Thirteen Steps to Counseling Failure

Directions in how to fail

1.      Start missing appointments for any reason, real or imaginary.

2.      Become critical of methods used by the counselor. Compare him to other counselors. Get upset and angry when he does not agree with you.

3.      Nurse the idea that when counseling is over you can return to old ways of thinking, patterns, and habits.

4.      Be too busy to accomplish the “home work” you are assigned.

5.      Become conscious of your counseling achievements and begin to look at others with a skeptical and jaundiced eye.

6.      Become so pleased with your own views of what you have learned, you begin to consider yourself an “Elder Statesman” to others with problems.

7.      Start a small clique of people who have some dependency on you or agree with you.

8.      Tell others that you do not take certain portions of your counseling seriously.

9.      Let your mind dwell more and more on what you are doing for others, rather than on how much you are receiving.

10.  If someone else is having trouble similar to what you have been through, drop him at once.

11.  Cultivate the habit of being behind in finances. Borrow from others you meet at counseling. Do not pay your counselor for sessions, books, or materials.

12.  Look at the need to remember that you must practice correct or Biblical thinking as something you have outgrown.

13.  Become unfaithful in your church attendance and in daily prayer and Bible reading. Develop the idea that others in your church are slighting you or looking down at you because you have gone through some problems.