Applying Scripture in Psychotherapy

Summary

In the article, Interventions that Apply Scripture in Psychotherapy, by Fernando Garzon, several intervention strategies are presented for counselors to consider. The focus of this article was to “increase Christian therapists’ awareness of the variety of types of Scripture interventions available, and second to stimulate “divinely inspired creativity” in the further development of strategies to incorporate the living Word of God in Christian psychotherapy’ (Garzon, 2005).

This article uses the case of, “George”, who is a fictional character who possesses the “issues” that many clients face. George is 30 years old and deals with depression on and off. He also deals with low self-esteem, suicidal thoughts and he has trouble sleeping. George has been a Christian for 2 years and attends church regularly. He finds the church to be a good source of support, but still does not feel comfortable, and thinks that people at the church will realize what a “loser” he is. George’s dream is to be a pilot, but feels that this is unattainable due to the fact of his low self-esteem and uncertainty getting in the way.

Here are the intervention strategies that the article presents:

Psychodynamic – In the psychodynamic approach, “Christian therapists sometimes emphasize an incarnational perspective on spiritual interventions such as utilizing the Bible in treatment (Garzon, 2005).

Psychoeducational – The psychoeducational approach gives the clients education around the appropriateness of feelings that they may be feeling. It also gives clients a look into the Bible and passages that pertain to situations that they are going through. The Bible is used as a “textbook” of sorts.

Theoeducational – The theoeducational approach, again, takes a look into God’s word and where the client is in their own spiritual walk and gives points the client in the right direction in the Bible to help them readjust their perspective of how they may be feeling about themselves....