Love - the fundamental Christian concept

The objective of this blog is to discuss whether Christian concepts have any relevance to evidence based therapy when they are taken out of their religious context.  Love is the fundamental Christian concept about the nature of God and to love God and to love one's neighbour as one's-self are the first and second great commandments.  For anyone unfamiliar with Christianity, this second commandment, to love your neighbour as yourself, may seem somewhat surprising.  They may recall some examples of Christians who seem to love other people, there was Mother Teresa in India and the Salvation Army do some good work with the homeless.  But the people they know who go to Church, don't seem any more full of love than most other people they know.  That young family that disappear every Sunday morning are quite friendly but so are lots of other people.  They are never sure what to make of the older couple they see walking to that stone church a couple of streets away.  Do they love their neighbour as themselves?  How much do they love themselves anyway?  They look a bit grim faced.  All Christians fall a long way short of perfection and what do we really know about each other anyway.  Within Christian belief, Christians are told to do good in such a way that their left hand does not know what their right hand does so any acts that show their love of neighbour may in any case be hidden.

The failure of Christians to live up to their own standards points up the fundamental dichotomy between Christianity and people who are Christians.  Gandhi, the father of modern India is reported as saying that he was very attracted by Christianity and indeed he might have become a Christian if he had ever met one.  Christians fall very far short of perfection in following the teachings of their founder.  Some are aware of their failure but human nature means that many will not be.  This individual and corporate failure is recognised by the prominence given to confession in corporate and private prayer.  Acknowledgement of failings is followed by asking for and receiving forgiveness (another Christian concept).

I am not trying to justify Christianity let alone Christians in this blog but want to suggest that because the practitioners of an idea do not make a perfect job of following it, it does not mean that the idea itself is not valuable.  It has been said that there has only been one perfect Christian since Jesus and that was Francis of Assisi who lived in the twelfth century, not a very high percentage. Do you always live up to your own highest ideals and if not does that invalidate everything you believe in?

In subsequent blogs, I will look at the nature of love in Christianity and how this concept may be relevant to evidence based therap.

The Purposes of Psychotherapy and the use of Christian Concepts - a Personal View

In this blog item, I am trying to set out what I see as the purposes of psychotherapy into which Christian concepts taken out of their religious context may be integrated or may already be present.  I see the purpose of psychotherapy as the relief of suffering leading to an increased potential for happiness and human fulfilment and achievement both individually and as a society.  Probably that sounds a bit grand when related to the individual imperfect therapist such as myself and his/her client (for 'client' read 'patient' in other settings).  I also get paid which is nice.  It enables me to support myself and my family and makes therapy a job so I cannot feel too virtuous working in a helping profession.

Client's objectives

The purposes suggested above will be modified in the context of the client's own objectives which may alter over time but change must always be a factor or what is the point of therapy if the client is to remain the same.  The therapist will also be changed by this encounter with another human being at a level deeper than through a normal interaction between strangers.  So part of the process of therapy will be working with the client in clarifying the change they wish to achieve and how this will be recognised (often by having SMART goals).

Evidence based therapy

• If the therapist's aim is to help the client achieve their goals why would they not wish to do this in what they believe is the best way possible hence I try to follow ways of therapy for which there is evidence of utility.  Currently my understanding is that the modality of therapy for which there is the best evidence overall is Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). In this context, I understand that Aaron Beck the founder of CBT, is reported nas saying that CBT is anything that works so that CBT utilises some techniques developed in other modes of therapy such as imagery work while retaining its basic model.  This model proposes mechanisms explaining how a person develops unhelpful ways of being and how these are maintained but does not propose an ontological model of personal fulfilment or what it means to be a human person unlike Person-centred therapy or as a religion or certain philosophical or political systems might do.  It exists to help clients with the issues the client brings to therapy. It is confidential subject to a limited number of exceptions such as potential harm to the client or another person.  It is non-judgemental and does not have a defined objective in mind for the client, they define their own.  The therapist will work with the client in recognising conflicts between their objectives and their current and ongoing thoughts, beliefs and behaviours.  In their book, Cognitive Behavioral  Therapy for Anxiety Disorders: Mastering Clinical Challenges, Butler, Fennell and Hackmann  set out five recurring themes of CBT.  The five recurring themes are as follows: 

• The style of CBT - explicitness
                                - collaboration
                                - Socratic method
                                - openness of mind to allow exploration, questioning and testing                                                     of cognitions.
  
• Therapeutic relationship
  
•  Thinking about meaning
  
• Aiming for "whole system change" through full emotional processing.
  

• Three general principle, namely - curiosity rather than control
  
                                                          - reduced rigidity and increased flexibility
  
                                                          - facing anxiety rather avoidance or safety
                                                                           behaviors.
                             

       

So if CBT is what works, there may be approaches that originated in a religion, system of thought, belief or other source that will help a client to realise their goals or help a therapist in their practice.  Why should they not be used taken out of their original religious or other context if necessary when the client is not a subscriber to that particular belief system?

Christian concepts relevant to psychotherapy

I am a Christian so this the religion I wish to explore in the context of evidence based therapy.  I have tried in this blog to set out a basis for an approach to therapy involving helping clients to achieve their goals using methods that are evidence based. In later blogs, I will begin 

• to explore the background in relation to evidence based therapy and CBT in particular and Christianity including how it is viewed by non Christians;
• to identify Christian concepts that may be relevant to therapy;
• look for evidence that these concepts may assist client change in practice;
• examine whether some of the concepts already in use in therapy are equivalent or similar to Christian concepts identified.

To recap, the aim is not to present these concepts to non-Christian clients as Christianity but as apparently universl truths and to explore their use for the benefit they offer in psychotherapy practice.  If a therapist is a Christian (some are) this may seem more natural to them but they should respect their clients' autonomy and not treat their use as any attempt at conversion. If a client is a Christian, the therapist should be aware that Christians vary greatly in their understanding of Christianity and the therapist should not advocate a particular religious approach though they may help a client recognise there are alternative interpretations of their faith that they can consider.