M.Th. / The counseling' of Jay E Adams must be seen against the background of the rise of the Pastoral Care Movement and, together with it, the propagating of the eductive method of counseling which lays excessive emphasis on the needs of man and the inner potential of man to arrive at a solution of his own problems. Against a humanistic form of counseling, Adams stresses in particular the Scriptures as the counselor's textbook, and the role of sin in human suffering. His counseling has been judged and criticised in various circles, frequently without adequate substantiation or a satisfactory alternative. This dissertation is aimed at researching Adams' counseling thoroughly so that an alternative can be offered from a pentecostal perspective. First a comprehensive exposition was given of the core elements of Adams' counseling, that served as a foundation to discuss the positive and negative criticism of his work. The paradigms underpinning pentecostal thinking in general was also discussed, as the argument in this study was based on a pentecostal framework. Among other things the nature of man, the love and mercy of God, sin and the role of evil were examined. The author feels that no one specific model or technique of counseling can be promoted. Every person and every situation is unique. Therefore every counseling session will also be unique. For this reason it was decided to give guidelines rather than develop a model. Pentecostal counseling was approached from the perspective of systems-thinking and communicative action theory but was also directed by basic assumptions, among other things, that Jesus Christ is the centre of every counseling session (through the operation of the Holy Spirit) and that the congregation as a whole is the object of counseling. Finally the conclusion was reached that pentecostal counseling could definitely find common ground with the counseling of Jay E Adams, with certain adjustments based on pentecostal paradigms.