Themes Discussed in Discipleship Counseling - Book Report/Review Example

Themes Discussed in ‘Discipleship Counseling’ by Dr. Neil T. Anderson The paper discusses the major themes identified in the book, ‘Discipleship counseling’ by Dr Neil. T Anderson. The book strives to bring a greater understanding of Christian beliefs as they must be merged with secular social sciences to provide a holistic support to people with mental health problems by taking into regard the spiritual realm. The three themes which have been described and explained with supporting evidences pertain to the ideas that Behavior Modification practices are a part of faith beyond the secular practices; an integration of theology and psychology is necessary for humans to understand the ‘why’ as well as ‘what’ of the human psychological problems and that believers benefit greatly when their counselors can effectively guide them in light of their values and beliefs. Some analysis of Anderson’s theory about ‘demonic possession’ and ‘Freedom of Christ’ movement is also provided. “Themes Discussed in ‘Discipleship Counseling’ By Dr. Neil T. Anderson” Human nature can be troubled with much kind of problems including emotional and psychological ones. The fields of psychology and psychiatry have emerged to provide analysis and research on these problems as well as to provide scientific conclusions and solutions for them. Behavioral modification practices and personal–relevance theories are the two extremes of the ‘behavior-science’ spectrum; through these social sciences attempt to describe, explain and change the behavior of the human kind and individuals. For people who suffer from mental disorders, anxiety, stress, anger or any other host of problems related to mental health, the psychological remedies involve practices like therapy and medication which are prescribed according the symptoms of those suffering. Dr Neil T. Anderson has for a long time, brought up the question that where does the spiritual health and stability of a patient comes into these solutions? For a large majority of people who ascribe to a faith, secular treatments for mental illness are often inadequate as they fail to take into account the spiritual realm and impact it has on the followers who ascribe to the belief. Dr Anderson is a bestselling author who has written a numbers of books on ‘spiritual freedom’ and is the founder of ‘Freedom in Christ’ ministries- a movement with the purpose of re introducing the doctrines of Christianity as suited and beneficial for the modern day lifestyle. The book ‘Discipleship Counseling’ was released in 2003 and focuses on defining mental health from a Christian point of view with evidences from the Bible. He discusses how the secular practices actually hurt the people they are trying to help as without the support and teachings of a spiritual authority the people will not be able to embrace peace, he states, Science has helped us understand natural law, alleviate some suffering and improve our standard of living, but it is simply inadequate to explain matters of faith.´ (2003). The book strives to provide a better understanding of how Christianity based counseling works and how it can help believers re align their lives with the purpose of God (Jesus Christ) and achieve mental clarity. The main problem, as defined by Anderson, is that the people have failed to integrate the teachings of faith in their lives, leading to turmoil and the secular psychologists simply cannot provide relief from that. The book is divided into two parts, ‘Disciple Counseling in Theory’ and ‘Discipleship Counseling in Practice’. In the first part Anderson lays the ground work for the main body of the book, explaining the importance of religious beliefs in the lives of the believers and how hard it has been for many of his patients to seek treatments for mental disorders when the health worker did not ascribe the benefits of Christian doctrine and ‘accepting God in one’s life’. One of the major themes that Anderson describes in his work is that while therapy is supposed to be the inventions of the modern times, the religious teachings are very much in line with some of the practices which are supposed to change the behavior of the people towards the right and accepted direction- but as he points out the science can only bring forth answers about ‘what’ and maybe even ‘how’ but it is unable to answer the more pertinent questions of ‘why’ as these answers can be only be found in the authoritative Scriptures. To further explain his point of view, Andersons talks that social sciences are not infallible. Without specific quantities to be measured or factors to be calculated, social sciences are an imperfect and imprecise science, whose results can be easily thwarted by minuscule changes in the environment. All the results achieved are given in degrees of probability and the correlations can only be described in terms of being statistically significant or not. It is surprising then, that the secular population accepts these results without a hint of doubt and no further endeavors are made to adopt spiritual ‘truths’ into the treatments and speculations. It is argued that it would make more sense to instead put the trust in word of the Creator who has the greater knowledge than human researchers; Anderson says to ensure a holistic support form to those who suffer from these mental problems there should be an integration of theology and psychology therapy concepts, even though in the past there has always been great friction between the two camps. Interestingly, the book describes that those Cognitive-behavioral theories which are the most helpful tool in a therapist’s arsenal, can actually be found as a part of the religious doctrine. Behavior modification is an important step in solving problems related to undesirable attitudes, feelings and mental mindsets and independent studies have provided a tangible body of study proving that Christianity (and other faiths and cultures) have adopted these in some form. For Christians the core belief of being rewarded for good deeds and punished for bad ones is a strong motivator to change harmful habits and adopt a peaceful and productive lifestyle. A study done by Lasure and Mikulas provides separate examples of operant and respondent conditioning as preset in the Bible and they discuss the possibility that these examples can be successfully applied in the real world- especially in the fields of education and therapy. This has implications for those believers who might better benefit from the emerging school of ‘Disciple counseling’ as Anderson strives to prove in the later parts of the book. Further on in the book Anderson lays down the principles of Disciple Counseling and the organization that must be followed. He states that God as the head of all life will be the guiding force in the counseling and any changes that the patient makes in an effort to change his mental conditions must be guided according to His word. However, Anderson states that a designed program which is reflective of what modern therapy offers will be of benefit for the counselee as they can effectively use it to accomplish it goals in a sequence of steps. These will involve prayer and developing an accurate worldview according to the Bible as only then can the believer achieve true peace. This theme is further developed by Anderson as he diverges into topics of serious mental illnesses such as split personality disorder and neuroses- the idea presented that this separation of Church and modern lifestyle has led to more tangible problems than a lack of mental peace and calm. These problems are attributed to ‘demonic’ possessions or as being caused by an influence of Satan. As such the secular therapists cannot offer any remedy to the sufferers except for increased dependency on medication which does nothing to improve the conditions or quality of life of the patients and only a deep connection with their spiritual roots can bring the people back into self reliance and composure. While this theory doesn’t have much support in the scientific circles and even some Christian groups have raised criticism against the ideas presented by Anderson, there is still support present for the foundation of his theory that people benefit greatly when their spiritual beliefs are considered during therapy and self analysis. For many people, spirituality and the acceptance of Jesus Christ is a source of comfort and reassurance in their lives and some secular workers may have a perception of their faith as a symptom or problem itself, which would further increase the distress that a patient feels. Increasingly Americans prefer to seek the treatment of psychologists who ascribe to the same beliefs and values as themselves “According to a nationwide survey by the American Association of Pastoral Counselors (AAPC), 83 percent of Americans believe their spiritual faith and religious beliefs are closely tied to their state of mental and emotional health” (Paul, 2005). These people go to professional counselors with the same beliefs as them to get a ‘faith’ perspective as well as to get solutions which incorporate their ideas of ‘moral ethics’ in the counseling. Anderson’s Discipleship Counseling is therapy with a Christian basis and he has defined the organization necessary for it to work. One of the ending themes of the book is the idea that ‘barriers of counseling’ exist which has to be overcome by the patients before the Christian counseling can be effective. These include the external factors which might dissuade the believer from repenting his sins and completely accepting the message of God such as people who have left the religion or those who hold an incorrect view of the Bible. Anderson says that it is critical that the sufferer relinquishes connections with such elements and denounces all past ‘satanic’ activities. After this has been done, the believer can then follow the seven steps designed by the author towards achieving ‘Freedom in Christ’. This is one of the original theories of the author and so far there has not been any empirical or anecdotal studies done on the benefit of it for patients suffering from psychological problems; though members of the Ministry are firm believers in the potential of these. While some of Anderson’s believes hold up in light of scientific study, much of it is a question of faith and belief in a higher power. The themes discussed in this paper have been done so with regards to the original ideas presented by Anderson and what others have had to say about these. The paper is limited in its scope, but it has to be mentioned that thus far the American Psychological Association and other related bodies have given serious consideration to Anderson’s body of works but major criticism has been received by different Christian authorities who do not agree with his interpretation of Christian beliefs and their impact on human health. References Anderson, D. N. (2003). Discipleship Counseling.Ventura, CA, USA: Regal Books Lasure, L.C. & Mikulas, W. L. (1996). Biblical behavior modification. Behav Res Ther. 1996 Jul;34(7):563-6. Department of Psychology, University of West Florida, Pensacola 32514, USA. Paukert, A. L. Phillips, Laura, C., Jeffrey, A. Loboprabhu, Sheila, M. Lomax, James, W., Stanley & Melinda, A. (2009). Integration of Religion Into Cognitive-behavioral Therapy for Geriatric Anxiety and Depression. Journal of Psychiatric Practice: March 2009 - Volume 15 – Issue 2 – pp 103-112. Paul, P. (2005). With God As My Shrink. Psychology Today. 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