Marriage Champion – are you a counselor or coach looking for access to the most up-to-date psychological research and training that honors and includes your Christian faith? Or maybe you are a pastor who needs resources to help the emotionally hurting members in your congregation. Perhaps you serve as a mentor or lay caregiver who wants to be better equipped to minister to people seeking wellness, connection and relationships.

The American Association of Christian Counselors (AACC), founded in 1986 and now headed by Tim Clinton, Ed.D., LPC, LMFT, was created with the mission to assist those in the “community of care” – whether licensed and degreed or just interested lay people – help the church worldwide become more caring and mental health friendly. The organization also seeks to champion the importance of spirituality within mental health care.

In 1997, Tim, a licensed professional counselor and marriage and family therapist, took over the helm as president of the AACC, described as the world’s premier and largest faith-based mental health organization on AACC.net. The AACC includes more than 60,000 active members and students. Tim also serves as Executive Director of the Global Center for Human Flourishing and is a Professor Emeritus at Liberty University. Tim also hosts a weekend television news talk program, “Sunday The Road Forward,” which airs on Real America’s Voice News Network and streaming platforms and co-hosts a national radio talk show, “Life , Love, Faith and Family” with his son, Dr. Zach Clinton. He has written or edited over 30 books.

Tim has made it his life’s work to juxtapose psychology and neurobiology research with Christian faith and practice. With more than four decades of professional experience as a therapist and trusted counseling leader, Tim examines science, psychology, physiology as well as the power and healing found in connection with the Creator.

“Relationships can have the same mediating effect on the brain as medicine,” he said. Tim recently confirmed with a leading researcher in interpersonal biology and neuroscience that relationship with God could provide healing power. “Science validates God’s word. I’m excited about the energy and the movement of spirituality being a major force of mental health care,” he said.

“It is a beautiful thing to love and be loved,” both vertically with God and horizontally in relationship with each other, he continued. “How do we move into that place with God and those we love in a stronger way? Can you imagine what people would do if they felt loved by those closest to them and knew they were loved by their father God? It would change the world!”

Tim believes the greatest venue for influence in the world, one which has a place in every community, is the church. (And to be clear, he does not mean the building, but the people of God who make up the body of Christ.) “We need the church to awaken to take her rightful place to lead,” he said.

“I believe mental health care is one of the greatest issues facing the church in the next decade. Today’s generations are more likely to seek help. Mental health ministry has now become as important as children’s ministry.”

“We’ve seen mountains moved,” he added. “People are much more open to mental health care, and they want their faith addressed as part of their healing journey. They want a faith-based mental health provider to help them understand the dark, broken pieces of their lives and help them put them together. People want to believe God is there and cares.”

As an organization the AACC provides a community for like-minded people in the mission of soul-care journey.

“We believe that the ‘seat’ of any ministry in the church that is focusing on mental or behavioral health issues must be supported by three strong legs. These legs are the mental health informed pastor, the equipped lay helper/coach, and the clinical professional, and it is to these three roles that the AACC is dedicated to serve,” from the mission statement.

Ironically, it was the low point early in his own marriage that moved Tim to closely examine what makes marriages work and how to translate success into therapy and counseling practices. He and his wife of now close to 46 years, Julie, had a rocky transition when newly married that Tim describes as “God taking me on a journey.” “Most marriage problems start off with a secret: ‘I don’t know if I like you. I’m not happy in this relationship anymore, and I don’t know what to do,’” he said. “We have a God who is the author of our story and loves us with an everlasting love. If we can center up with God in our marriages, we’ll have God’s strength in them.”

Tim devoted years to learning ways to put his and Julie’s marriage on solid ground. His determination to turn things around inspired one of his earliest books, Before a Bad Goodbye.

About that time trailblazers like Dr. Larry Crabb were introducing the idea of mental health and relationship work to the church. “A lot of people were turning to the church with problems and challenges and feeling like there was not much there for them,” Tim said. This was one of the inspirations for the AACC – the influence of bringing the message of mental health to discipleship.

Starting from the early days of the AACC, when distance learning was offered through VHS tapes to train first responders to fill the gap for those who needed Christ-centered help, the AACC now offers seminars using current web technology. They’ve developed video content that can be used in therapy, a marriage mentoring program, mini-courses on love, sex and attachment, and pre-marital counseling featuring renowned leaders like Drs. Norman Wright, Les and Leslie Parrott, and Sharon May. Inspired by Hosea 4:6, “My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge,” the information is held to dual high standards of clinical excellence and biblical truth.

Caring for People God’s Way, a 30-hour biblical counseling course, has trained more than 200,000 people. Tens of thousands have obtained a certificate in the Marriage Works, (Caring for Marriage God’s Way) training Tim developed with Dr. Gary Smalley.

People can access webinars at AACC.net. Monthly blog posts include how to keep romance alive, stress resilience, holidays, anger, benevolent detachment, among others – written by a robust group of experts including members of the AACC staff.

Other tabs offer the opportunity to take a mental health checkup or find a Christian counselor. A magazine includes peer reviewed research and articles.

The AACC also hosts a biennial World Conference. More than 7,000 participants will travel from 50 countries worldwide as well as each of the United States to attend the premier Christian Counseling event in 2025, which features 175 workshops and 25 different tracks.

“The AACC has seen explosive growth in the last four years,” Tim said. “I’m so excited about what God is doing. The 2025 World Conference curricula address everything from AI to religious liberty and the risks for mental health service delivery to the latest in neuroscience and trauma informed care, with a key session on human flourishing. Participants can tailor sessions to their interests both professionally and personally. “God is doing something, and I’m proud to be part of that mission,” he said.

Light University 

As the AACC continued to offer resources and courses, Tim became aware of the need for counselors to find high-quality, relevant continuing education, which inspired the creation of Light University, https://lightuniversity.com/continuing-education/. People can earn certificates or diplomas in fields like professional Life Coaching, Caring for People God’s Way, or Coaching for Sexual and Spiritual Intimacy in Marriage.

Light University also is the home of the Dr. James C. Dobson School of Marriage and Family, with a mission “to preserve and promote the institution of the family and the biblical principles on which it is based by training a generation of leaders to stand in the gap and help strengthen today’s marriages and families.

“We want to train and equip individuals, just like you, who have the heart to help people in need with the necessary tools to be more effective in helping and coaching others,” as described on the website.

Tim has enjoyed a close relationship going back decades with Dr. Dobson. He helped the august trailblazer in the family field transition his ministry from Focus on the Family to Family Talk and co-hosted the “Dr. James Dobson’s Family Talk” nationally syndicated radio program from 2018 to 2023. Tim serves as Executive Director of the James Dobson Family Institute and continues to preserve Dr. Dobson’s body of work to benefit future generations.

Now podcast listeners looking for Tim’s voice will find him co-hosting the “Life, Love, Faith and Family” show on oneplace.com with his son, Zach, who also has a Ph.D. in counseling. “Life, Love, Faith, and Family” brings “timely and topical conversations with national leaders from the faith, mental health, and family advocacy arenas. Anchored in a biblical perspective to help you navigate today’s culture, each day we deliver a word of hope and encouragement to help strengthen your life, your love, and your relationships with those close to you,” as described on the site.

Vice President of the AACC, Zach voices the “Built Different” podcast. Zach’s research on the role of attachment in coaches and its influence on human flourishing in D1 athletes dovetails nicely with the AACC’s focus and complements his 2024 book, Even If, and his own Built Different ministry.

Tim’s hoping to transition the reins of the AACC to Zach in the future. The close-knit family also includes son-in-law, Ben Allison, J.D., M.B.A., who serves as the AACC’s CEO.

Wife, Julie, leads Ewomen.net and hosts events like the Extraordinary Women spring and fall event tours along with their daughter, Dr. Megan Allison, and daughter-in-law, soon to be Dr. Evelyn Clinton.

Another resource a marriage champion will find helpful is Tim’s The Quick-Reference Guide to Biblical Counseling. “Hurting people need help. But sometimes those who are faced with helping the hurting could use a little more information about the problems people bring to them. Now in its second edition, The Quick-Reference Guide to Biblical Counseling provides the answers.

This A-to-Z guide gives pastors, counselors, and all believers the information they need to help congregants, clients, and friends in a wide array of situations. The many issues addressed include:

· addictions

· burnout

· forgiveness

· sexual abuse in childhood

· worry

· and many more

“Each of the 40 topics covered follows a helpful 8-part outline and identifies typical symptoms and patterns, definitions and key thoughts, questions to ask, directions for the conversation, action steps, biblical insights, prayer starters, and recommended resources,” according to the AACC website.

In The Struggle is Real: How to Care for Mental and Relational Health Needs in the Church, Tim and Dr. Jared Pingleton curate research written by an expert team of specialists in the ministry and Christian mental health fields. The comprehensive, 25-chapter “toolbox” of how to effectively serve hurting people and relationships educates, equips, empowers, and encourages “church leaders and all those who ‘dare to care’ to compassionately and competently come alongside wounded people and offer them real help, healing, and hope,” according to the website.