A picture is worth a thousand words. Larry Crabb's charts give clarity and meaning to his writing. While having a strong biblical basis, Crabb does not ignore the contributions of secular systems of psychology, rather, he puts them thorough the sieve of biblical truth to find practical helpful advise. I appreciate his thoughtful critique of competing systems of psychology. He gives the reader a general introduction to the different schools of counseling, both secular and Christian. Rather than bashing the non-Christian viewpoints he notes their strengths and exposes their humanistic presuppositions. The discussion of Transactional Analysis on pg. 39 demonstrates a model of secular psychology adopted by the evangelical church. While Transactional Analysis can be a helpful tool for the pastor, Crabb looks at its humanistic presuppositions and warns of its misuse. He sees man's basic need as significance and security. People need to know that they have worth and that they are loved. Crabb has a gift to communicate in a clear way some rather technical stuff. Also worthy of note is Crabb's discussion how problems develop in chapters six and seven.
I really enjoyed this book but I felt as if I were duped. The church is to have three levels of counseling, yet, it is not until pg. 165 that Mr. Crabb states that Level II counseling (counseling by encouragement) is for "elders, pastors, deacons . . . other spiritually mature." The bulk of the book is about Level III counseling which requires specialized training of six months to a year to learn. Mr. Crabb admits to not having develop a teaching curriculum for it. Clearly, Level III counseling requires a time commitment that few pastors and lay people can afford to make.
The book gave me hope that we can do Level I and II counseling with very little training. I am afraid, however that Level III counseling is out of reach most churches. The time, expertise and expense in trading are beyond the means of most small churches. Personally, this book helped me order my thinking on pastoral counseling. In seminary, I was taught an eclectic model of counseling with no biblical worldview. It left me drifting in a mass of psychobabble. I highly recommend this book because if its excellent survey of competing schools of thought and its thorough analysis of them.