A Christian therapist with room for your faith and your questions
Maybe you're the one everyone assumes is fine. You love God, you've seen Him come through, and you still can't sleep. Maybe you worry you're not doing well enough spiritually somehow, that you're letting down your friends, your family, even God, for not making the most of everything you've been given. Or maybe something happened that your old answers don't fit anymore, and you're not sure who you're allowed to say that to.
I'm Brianna White, LMFT, a Christian therapist at Intrepid Counseling. I grew up as a missionary kid, and I chose to go to seminary for my therapy degree so I could be trained to integrate faith and mental health well. Below I'll share how faith shows up in my work, and how we can start.
What does faith-integrated therapy mean?
Whether a person is religious or not, their emotions and reactions will be colored by what they believe to be true about themselves and the world, so I believe that is always something important to discuss. As a Christian therapist, I invite your faith into the room as a resource, your source for truth that can bring peace. We can pray, look at scripture, or talk about how God fits into your story, as much or as little as you want.
I don't call what I do "Christian counseling," because to some that can mean something more like a pastoral counselor or a spiritual guide, and those disciplines have their own traditions and training programs. My role is as a mental health professional. It's in that context, clinical mental health care, that your faith is welcome, understood, and taken seriously as part of how you heal.
To get even more specific, it looks like this. We talk about how you feel, what is the kind of pain that this situation triggers for you. Pain about your belonging, your identity, your safety? Then we notice and name the things you’re liable to do, the not-so-helpful ways you usually react when you feel that kind of pain. Next we ask, “What is the truth?” We’re looking for the truth about who you are, at the level of facts, who you are to your family, yes, but most importantly who you are to God, a.k.a. your identity in Christ. The hardest part, but most powerful part is learning how you sit down in and absorb that truth so that you can feel it. It’s that truth, when it is bringing you peace, that makes living out who you were created to be come naturally.
Common struggles I see in people of faith
Worry that anxiety means weak faith: "If I trusted God more, I wouldn't feel this way."
Pressure to be perfect: High-profile, high-expectation communities can make it hard to admit you're struggling.
Trauma that "doesn't count": "But God kept us safe," or "what happened to us wasn't nearly as bad as what happened to them."
Shaken beliefs: A tragedy, a betrayal, or new information that leaves you rethinking everything.
Church or mission hurt: Pain from the very community that was supposed to hold you.
How do I know if a Christian therapist is right for me?
Want your faith to be part of therapy? Faith, what you believe and what you wonder or worry about, can be central to our work, if you want it to be.
Are you afraid of being judged by a therapist, or by your church, for needing help? I’m sorry you’re fearing judgement, it’s not right or fair, and unfortunately it it’s probably based on some real stories. I will not judge you and I’m legally and ethically bound to make sure the judgy people you’re thinking of don’t find out you’re here. They won’t hear it from me.
Are you holding questions you can't say out loud at church? C.S. Lewis said that if you’ve never doubted you’ve probably not believed in something valuable enough to question. (That’s my paraphrase).
Has something shaken how you see God? That's a normal part of trauma and grief. Our work then is to put the pieces back together in such a way that all the events, and who you know God to be, all fit back inside you again.
Who faith-integrated therapy is for
Working with a Christian mental health professional trained in spiritual integration is a good fit for Christians, missionaries and missionary kids, pastors' families, and people whose faith is an anchor. It's also for people whose faith is a painful question mark right now. Some people come because their faith community feels like home. Some come because it doesn't anymore, or because who they are is raising questions their church hasn't made room for. All of that is welcome here, and I won't push you toward a conclusion.
It may not be a fit if you're looking for pastoral counseling or spiritual direction only, or if you need a higher level of care right now.
How I work as a Christian therapist
A major source of posttraumatic stress is the belief that good things only happen to good people and bad things only happen to bad people. That belief creates deep disorientation when something bad happens to you or someone you love. The thinking goes: if I am good, what happened can't be bad. Or, if what happened is bad, then so am I. People can walk away from a tragedy believing they deserved it, or that God doesn't love them.
When a tsunami destroyed the village I grew up in on the north coast of Papua New Guinea, about half the people who lived there were killed. Later, a forwarded chain email claimed God had warned all the "true believers" so they were saved. It was false, and it was cruel, and I think people believed it to protect the idea that God doesn't let bad things happen to people He loves. Whereas I have in my childhood the memory of our neighbors, believers before and after the wave, walking with God through that tragedy. That experience helps me work with people who have been through trauma without it shaking my basic beliefs about the world.
One of my main tools is Restoration Therapy, developed by my graduate professor Terry Hargrave. It has four steps: say what you feel, say what you usually do, say what is true, and say what you will do. Step three is where faith often lives. For example, a TCK missing old friends might say: "I feel abandoned. When I feel this way I blame my parents, shame myself and isolate. What I know is true is that I'm loved by God and my family, and it’s okay to miss my friends. So I'll listen to a song that lets me cry, text a couple of friends, and ask my roommate about her week."
I also bring a little irreverence. We'll call out what doesn't make sense, or was harmful, with strong language if necessary. Then we'll practice finding what is most deeply true, and sitting in it like a big cushy chair.
What faith-integrated therapy looks like
We start with a 15-minute video call. In our first session I'll ask what role faith plays for you right now, and how much you want it in our work. We meet weekly, in person or online. I work with both individuals and families.
How to begin
Reach out with a sentence or two about what's going on.
Request an intro call and ask me anything about how I integrate faith.
Start your first session and set goals together.
About your Christian therapist
I'm a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist with a master's from Fuller Graduate School of Psychology (a part of Fuller Theological Seminary), which I chose so I'd be theologically trained at the graduate level. I grew up the child of missionary Bible translators, and most of my clients come from the expat sector of faith-based international work. My own faith is active and curious, and I'm comfortable with mystery: having convictions and questions at the same time.
Where faith and struggle meet
Forgiveness that's honest: It starts with putting blame where it belongs.
We can also work on anxiety without shame, healing from trauma and its spiritual impact, depression and spiritual dryness, growing up as a missionary kid, and family faith conversations.
Tips if you're struggling right now
Remember stories where good people suffer. Joseph's brothers betrayed him, and God brought good out of it without calling the betrayal good.
Zoom out. When you have time to be afraid, remind yourself what you believe is most true, like "nothing can separate us from God."
Forgiveness starts with blame. Taking blame from where it doesn't belong, and putting it where it does. You can't forgive yourself for what you didn't do. You can't forgive someone when you haven't yet named their responsibility.
Let worry be a feeling, not a verdict. "In this world you will have trouble" was a promise, not a rebuke.
FAQ about working with a Christian therapist
What is the difference between a Christian therapist and a Christian counselor? Terms vary. I'm a licensed therapist who integrates faith, so you get clinical training plus room for your beliefs.
Will a Christian therapist push religion on me? Not here. Faith is included only as much as you want it. Clients who aren't religious are welcome too.
Is anxiety a lack of faith? No. Anxiety is your body responding to a challenge. Plenty of faithful people in scripture were afraid.
Can a Christian go to a secular therapist? Yes. On one level, what matters is that your therapist respects your beliefs. However, if you want to discuss your faith and scripture in depth, you might need someone who has the Bible knowledge and spiritual integration training to keep up with you in your references and nuances.
Do you work with missionaries and ministry families? Yes, it's a large part of my practice, both in person and online abroad.
There's room for your whole story here
If you're looking for a Christian therapist who takes both your faith and your pain seriously, request an intro call. Still deciding? An intro call is a good place to ask questions, with no commitment.