biblical counseling (nouthetic counseling)

Use of devotional instructions in the Bible to treat psychological problems. Proponents equate psychological and spiritual problems and claim that all such troubles are solvable merely by cultivating obedience to Jesus Christ. The term "nouthetic" derives from the Greek noutheteo, which means "to admonish or warn." Promoters of Calvinist fundamentalism introduced biblical counseling in the 1970s. Hybrids of the fundamentalist mode and folkloric "psychology" have largely superseded biblical counseling.