My Journey As A Counselor: Ron Zachariasen

Published April 11, 2024
My Journey As A Counselor: Ron Zachariasen

Author: Ron Zachariasen

My path to becoming a biblical counselor began with God giving me an urging when I was an Elder to start a lay counseling ministry. I started my research by talking with various local churches. I concluded that the magnitude of a church counseling ministry would require a Pastor, so I started praying to that end. Thank you, Lord, for answering my prayer in an awesome way! Enter Jason Poling who was hired in 2008. He had a passion for starting and maintaining a counseling ministry AND had a budget. In a few years groups of people were traveling to Faith Bible Church in West Lafayette, Indiana for Track 1 training, an intense week of Biblical Counseling training. I was in that group; I believe it was in 2013.

The common and profound observations of the SB group attending this new and impactful training was the effect it had on each of us personally. We all came away with:
  • inspiration and the rudimentary tools to begin the thought of actually counseling.
  • Having grown in our understanding of Christ and His gospel of grace.
  • the enormity of using scripture well and the daunting task ahead of us.
  • a deep humbling feeling of responsibility to depend on God.

Could we ever feel comfortable in entering into the maze and enormity of the broken humans? 

Enter Holy Spirit. With His power to sanctify, teach and encourage, I began the journey. With study, prayer, many kinds of counseling resources, reading and studying the Bible, I began to think that I could actually help someone … heavily trusting God’s healing grace to be present in me and the counselee. 

After taking Tracks 2, 3 and 5, and getting my feet wet in counseling, I began to think seriously about shooting for certification. It took a couple of years of concerted effort, prayer and plenty of God’s generosity, but I am now certified with the ACBC and have taken Track 4 twice. It is a track that changes every year and especially designed for counselors who want to keep current and be reinvigorated.

I have been counseling now for nine years and have had the absolute wonderful experience of seeing God work changing people more into the likeness of His Son and growing toward that end myself.