Christian Counselling Perth

Bethesda Counselling offers professional Christian counselling services for individuals, couples and families.

It’s not an easy step to come for counselling; most of us find it painful to admit that we are out of ideas and in need of help – especially when we call ourselves Christians. For some reason, Christians often think that they should be able to sort their lives out on their own; that admitting they need help is a sign of spiritual weakness. The truth is that admitting that we need help is a sign of humility and is in fact, a great strength and highly valued by God.

Bethesda staff understand and appreciate your Christian faith. Counselling services are based on Christian principles and put Christ at the centre whilst striving to be supportive, compassionate and practical – not preachy.

Bethesda’s approach to counselling keeps Christ at the centre of your journey and draws from evidence based interventions and a wide range of therapeutic models such as Systemic and Milan Family Therapy, Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, Solution Focused Brief Therapy, Creative Arts Therapy, Acceptance & Commitment Therapy, Narrative Therapy, Transactional Analysis Therapy, Neuropsychotherapy as well as Mindfulness & Relaxation techniques.

All of these models have been studied carefully and evaluated from a Christian perspective; what does not line up with the Word of God has been prayerfully sifted out so that your counselling experience is pure and based on biblical principles.

Bethesda’s counsellor and family therapist, Narelle Williams has over ten years of biblical counselling experience. She has professional post graduate qualifications in Christian Counselling and Family Therapy and has also worked as a Tutor with the Australian Institute of Family Counselling (Australia’s leading RTO for developing Christian counsellors) training and equipping other Christians to become professional counsellors. Bethesda Counselling offers you professional Christian counselling services that you can trust.

Individual Christian Counselling

Individual counselling at Bethesda can help you:

  • To heal and/or manage anxiety & depression related issues.
  • To heal and recover from trauma, childhood sexual abuse and/or childhood neglect.
  • To support you through your journey of loss, broken-heartedness and grief.
  • To understand yourself and help you identify and change unhelpful, self-sabotaging thinking patterns and beliefs.
  • To identify the roots of addictive behaviour and support you in your recovery journey.
  • To increase your confidence and sense of identity and worth.
  • To gain insight and freedom from dysfunctional patterns and toxic relationship choices.
  • To identify your values and assist you in setting meaningful goals.
  • To learn and develop important skills such as assertiveness, negotiation and problem solving.
  • To explore and manage difficult and painful emotions such as sadness, guilt, fear, shame, misery, grief, anguish, resentment, anger and rage.
  • To understand your vulnerability to stress and learn relaxation and stress reduction techniques.
  • To adjust to difficult circumstances and make transitions more smoothly.
  • To build a richer, more meaningful Christ centred life and enhance your relationships.

Christian Marriage Counselling

Is your marriage in real trouble? Have you lost all hope that things can improve? Have you discovered that your spouse has been having an affair or is addicted to pornography? Are you fighting all the time and can’t seem to find any common ground? Perhaps you are experiencing extreme financial pressures, arguing over parenting styles or simply just feel disconnected, isolated and alone in your marriage. Don’t panic; your marriage can be saved. Bethesda Counselling and Family Therapy can help you to rediscover hope and find healing and restoration in your marriage relationship.

Christian marriage counselling at Bethesda promotes Christ centered hope and strives to teach couples strategies for building love, trust, respect and intimacy into their relationship. Your couple interactions rapidly become ingrained patterns in your relationship. If these patterns are not pleasing to you, then over time, relationship dissatisfaction develops. Christ centered relationship counselling can help you to create positive and pleasing interactions so that you can experience greater intimacy, good communication, good sex, successful conflict resolution and a happy family life – all the things that God desires for you.

Don’t let embarrassment, shame, guilt or hopelessness keep you from seeking support. Some of the most common issues Bethesda facilitates Christian couples to work through in Relationship Counselling are:

  • Understanding and handling anger in a healthy way
  • Learning how to fight fairly & resolve conflict
  • Infidelity and betrayal; healing and moving forward
  • Pornography and sexual addictions
  • Sexual problems with desire, arousal and release
  • Insecurity & jealousy, fears of abandonment, rejection and intimacy
  • Different parenting styles; finding common ground
  • Financial pressures and lifestyle stresses
  • Surviving your spouse’s midlife crisis and/or crisis of faith
  • Finding workable solutions for problems associated with in-laws
  • Life transitions and adjustments
  • Healing from a painful past
  • Dealing with unresolved issues from childhood/youth

There is always hope and always a way forward for couples – even if only one of you is willing or prepared to come for counselling, there is hope. One person growing and making changes can have a positive impact on the relationship. Two people willing to grow and make changes will have a great impact on the repair and health of the relationship. Couples counselling is not always comfortable or easy, but can be extremely rewarding as you regain your sense of connectedness, love and satisfaction in your relationship with your spouse. A cord of three strands is not easily broken; when Christ is given His rightful place at the centre of your life and your marriage, then miracles can happen.

Contact Bethesda Counselling today and get started on creating the marriage, family and life that you want and that will give glory and honour to God.

Christian Pre-Marital Counselling

Unfortunately, the incident of divorce amongst Christian couples is just as high as divorce amongst non-Christian couples. Divorce breaks a person’s heart and it breaks God’s heart too.

That is why Bethesda Counselling urges Christian couples planning to marry to engage in a course of pre-marital counselling and preparation. Marriage is a divine institution that God created for the specific purposes of companionship, completeness, a new permanent relationship, intimacy, having children, ministry and to be a model of Christ and the Church to the world. God planned marriage to be a life-long commitment between a man and a woman. When two people are not well prepared for marriage, they are more likely to end up in divorce.

If you are both Christians, then learning about and growing in the biblical principles of a Godly marriage will be important for you. Bethesda’s Christian pre-marital counselling sessions can help you gain a deeper understanding and appreciation for God’s original purpose for marriage, the Covenant nature of Christian marriage, the different types of biblical love taught about in the Bible, the role of husband and wife and the biblical principles of parenting.

There will also be opportunity to achieve healing and freedom through Jesus Christ from past abuse or trauma if this is relevant for you or your partner. If either or both of you have experienced sexual abuse, violence, neglect, alcoholism, divorce or abandonment etc somewhere in your past, then it can be important to take some time to begin working through and processing these hurts before you enter into your marriage.

Your exclusive pre-marital counselling sessions will be tailored to meet your unique needs as a couple and will have a Christ centered focus woven into all of the following common areas of pre-marital counselling:

  • Marriage Expectations
  • The Basic Needs of Husband & Wife
  • The 5 Love Languages
  • Understanding & Handling Your Differences
  • The Dance between Closeness & Distance
  • Sex and Affection
  • Communication & Active Listening
  • Assertiveness & Conflict Resolution
  • Relationship Roles
  • Children & Parenting
  • Financial Management

Contact Narelle for further enquiries regarding exclusive counselling for Christian couples preparing for marriage.