Biblical counseling

The method you already practice, with its instruments in order

The PDI, the agreement, the homework, the case report, the closure — the instruments of biblical counseling live today on paper and scattered files. Iglesia Fiel puts them in one tool: on your screen and on your counselee’s phone.

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Included in every plan · No credit card · Support in Spanish & English

The problem

Generic software treats counseling as appointments and notes

The method does not fit in a text field. Homework that is diagnostic, a report that feeds supervision, a closure prepared from the start — none of that exists in a CRM with a "counseling notes" module. And the real instruments stay where they always were: in paper folders and Word documents that never talk to each other.

The module, phase by phase

The four phases of the model, with their instruments

We did not invent a workflow: we follow the one biblical counseling teaches. Each phase brings the instruments you already know, connected to each other.

1

Intake

Before the first session, the counselor already knows who is coming.

Fourteen-area PDI

The counselee fills it on their phone, at their pace, before session 1. From least to most intimate, and all optional.

Counseling agreement

With the limits of confidentiality made explicit, versioned per congregation, accepted in person or from the counselee’s phone.

Risk protocol

Configurable per church: what to do before crisis, abuse or risk — visible where it is needed, when it is needed.

The three categories

What they did, what was done to them, what happened to them — the problem is defined in biblical categories before translating clinical vocabulary.

2

The first session

It is not an ordinary session with different content: it has different steps, and the editor knows it.

Is this person truly a believer?

The 1 Corinthians 2:14 question, recorded — because the whole approach depends on it.

Obtaining commitment

Having rapport is not having involvement. It is asked out loud and recorded: they want to continue, they commit to the homework, and at what time of day they will do it.

Hope with its text

An element of the method, not the session’s tone. If it is not recorded, it cannot feed the report or the log.

3

The process

Every session follows the method’s steps, and what gets recorded gets used again.

The session, in its seven steps

Homework review, data gathered, instruction (put off / put on), Scriptures, hope, homework, prayer.

Homework with the eight characteristics

Which passage, how many times a week, which columns to log, how many minutes. People do not change in a fog.

The counselee’s journal

The anger log with its classic columns, one entry per episode, on their phone. It cannot be rewritten: an editable journal stops being evidence.

Case agenda

The eight base topics seeded in one click, plus the case’s own goals, ordered.

Sixteen-question report

Pre-filled with what the session already recorded. The story of change accumulates, dated, report after report.

Session log

The master grid computed by itself: what was assigned, what was taught, what was done — and the non-compliance pattern flagged, which is what calls for escalation.

Supervision

Supervision reads and comments on the report; it does not edit it. A reserved case is seen by no one but the counselor and the parties.

4

Closure

Closure is prepared from the beginning, not announced at the end.

Discharge criteria

Adams’s four P’s and the nine indicators from intern training, as a list that informs — never as paperwork that blocks.

Session spacing

The last sessions two or three weeks apart, as proof the person stands without the weekly appointment.

Three-month plan

The counselee writes it on their phone, not the counselor. It is their first self-assigned homework and works as a final exam.

Closing letter and check-up

The letter naming what God did, the final review of memorized Scripture, and the check-up at two or three months — with an automatic reminder to the counselor.

The engine of the method

Homework is diagnostic — and here it shows

Homework compliance is itself pastoral information. That is why homework is not loose text: it is tied to its session, its specifics are defined, and the counselee carries it on their phone.

Assigned from the session

Every assignment stays tied to the session that assigned it. That traceability feeds the log.

Filled where life happens

The counselee logs each episode on their phone, close to where it happened — not a summary the night before.

Reviewed the following week

Step 1 of every session is reviewing the previous homework, with the counselee’s journal in view.

Read as a pattern

Two consecutive sessions with homework undone highlight themselves in the log. One undone assignment is information; two in a row ask why.

A log that can be rewritten stops being evidence of what happened, and becomes evidence of what one prefers to have thought. That is why the counselee’s journal is append-only.

Confidentiality by design

What is entrusted in counseling is not just another record

Access control is enforced on the server, not in the UI — and it is tested against the adversarial case.

Only the counselor and supervision

Cases are not visible to the rest of the leadership or the congregation. The counseling capability is assigned by profile.

The reserved case

For leader-counselees or sensitive cases: not even the senior pastor sees it. Only the counselor and the parties.

Supervision that does not edit

Supervision reads the report and comments on it. The counselor’s answers are never touched.

An agreement with explicit limits

The counselee accepts an agreement that states what is confidential and the biblical limits of that confidentiality.

To be clear

What this tool does not do

  • It does not replace the counselor, their training or their supervision. It is the folder of instruments, not the counsel.
  • AI only suggests — passages, homework ideas. Pastoral judgment always belongs to the counselor, and nothing is sent without their decision.
  • A supervisor outside the church currently receives the report printed or as PDF. Guest access with its own account is on the roadmap, but it does not exist yet — we would rather tell you than have you discover it.
  • We are not certified or endorsed by ACBC or any association. We build on the biblical counseling model those trainings teach, and the module is checked against that model, instrument by instrument.

Frequently asked questions

Which counseling model does the module follow?

The biblical (nouthetic) counseling model in the tradition of Jay Adams: the four phases, the put-off/put-on dynamic of Ephesians 4, homework as the engine of change, the case report and closure with the counselee’s own plan. The module was built by checking it against the documented practice of the method, phase by phase.

Does the counselee need the app?

To get the most out of it, yes: the PDI, the agreement, homework with its journal and the three-month plan reach their phone (iOS and Android). But the counselor can record the agreement in person and run the whole case from the web if the counselee does not use the app.

Which plan includes counseling?

All of them. Counseling is a base module of the platform: it is not gated by price but by capability — only the counselors designated by the church can see it.

Can I print the report for my supervisor?

Yes. The case report and the session log have a print view designed for PDF: no interface borders, full answers. That is the current path for supervision outside the church.

What if the counselee is a church leader?

That is what the reserved case is for: neither the senior pastor nor supervision sees it — only the counselor carrying it and the parties. The restriction is enforced on the server and tested against direct queries.

Carry your cases with the method, not despite it

Create your church for free and turn on counseling today. It is included in every plan.

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No credit card · Included in every plan · Support in Spanish & English