FAQ

You can call us direct at (602) 384-4417 or email us at CounselTheWord@PM.ME and we will set up a meeting as soon as possible.  Our earliest meetings are at 9 AM and our latest are at 4 PM and we meet Monday through Friday.  We meet for 1.5 hours at a time.

Each session is 1.5 hours and the fee is $125, payable by various means.  The easiest way is through Zelle since there are no fees involved.  Please contact us for details.

We believe that we are all responsible to follow the principles of Scripture: Gal. 6:6 (“The one who is taught the Word is to share all good things with the one who teaches him.”) and also Rom. 15:27 (“if the Gentiles have shared in their spiritual things, they are indebted to minister to them also in material things”) and 1 Cor. 9:11 (“If we sowed spiritual things in you, is it too much if we reap material things from you”).

Please remember that Compassionate Counselors, Inc. is a non-profit 501 (c) 3 organization.  We are a ministry, not a private practice.  We keep our fees as low as possible so that we can serve as many people as possible.  About half of our income comes from donors and the other half comes from those whom we counsel.

For those who cannot afford our fees, we urge you to contact family, friends, your church, and even your employer.  We have had people utilize each of these resources to pay for their counseling.  If people know you are serious about getting help, they will usually help you financially.  If, however, you have exhausted all of these avenues, please contact us about other options.  Please note, however, that we never turn people away who cannot afford our services.

Since Compassionate Counselors, Inc. is not a private practice, we are not funded by insurance providers.  We are a non-profit ministry sustained by gifts from friends like you.

We do not deal directly with any insurance company nor are we on any provider list for any company, however we will cooperate with forms they may require of us.  Please remember, however, that payment is due to us on the day of counseling and we will allow you to receive reimbursement from your health insurance company.

We accept all forms of payment.  The easiest is Zelle since there are no fees involved.  We also accept credit cards, cash, check or money orders.  If you are out of the country, the credit card fee will be slightly increased.

We do about 40% of our counseling remotely by either FaceTime or Zoom.  Please contact us for further details.

No, we are not medical doctors and therefore cannot prescribe medication, nor will we ever order you to stop taking your medications that are currently prescribed.

We are not opposed to medication, but we have found that it has been over-prescribed in many cases.  We prefer to begin addressing issues of the heart with people, even if there may be a need for medication.  We often discover that when heart issues are addressed biblically, the need for medication significantly lessens or vanishes altogether.  We counsel people who are currently on medication, and also people who are not on medication.

The basic answer is “no.”  The position of the State of Arizona is that of “separation of church and state.”  To require certification would violate that position.  The state of Arizona does require that a person performing any religious function must come under some religious adjudicatory body that can vouch for the function being performed and attest to the person’s qualifications.  In this case, Compassionate Counselors, Inc. would be the adjudicatory body for our counselors.  Since Pastors who preach God’s Word are never licensed by the State, neither should those who Counsel God’s Word be licensed by the State.

David D. Edgington is our lead counselor.  He is well known and networked in the Phoenix Valley since 1992.  Dr. Edgington is certified with the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors (formerly the National Association of Nouthetic Counselors – “NANC”) since 1995.

This is an organization committed to the authority and sufficiency of the Scriptures.  Furthermore, Dr. Edgington is also certified with IABC (International Association of Biblical Counselors) since 1996.  He also holds two Master’s Degrees and a Doctoral Degree, all with high honors.

You want a counselor who will counsel you from the Bible.  The Word of God should be the authority for whatever is said.  If your counselor does not open his Bible and use the Scriptures to address your problems, the counsel you receive will be therapeutic at best, but not God-glorifying.  Your times together should be opened and closed with prayer so that it is clear that God is the authority in this counseling, not the counselor himself (Psalm 119:24).

You also want a counselor who will depend upon the Holy Spirit.  He not only needs to be dependent upon the Spirit of God, but he should urge you to do so as well.  A good counselor will know that even the Word of God will appear to be “ink on trees” unless the Holy Spirit helps you to understand it, apply it, and glorify God through it.

You also will want to find a counselor who has been trained in Nouthetic Counseling (learn more here).

We are not affiliated with any particular church or denomination.  We serve the whole kingdom of God and believe the Word of God is sufficient to address any problem of living, whatever denomination you are in.  Our desire is to “strengthen the local church” (Acts 14:22; 15:32; 16:5; 18:23).  We have ministered to people from across the body of Christ. 

 Additionally, all members of Compassionate Counselors, Inc. are expected to be an active member of a local church and growing in godly maturity and accountable to their Pastor.  Compassionate Counselors consists of a board of directors with 2 seasoned Pastors on its board to hold its counselors accountable to the Scriptures.

Actually, Biblical Counseling is as old as the Bible itself.  As a matter of fact, all Christians do counseling.  Some do it with faithfulness to the gospel, some by marginalizing the gospel.  At CCI, we want to see more of the former and less of the latter.

 Biblical counseling is an integral ministry of the local church, rather than a program of the church.  The conviction of the Puritans of the 1600’s and 1700’s was that the Pastor was to be a “Physician of the Soul.”  They saw the necessity of making specific application of the Scriptures and the abundant grace of God to the lives of suffering saints.

 Beginning in the 1800’s, man-centered psychological theory began to replace God-ordained biblical authority.  Darwinian evolution came into the forefront.  It became popular to question the authority and inerrancy of the Scriptures.  It wasn’t long before the sufficiency of the Scriptures was also challenged.  The belief that God’s Word addresses every problem of living waned in influence as the church sought to make accommodations with these theories.

 Today, in the contemporary church, numerous unsuccessful attempts have been made to integrate biblical truth with psychological theory.  The result has been a loss of confidence in the gospel and as a consequence many broken, confused lives.  At Compassionate Counselors, Inc. we are one of the many ministries who are convinced that truly biblical counseling not only restores lives to godliness, but also is essential for God-glorifying change.  We not only have this conviction from the Word of God, we have the testimony from people whose lives have been radically changed by following the Scriptures.  We have no greater joy than to see God’s people walking in truth (3 John 4).