In September, I went “back to school” and joined the 2025-2027 Diploma in Integrative Counselling with a Christian Perspective, run by the team at Vital Pathways.

I would like to take a moment to share more about this with you.

Why counselling?

Until you’ve experienced a series of counselling sessions yourself, I believe it can be difficult to explain why counselling is so vital.

As we navigate life, we accumulate emotional wounds and baggage, which over time can start to affect our well-being and our relationships with ourselves, God, others, and the world around us. Counselling offers a non-judgmental, safe space to share our thoughts and feelings. Processing these experiences in such an environment can help reduce the harm they cause and, in some cases, even turn them into opportunities to strengthen and improve us.

The role of the counsellor is to facilitate change and growth in people.

This takes time to do, and I’ve really gained from having fixed times and places for counselling to help me process my inner life.

Having faced difficult times, I have reflected on the tools and lessons I gained through attending counselling to help me navigate these challenging periods. I am very grateful for the opportunity to have gone through counselling. I often half-joke that everyone should experience counselling.

In life, stuff happens. And having someone to process that with is a priceless thing.

Having experienced such a positive impact of counselling myself, I hope to be able to help others in a similar manner.

What is integrative counselling?

There are many strands and approaches in psychotherapy. You’ll likely have heard of ones such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) or theories like Attachment Theory.

Integrative counselling combines psychodynamic theories and concepts, incorporating research into the counselling process, prioritising the counsellor’s self-awareness and self-development to enable them to bring both their personal and professional abilities and personality into the counselling room, and viewing individuals through a holistic lens.

I’m excited to learn an integrative model of counselling as it means I’ll develop a broad understanding and skills to support those I work with in a personalised and specific way, rather than applying the same theory or tool to every client.

Why a Christian perspective?

Examining counselling through the Christian worldview is particularly important to me. It helps link my personal faith to the work of a counsellor.

Themes that I find throughout the Bible, such as freedom, forgiveness, and hope, are essential building blocks to enable someone to thrive in life.

As a (future) counsellor, to walk with others through difficult and dark situations I know that I am limited in what I can offer someone but knowing that God is working in their life allows me to be fully present and love the person in front of me to the best of my ability knowing that there’s grace and hope available for myself as the counsellor and the other person as a client.

There’s going to be a lot of work to complete this Diploma. I may revise some of my perspectives that I’ve shared here.

I expect to change throughout the process as I develop a deeper understanding of how I perceive the world around me and learn to bring hope and healing to others through the counselling process.

Over the next two years, I hope to share what I learn with others, keep an eye on my website and newsletter for more insights. And, I’m more than happy to chat about this if I see you.

Thank you very much for reading. If you found this encouraging and helpful, please share it with friends and followers. I’d love to hear from you — leave a comment with your reflections or questions.

Dan :)

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Further reading

Practical Counselling Skills: An Integrative Approach by Kathryn & David Geddard