3 Tips for Your Therapy Journey As a Christian
As we seek freedom and healing in our lives, our goal should be to conform into the likeness of Christ
One of the great things about my generation is that going to therapy has been increasingly normalized. We’re more open about our need for support and more willing to admit, “I’m not okay.”
Going to therapy has even become somewhat cool and mainstream.
Until earlier this year, I had never seriously pursued therapy. But when I found myself struggling with my mental health, I knew I couldn’t put off therapy any longer.
Saying ‘yes’ to therapy felt incredibly brave and daunting, but I am so glad I did it.
I’ve learned therapy is a tool at our disposal to pursue growth and healing, and as a Christian, I’ve learned that it’s a holy process God can use to unleash greater freedom in our lives.
Here are three things I learned during my therapy journey that I hope can guide you on yours:
- Invite the Lord into the process with you.
It’s important to recognize that Christ is our ultimate healer; a therapist is just a person and cannot change you or fix things for you.
To prepare my heart, I prayed before every therapy session, acknowledging the Lord as the One who knows me fully and completely and is the only One who can provide the healing I need. The phrase I kept repeating was, “Lord, please reveal and heal.” Reveal within me what I can’t see and heal me as only you can.
God is the One who knit us together in our mother’s womb and knows every part of us (Psalm 139:13–16). He’s the only One who can properly reveal things about who we are in order to heal us.
2. Commit to showing up and seeing it through.
Therapy will only be as effective as you are willing to show up — physically for your sessions and emotionally for yourself. It’s hard, vulnerable work to show up week after week and be honest with yourself about your struggles, your past, and your fears. But this is where the real work and the real healing begins.
Seeing it through might look different for you than it did for me, but committing to something from the outset is important. Perhaps it’s committing to a specific amount of time or until something specific is accomplished. Either way, seeing it through to the “end” is important on the road to recovery and healing.
3. Recognize Christ’s desire to set you free.
The morning of my first therapy session, I remember sitting on my couch spending time with the Lord and so clearly sensing him say, “I want to set you free from the things that have held you back for so long.”
I was overwhelmed with gratitude, recognizing that not only has Christ set us free in the greatest way possible — from the power of sin and death which is completely undeserved, but he also cares enough to lead us into greater freedom in our daily lives this side of heaven.
Make no mistake, the Lord is for you, not against you (Romans 8:31). In fact, I’m almost certain he wants to set you free more than you want to be set free. That’s because his love for you is profoundly deeper than you can even imagine (Ephesians 3:18).
That anxiety and depression that seems to define you? He wants to set you free.
The trauma of your past that haunts your present? He wants to set you free.
That insecurity and self-loathing? He wants to set you free.
That perfectionism and constant need to justify yourself? He wants to set you free.
That thing you can’t forgive yourself for? He wants to set you free.
As Christ sets us free more and more on this side of heaven and until the day we are united with Christ in his glorious presence, may we allow Christ to conform us to his likeness and use our freedom to love him more fully.
We all, with unveiled faces, are looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord and are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory; this is from the Lord who is the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:18, HCSB)
