The other day when my truck started acting odd, I decided I needed to take it in to get repaired. So I went to McDonald's and asked the kid at the cash register to come out into the parking lot to look at it. You are probably thinking, right now, "what is he talking about?" I am going to presume that everyone reading this thinks that sounds a bit crazy. Well, it does. I do not know of anyone who would think that was the right thing to do (except maybe for the woman who called 911 because Burger King did not make her cheeseburger correctly). Car repairs are done by auto mechanics. No, I did not do what I said above. I was only joking; I went to the auto mechanic--exactly the way you would expect me to.
We all have a general sense that there are things that require the work of specific professionals. You do not ask a plumber to do open heart surgery, or a computer technician to design your new home. It is because of this that we seek a "counselor" when we need counseling. Seems simple and straightforward; right? Wrong. Just because someone is called a "counselor" does not mean that he can give good counsel to others. In fact, I have known some professional counselors who do more to foul-up people's mental stability than to help it.
Part of the issue with today's "counselors" is that many of them are trained in secular ideologies regarding human behavior, and yet have absolutely no training in the human soul (which is a significant factor since we all have a soul). Now imagine with me for a moment, a doctor who was trained in treating ailments of the respiratory system, but had absolutely no knowledge about the rest of the human body. There is no guarantee, but there is a good chance that what he does to help his patients may very well cause them untold physical harm. Now compare that idea with a counselor who does not believe in God or the human soul. This counselor believes that we are merely a physical being whose thoughts and feelings are just chemical reactions. How much genuine help can someone like that give a person?
The "counselor" like the one described above, will likely be able to help a hurting person to "feel better"; at least for a short time. Yet, the patient will only be receiving part of the help that he needs and thus it is comparable to a band-aid for a broken arm, or an aspirin for a cancer. It will provide a temporary help, but not a long lasting cure. It may seem like it is insignificant because "a person is a person". That is not, however, the case; a "whole person is a whole person" and if a counselor is only knowledgeable about part of the person, then he cannot help the whole person.
This applies in many areas. How about a marriage counselor who does not believe that marriage is a sacrament and that there is grace involved in the marriage? Will he be able to help a Catholic couple with their struggles? Again, all he is trained in is behavioral issues from a (largely) pagan perspective. Or, let us consider a counselor who is giving advice to someone who lost a loved one? If the counselor does not believe in Heaven, Hell, Purgatory, Judgment, or the human soul, he can only give advice in a very small portion of the person's grief (and will likely never be able to provide any lasting cure, so that the patient is then "hooked" on the counselor and has to continue returning for years to come, rather than being able to heal and move forward in life). These counselors end up forcing the patient to return regularly just to receive another "pain killer" but never heal them.
I am sure that there are many "good counselors" out there who are solid Catholics and are able to speak to their patients about all the aspects of what they need help with, but I have also heard many stories of counselors who were Catholic that never mentioned the faith at all. Some are bound by the business that they work for. Some are afraid of backlash from atheists (or the ACLU--mostly the same thing). Some (which is even worse) are not even aware of what is lacking because they have been trained in pagan psychology at pagan schools by pagan professors and have never given it a second thought that there is something missing.
Have you sought out counsel on something from a "counselor"? Who did you go to? What was his philosophical understanding of behavioral and personal issues? Did you ask? Did he really help, or did he give you some drug to impact the body (but not the soul)? Consider these things, and weigh them heavily when issues like this come up. The best source of personal and behavioral help is the truths of Christ and the Sacraments of His Church. Modern science has virtually nothing to offer in this area because it knows virtually nothing about the human person beyond a few things it can see under a microscope. Go to Christ and the resources that He provides. Only in Him is true help found.
