Category Archives: christian psychology

February 23, 2010 · 6:13 pm

Dealing with unexpected losses


Some years ago, my wife and I wrote an article for CCEF’s Journal of Biblical Counseling entitled, “The Bible and the Pain of Infertility.” Of all my published writings, this article has garnered the most responses from readers. I don’t think it is because it is so well written as much as it touches many where they most hurt. Even though the article is about infertility, readers have commented that they found it related to their loss of a loved one, the unexpected loss of a career, a chronic disease.

Not that long ago I was asked to review a chapter manuscript on pastoral care of infertile couples. I was shocked to learn that he could find no serious work (than ours) attempting to think pastorally about infertility. Not sure he is right but it probably means we need more on the topic.

I say all this because CCEF has put the article up for free on the top of their homepage. Click here for their homepage. Click the image at the top of their page and it should take you to the full text article.

Enjoy. Pass it on to others you think might benefit, especially those who suffer in secret.

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February 22, 2010 · 12:41 pm

Quick Review of Mike Emlet’s “CrossTalk”


In my last guest post on the Society for Christian Psychology blog I give a brief review* of Mike Emlet’s new book: CrossTalk: When Life & Scripture Meet (2009, New Growth Press). I can’t say enough great things about the book. If you haven’t looked at it, you should. One of the big beefs I have with the Christian counseling world is that we either abuse or ignore the bible in the therapeutic context. Mike’s book does a world of good in rectifying two problems: (a) only using tiny portions but seeing most of the bible as unusable in ministry contexts, and (b) missing the big picture of how God connects to hurting people and how their hurts connect to God’s story.
Check out my blog post on the SCP site using the link above.

*I did receive a free copy of Mike’s book from the publisher but that did not influence my views of the book. More likely would be my friendship with him and any dinner his wife, Jody, might offer. 🙂

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February 17, 2010 · 11:40 am

Thoughts on sport, romance, and perversion


I’m not particularly the romantic type but certain things tend to spawn warm fuzzies in me. One such thing is the Olympics. Watching young men and women throw their all into sport for the chance to win (even though most won’t even come close) is one of those things. I recall the same feelings as I lived and breathed track and cross-country running in high school. I have fleeting desires of being able to race that fast, throw every cell into an activity, to think that succeeding will be the best. But then, my aching ankles and knees remind me of the consequences of doing so…

Pairs figure skating, in my mind, is one of the best illustrations of sport, romance, and perversion. It is definitely a sport. Have you ever tried to skate? To skate and jump off the ice…and not have a brain injury? To catch someone spinning over your head? To do all that and look graceful? But pairs are also supposed to be artistry and poetry.  The couple skates in a way to tell a  romantic or romantic/tragic story. But with the new scoring system couples are rewarded with moves, jumps, catches, positions. They are not as well rewarded for fluidity, artistry, and poetry. Maybe I’m showing my age but I found very few of the skating pairs very interesting this year. The couple that won certainly were interesting, both on the ice and their personal story. But, many just skated to music and did the moves they knew would get higher scores.

In my mind, it perverts the romance of the sport. Sure, the skaters are athletic. Sure, the moves they do are amazing taken one at a time. But, I would liken it current pop hip-hop lyrics that skip all the romance and just flaunt or demand raw sexual activity. Forget the dinner and the candles, just give me sex!

If you were watching the long program of pairs, you may have seen a Canadian couple. They fell and so wouldn’t have medaled. However, I think they had more romance and art in their skating than all of the first three combined.

Which leaves me one question. Are we beyond romance in this day and age? Missed something on television? You can catch the 30 second clip of the most important points on video. Don’t want to watch a whole football game? You can get the highlights instead. Seems we like things raw and to the point.

Maybe this is the sin of Cliffs Notes 🙂

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February 15, 2010 · 10:47 am

Guest post on mindfulness


I have a post this am on the Society of Christian Psychology’s blog regarding the topic of mindfulness. I’ve written more here on the topic but you can go here to see my comments on the makings of a Christian Psychology version of mindfulness.

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February 15, 2010 · 5:03 am

Conference Announcement for the Society of Christian Psychology


One of the things I love about the Society for Christian Psychology is the diversity of professionals in the  membership. We have biblical counselors, clinical psychologists, sociologists, philosophers, and theologians. And starting this year, we have two different conferences, one for counselors and one for academics. I would like one that caters to both but this is still good. Anyway, the next academic conference (focusing on human agency) is next September 17-18 at Southern Seminary. For more info on the presenters, their paper topics and conference details, click here: 2010 Conference announcement titles

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February 8, 2010 · 8:29 am

Do no harm?


[This is the second guest post I am making over on the www.christianpsych.org. You’ll have to click the link to read the whole post…]

Every counseling ethics code in existence includes this principle: Do no harm. This maxim is drilled into the heads of counseling students (and any other medical professional as well). Our work should help, not hurt. Who could disagree?

But pause for a minute and consider how you might evaluate whether an intervention helps or harms. What criteria will you use? From what vantage point will you evaluate the criteria you choose? If a medical treatment extends life for an ill patient that would seem good—unless it keeps them alive and in a vegetative state with no possibility of recovery. Some would then wonder if the treatment was indeed best. Or, is it harmful if marriage counseling encourages truthfulness between spouses leading to the revelation of a terrible betrayal leading on to divorce and financial ruin? If honesty is your criteria for helpfulness, then the intervention is sad but helpful. If stability is your criteria, then such counseling is harmful. We could go on and on. Do we use client interpretation of whether treatment is helpful or counselor observation? Do we consider the difference between short and long term evaluation? And importantly for Christians, do we consider only statistical analyses or do we also consider biblical categories (e.g., intervention “A” leads to increased positive affect but encourages clients to pray to another deity).

Despite the muddy water I just churned up, I want to argue that Christian psychology is well poised to help Christian counselors provide treatment that does not harm. This society includes some of the best philosophers, theologians, sociologists, clinicians, and researchers of our day. These members are interested in looking at how people grow and change, how the bible connects with everyday life, common human struggles and effective interventions, etc.

How then do we go about refining our practices and avoiding harm? Let me suggest some steps we might take:

[rest of post on www.christianpsych.org.]

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February 3, 2010 · 9:56 am

Trusting in your own wisdom


I recently had the need to consult a couple of experts on a medical question. In doing so I re-discovered a maxim:

we trust in our own expertise to solve problem.

Or, more colloquially, if what we have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. The psychiatrist puts her trust in her common tools. The neurosurgeon puts his trust in his scalpel. The neuropsychologist puts trust in the common diagnostic tools she uses.

Hmmm. I think I’m no different. I’d like to think that I’ll give my clients the right recommendation for treatment but when someone comes to me with a run-of-the-mill problem I must admit that I usually think I and my skills are up to the task.

Good care requires that I inform clients of other options. For example, if someone is depressed, I can provide counsel but they may wish to choose to see a psychiatrist for medication options. If a couple comes for therapy, I should inform them of the various kinds of therapy that might work equally well: EFT by a certified specialist, intensive Gottman style interventions (3 hour sessions every 3 weeks with lots of homework). Or, if a parent brings a child with ADHD like symptoms, do I suggest my style of intervention or do I recommend more careful diagnostics of a neuropsychologist’s exam? But even when we counselors tell clients of other options, they probably can tell we think fairly highly of our own counseling methods.

Don’t be surprised when surgeons want to use their knives, when oncologists want to ply their trade, or when nutritionists emphasize their health improving interventions. If you are seeking care, keep this human frailty in mind. And do be sure to ask more questions when you are seeking the best path for solving your problem.

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February 1, 2010 · 5:49 am

Blogging this month for the Society of Christian Psychology


This month (really, the 4 Mondays of February), I’ll be the guest blogger at the Society for Christian Psychology’s site. You can find it at www.christianpsych.org or from my links on this page. Here’s a tease from my first post:

Should Christian Psychology become a Profession?

Right now, in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, lawmakers are considering a bill that would place more restrictions on who can provide counsel. Currently, the state has a number of mental health credentials. Among those is the Licensed Professional Counselor credential for those with a requisite master’s degree and post graduate supervised practice. If passed, the new bill will not only protect the title of “Professional Counselor” but also the practice of professional counseling. Per the law, one may not “style” themselves as a counselor unless they are licensed as such.

Who does this effect? This will especially impact the many Christian counselors who are not licensed but practice a form of counseling (aka biblical counseling, Christian counseling, etc.). While these counselors do not provide diagnoses or bill insurances they do collect fees, keep progress notes, maintain confidentiality, and provide counsel for those struggling with issues such as anxiety, anger, depression, marital conflict and the like. So, the 64 million dollar question: Do these unlicensed Christian counselors “style” themselves as professional counselors? And who decides the line between the two? As an aside, the bill does contain an exemption for pastoral counselors. Pennsylvania does not yet define that title but in other locales that title is reserved for those ordained, trained in a pastoral counseling graduate program, and doing work in church-related institutions.

Here’s where the bill gets interesting. It describes what typifies a profession that might overlap with counseling but have a separate (and thus exempted) identity and practice. Here are some of the criteria they might use to discern a separate profession (note my bolded text to emphasize interesting details):

[For the rest of this post, click here.

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January 22, 2010 · 11:53 am

Update on PA HB 1250


Posted previously here about the bill proposed to go to the PA legislature that will change the Licensed Professional Counselor credential from a title act to a practice act. This would further restrict non-licensed counselors from “styling” themselves as a licensed counselor, from offering the services of a counselor. Already one cannot call themselves a professional counselor or similar titles. But these changes would eliminate many from practicing. This bill (see here for bill with highlighted changes. Go to page 10 to see most pertinent changes and list of exempted individuals) is being voted on by the committee on 1/27.

Note that the exempted parties include “pastoral counselors”. In PA they are not defined. However, in other states they are defined and licensed. Thus, who will determine who is a pastoral counselor and what to do with the overlap between the two? In other states, a pastoral counselor must be ordained and trained in pastoral counseling. Also, psychologists supervising unlicensed people with counseling degrees may be exempted but there is still fuzziness in the law.

It all comes down to the definition of “styling.” See this quote from page 10:

Only individuals who have received licenses as licensed professional counselors under this act may style themselves as licensed professional counselors and use the letters “L.P.C.” in connection with their names. It shall be unlawful for an individual to style oneself as a licensed professional counselor, advertise or offer to engage in the practice of professional counselor counseling or use any words or symbols indicating or tending to indicate that the individual is a licensed professional counselor without holding a license in good standing under this act.

Section 3.  The act is amended by adding a section to read:

Section 16.4  Unlicensed practice prohibited.

No person shall engage in the practice of as a licensed social work worker, licensed clinical social work worker, licensed marriage and family therapy therapist or licensed professional counseling counselor in this Commonwealth unless the person holds a valid license to do so as provided in this act. The provisions of this section shall not apply to the following persons:

If you are in PA and one of these representatives (scroll down for the list) are from your district, you may wish to register you opinion on the matter.

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January 5, 2010 · 5:03 am

Standing with Rwanda


For those interested in pictures (from the Rwanda Embassy in DC) and formal information about what the AACC, Dr. Diane Langberg, and others including myself are planning on doing in Rwanda, click the following: MOU AACC alert.

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