The Professional Christian Counselor's Approach to Treating Mood and Personality Disorders

As professionals, we recognize the problem of the increasing population of adults in the United States being diagnosed with mental illnesses. In addition to recognizing the problems associated with mental illness, there are many issues with the professional practice of treatment and counseling the individual who is presenting symptoms as described in the fifth edition of the Diagnostics and Statistics Manual (DSM-5). What should be the Professional Christian Counselor's approach to providing treatment? Attention will be brought to Nouthetic, Secular and Christian Counseling approaches and making a clear distinction among them. Due to the wide range and spectrum of mental illnesses, the attention will be spent on personality disorders (PD's) and mood disorders (MD's). With improvements being made on physical health, nutrition, exercise science, technology, and surgical sciences, there are many opportunities for good and improved physical health. Yet we continue to see statistics rise to epidemic levels in mental illnesses. It is important that the Professional Christian Counselor has a responsible and ethical approach to the treatment of PD's and MD's as defined in the DSM-5 and as directed in the Bible. By providing an overview and evaluation of ways PD's and MD's are being treated both in the secular and nouthetic therapeutic relationship the Professional Christian Counselor recognizes there is significant room for increasing effectiveness in the assessment and treatment for these disorders at a time when our nation continues to see an alarming rise in their diagnoses. The exploration of how PD's and MD's are currently assessed and treated in both the secular and nouthetic counseling practice once diagnosed is an important focus of this book in order to formulate the application of right doctrine and methodology so that Professional Christian Counselors make improvements in the assessment and treatment of PD's and MD's in the practice of Professional Christian Counseling.