Excellent thoughts and questions, SkyeBlue.
I lived in the NTM family for almost 50 years, up until 2001, so I did observe the evolution of opinions and policies in regard to mental health concerns. (I cannot speak for what further changes may have taken place in the past 16 years.)
In the early days of the mission, I don't think the significance of mental/emotional health was understood whatsoever. In fairness, that would have been the case among the American population as a whole, not just in the mission.
Thinking back over the years, I can recall many cases where missionaries showed clear signs of deep pain and great neediness. The far-reaching effects of childhood trauma were not understood, and the mantra "God can use anyone", led the mission into accepting members who clearly suffered from PTSD, chronic depression, anger and rage, and sexual dysfunction or addiction. There were people who had mental breakdowns, psychosis, pedophilia, and there were suicides. Sometimes people in psychotic breaks were considered demon possessed, so they suffered the further trauma of attempts to cast demons out of their bodies. Others who had "nervous breakdowns" were sent home from the field feeling like failures in their fervor to serve God ... I hope they received the treatment they needed back home.
During the time I was an adult missionary, there was a wonderful doctor at the NTM Medical Center who prescribed antidepressants for many missionaries, including my husband. In spite of the fact that many mission members were secretly taking antidepressant medications, the Executive Committee issued an infuriating policy that if people needed antidepressants, they were disqualified from ministry. Thankfully that policy went away, but there continued to be a very definite stigma attached to mental health needs.
Then more changes took place, and the mission actually set up a counseling center of their own, at the medical center in Missouri. This center was staffed for a number of years by people who were trained in Christian counseling as you defined it, not in "Biblical counseling". I believe they did help many missionary families, both adults and MKs. The only criticism I would have of that counseling center is that there are cases where missionary pedophiles were removed from their fields of service and spent sometimes extended periods of time staying with their families at the training center in Camdenton, and their "transgressions" were not revealed to those living around them. This potentially put children at the center at risk, and I do not think that was appropriate at all.
The counseling center has been closed for many years, and I do not know what has taken its place, if anything. Perhaps someone who has more recently been a part of the mission can fill in that information.
I think many mission leaders have remained skeptical about therapy and counseling. NTM offered to pay for counseling for MK abuse survivors, but initially they wanted to set parameters for the kind of counselor or therapist they would pay for. I think I was told that at first they even wanted reports from the counselors, but I think that was short-lived, when they realized how unethical that requirement would be. I believe they have been paying for a fairly broad range of therapy now, but they do put a cap on the help they will give. Apparently they expect an abused MK to be all better after a certain number of sessions, or a certain amount of cost.
I wonder if someone currently in the mission, or recently in the mission, can tell us whether current mission policies or practices would indicate whether the the mission leaders now favor "Biblical counseling" over professional Christian counseling. If that is the case, it would be a big disappointment to people like Oren Green and Gary Lee. There is, as you point out, SkyeBlue, a big difference between Christian counseling and "Biblical counseling". I find the latter abhorrent in its premise and its methods.
http://www.familylife.com/articles/topi ... counseling"Biblical counseling is an approach to counseling that uses the Bible to address the issues in the lives of individuals, couples, and families. The Bible teaches that our thoughts, motives, attitudes, words, and actions flow from the sinful selfishness of our hearts. Biblical counseling addresses the heart as the source of these human actions and reactions using the wisdom and approaches revealed in the Bible."
Ugh.
I am a Christian, and I do hold the Bible sacred, but I firmly repudiate this method of addressing mental health needs.