Cognitive-behavior therapy: just another faith
"God wants us to become part of his redemption of a fallen world, not simply to manage our reactions," says Powlison in a beautiful, lengthy response to a probing comment on the piece linked below. Let us counsel each other toward activity and glory.
7 comments:
brilliant. but of course powlison isn't on tv, so how credible can he be?
Right. Of course. Sammy wouldn't give him the time of day.
he-he-he-he-he
Unless I'm mistaken, CBT has alot to do with confronting a person's habitual mis-interpretations of their experiences (by at least offering counter-interpretations). That's the bare bones of it. Now, what the counselor suggests as more appropriate interpretations will differ depending on the counselor. Christian counselors do this sort of thing all the time--it's biblical.
So . . . are you saying that you think Powlison, as a biblical counselor, is helping point a finger at CBT when he shouldn't because the portrayal is oversimplified . . . because CBT at least theoretically shares more with biblical counseling than the spoof suggests or than Powlison grants?
In order to not get mis-labeled I'll phrase it this way: The Bible is full of passages where the reader (and writer) is compelled to assume an interpretation of a particular experience that is different from what might be a more natural/automatic interpretation. I don't really call that "CBT", but others probably would.
Therefore, utilizing this method is hardly unbiblical. For the sake of clarity, I propose that the Bible incorporated this aspect of "CBT" long before it had been named.
I think Powlison would be better served by not structuring his polemic toward "Cognitive-behavior therapy". I find the term somewhat meaningless and it might lead him to say more than he should (be too reactionary).
Aha. Thanks for clarifying.
Without knowing too much about either camp (as it were), this seems like a fair criticism--the temptation to seem (or be) reactionary, that is.
Of course, it's just Bob Newhart, so we all should probably take care not to get our panties too waddy :)
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