Counseling Services

What We Offer

 
PERSONAL COUNSELING
Our center, through its Director, offers personal counseling to individuals, couples, and families. The Director brings over a decade of experience and extensive theological and biblical counseling training to bear on problems in living. The fees for this service range from $50 to $75 per session. If you would like to schedule an appointment call 865-985-0660, or email us at counseling@gracebc.org, If this is an emergency, please dial 9-1-1 or go immediately to the nearest hospital emergency department.
 
PEER COUNSELING
Our center offers peer counseling services free of charge to members of the community. These peer counselors have undergone training in biblical counseling and participate in weekly supervision with the Director.
There are some limitations to our peer counseling ministry. First, the term of the counseling is limited to 12 sessions. Second, for individual counseling, there is a same-sex requirement for counselor and participant. Third, there are some struggles that fall outside of the scope of our peer counseling ministry. These limitations are:
 
1. Any situation involving child abuse, geriatric abuse, or domestic violence
2. Suicide and/or self-injury
3. Homicide and/or significant threats to any person’s safety
4. Severe eating disorders, where physical harm is occurring or possible
5. Psychosis, where the counselee’s mind is breaking from reality
6. Severe drug addiction
7. Anyone diagnosed with a personality disorder
 
If an individual does not qualify for participation in our peer counseling ministry, we will make a concerted effort to refer him or her to the appropriate provider for help.
 
PEER COUNSELING TRAINING
Throughout the year, our center offers peer counseling training. The primary training courses are Peer Counseling I (fall) and II (spring). These classes run for 12 weeks and are as challenging as many Master’s level courses offered by educational institutions. These courses combine lectures, readings, writing assignments, group activities, and role plays to help equip students for the personal ministry required in peer counseling.
 
Upon completion of these classes, students participate in a 12-week practicum where they provide peer counseling to participants while undergoing weekly supervision. At the conclusion of this training, our students maintain and build their ministry skills by continually participating in additional training offered by the center at different times during the year.
 
PEER COUNSELOR TRAINING
Our center offers help for churches that want to develop their own biblical counseling ministries. As such, we invite other churches to participate in our peer counseling training program and offer ministry leadership seminars on how to administer a peer counseling program in their local church. We also offer continued support by banding together with these churches in providing a robust network of church-based biblical counseling providers.