CO201 Counseling for Marriages and Family
Overview
Marriage counseling and working with families is one of the greatest things that we can do to help guide people toward Christ in their relationships. There is nothing more rich and rewarding than being able to spend a sacred moment with a couple and to help them turn around and get headed toward a better marriage, but it is also an arduous journey together. In CO201, Dr. Zink explores what a good marriage looks like and wrestles with understanding relationships more deeply. From premarital counseling to what marriage ministry in the church looks like, Dr. Zink demonstrates how you can be a better counselor to couples.
Top Highlights
“And this leads us to a very important aspect of systems theory: that systems theory talks about family dynamics or relationship dynamics. We use that word easily and often, and we need to think a lot about, what does that really mean? What’s entailed?—because the dynamics flow out of this fact that connection is fragile. Connection is shifting. It’s constantly moving. It’s one of the great challenges in the two becoming one: that we don’t lose our individuality and the uniqueness, but we are connected. And often, simply understood, we think (assume) it’s not full enough, but we assume that connection is about being the same. That’s not a very deep connection, but we often are thinking that way.” (source)
“Relationships are right at the center of God’s creation. Relationships are so crucial to how we become people and who the people are that we become.” (source)
“So, people will come for help. It often helps us to remember that things may get worse before they get better, and it’s important to say that to couples, because the worse really isn’t worse, it’s just more real—that they’re being honest. They’ve retreated to positions that are very quiet, silent. Even if they’re angry, they’re actually quiet about what is going on. They’re not talking about what is going on, because they’re avoiding that much, that’s too much connection—what they feel in the relationship, where they feel like ‘I’m not heard. I don’t count. Why would I say anything to this person? They wouldn’t care.’” (source)
“Our next step is to, first of all, figure out who withdraws and who pursues, and then move toward the one who withdraws and help them show up more, help them confide deeper feelings.” (source)
- Title: CO201 Counseling for Marriages and Family
- Author: Dan Zink
- Series: Logos Mobile Education
- Publisher: Lexham Press
- Print Publication Date: 2017
- Logos Release Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Courseware
- Subjects: Communication in marriage; Education › Communication in marriage; Education › Marriage counseling; Marriage counseling
- Resource ID: LLS:CO201ZINK
- Resource Type: Courseware Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2019-06-20T22:57:08Z
Dr. Daniel W. Zink is Associate Professor of Practical Theology and Counseling at Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis, MO. His courses at Covenant have included Intro to Counseling, Marriage and Family Counseling, and Crisis and Transition.
Prior to arriving at Covenant, he served for 11 years as a family counselor, caseworker, and supervisor of public children's services. Dr. Zink was also the founding director and a five-year head of New Hope Counseling Services, a ministry of Chesterfield Presbyterian Church. He has been involved in the Christian education programs of four churches and has served as assistant pastor.
Dr. Zink is an informal consultant to counselors and churches starting church-based counseling centers. He has also written articles and presented widely on aspects of marriage and parenting. He is a member of the American Association of Christian Counselors.
Dr. Zink holds a BA in Social Work from Eastern Nazarene College in Quincy, MA; an MSW from Ohio State; an MDiv from Covenant Theological Seminary; and a PhD in Counseling and Family Therapy from Saint Louis University, where his doctoral research focused on enduring marriages of adult children of divorce.