Page 104 - EMCAPP-Journal No. 12

Miguel Ángel Alcarria Gómez (Spain) MIGUEL
„How does your Christian ÁNGEL
ALCARRIA
faith help you in your GÓMEZ
practical work as a Ps y c ho t he -
Life-
rapist,
psychologist, counselor Coach and
Inte r n at i o -
or therapist? Is this nal Speaker

possible?” President of
the Group of
Evangelical Psychologists of Spain
GPE (The group of evangelical psycholo-
On several occasions I have been asked if my gists of Spain) is a part of Biblical United
faith contributes, in any way, to my professional Groups, a part of the professionals and
practice. The answer that I give them is always graduates division. Is like an IFES in the
affirmative, without any doubt. Personally, in rest of Europe or like a InverVarsity in the
my work as a psychologist and life coach, my US..
Christian identity allows me to have a better As president of GPE, I am in charge of co-
understanding about the human nature´s wea- ordinating the different projects we have
knesses, strengths as well as its tendencies and as a group, of promoting new collabora-
predispositions. And, being aware of this na- tion proposals and of coordinating all the
ture, my faith exhorts me and forces me to wor- professionals of our area to give visibility
ry about the future and the well-being of peop- to the group.
le, while not judging them but to apply grace One of our latest projects, which we are
and mercy to achieve the restoration and the starting to promote, is the prevention of
personal growth of my patients. In this sense, child sexual abuse through the treatment
there is a biblical event that has always drawn of the pedophile. We believe that the social
my attention; the moment that Jesus wept over commitment of our group allows us to be
the Lazarus death, even though He knew -in His salt and light in our professional field.
omniscience- that He would raise him up!, it Another of our projects is the publication
shows us the Jesus call to be compassionate and of Christian psychology books. The last
empathetic to the suffering of others to allevia- book we are publishing is „A better story“
te the human suffering. The suffering of others by the Christian psychiatrist Glynn Harri-
can be alleviated in different ways, but the most son of the UK.
powerful is through the transformation of the
meaning of stressful life events. My Christian
faith allows me to reformulate the experiences
of my patients, knowing that God has a pur-
pose in everything and that only He can trans- that inspires thousands of people around the
form a seemingly negative event into something world. Observing how my identity in Christ is
completely inspiring. I always remember the used by God as a healing and guidance chan-
words of Joseph, son of Jacob, comforting his nel, I can stop taking the problems of others to
brothers by telling them that his sale as a sla- my home. I know that where I don’t arrive as a
ve had a purpose, the purpose of saving lives professional in my praxis, and when the therapy
(Gn. 45:5). Daily we can see many other ex- has a limited reach, God will help my patients
amples which are similar to Joseph one´s. One through my prayer, healing the inside and dra-
of them as Joseph’s; is the speaker Nick Vujicic, wing a new future your their lives. It happens,
protagonist of ‘The Butterfly Circus‘. Nick is a although many of them don’t even confess to be
Christian whose faith in Jesus has enabled him a believer or profess other religions. In this sen-
to turn a weakness into an incredible strength se, my faith and my knowledge about other re-
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