Through this blog, I would like to explore Christian insights that may benefit psychotherapy whilst recognising that most of my clients are not religious. It would not be appropriate or ethically acceptable to use Christian teaching as such with a client who was not a Christian but does that mean that there are no relevant and helpful insights that can be derived from the Christian traditions? Many Western therapists use methods such as Mindfulness that have their origins in Buddhism but with the present receding tide of Christianity, some therapists and clients may be unaware of the rich and ancient traditions of Christianity. Despite all the many failings of the followers of this religion, in countries in which it is the majority faith with some exceptions, it has eventually led to the liberal, tolerant and to some extent, reason and evidence based societies we are now privileged to live in in the West. (In a later blog, I will try to defend Christianity from some of the criticisms made of it which are more rightly directed at individual Christians and institutions.)
It appears at present that this exploration will fall into two parts, namely identification of relevant Christian insights and secondly, a search for evidence that the insights identified can be beneficial in therapy. With regard to Christianity, I am not referring to a biblical literalist form of Christianity that is prepared while teaching love and forgiveness to condemn a large part of humanity to at worst, hell and eternal damnation and at best, extinction. That does not seem how a loving parent would treat any of his children or consistent with how Jesus is portrayed in the New Testament despite the harsh words occasionally ascribed to him.
A practising Christian may see these Christian insights as helpful or mandatory even though he/she may fail to follow them consistently in their life. A non-Christian whether client or therapist will be more likely to subject them to critical consideration and rightly so. I try to follow evidence-based practice, principally cognitive behavioural therapy, CBT. I have written a lot more on this in a later post. Although I am a Christian, I would want evidence that these insights are themselves beneficial in therapy. Some of this evidence may already exist. For instance, to the extent that there is evidence that compassion derived from the Buddhist tradition is a helpful quality in therapy, the Christian concept of love for self and neighbour (agape)may not be too far removed for it not be of use in therapy.
I am not a researcher but I can read the work of others and draw conclusions from it. Nor am I a theologian but I have read quite a lot of theology. But what would really help to move this project on will be the comments, criticisms and insights that any readers of this blog can offer based on their own expertise. Of course it will be more helpful if these comments are constructive but an interest in improving therapeutic outcomes is more important in this context than having a religious faith.
Notes
1. '.......The premise for this 'evidence-based' practice is twofold: first, it is ethically appropriate that clients should be protected from harm, and should reasonably expect that the practitioner has justifiable grounds to believe that the intervention will effect remediation or improvement; second, all stakeholders (e.g. client, employer, service delivery setting, regulator) may reasonably assume that the psychological intervention or therapy will be delivered in an optimally effective and efficient way.' Atkinson, C. and Woods, K. (2017) Establishing Theoretical Stability Treatment Integrity For Motivational Interviewing Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy, Vol 45, Issue 04, p.337.
