 10:27; 14:30; 17:22; 20:1; 23:20-21, 29-35; 1 Corinthians 3:16-17; 6:18; Galatians 6:7-8

The Bible provides counsel about the impact of unwise living on the embodied-soul. True biblical counselors who counsel like the Bible and from the Bible will counsel about and address both body and soul—the embodied-soul.

10. Jonah 4:6-9

God provided embodied ministry for angry Jonah—“shade for his head to ease his discomfort” (Jonah 4:6). If we want to minister to sinning saints in ways that follow how God ministers to His children, then we will not minimize ministry to the body—including psycho-physiological care.

11. Matthew 4:11; Mark 1:13; Luke 22:43

God provided physiological strengthening for Jesus in the Wilderness and in the Garden. Neither Jesus’s “It is written,” nor His “Your will be done,” eliminated His need for physical strengthening.

12. Matthew 6:2-4

Jesus assumes that every disciple will engage in giving to the needy. “So when you give to the needy.” Church history called this “almsdeeds.” God will reward His children for meeting the temporal physical needs of their brothers and sisters.

13. Matthew 6:11

Jesus teaches that the meeting of our immediate, daily physical needs is central to God’s nature and central to our God-dependence. “Give us today our daily bread.”

14. Matthew 10:42

Ministering to the body is so important that Christ ties our eternal spiritual reward to our embodied ministry. “And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones who is my disciple, truly I tell you, that person will certainly not lose their reward.”

15. Matthew 25:31-46

The Shepherd’s true sheep lovingly, gladly, humbly, and sacrificially offer embodied ministry. “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me” (Matthew 25:34-36).

16. Matthew 26:41

Jesus recognizes and takes into account the body’s role in our spirituality. “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

17. Matthew 26:36-39; Mark 14:36-39; Luke 22:44; John 12:27

Jesus suffered in Gethsemane as an embodied-soul. Jesus, in responding to the ultimate suffering of His impending crucifixion, had an intense embodied-soul response. He was sorrowful, troubled, deeply distressed, and His soul was overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death (Matthew 26:36-39; Mark 14:32-38; John 12:27). Being in soul anguish, His sweat was like drops of blood (Luke 22:44). His reaction was a whole person comprehensive, complex body/soul response.

18. Luke 10:25-37

The fruit of our salvation displays itself in mercy ministries. Jesus’s Parable of the Good Samaritan should silence the false idea that bodily relief ministry is sub-biblical or sub-Christian.

19. 1 Timothy 4:8

The New Testament values bodily exercise and physical training, seeing them as profitable and useful during our time on earth. “For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.” Paul explicitly explains that physical care of the body has value in this life.

20. 1 Timothy 5:23

The New Testament presents the validity of mentors recommending physical interventions for embodied-souls. “Stop drinking only water, and use a little wine because of your stomach and your frequent illnesses.” Paul’s biblical counsel includes a specific physiological intervention. He did not deem it irrelevant, unimportant, or sub-biblical to counsel about the body.

21. James 1:27

Spirituality that pleases the Father is embodied spirituality. “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”

22. James 2:15-16

The Bible highlights the hypocrisy and futility of ignoring the relief of immediate physical needs. “Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it?”

23. James 5:14

The New Testament commands pastors/elders to use the medicinal means and physical interventions current in their day. See Jay Adams’s interpretation and application of James 5:14 to pastors, elders, and biblical counselors.

24. 1 John 3:16-18

The fruit of our salvation displays itself in meeting the immediate physical needs of our brothers and sisters. “If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.”

A Biblical Summary

Scripture does not view shepherding as a “technique,” or an “intervention.” Instead, the Bible presents shepherding as wise, relational, embodied ministry focused on comprehensive, compassionate care under the affectionate sovereignty of the Good Shepherd.

True shepherds and true one-another ministers will never say, “I’m just your counselor. I only take care of your soul.” True shepherds and true one-another ministers say, “I’m seeking to care like Christ by ministering to you compassionately and comprehensively as a whole person, as an embodied-soul.” Soul physicians are not “operating outside their lane” when they minister psycho-physiological care to embodied-souls. 

Theological Foundations: It Is Theological to Offer Psycho-Physiological Care: A Brief Sampler

It is theological to offer psycho-physiological care as part of pastoral/congregational care and counseling. What follows is a brief sampler of theological truths about comprehensive, compassionate care for the body—the embodied-soul. The Bible provides a Creation, Fall, Redemption, Consummation (CFRC) theology of embodied-soul ministry.

1. Theological Anthropology and the Embodied-Soul

God fearfully and wonderfully designed us as a comprehensive, complex unity of body/soul—embodied-soul—inseparably and intimately intertwined and intricately linked with a continual interaction, interconnection, and mutual ongoing effect flowing bidirectionally between our body/soul. All true ministry is always embodied-soul ministry.

2. Theological Anthropology and the Anatomy of the Embodied-Soul

God designed us relational (spiritual, social, self-aware) beings, as rational beings, as volitional beings, as emotional beings, and as physical beings. True biblical ministry ministers to the whole person—soul/body.

In the rest of this section, we’ll identify biblical theological truth about the Creation, Fall, Redemption, Consummation (CFRC) of the embodied-soul.

3. Genesis 1:26-28 (Creation)

In the Creation Mandate, God calls us to be His under-shepherds/under-scientists who rule over His physical creation. It is God’s will that humanity engages in the progressive development of stewardship over creation—to His glory and for our good.

4. Genesis 1:31 (Creation)

God calls our embodiment “very good.”

5. Genesis 2:7 (Creation)

God designed us so that body and soul are inseparably intertwined.

6. Psalm 51; Romans 6:1-14; 1 Corinthians 6:13-17 (Fall)

We sin as embodied-souls.

7. Matthew 5:29-30 (Redemption)

We are to steward our bodies in holiness.

8. Matthew 6:19-23 (Creation)

God’s all-sufficient Word teaches that both “heart” and “body” represent the whole person. This is why Jesus, when discussing storing up treasures (Matthew 6:19-20), uses both the “heart” (Matthew 6:21) and the “body” (Matthew 6:22-23) to illustrate the essence of the whole person.

9. Romans 6:12 (Redemption)

God commands us not to let sin reign in our bodies. This is soma, the New Testament word for the physical body, not sarx, which is the New Testament word that focuses on the sinful, fallen orientation of the whole person.

10. Romans 6:13 (Redemption)

God commands us to yield the members (melos which is any part of the physical body) of our bodies as instruments of righteousness. Sanctification is embodied.

11. Romans 8:13 (Redemption)

God directs us to put to death the deeds of the body (soma). Our sanctification is embodied.

12. Romans 8:18-27 (Fall/Consummation)

Because we live in fallen, finite bodies in a fallen, sinful world, our embodied-souls will continue to groan our entire lives until glorification. While we can, in Christ, experience progressive embodied-soul healing in this life, our final healing awaits our future glorification (Romans 7:25; Romans 8:18-27; 1 Thessalonians 5:23).

13. Romans 12:1-2 (Redemption)

We are to offer our bodies (soma) as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is our true and proper worship. Our sanctification is embodied.

14. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (Redemption)

Our bodies (soma) are the temple of the Holy Spirit, and we are to glorify God with our bodies and through the stewardship of our bodies.

15. 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 (Redemption)

We are to discipline our bodies (soma). Paul uses his understanding of the athletic training of his day as a foundation and model for counseling believers how to discipline (hypōpiazō, a word Paul derived directly from the boxing arena of his day) their bodies (soma). Our sanctification is embodied.

16. 1 Corinthians 10:31 (Redemption)

Our daily physical lives are an opportunity to glorify God in even the seemingly most “mundane” and material/physical of activities—like glorifying God through our eating and drinking.

17. 1 Corinthians 15:1-58 (Consummation)

The Bible repeatedly insists that our final glorification will not involve disembodied spirits but rather, embodied-souls.

18. 2 Corinthians 1:8-9 (Fall/Redemption)

The New Testament illustrates the ongoing impact of suffering on our embodied-soul. Paul’s traumatic suffering lingered with him long after the event itself, and ongoing healing required embodied-soul dependence upon Christ’s resurrection power.

19. 2 Corinthians 4:7-10; 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 (Fall/Redemption)

The New Testament illustrates the ongoing impact of suffering on our embodied-soul. We are jars of clay. While our inner person can find rest in the Lord, our outer person will always fight an ongoing battle with the impact of sin and suffering on our embodied-soul.

20. 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 (Fall/Redemption)

The New Testament teaches the relationship between our bodily weakness, our emotional/spiritual weakness, and Christ’s grace and strength.

21. Galatians 2:20 (Redemption)

It is in the life we now live in the body through which we live by faith in the Son of God.

22. 1 Thessalonians 4:3-4 (Redemption)

Our sanctification includes learning how to control our bodies in a way that is holy and honorable. Biblical counseling will, therefore, address the body.

23. 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 (Redemption/Consummation)

Our embodied-soul is vital in our present sanctification and in our future glorification. “May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you completely. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.”

24. Revelation 7:17; Revelation 21:4; Revelation 22:1-5; John 16:33; 1 Corinthians 15:50-57 (Fall/Redemption/Consummation)

While we can experience peace in Christ, in this world we will have trouble and trauma (John 16:33) that leads to emotional and physical distress (Revelation 7:17; Revelation 21:4) until that future day when all suffering and sorrow, decay and death, are swept away forever (1 Corinthians 15:50-57; Revelation 22:1-5).

A Theological Summary

Biblical care and counseling that is theologically-saturated will provide both for the ongoing progressive sanctification needs of the person and for their immediate relief needs—including physical, material, embodied needs. It will address the whole person by being aware of and ministering to psycho-physiological issues.

Historical Foundations: It Is Historical to Offer Psycho-Physiological Care: A Brief Sampler

Biblical counselors are theologically-saturated—we build our model of understanding and helping people on biblical exegesis and theological anthropology. Biblical counselors are also church history-informed. Historical retrieval is a catalyst for us to assess our current beliefs and practices in light of that great cloud of witnesses who have gone before us. All those who desire to claim the mantle of “historical biblical counselor” must look not only to the past fifty years, but to the past two-thousand years.

What does church history say about psycho-physiological care for embodied-souls? Throughout church history, pastors and parishioners, pastoral counselors and deacons—the entire body of Christ—have always offered psycho-physiological care for the whole person. Here are eight historical samplers: the first four from “ancient” and Reformed church history, and the next four from the modern nouthetic biblical counseling movement.

Church History Sampler #1: “Food Before Talk” 

Thomas Oden, in Classical Pastoral Care, Vol. 4, highlights the biblical-historical practice of “immediate relief for those in immediate need” (146). Speaking of the interplay of counsel for the soul and biblical care for the body, Oden writes,

“The first need of the seriously malnourished is food. Food comes before talk” (146).

Oden then documents this reality from church history.

“If your brother should be weak—I speak of the poor man—do not visit empty-handed such a person as he lies ill…. God Himself cries out: Break your bread with the needy. There is no need to visit with words, but with benefits. It is unthinkable that your brother should be sick through lack of food. Do not try to satisfy him with words. He needs food and drink” (Commodianus, Instructions, ch. Lxxi, ANF IV, p. 217, page 146 in Oden).

Oden explains:

“Commodianus in the second century was relying upon a widely available tradition of preaching and care that preceded him. It still remains a key principle of pastoral priorities in care of the poor: bread for the needy must precede talk, and talk cannot be a substitute for bodily sustenance” (Oden, 146).

Perhaps we could encapsulate it like this:

Physical therapy before talk therapy.

Practical embodied ministry can provide preparation for the reception of the personal ministry of the Word.

Church History Sampler #2: “Bootless Counsel” 

Oden explains that biblically and historically, “the care of the soul does not take place in a temporal vacuum” (153). I would add:

The care of the soul does not take place in an embodied vacuum. We are soul physicians of embodied-souls who meet the immediate, temporal, physical relief needs of people as we engage with them about their ongoing progressive sanctification needs. 

Valerian, writing sometime before 460 AD, explains the “cruel piety” of “bootless counsel” that ignores immediate embodied needs. 

“What does it profit to bewail another man’s shipwreck if you take no care of his body which is suffering from exposure? Or what good does it do to torture your soul with grief over another’s wound, if you refuse him a health-giving cup? These flattering remarks do not feed the hungry man; those bootless counsels do not clothe another’s nakedness. What good does it do to apply soft poultices to an indigent man, if you will not give a bit of food to one on the point of dying from hunger? What kind of mercy is that, in which you desire the man to live, but are unwilling to save him in his need? Clearly, that piety is a cruel one which knows how to grieve over the wretched, but does not know how to help those about to perish” (Valerian, Homilies, Hom. 7, sec. 5, FC 17, page 349, page 153 in Oden, emphasis added).

It is sinful and cruel to provide counselor empathy for the soul but then ignore the bodily needs of that hurting person. We might paraphrase Valerian:

“What does it profit to bewail a person’s soul anxiety if you take no care of his body which is suffering from anxiety? Bootless counsel addresses the soul but minimizes the body.”

Church History Sampler #3: “A Multi-Lane Highway”

Oden summarizes his historical research with these words:

“…counseling ministry and ministry to the poor were viewed as integrated, inseparable tasks” (Oden, 144).

I might paraphrase Oden like this:

Do not shrink historical pastoral embodied-soul care down to secular, modernistic, professionalized office talk therapy.

As Oden explains, based upon his research into the history of Christian pastoral care and counseling:

“A significant amount of the pastor’s time will be given to caring for the sick. In reaching out for the physically ill, the pastor shares directly in Jesus’s own ministry. According to the parable of the Last Judgment (Matt. 25), Christ is present incognito in the sick. In caring for the sick, one in effect cares for Christ’s living body” (Oden, 26).

Historic pastoral/congregational care was holistic. It was unlike modern professionalized, office-based counseling—which is often unbiblically focused only on the soul, rather than on the whole person—the embodied-soul.

Historically, pastors “saw their lane” as a multi-lane highway of meeting whatever need the person had—physical and/or spiritual—typically both.

Church History Sampler #4: “Physicians of the Soul as Physicians of the Body” 

In the following section, I document how pastors throughout church history often provided significant physical care through psycho-physiological ministry. I am not suggesting that pastors or counselors today usurp the role of physicians.

Richard Baxter: “Shepherd of Soul and Body” 

In Depression, Anxiety, and the Christian Life: Practical Wisdom from Richard Baxter, J. I. Packer describes Puritan pastor Richard Baxter as a “physician of souls” who also acted as a physician of bodies because his town lacked a doctor (22). Baxter understood “that each human being is a psychophysical unit, in which body and the mind, though distinct, are currently inseparable, and either may make its mark functionally on the other, for better and for worse” (27).

Michael Lundy, MD, similarly describes Baxter as a “shepherd of soul and body” (36). Baxter wrote about body and soul “as if they were indivisible if not indistinguishable components of the same person” (41). Lundy explained that Baxter sought to “reduce the unhelpful and often unwarranted segregation of the body and soul, medical and pastoral, theological and psychological” (37). For Baxter, “there was no conflict between body and soul, though he would not dispute that there was very often a real and practical tension—or imbalance—between them. But one gathers that encounters with either disembodied souls or soulless but still-living bodies were alien to Baxter’s thought and practice” (41).

This anthropology shaped Baxter’s actual counseling.

“Baxter wrote about the care of the soul and the care of the body as if they were indivisible if not indistinguishable components of the same person. He actually wasn’t trying to unite two divided parts of the person but saw the soul and body together clearly as the person. His writing and advice reflect that” (41).

Baxter believed depression could become so physiologically debilitating that verbal counsel alone might prove ineffective. Depressed people, he lamented, often resisted “medications or other means for the cure of their bodies” because they believed “it is only their souls that are distressed” (83). Baxter recommended the rudimentary physiological interventions available in his day: splashing cold water on the face, purposeful activity, changing locations and company, getting outside, and medication under a physician’s care.

Baxter was not replacing soul care with body care. As a soul physician of embodied-souls, his pastoral ministry included both.

Timothy Rogers: “The Bodily Physician and the Spiritual Physician” 

Puritan pastor Timothy Rogers’s theology of embodied-souls grew partly out of his own experience of severe depression. Rogers explained the complex body-soul interconnection involved in depression: “The faculties of the soul are weakened, and all their operations disturbed and clouded: and the poor body languishes and pines away at the same time.” Depression, he observed, “generally begins in the body and then conveys venom to the mind.”

That conviction shaped Rogers’s pastoral care. He advised pastors and friends to seek the counsel of skilled physicians, “and especially” physicians who themselves understood depression. At the same time, he warned against dividing the person in two:

“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.”

Rogers rejected both errors.

Because Rogers understood depression as an embodied-soul condition, he also adjusted his spiritual care to the person’s physiological capacity. He compared severely depressed people to those “whose bones are broken, and who are incapacitated for action.” Rather than demanding more activity from an already-overwhelmed sufferer, he urged caregivers to “kindly and gently” encourage them, while avoiding “a peremptory and violent method.”

Rogers combined this embodied sensitivity with compassionate, gospel-centered soul care: tenderly bearing with sufferers, praying for them when they lacked the composure to pray for themselves, and continually reminding them of God’s sovereign grace in Christ. His summary captures his whole-person approach:

“From my own experience, I can testify that the mild and gentle way of dealing with such is the best.”

Charles Spurgeon: “Do Not Think It Unspiritual to Remember That You Have a Body” 

Charles Spurgeon likewise refused to treat depression as exclusively a spiritual problem. “Do not think it unspiritual to remember that you have a body,” he counseled. “The physician is often as needful as the minister.” He connected melancholy with physical illness, indigestion, “brain-weariness,” lack of exercise, and other bodily conditions. He warned against being “ultra spiritual” and attributing every troubling emotion to a supernatural or spiritual cause when “the real reason lies far nearer to hand.”

Spurgeon then prescribed specific physiological interventions. Sedentary habits, he argued, contribute to despondency. A pastor sitting for hours in a poorly ventilated room, deprived of muscular exercise and burdened with cares, had all the ingredients for “a seething cauldron of despair.” His counsel? Get outside. Move. Exercise. Enjoy nature. Breathe fresh air.

“A mouthful of sea air or a stiff walk in the wind’s face,” Spurgeon explained, would not “give grace to the soul,” but it would “yield oxygen to the body, which is next best.” He also prescribed rest: “Repose is as needful to the mind as sleep to the body.” Ministers must sometimes “cry halt” and serve the Lord through “holy inaction and consecrated leisure.” Spurgeon practiced what he preached, taking extended periods of rest and recuperation when his own body and soul required it.

George Herbert: “A Psycho-Physiological-Informed Soul Physician”

Rather than being outside the norm, Thomas Oden argues there is great precedence in church history for soul physicians to also serve as body physicians. Speaking of pastors “caring for the whole person,” Oden writes about Church of England minister, George Herbert (1593-1633). “In that time many folk-medical functions were actually taken care of by pastors within the bounds of their own parish” (Classical Pastoral Care, Vol. 3, Pastoral Counsel, 55).

Herbert described his pastoral ministry to the body of parishioners with these words:

“If there be any of his flock sick, he is their physician. It is easy for any scholar to attain to such a measure of physics [the practice of rudimentary medicine], as may be of much use to him, both for himself and others.” Herbert even lists four medical texts that he recommends every pastor should read. (George Herbert, CP, Ch. XXIII, CWS, pp. 88-89, page 55 in Oden.)

Oden summarizes Herbert’s thinking: “Every pastor should have sufficient knowledge of diet, herbs, and simple serviceable remedies” (Oden, 55). Oden then explains that soul physicians have often also taken on the role of basic physiological interventions for the body. “This has very old precedence in the Christian tradition” (55).

Baxter, Rogers, Spurgeon, and Herbert were hardly modern materialists. Nor did they replace Scripture, Christ, prayer, or pastoral counsel with bodily care. Precisely because they ministered to people as embodied-souls, these historic soul physicians were quite comfortable recommending the physiological interventions available in their day as one aspect of comprehensive, compassionate, whole-person ministry.

For additional, detailed primary source documentation of whole-person care—including the provision of psycho-physiological care—see the following three posts:

• Richard Baxter on Depression, Scrupulosity (OCD), and the Embodied-Soul
• 6 Lessons from a Depressed Puritan Pastor: Timothy Rogers
• Spurgeon’s Depression…And His Body/Brain/Embodied-Soul

Church History Sampler #5: Jay Adams on Being Physiologically-Informed and on Psycho-Physiological Care 

In The Christian Counselor’s Manual, Jay Adams addresses the issue of what he called “the organic/nonorganic problem” (437). Adams specifically rejects the simplistic notion that counselors care for the soul and physicians care for the body. The biblical truth of embodied-souls led Adams to a much more nuanced, robust, and complex approach.

“These problems [of trying to divide body and soul] cannot be solved either by Skinnerian reductionism: man is only an animal (all is organic), or on the other hand by simplistic categorization: the nonorganic is the province of the pastor; the organic is the province of the physician” (438, emphasis in the original).

Clearly, for Adams, it is simplistic to say the pastor deals with the soul; the doctor deals with the body. Instead, for Adams, the pastor ministers to the whole person—to embodied souls.

Adams vehemently disagreed with the presupposition that dealing with the body was outside the lane of the biblical counselor. Using James 5, Adams writes,

“James 5:14-16, for instance puts the organized church squarely in the business of dealing with organic illness” (438).

“Pastors should, for instance, (a la James 5:14 and 1 Timothy 5:23) urge medical treatment upon members as a biblical principle” (438).

Adams is adamant about the nature of comprehensive embodied-soul care:

“Pastoral care is ongoing and total. It is to be seen as extending over the body” (438, emphasis in the original).

Adams insists that the biblical counselor must be physiologically-informed.

“He will strive always to work from this biblical presupposition in ways that are consistent with it. He should take the time and trouble, therefore, to study the fundamental functions of the human body” (438–439). 

Based upon his biblical understanding of embodied-souls, Adams declares that the biblical counselor’s work constantly involves the organic dimension.

“That the body affects the soul and the soul the body in so many obvious, as well as subtle, ways is a fact that the Christian counselor must always remember. His work, therefore, constantly involves the organic dimension” (438–439).

Though respecting the role of the physician of the body, Adams demands that biblical counselors fulfill their scriptural calling of being soul physicians of embodied-souls.

Biblical counselors “can never shirk their responsibility for dealing with ethical matters of bodily use and abuse, nor can they allow physicians unhampered freedom to advise Christians in ways that tend to ignore or exclude this [embodied-soul] dimension” (438).

Adams believed that physiological interventions could “speed sanctification” (The Journal of Biblical Ethics in Medicine, Part One, 20) and “allow for sanctification” (The Journal of Biblical Ethics in Medicine, Part Two, 6). Adams practiced what he preached, providing very specific counsel for psycho-physiological issues like sleep (What About Nouthetic Counseling?, 61), and using insights from neuroscientists of his day (The Journal of Biblical Ethics in Medicine, Part One, 23) and from nervous system studies of his day (Competent to Counsel, 96-97).

For a much fuller development of Adams’s convictions about whole-person care and physiological interventions, including numerous primary source quotes, see: Jay Adams on Embodied-Souls, Trauma, Neuroscience, Sanctification, and Physical Interventions.

Church History Sampler #6: David Powlison on Biblical Counselors Ministering to Body and Soul 

In September 2010, David Powlison and I emailed each other almost daily—many days it was multiple emails each day. He and I were focused on one aspect of the Biblical Counseling Coalition’s Confessional Statement: the section addressing the 1.) body and soul, 2.) science and research, and, 3.) common grace. In a September 30, 2010, email to me, Powlison addressed all three concerns.

“We need to debunk stereotypes particularly about psych research and common grace…. We must address the problem of bifurcating body and soul.”

Debunking and Bifurcating

Specifically related to the body/soul issue, Powlison remarked,

“I’ve attached another short meditation on the problem of bifurcating body and soul problems, and the neglect of social-experiential factors in the obsession with body and soul. You and I are on the same page on this issue, too.”

Concerning all three issues (the biblical counseling perspective on body/soul, science/research, and common grace), Powlison said (with all caps and exclamation points),

“Bob, I can’t tell you how heartily I ‘AMEN and AMEN!’ your concerns here about these three issues.”

Powlison’s concluding words in his email were prescient/prophetic.

“The [mis]perceptions on these issues are linked with a problem far thornier than accurate framing of the intellectual issues: clannishness, factiousness, haughty eyes, suspiciousness… etc. But clearer framing of the issues is certainly a help. Kyrie eleison, Christe eleison, kyrie eleison.”

In other words, a theological anthropology of embodied-souls is vital. However, no matter how clearly we present our biblical theology of embodied-souls, some will react in a tribal, divisive, arrogant, distrustful, judging, condemning manner.

Counseling and Organic Issues 

Powlison included an email attachment he entitled, “Is Counseling About ‘the Non-Organic Problems of Living’?” He began with these words:

“A common way of describing the scope of biblical counseling is to say that it addresses ‘non-organic problems of living.’”

He then noted that he has always had problems “with this particular way of describing what we do and don’t do.” Notice his disagreement with the idea that biblical counselors must stay in the lane of the heart/soul, and keep out of the lane of the body.

“In the first place, this way of putting it over-bifurcates soul and body. In reality, ‘non-organic’ or ‘functional’ problems are always incarnate, and ‘organic’ problems are always spiritual.”

That is, we are embodied-souls. We never counsel disembodied-spirits. Instead, we counsel and care like Christ, as Powlison explains:

“Jesus Christ’s words and work address the resurrection of the body as well as addressing the renewal of the soul and relationships to God and others.”

Christlike biblical counselors will engage in physiological interventions as we minister to embodied-souls.

“James 5:13-20 envisions both prayer and counseling occurring in the context of sickness, whatever medical interventions may also be part of the process.”

“So, in defining the scope of counseling ministry, we must work against a tidy bifurcation between body and soul.”

“To delimit the scope of counseling to non-organic problems singles out how counseling ministry rightly differs from medicine, but can obscure how counseling is intimately involved in the organic.”

While we are not physicians of the body, Powlison clearly saw biblical counselors as physicians of the embodied-soul—“counseling is intimately involved in the organic.”

Powlison Terminology: Psychosomatic Whole 

In Seeing with New Eyes, Powlison explicitly uses the term a “psychosomatic-whole.”

“There has always been a humility about the intricacies of this psychosomatic-whole-with-a-moral-center whom God has made.

In a 2010 reply to David Murray, Powlison noted this about people being “physically-embodied and socially-embedded.”

“I’d say to those who reduce depression to sin, ‘In your eagerness to deal with sin in light of Christ, don’t forget that people are physically-embodied and socially-embedded, and that both are vectors of sufferings,’ some of which can be alleviated in part, some of which are intractable until the last day.”

In How Does Scripture Teach Us to Redeem Psychology, Powlison continues to develop his thinking and terminology, now using the terms “physically-embodied” and “situationally-embedded.” “God has made each of us to live as a physically-embodied creature…. God has placed each one of us to live as a situationally-embedded creature” (24).

Later in the same article, Powlison traces these concepts throughout church history, linking “physically-embodied” to “nature” and “situationally-embedded” to “nurture.” “For centuries, theologians and philosophers have recognized the significance of nature and nurture factors. (And they would appreciate the incalculable quantities of new information generated by the modern scientific enterprise)” (25). He then captures all of this in his phrase, “our psycho-socio-somatic whole” (25).

In his article highlighting the Biblical Counseling Coalition’s Confessional Statement, Powlison described how biblical counselors minister to embodied-souls.

“We recognize that people are physically-embodied by God’s design and that a variety of bodily influences impact moral response. Appreciating the complexity and mystery of the interface between body and soul, we seek to remain sensitive to physiological factors and organic issues that affect the person’s life.”

Wise Counseling Meets Tangible Needs 

In his Affirmations and Denials, Powlison definitively adds that,

“Wise counseling will participate in and encourage mercy ministries as part of the call to love.”

Observe that Powlison does not simply say, “encourage mercy ministries.” As a counselor who sees himself as a shepherd of embodied-souls, Powlison says that wise counseling “will participate in…mercy ministries as part of the call to love.” Mercy ministries are practical expressions of Christlike love that meet people’s tangible needs and alleviate suffering through compassionate action.

Notice how two “giants” of the first two generations of nouthetic biblical counseling—Jay Adams and David Powlison—both dismiss the simplistic, naïve refrain, “biblical counselors minister to the soul; physicians minister to the body. Adams and Powlison each insisted that as soul physicians of embodied-souls we will be constantly involved in comprehensive psycho-physiological care. 

Church History Sampler #7: CCEF—“Take a Deep Breath” 

What have David Powlison and his CCEF colleagues taught about the validity of physiological interventions like deep breathing exercises as a part of comprehensive biblical counseling? We find one significant answer to that question in The Journal of Biblical Counseling, 32:3 from 2018, both in David Powlison’s editorial, Slow Growth, and in Todd Stryd’s article, “Take a Deep Breath”— How Counseling Ministry Addresses the Body.  

Throughout his article, Stryd consistently affirms the biblical validity of carefully incorporating deep breathing exercises into a comprehensive embodied-soul approach to biblical counseling. What does Powlison think of Stryd’s conclusions and recommendations?

At the time of Stryd’s article, Powlison served as the Executive Director of CCEF and as the Editor of the Journal of Biblical Counseling. In his Editorial, Slow Growth, Powlison outlines eight “significant growth points” that had emerged over the first fifty years of the modern biblical counseling movement under the dual leadership of Jay Adams and John Bettler. Powlison then segues into his introduction of the current issue of The Journal of Biblical Counseling, having this to say about Todd Stryd and the other authors of articles in that issue.

“As we finish out our 50^th year of ministry, we are happy to offer some of the fruit of that slow, maturing growth. I am delighted that all of the Featured Articles in this issue are written by the up-and-coming generation of biblical counselors at CCEF” (9-10).

Notice what Powlison does here. He identifies Stryd’s article on the legitimacy of deep breathing exercises in biblical counseling as among “the fruit of the slow, maturing growth” of the foundational work done by Jay Adams and John Bettler. Rather than being contrary to nouthetic biblical counseling, Powlison sees deep breathing exercises as a sign of continued positive growth in the biblical counseling movement.

Powlison, who had final editorial control over what was written in The Journal of Biblical Counseling, then summarizes and affirms Stryd’s article on deep breathing exercises as a legitimate physiological intervention in biblical counseling.

“Speaking of stress and anxiety, what about adults? How do we help them? Is it OK to teach breathing techniques as part of helping people calm their bodies when they experience extreme stress? In his article, ‘Take a Deep Breath’—How Counseling Ministry Addresses the Body, Todd Stryd explores the place that breathing techniques can have in a Christian’s care and ministry. He shows how and why a counselor might make a breathing exercise part of biblical counseling with a distressed person” (11, emphasis added).

For Powlison, the incorporation of deep breathing exercises was part of the positive, necessary “slow growth” of the biblical counseling movement’s competency to address embodied-soul care.

Stryd’s article is not an anomaly in the CCEF/JBC universe. Consider just two other examples, out of many.

Mike Emlet: In 2024, in the JBC 38:2 edition, Dr. Mike Emlet, long-time colleague of Powlison at CCEF, wrote, A Biblical Rationale for Embodied Spiritual Practices. As the title suggests, throughout his article Emlet develops a biblical theology for embodied care, and specifically affirms the use of interventions such as deep breathing exercises and grounding exercises, as one part of comprehensive, whole-person care for embodied-souls. I interact with this article here: Of Course Biblical Counselors Counsel About the Body.

Ed Welch: In the 2019 JBC 33:2 edition, Dr. Ed Welch, long-time colleague of Powlison at CCEF, wrote, Trauma and the Body: An Introduction to Three Books. In his article, Welch provides a selective summary of the most relevant information from three secular trauma texts by Bessel van der Kolk, Judith Herman, and Antonio Damasio “so that we can both learn from the authors’ careful research and think Christianly about non-Christian literature.”

For additional Christian resources on comprehensive embodied-soul care, physiological interventions, and relief-oriented care, see: Should Biblical Counselors Counsel About the Body?: 32 Resources.

Church History Sampler #8: NANC/ACBC and Psycho-Physiological Care: Somerville, Eyrich, and Berg

The use of physiological interventions is also not an anomaly in nouthetic biblical counseling. Consider these examples from Bob Somerville, Howard Eyrich, and Jim Berg.

Bob Somerville: ACBC Fellow and professor of biblical counseling at The Master’s University, Dr. Bob Somerville, in his own life, and in his counsel from his book about his own depression, ministered to the whole person, including prescribing pastoral counsel that included physiological interventions—relief-oriented care and counseling for the embodied-soul. Here are just a few samplers from Dr. Somerville’s book, If I’m a Christian, Why Am I Depressed? Finding Meaning and Hope in the Dark Valley: One Man’s Journey.

“God gave His servant physical rest. The Scripture says that Elijah lay down and slept. It doesn’t say that God judged him for his depression and asking to die” (55).

“God gave sleep first. Sleep refreshes the mind and body and is definitely a gift. Sometimes the physical factors need urgent attention before the inner causes of the depression can be addressed” (56).

“Here we see God, the great counselor, addressed Elijah’s physical needs first. There is a definite connection between the mind and body. John Piper points this out when he says, ‘What we should be clear about is that the condition of our bodies makes a difference in the capacity of our minds to think clearly and of our souls to see the beauty of hope-giving truth’” (56).

“What happened in my case? My body was restored with rest and nutrition, careful use of medication, detox, physical therapy, and exercise” (60).

“I had to learn that I had a new normal, and I needed to take precautions against relapse. I now have to set limits for myself in order to care for my health” (60).

“Just as God, the Counselor, met Elijah’s physical needs first when Elijah was suffering from suicidal depression (1 Kings 19:4-8), we must examine our own physical conditions and strive to improve them in order to find relief” (110).

“Does someone hold the view that as long as you are a Christian it does not matter what the condition of your body is? Well, you will soon be disillusioned if you believe that…. You cannot isolate the spiritual from the physical for we are body, mind, and spirit. The greatest and best Christians when they are physically weak are more prone to an attack of spiritual depression than at any other time and there are great illustrations of this in the Scriptures” (111).

“Paul compared our bodies to a clay jar (2 Cor. 4:7). A clay jar is fragile and easily broken or chipped. We get tired and ill and are subject to sicknesses and diseases that limit our ability to fulfill our responsibilities at times. The weakness of our flesh can even lead directly to spiritual depression. Therefore, we as believers are under obligation to be good stewards of our God-given bodies, not by worshipping the body but realizing that because we only have one body in which to obey the Lord, care and protection of health are essential” (111).

“God brought angels to minister to Elijah under the juniper tree and to Jesus in the wilderness and then under the olive tree when his soul was grieved to the point of death. Those angels did not minister by playing harps or spiritual songs. They brought much-needed food and drink—physical refreshment. God is in favor of natural nourishment and ministry to your body” (111).

For a more robust examination of Somerville’s approach, see: When a Biblical Counselor Battles Depression: Robert Somerville.

Howard Eyrich: ACBC Fellow, and professor of biblical counseling at Birmingham Theological Seminary, Dr. Howard Eryich, addressed extra-biblical methods in his online e-book, Hearing the Critics, Answering the Critics, and Taking Up Leadership. Eyrich engages with Dr. Sarah Rainer about integration of Christianity and psychology. He quotes Rainer:

“Helping a child with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder organize their school supplies, explaining and modeling the appropriate use of time-out to parents, challenging negative thoughts, and teaching diaphragmatic breathing, are some examples of secular techniques that do not challenge Scripture-based psychology. As Christian psychologists, we should teach, provide, preach, and pray, just like Jesus” (emphasis added).

In his response, Eyrich discusses his view of these interventions—including teaching diaphragmatic breathing. He writes:

“There is nothing in this set of interventions that is psychology dependent. I have lay counselors, who have no psychological training, who work with students and families utilizing similar techniques drawn from their knowledge of the Bible and a commonsense application of love. These are techniques that grow out of good theology/anthropology, the teachings of Jesus and the Wisdom literature. In fact, a good argument can be made that these techniques have been plagiarized by psychology from theology.”

So, diaphragmatic breathing is not “psychology dependent.” It can be “a commonsense application of love.” It can “grow out of good theology/anthropology, the teachings of Jesus and Wisdom literature.” “A good argument can be made” that techniques like diaphragmatic breathing “have been plagiarized by psychology from theology.”

Jim Berg: Dr. Jim Berg is a professor of biblical counseling at Bob Jones University, a Council Board member of the Biblical Counseling Coalition, an ACBC certified biblical counselor, and holds an addiction specialization with ACBC. In his biblical counseling book, Taking Time to Quiet Your Soul, he provides biblical counsel for someone battling stress, anxiety, and panic attacks. Berg provides classic step-by-step deep breathing exercises as part of his comprehensive biblical counsel.

• “Inhale through your nose for two seconds, counting one one-thousand, two one-thousand. Be sure to fill up your lungs from the bottom by taking deep breaths; don’t just breathe from your chest. If you place your hands on your stomach, you should feel them rise and fall with each deep breath.
• Exhale slowly for four seconds counting one one-thousand, two one-thousand, three one-thousand, four one-thousand. Completely empty your lungs by contracting your stomach muscles.
• Repeat this slow inhale and slow exhale about ten times” (270). 

Even from the brief church history sampler it is clear—from ancient church history, from the ministry of Reformed pastors-theologians, and from nouthetic biblical counseling leaders—that the church has always provided comprehensive, whole-person, embodied-soul ministry that included “psycho-physiological care,” “physiological interventions” and “relief-oriented care.” Psycho-physiological care is not some recent import into historic biblical counseling. Instead, psycho-physiological care has been part of the historic/classic approach to comprehensive pastoral care throughout church history.

A Final Reflection and Summation 

Biblical, theological, and historical Christian care has always focused on the whole person, and engaged with people individually and congregationally in comprehensive, compassionate care that addressed their ongoing progressive sanctification issues and their immediate relief-oriented physical/material issues, including through psycho-physiological care. Biblical counselors are soul physicians of embodied-souls.