To Become a Counselor

For those who would like to be a counselor with OAIM, this page will explain the counselor training process. We believe that all Christians have been called to counsel each other to some degree. We also believe that just as some are called to be pastors and others to be teachers, some have been called to do more counseling than others.

It is also important for any ministry to have its staff on the same page doctrinally. In fact, our entire type of counseling is based on solid doctrine. The type of counseling done by OAIM is different than most counseling found anywhere, secular or Christian. It is our belief that the emotional and "mental" problems people come to us with are rooted in misunderstandings and/or failures to believe that God is indeed who He is.

Because of this, we are very doctrinally oriented. It is through use of Scripture, aptly applied to our lives, that we can conquer life's everyday problems. In fact, this is the tool God has given us to prepare us to deal with life. "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work." (2 Timothy 3:16-17) This is why the majority of our application is about what you believe. We want to make sure that our counselors can correctly handle the word of truth (2 Timothy 2:15) in their counseling. Someone who counsels with us should be able to deal with outright cultic teachings as well as false teachings within the church and faulty understandings of who God is. (Click here for an example of this concept.) A basic understanding of what biblical counseling is will be necessary. (Click here to read our article on Biblical Counseling.)

Step One of the Application Process:

To begin, we require all of our applicants first to go through our Christian Essentials Course. This will allow you to examine the points of doctrine that we consider essential to the Christian life. The CE Course is one where we will not tell you what we want you to believe, but we will give you guidance to research your position on your own. It will also give us an opportunity to get to know you better through our interactions in the course.

Step Two of the Application Process:

After completion of the Christian Essentials Course, you can fill out the counselor application. You will find that the CE Course will help you formulate the answers you need to complete this application. When you submit the application, we will give you a response within one week whether we will accept you into the counselor training program or not.

Step Three: Internship

Once you have been accepted into the OAIM Counselor Training Program, you will be asked to sign a statement of faith and commitment form and send it to OAIM (regular mail, not e-mail). Upon receiving your signed forms, you will be given the title of OAIM Intern and will be added to the OAIM staff page. The training involves both individual study and interactive work. You will need to have a copy of BIBLE Counseling: Equipping Christians for an Evangelistic Counseling Ministry, which can be obtained through Amazon.com or your local Christian bookstore. We also highly recommend attendance at one of our training seminars, if possible. Our seminars are only given during the summer and at limited locations at this point, so we do understand this might not be possible for all our trainees at this time.

During your internship, you will be asked to regularly attend our Monday and Friday night counseling rooms in Yahoo! Chat. We prefer our interns to be there both nights, but if you have another commitment that only allows you to be there on one of those nights, that will satisfy the requirements as long as your attendance is regular. Your role during the rooms will be to do light counseling in the room, making sure that others in the room understand you are still learning to counsel. For those who desire more counsel, you will be expected to direct them to one of our counselors or CITs (counselors in training). You should not be doing any counseling in PM (private message) yet.

The internship is designed to last a minimum of six months and a maximum of one year. During that time, you will need to read the first part of BIBLE Counseling (up to page 159) and take 10 quizzes over the material, with a score of 80% or better on each. (You can retake any quizzes that you do not do well on. Also, there will be practice quizzes for you to test yourself before you take the real test. The goal is not merely an academic grade on these, but for you to assimilate the material that you will need in your future counseling.)

Each intern will be assigned a mentor who will help the intern through their study and application of material. The mentor will be the one to recommend the intern to become a CIT.

Step Four: CIT Status

The intern's mentor will recommend the intern to the OAIM review board during the second six months of their internship. Some interns, because of previous knowledge, will advance to CIT status shortly after their first six months, but others will need longer. The mentor has the option of not recommending the intern.

When the mentor recommends the intern to the review board and the board approves the recommendation, the intern will need to sign a new commitment form and mail it (regular mail, not e-mail) to OAIM. They will then be moved up to CIT (counselor in training) status. At this time, the CIT will be expected to do more counseling, both in the Yahoo room and on the group board. We also hope that many will want to help with e-mail counseling as well.

The CIT will submit examples of counseling (once a month) to the mentor so s/he will be able to help the CIT continue to grow in his/her counseling abilities. During this time, the CIT will be expected to complete the BIBLE Counseling book with the 10 accompanying quizzes. Again, the CIT is expected to attend and participate in the Yahoo! room on a regular basis.

The CIT status is intended to last for a minimum of six months. On recommendation by the CIT's mentor and approval by the review board, the CIT will move up to a full counselor. BIBLE Counseling certification should be obtained at this point by completing the remainder of the certification process. To become a full OAIM Counselor, you will need the BIBLE Counseling certification.

Step Five: Counselor Status

Before becoming an OAIM Counselor, the person will need to sign a commitment statment. The reason a new commitment statement is signed at the beginning of each level is because there might be instances where, over the period of six months or a year, a person needs to alter how much s/he can be involved in the OAIM group. This is understandable, but we would like them to realize that they have made a commitment and we are relying on them to honor that.

As a certified counselor, s/he will be able to mentor interns and CITs. S/he will also become a member of the OAIM review board.

We realize that this is a strenuous course and not everyone will find it to their liking. It is important for you to respect God's leading through this process and allow Him to work in your own life as He does in the lives of those with whom you counsel. We also realize that some are called to go through the training, but to use their abilities in their own local church. Our goal is to train up as many BIBLE counselors as we can to show as many Christians as they can the abundant life Jesus promised.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask us at: oaim@oaim.org.

**Note: You can go through the BIBLE Counseling Certification process without becoming an OAIM counselor. To counsel with OAIM, we do require all of our counselors to become certified by the end of the training period.

A woman comes to us very depressed because she has been sexually abused and cannot cope with life. The man who raped her repeatedly was a pastor in the church she grew up in. She wants to kill herself because she can no longer live the way things are. Because the man who violated her was a leader of the church, she has equated his behavior with God's. She has painted God out to be a sadistic, evil god who delighted in watching her tormented. Her depression has occurred because she has a legitimate sorrow (her violation) but has drawn into herself for the answers. Since she cannot cope with things in and of herself, and she has cut herself off from any help from God, the only alternative she can actually make a choice to do is suicide. When we help her separate her view of the abuser with her view of God, then she can feel hope again.

Another example would be a woman who comes to us and seems to be depressed but cannot understand why she is like this. She has a good marriage, a loving husband, children, and everything that should be in place is. Yet her depression overwhelms her. Upon talking with her, we discover that she has been a part of a church that teaches that your tongue is a creative force and whatever you speak will happen. There have been several instances where she has put this teaching to the test and it has failed. However, through the intimidation of the leadership of her church, she has been pounded with guilt over her lack of faith in these situations. She feels that something is not right, but the leaders claim to be speaking God's words so evidently the fault is hers. The false guilt that has been heaped on her has stolen away her joy and pressed down on her spirit. She begins to wonder why she's not good enough for God. Again, in a case like this, it boils down to her misunderstanding of who God is. She has been fed lies by the leaders in her church, who have told her it is a sin to contradict them, so she feels trapped. Leading her into the doctrine of truth will free her up and bring God's joy back to her life.

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Our counseling is based on the book, BIBLE Counseling.

Click here to find out more about our BIBLE Counseling Certification program.