Recovering from Spiritual Abuse: My Journey to Healing, Part 3
The Bible and Therapy
This is my third and final post detailing my journey to healing from spiritual abuse. Part one dealt with my struggle to trust authority in general, and specifically the authority of Jesus Christ. Part two dealt with my struggle to trust God the Father. For this last part, I’d like to address the role of therapy and how it has helped bring me healing.
I’ve noticed a trend in recent Christian writings or messages (books, articles, sermons, seminars, etc.). As of late, it has become trendy to add the adjective “Biblical” to titles. Why do you think that is? A possible answer is that when the word “Biblical” is used to describe something in a Christian context, it sounds authoritative and trustworthy. If this book/article/message is teaching “Biblical ____”, then it must be correct and trustworthy, right? A few examples are “Biblical manhood and womanhood”, “Biblical financial stewardship”, and “Biblical counseling”. It’s this last example I’d like to address here briefly.
“Biblical counseling” is often used in churches as a technical term to describe the method of counseling used. That sounds wonderful! After all, if you’re going to receive counseling as a Christian, wouldn’t you want it to be Biblical? Unfortunately, this description is misleading and, at worst, life-threatening.
Evaluating “Biblical Counseling”
Instead of talking generally about Biblical counseling, let me be more specific about this counseling system. The Biblical counseling system functions out of the following tenets:
1. The Bible alone is sufficient to provide counseling to every person.
2. The Bible alone defines the categories used in a counseling session.
3. The Bible alone defines the mark of health.
Tenet #1
In Biblical counseling, only the Bible is used in counseling sessions. On the rare occasion that another material is presented to the counselee, it will still be material written through a Biblical counseling framework and only meant to be supplemental to the Bible.
My concern with this tenet is that Biblical counseling tries to make the Bible function in a way it was never intended. While I believe in the sufficiency of the Bible, I believe it is only sufficient to do that which it was intended to do. What was it intended to do? Broadly speaking, the Bible was intended to reveal God to humanity; it is God’s special self-revelation to humanity and tells us about ourselves, our meaning, our sins, and God’s plan of salvation in Jesus Christ. The Bible is perfectly sufficient for this revelation from God. However, the Bible was not intended to teach us how to change a flat tire or how to file income taxes. There are many books a student in medical school is required to study to become a doctor, and the Bible is not one of them. The Bible was not written to teach humanity everything about everything but was written with a specific intent and a specific message. Therefore, the Bible is not sufficient to teach about everything.
Biblical counseling-based ministries will freely admit their “Bible-only” methodology. The following quotation is taken directly from one such Bible-only ministry, “Our program is not based on “steps” or “checklists” but solely on the practical application of God’s Word, lived out daily.”
Issues arising from biological, chemical, or neurological breakdowns are not addressed. Furthermore, if a Biblical counselor is certified[1], then that does not make him/her qualified to assess whether the counselee is suffering from such breakdowns. Certified Biblical counselors are not equivalent to licensed trauma therapists, psychologists, or psychiatrists. In short, certification is not the same as being licensed. Therefore, being certified in Biblical counseling does not guarantee that the counselor would even recognize the signs of abuse or behavioral/medical abnormalities, let alone be equipped to care for such a person.
Tenet #2
Biblical counseling will simplify the main problem for a counselee down to sin or unbelief (as if there’s only one problem). Again, as stated in tenet number one, the Biblical counseling structure does not account for biological, chemical, neurological, or trauma-related issues. The categories with which a Biblical counselor works out are only found in the Bible since the Bible alone is viewed as exhaustively sufficient (per tenet number one). Dissociative identity disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, bipolar disorder, autism spectrum disorder, anxiety and depression disorder, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder — such chemical/biological breakdowns are not mentioned in the Bible thus making Biblical counseling not fit to address and treat such disorders (and the countless others not mentioned here).
Biblical counseling does not have a category for people suffering from disorders or addictions due to trauma. Here’s another quotation from a Bible-only ministry, “Maybe you think you are “sick” with a disease, and no one understands your problem”, and then it goes on to state how the good news of what Jesus has done is their only solution. But notice how the word “sick” is in quotation marks. One’s disorders or “sickness” are not viewed as a legitimate category through the lenses of Biblical counseling. A Bible-only ministry does not recognize disorders properly but rather is defined as sin or unbelief, which can be cured through believing the gospel, prayer, faithful church membership, etc.
Additionally, if the counselee has suffered traumatic abuse and has been triggered by such abuse, Biblical counseling will not recognize such triggers as the natural effect of trauma. Instead, Biblical counseling will attempt to address trauma-induced triggers as symptoms of unbelief in the promises of the Bible. This poor approach will cause more harm to the counselee than the very trauma he/she experienced! Instead of a licensed therapist providing care, the counselee is to pray more/read certain Bible verses, etc. This leads us to what the goal of Biblical counseling is and how it defines what “health” is for a person.
Tenet #3
The goal of Biblical counseling is for the counselee to believe the gospel of Jesus Christ, which will set the counselee free from their addictions and/or disorders. “Health” will be if the counselee converts to Christianity and becomes a faithful, active member of the church. However, assisting the counselee in treating disorders and encouraging the counselee with coping methods is not a goal. It’s not a goal not because Biblical counselors want to “stay in their lane” and only help the counselee’s soul, but because the Biblical counselor does not even recognize disorders as a reality. Can you imagine how lonely this will make someone feel who is already feeling odd?
Lastly, to achieve such goals Biblical counseling will often time misinterpret the Bible to make it say something it never said (how’s that for irony?). Well-known Bible stories like Jesus controlling the waves are often stretched to ask the counselee something like, “What are the waves in your life that you need to give to Jesus?”
Summary of Biblical Counseling
Biblical counseling takes an “either/or” approach when it comes to the Bible and therapy. There is no middle ground because the structure of Biblical counseling does not allow for a healthy balance between both. I don’t think this is a healthy (nor “Biblical) approach.
Thankfully I became aware of a different way of thinking about these matters, which has been a massive means of healing for me. This other way of thinking is summed up as a “both/and” approach. I’ll explain.
A “Both/And” Approach
As stated earlier, I do believe the Bible is sufficient to do what it was intended to do. But I also recognize the legitimacy of science. The Bible and science are not at odds with one another. The Bible offers help, comfort, love, hope, and guidance in areas of life dealing with one’s soul, eternity, meaning, origin, morality, and destiny — topics that are more on the existential side of things. Therapy, psychology, and psychiatry offer help in matters of the physical, biological, and chemical body and observed behaviors that are produced by such disorders or imbalances. Both are necessary, and both are needed. Both ought to remain distinct from each other, as well. A psychologist with poor Biblical hermeneutics can do just as much damage as a Biblical counselor treating multiple personality disorders with the book of Romans. Both can be twisted and abused for uses neither was intended. Hammers are different than wrenches, both are very useful, and damage is caused when using a hammer for a wrench-job or a wrench for a hammer-job.
What’s puzzling is that on some level Biblical counselors know that physical matters must be dealt with separately from spiritual matters. This is why if a counselee complains of heart palpitations, the Biblical counselor will recommend the counselee to see a cardiologist immediately. Again, on some level, the Biblical counselor knows to separate physical from spiritual. The problem of course is that most Biblical counselors have an outdated view of the disciplines of therapy and psychology. Over the past twenty years, there have been great advancements in the field of neuroscience, brain capacity, Alzheimer’s, addiction, sleep apnea, and much more!
What if the church partnered with therapists/psychologists to care for the entire person with a “both/and” approach?
For me and my journey, I have been attending trauma therapy for the past six months. I’m progressing through an approach that treats trauma called Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR). Additionally, I’m reading the Bible consistently (still working through John, per Part 2 of this series). I’m benefitting from both the Bible and therapy and can confidently attest to the necessity of both. EMDR is allowing me to identify triggers and then reprocess how I think of them and such traumatic memories so that they don’t disable me anymore and I’m free to live my life as a strong survivor, not as a paralyzed-with-fear victim.
PTSD is real, and the Bible is not sufficient to address it. I’ll say I’m not healed yet… but I am in the process of healing. I need a “both/and” approach to the Bible and therapy. I also believe that I’m not alone in this need.
[1] One such organization to receive certification is the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors, ACBC for short.
