Page 153 - EMCAPP-Journal No. 14

Peter Milnes (Australia)
Comment to Dr Peter Milnes
(PhD, MEdAd-
“The wall of Peace” min, BDiv, Grd-
DipIntercult)
was a primary
school teacher
PowerfulPeace in country We-
In this article, Mr Teo van der Weele explained stern Australia
the basic premise to his ministry of Powerful- before leaving
Peace (International Psychotherapeutic School teaching to
in Christian Culture). During the harrowing complete a doctorate in cultural studies at
years he spent in war-torn Germany, he expe- the University of New England. He and his
rienced both trauma and peace. On one occasi- wife then served for eight years in Brazil as a
on when he was shivering in fear after narrowly Pastor/ Counsellor/ Lecturer at Peniel Desa-
surviving bullets in an air raid, the prayer of his fio Jovem (Teen Challenge) that focussed
mother brought him a profound experience of on drug rehabilitation. After returning to
peace and the presence of Jesus. After the war, Australia in 1992, Peter taught Political and
both his parents were interned and he and his Legal Studies in secondary schools, lectu-
brother were sent to a children’s home where he red in administrative and cultural studies at
suffered sexual abuse. These traumatic events Curtin University, and also at Edith Cowan
had a profound effect on him. Although he be- University. Since 2000 Peter qualified as a
came a completed theological training and be- Certified Transactional Analyst (CTA) and
came a missionary in Thailand, his past conti- has been a co-director and also a counsellor
nued to haunt him. at Psychology Australia.

My training as a Transactional Analyst found Former contribution in our eJournal by
congruence in his description of the rage Peter you can see her:
and anger that would erupt whenever he was https://emcapp.ignis.de/11/#p=35
stressed. Unconscious scripts containing decisi-
ons made during his difficult childhood would
have been cathected at times of stress - the more
stressed he felt, the lower he found his emotio-
nal and behavioural age. According to Transac- forced through through resolving activity whe-
tional Analysis (McNeel, 2010; 2016), Mr van re he created new habits and new beliefs about
der Weele’s unconscious script was formed du- himself (McNeel, 2016:65). The power of his
ring his boyhood trauma. The Injunctive mes- unconscious script was broken by his conscious
sages (“believable falsehoods”) had “limiting re-decision.
and prohibitive power” overt him that conti-
nued to inform his behaviour into adulthood In Mr van der Weele’s case, the re-decision pro-
- either as ‘despairing’ flight responses where cess focused on learning to forgive – a process
he resigned, acquiesced and despaired, or as that reminded me of the Enright Forgiveness
‘defiant’ fight responses that were his best at- Paradigm (Enright, 2000; Sutton, 2014) of Un-
tempts at health and resilience at the time. The- covering, Deciding, Working and Deepening.
se decisions appeared to work in the short-term In the Uncovering Phase, Mr van der Weele was
but ultimately his unconscious anger was both able to confront the offense (particularly the
self-limiting and self-destructive in his coping abuse) and through therapy was able to make
behaviours - ranging between resigned despair an objective clarification of who did what to
and anger. Mr van der Weele’s redecision was “a whom and to uncover the effect that it had on
new belief based on better data” that was rein- his life. He could not forgive if the offense had

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