An Observation On Its Recent Development In Malaysia: An Observation On Its Recent Development Norazlina Zakaria Kolej Universiti Insaniah Phd Candidate Universiti Sains Malaysia Noor Shakirah Mat Akhir Universiti Sains Malaysia

This article is a part of the results from a research entitled “The Recognition of Religious Counseling: A Comparative Study on the Islamic and Christian Counseling Practices in Malaysia”. It is a comparative religion study and counseling is the subject of comparison

Christian counseling originated from the Christian Bible Christian counseling developed along with the growth of Christianity itself - considered as a part of the pastoral function of the church When secular counselling emerged in the late 1800’s, Christian counseling has been divided into informal pastoral counseling that has been practiced in the context of pastoral care and a formalized professional Christian counseling advocated by lay Christian mental health professionals (Tan, 1991).

Currently, studies on Christian counseling in Asia demonstrate that the professional Christian counseling has diverted into a few models namely, biblical, the levels-of-explanation, integration, Christian psychology and the transformational approaches (Yeo, 2002). Whereas in Malaysia, there is no comprehensive recent report on its contemporary development. Thus, this research was initiated with the aims to investigate the nature of current Christian Counseling practices in Malaysia.

to identify and describe the history of Christian counseling in Malaysia to identify and describe its recent development in Malaysia in the aspects of: institutions promoting Christian counseling theories or modules of Christian Counseling that are practiced in Malaysia.

Method Respondents Interview extensive in-depth 11 informants- 6 pastors & 5 professional Christian snowballing population was limited to West Coast of Peninsular Malaysia Protestant qualitative grounded theory data comprised of two sets texts gathered from literatures and official websites. interviews describing the views and experiences of informants. extensive in-depth -using two sets of questions semi-structured questions open-ended.

The History of Christian Counseling in Malaysia Its movement started 86 years ago beginning with pastoral counseling activities and expanded to the emergence of professional Christian counseling. Conclusively, there are two types of Christian counseling in contemporary Malaysia pastoral counseling that begun since 1930’s - Lay apostolate (the lay Christians servicing the Catholic Church) of The Society of St Vincent de Paul (Roxborough,1988) and Churches’ Counselling Centre initiated by Wesley Methodist Church 1960’s (Yeo,2002) professional Christian counseling got underway in 1990’s - (Yeo,2002)

Institutions Promoting Christian Counseling Christian Counseling Associations   All of the Christian respondents pointed that the only association concerning Christian counseling is The National Association of Christian Counsellors Malaysia (NACC). Christian Counseling Centers  2 types of setting counseling in the church setting professional Christian counseling centers outside the church setting.

counseling in the church setting Pastoral Care and Counseling All of the respondents alleged that almost every churches in Malaysia offered counseling services (at least marital counseling), whether by the pastors or lay counsellors servicing at the counseling unit or center in the church. Professional Christian counseling Just some churches especially in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur have professional counseling unit Some churches offer referral services to professional Some of the churches provide tele-counseling service in the Northern Region of Peninsular Malaysia, there are not so many churches that have professional counseling services

Christian Counseling Centers outside the Church Setting the most renowned center of this kind among the respondents is Agape Counselling Centre that has branches in Selangor, Penang, Malacca and Johor. NACC has published and Malaysian Mental Health Association has also published in their website a few Christian counseling centers Atlanta Marriage Counseling Christian Services has also provided a telephone counseling through Lifeline Malaysia Marriage Counseling. Explaining on the locality of the centers that focused the center of Peninsular Malaysia, Counselor A claimed, “Most of the centers are in KL because there are more problems in KL.”

Christian Counseling Education (A) Colleges The most renown among the respondents is Bible College of Malaysia or previously known as Malaysia Bible Seminary. The other institutions are Hosanna Bible College in Sarawak Alpha Omega International College in Selangor (B) Seminaries Malaysia Baptist Theological Seminary in Penang (C) Online certificate courses in Biblical Counseling accessible to Malaysians offered by Equip Gospel Ministries that partners with the Christian Counselling & Educational Foundation (CCEF) Pennsylvania, United States of America. This ministry has its centers in Kula Lumpur, Selangor, Ipoh and Penang   (D) The National Association of Christian Counsellors Malaysia (NACC) also provides counseling workshops

Christian Counseling Theories and Modules Practiced in Malaysia this research has not discover any domestic Christian counseling modules that has been developed by Malaysian Christian counselors. The pastoral counselors are utilizing the traditional approach The professional Christian counselors are applying various modules such as Nouthetic Counseling, transformational approach and integrated approach.

It is concluded that Christian counseling in Malaysia is developing competently and in a promising track. This study could contribute in promoting religious counseling movements in Malaysia. It is suggested that future studies to be conducted to assess the competency of Christian counseling in Malaysia as compared to the conventional counseling.

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