Is it a sin to go to therapy as a Christian? What the Bible says

No, going to therapy is not a sin. The Bible calls it wise to seek counsel (Proverbs 11:14, Proverbs 12:15), treats caring for the sick as good work, and shows God caring for a despairing prophet and sending him a helper. Christians disagree about which kind of counseling is best, but even those most wary of secular psychology still urge struggling believers to seek wise help from others.

What does the Bible say about seeking counsel?

Where no counsel is, the people fall: but in the multitude of counsellors there is safety.

In the KJV, counsel means advice or guidance. This proverb first had a nation in view: without guidance a people stumbles, and many advisers bring safety. Proverbs 15:22 applies the idea to personal plans, which fail without advice and succeed with it.

The way of a fool is right in his own eyes: but he that hearkeneth unto counsel is wise.

Hearkeneth means listens. Proverbs says a fool thinks his own way is right, while the person who listens to advice is wise. Asking a trained person for help with your mind, your marriage, or your past is that kind of listening.

Counsel in the heart of man is like deep water; but a man of understanding will draw it out.

Here counsel means the purposes and thoughts a person carries inside. They can sit deep, and it takes someone with understanding to draw them out. That is a fair picture of what a good counselor does: asks patient questions until you can see what has been going on underneath.

Does going to therapy mean you lack faith?

Some Christians feel that prayer should be enough and that seeing a professional shows a lack of trust in God. The New Testament does not treat skilled help that way.

Luke, the beloved physician, and Demas, greet you.

Paul sends greetings from Luke, traditionally credited with the Gospel of Luke and Acts, and calls him the beloved physician. Paul did not treat medicine as a rival to faith; he even told Timothy to take a little wine for his stomach and his frequent illnesses (1 Timothy 5:23). And in the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus holds up a man who bandages a stranger's wounds and pays for his care (Luke 10:34-35).

But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.

Whole means healthy. Jesus said this while eating with tax collectors and others the religious leaders looked down on (Matthew 9:10-13). His point was spiritual: he came for people who know they need him. But the picture he chose takes it for granted that sick people go to a doctor. Therapy is one form of that kind of care, aimed at the mind and relationships instead of a broken bone.

What the Psalms show about struggling

¹How long wilt thou forget me, O Lord? for ever? how long wilt thou hide thy face from me? ²How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? how long shall mine enemy be exalted over me?

This psalm, credited to David, is a lament: an honest complaint brought to God. To take counsel in my soul means to turn things over alone in your own head, day after day, with sorrow that won't lift. Many people who start therapy recognize that pattern. If your thoughts run in circles like this, our page of Bible verses for overthinking may help.

Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.

Cast down means bowed low, and disquieted means troubled. The writer names what he feels, asks himself why, and points himself toward hope, and he has to do it more than once (the same refrain appears in verse 5 and in Psalm 43:5). Scripture makes room for struggles that don't resolve after one prayer. Talking them through with a counselor can be part of that same honesty.

Elijah: when the journey is too much

After Mount Carmel, Queen Jezebel vowed to kill Elijah, and he fled alone into the wilderness (1 Kings 19:1-4).

⁴But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree: and he requested for himself that he might die; and said, It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers. ⁵And as he lay and slept under a juniper tree, behold, then an angel touched him, and said unto him, Arise and eat. ⁶And he looked, and, behold, there was a cake baken on the coals, and a cruse of water at his head. And he did eat and drink, and laid him down again. ⁷And the angel of the Lord came again the second time, and touched him, and said, Arise and eat; because the journey is too great for thee.

It is enough means I've had enough, and a cruse is a small jar. The Bible gives Elijah no diagnosis, and we shouldn't force one on him, though many readers recognize exhaustion and despair here. God doesn't lecture him. Elijah sleeps and eats, twice, before anything else happens.

⁹And he came thither unto a cave, and lodged there; and, behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and he said unto him, What doest thou here, Elijah? ¹⁰And he said, I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts: for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.

Jealous here means zealous. God opens with a question and lets Elijah say everything, including the part that isn't true: that he alone is left. God asks again, and Elijah repeats himself almost word for word (verses 13-14). Then God gently corrects that belief, since seven thousand in Israel had stayed faithful (1 Kings 19:18), gives Elijah next steps, and sends him a companion and successor, Elisha (1 Kings 19:15-21).

It isn't a therapy session, but good counsel often follows the same order: listen first, then help the person see clearly and take the next step. If someone has told you that God won't give you more than you can handle, that saying isn't in the Bible. Sometimes the load really is too heavy, and God's answer is to send help.

If you have felt the way Elijah did, wishing you could die, please don't wait for a counseling appointment. Tell someone today.

Does God help us through other people?

Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.

Carrying each other's weights fulfills the law of Christ. Paul explains that law earlier in the same letter: the whole law is fulfilled in loving your neighbor as yourself (Galatians 5:14). Friends, family, and church are the first place this happens. A counselor can be another, trained to help with a load too heavy or tangled for the people closest to you.

Nevertheless God, that comforteth those that are cast down, comforted us by the coming of Titus;

In the verse before, Paul says he had no rest, with conflict all around and fears inside. God comforted him, and the comfort came through a person: his friend Titus, and the good news Titus brought (verse 7). God often helps through other people, and a good counselor can be one of them.

An app can't be your counselor, ours included.

Christian counseling, biblical counseling, or a secular therapist?

Sincere Christians land in different places here:

• Christian counseling. A licensed clinician who shares your faith: a professional counselor, marriage and family therapist, social worker, or psychologist. They use established therapy methods and add prayer and Scripture if you want them. Many in this camp say all truth is God's truth, so sound research on the mind is worth using. The American Association of Christian Counselors (AACC) is one professional association for them.
• Biblical counseling. This movement, first known as nouthetic counseling, grew out of Jay Adams's 1970 book Competent to Counsel. It rests on the conviction that Scripture is sufficient for the problems of life (see 2 Timothy 3:16-17) and aims to help people change by applying it directly, which makes it wary of mainstream psychology. Biblical counselors are often trained through churches and certified by groups such as the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors (ACBC), which Adams founded. That certification is a ministry credential, not a state clinical license. Biblical counselors today also vary in how much room they give to medical and psychological insight.
• A therapist who doesn't share your faith. Some Christians avoid this, pointing to Psalm 1:1 below. Others compare it to seeing a skilled surgeon who isn't a believer: you can accept good help while holding on to your own convictions.

Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.

The counsel of the ungodly means the advice and way of life of people who reject God, and the psalm contrasts it with delighting in God's law (verse 2). Christians disagree over whether this rules out professional help from someone outside the faith, or is about whose direction you follow in life. Whichever view you hold, one principle fits every counselor, Christian or not:

Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.

Prove means test. Paul wrote this about weighing prophecies in church (verse 20), but it fits any counsel: weigh what you hear against Scripture, keep what is good, and let go of the rest. If a counselor dismisses your faith, or a church leader dismisses your need for medical care, you are free to look for someone else.

How to find a Christian counselor or therapist

• Ask your pastor or church. Your pastor may offer pastoral care directly or know local counselors that other members have trusted.
• Talk to your doctor. The National Institute of Mental Health notes that a primary care provider can do an initial mental health screening and refer you to a mental health professional. It also points to your insurance company's provider list and, if you have a job, your employer's Employee Assistance Program (NIMH: Help for Mental Illnesses).
• Use a Christian directory. Christian Care Connect, a directory powered by the AACC, lists licensed Christian counselors alongside coaches and chaplains, so check which kind of provider you are contacting. ACBC keeps a find a counselor page for certified biblical counselors.
• Ask questions early. Are you licensed, and for what? How do you handle a client's faith? What will this cost, and do you take my insurance?

If the first counselor isn't a good fit, it's fine to try another. If worry keeps you up while you wait, see Bible verses for anxiety at night, and if you feel alone in this, Bible verses about loneliness.