4 Popular Counseling Worksheets: A Comparison from a Christian Counselor

“What do I do now?” is the most frequent question counselors hear. 

After a person has poured out their life, sharing the unsettling details of their situation, they conclude with “What now?” 

They have come to us for advice. They desperately want to know how to get out of their mess. Their emotions are often overwhelming. Any sense of clarity is lost in the spaghetti bowl of life’s tangled details that all seem to overlap. They have no idea what the Bible says about their situation or if it can even help. Yet, as their counselor, they rely on us to give them something to help them out of the mire and onto solid ground. This can be intimidating. 

I still get nervous when the “What now?” question is asked. I want to get the answer biblically correct and give my clients wisdom that they perceive to be helpful. I have been counseling for over a decade; I am certified as a biblical counselor; and I have a master’s degree with an emphasis in biblical counseling. Yet I still shift in my seat and fiddle with my pen when someone says, “What now?” I don’t want to answer wrongly. 

The Right Tools are Key!

A good counselor knows the Bible will provide wisdom from above—that which is “pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy” (James 3:17–18). The Bible’s wisdom is better than merely coming up with our own advice, spewing a few worldly pithy statements, or restating some psychological labels and theories. True and lasting help comes only from God and His Word. The Bible is sufficient for giving hope because it presents the God of all hope (Romans 15:13). 

However, knowing how to bridge to the Bible after someone asks “What now?” is a learned skill. We may ask questions like: 

  • May I share something from God’s Word that speaks to your situation?
  • After sharing a passage, ask: if you had to pick a phrase or two that mean the most to you right now, what would they be?
  • Can I show you a helpful diagram pointing to God’s solution to this problem? 

Responding to clients’ pleas for help with the truth of Scripture is best done in a memorable, portable, and practical way. They should be able to remember what you said and how Scripture can help them. It should be portable so they can carry it in their minds (or maybe even literally in their pockets) and redraw or write it on the back of a napkin. It should be practical in that it ministers the Word down into their life, giving them clarity on what they need to do, think, or believe. 

 

4 Worksheets for Christian Counseling

If you came to my counseling office, you would find two large three-inch notebooks filled with page protectors. Each contains about ten copies of a worksheet or handout I know I will use later. These notebooks are what I reach for during sessions to grab a diagram, worksheet, resource, or list of questions to use with the counselee right then and there. After we work through one of these sheets in a session, I let the counselee take it home with them—aiding the memory, portability, and practicality of the instruction I gave them. Here are four worksheets I use the most. 

1. The Gospel Y Chart  

The heart is the center point of change. If we are not helping people work through heart issues, then we are not doing anything more than calling for behavior modification; superficial change will only be temporal. To provide lasting hope and help for a person, we want them to see their life in light of the Gospel. The Y Chart helps identify what is motivating a person. Is our counselee just trying to please the flesh (2 Corinthians 2:14), or are they striving to please God (Galatians 1:10)? 

The Y Chart is a helpful tool for calling out sinful habits that must be changed. It points out the why (pun intended) behind what we do. You can help your counselee find a better way of following God through the use of this diagram. This is a great tool that your counselee can easily reteach to a friend of theirs after the session. You don’t even have to have a printed version of it; a whiteboard or piece of blank paper will do. The Biblical Counseling Coalition provides a ten-minute overview of the Y Chart here. Check out this video for an extended explanation of how to use the Y Chart

2. Two ways to handle hurts  

When our expectations are missed or frustrations rise, we get upset. The Bible calls this anger. There are two primary ways we can handle our hurt feelings; first, we could choose to sin, wallowing and asking, “How did this happen?” Or we can choose to acknowledge that it did happen, and now we ask, “How can I use these hurts to glorify God?” When these two options are thoroughly and humbly vetted in our minds, we will find that using our pain to glorify God is better. Otherwise, we will end up in a world of bitterness and resentment. 

The “Two Ways to Handle Hurts” worksheet is helpful for counselees trying to make sense of their pain who may be slipping into natural responses of control, stubbornness, or disobedience to God. It can also help us understand how God can use suffering in our lives to make us more like Christ. While it may not answer why God allows suffering, it gives a perspective on it that will bring hope and endurance to the counselee. You can use this worksheet here, or I have remade it into a one-page worksheet

 

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3. Three Trees 

In their book How People Change, Timothy Lane and Paul Tripp present two options for reacting to challenging situations in life. This model is taken from Luke 6:43–45, where Jesus describes the connection between our behavior and hearts. He states, “The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks” (v. 45). we hope to help our counselees react to the “heat” in their life in a positive way (Jeremiah 17), considering the third and most crucial tree: the cross of Jesus Christ. This worksheet will help your counselee see what they are responsible for in the midst of their pain. Together, you will be able to discover ways to apply God’s Word to their life further. 

This worksheet has been remade several times and a plethora of versions can be found on the internet, but that is because it is powerful, memorable, and portable—anyone can easily redraw it and apply it to their life. One of my favorite versions is made free by pastor and author Brad Bigney’s church. There are even artistic renderings of it beautifully done on YouTube.

4. X-ray questions 

In his book book Seeing with New Eyes, author David Powlison gives us questions that help us see past the noise of a difficult situation to the core issue that your counselee is facing. These questions expose the right or wrong desires and give perspective to the counselee. While it is merely a list of questions, I have found it helpful to turn those into a worksheet to use in the session or give as homework afterward. Not all of Powlison’s questions are appropriate for every case, but most of them will work for any case. 
Creating a worksheet of these questions will allow you to evaluate the heart and “X-ray” below the surface to see what is going on. I have made it a point to commit these questions to memory for impromptu counseling sessions at the neighborhood BBQ or grocery store aisle. When someone hears you are a pastor or counselor, they often want on-the-spot counseling. These questions are helpful whether you have a worksheet present or not. They get to the core issue and give you multiple inroads for applying the Gospel to any situation. 
 

Sharpen Your Tools and Have Them Ready 

It is essential to be prepared for your counseling. Having resources at your fingertips will allow your sessions to go smoothly. Be prepared for what you know is coming and have counseling templates that can help you tackle the unexpected. Ultimately, trust God to do His work. He is the great counselor. He will use your availability, tools, and ultimately His Word to bring about lasting change. Next time someone asks you, “What now?” your heart will fill with excitement to give them answers that will direct them to hope in God. 
 
This article is a special contribution by Josh Weidmann. Josh Weidmann is the Senior Pastor of Grace Chapel in Denver, Colorado. He is a certified counselor with the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors and has written several books on Christian living and parenting. He graduated from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He and his wife, Molly, have six children.

 

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