Christ-Centered Psychological Therapy

In browsing through my psychology textbook today, I came across the words "client-centered therapy." In my skimming, my mind read those words as "Christ-centered therapy." I think that shows where my mind has been whilst reading my psychology textbook and listening to my professor in class.

I've already blogged about this class I've been taking on Tuesday nights. It's been changing the way I think about problems and the treatment of them. In my psychology class, during the last two class periods, the topic of the lectures has been treatment of psychological disorders. Some of the ideas seem to be a little out there. Some of them seem entirely pointless. But most of them seem to make sense. But even in ones that make sense, there still seems to be something missing, a key component that makes all the difference.

This class that I've already mentioned focuses on the belief system. What it teaches, and with what I completely agree, is that a person's beliefs always determine how they think, and the way that person thinks then determines how they behave. Therefore, a person's belief system is of utmost importance in their life. And the reason why so many people have messed up belief systems is because they are either not in Christ or they are in Christ and they just don't see themselves how God sees them.

So in all this talk about psychological therapy, through all of the various methods brought up, I keep thinking, "That sounds really good. But it's never going to truly make a difference without Christ." So I think that explains why I saw the words "client-centered therapy" and thought "Christ-centered therapy." "Client" and "Christ" are similar looking words.

I've had these thoughts most when behavior-modifying methods of treatment were brought up. If beliefs determine mindset, and mindset determines behavior, then behavior modification will never really work. The behavior might change for a little while, but eventually old habits will manifest themselves again because the belief system hasn't changed.

Now, I know that psychological disorders come in all shapes and sizes and vary in severity. And I'm not trying to say that if someone with severe bipolar disorder would just see themselves like God sees them, then their problems would disappear. Who knows. Maybe they would. Miraculous things can happen when one is in Christ and knows who they are in Christ. All I'm trying to say is that I believe there are a lot of people seeking psychotherapy for things like severe depression, who have become severely depressed as a result of great adversity in their lives, and whose lives could be turned completely around if Christ was the center of everything in their lives.

But I don't expect to see this ideology represented this explicitly in a general psychology textbook any time soon. Sadly.