Page 41 - EMCAPP-Journal No. 23

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The Will to Flourish: Reframing Suffering and Voli�on in Missional Therapy

Abstract
Building on and extending Kroll’s framework of the will, I highlight how voli-
�onal capacity enables and sustains the will to flourish through mee�ng the
inherent psychological needs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness.
While commending Kroll’s framing of will and moral imagina�on, I also cri�-
que the limita�ons of tradi�onal models like Kohlberg’s moral stages and
propose a more theologically grounded alterna�ve: missional psychothera-
Victor Counted (PhD in
py. I drew from Paul’s ‘thorn in the flesh’ (2 Cor 12) and Kroll’s case study Health Psychology, Wes-
(Ms. M.) to theorize how missional therapy reframes suffering as a site of tern Sydney University;
voli�onal growth and missional alignment. The proposed PLEA model of PhD in Psychology of Reli-
missional therapy—Personalize, Locate, Engage, Apply—offers a therapeu- gion, The University of
�c arc for clients to reengage their will within the redemp�ve mission of Groningen) is Associate
God. Ul�mately, I argue in this paper that flourishing is not the absence of Professor of Psychology
struggle, but the ac�va�on of will in service of transcendent purpose, even and Director of The Office
amid the crushing thorns of life. of Research and Sponso-
red Programs at Regent

Introduc�on University. He is also a Fa-
culty Affiliate of the Hu-
The will stands as one of the most enigma�c and yet indispensable con-
structs in understanding human behavior and flourishing. At its core, the vo- man Flourishing Program
at Harvard University, As-
li�on or power to choose reflects an individual’s capacity to ini�ate and di- sociate Editor of the Jour-
rect ac�on toward meaningful ends (Haggard, 2008). In fact, the founda�on
nal of Posi�ve Psychology,
of modern mo�va�on science rests on the dis�nc�on between “why” peo- and Book Series Editor of
ple act (their mo�ves and goals) and “how” they convert those mo�ves into Springer’s Religion, Spiri-
sustained ac�on (their voli�onal capaci�es). tuality, and Health: A Soci-
al Scien�fic Approach. Dr
One of the most influen�al psychological science theories used to under- Counted serves as the
stand human mo�va�on and will is self-determina�on theory (SDT) (Deci & execu�ve board member
Ryan, 1985; Ryan & Deci, 2000). SDT posits that human flourishing and mo- for the Interna�onal As-
�va�on depends on the sa�sfac�on of three basic psychological needs: au- socia�on for the Psycho-
tonomy, competence, and relatedness. Autonomy refers to experiencing logy of Religion (IAPR) and
oneself as the ini�ator of one’s ac�ons; competence involves a sense of the founding member of
the Society for the Psy-
mastery and efficacy; relatedness reflects the need for meaningful connec- chology of Religion in Aus-
�on with others. Within this framework, will (the power to choose) and vo-
tralia and New Zealand
li�on (the act of making choices) are expressions of autonomous mo�va�- (SPRANZ). His research
on. In other words, when individuals act in ways that are congruent with
examines various psycho-
their deeply held values or needs, they exhibit integrated forms of self-regu- logical processes (e.g., so-
la�on that align with their flourishing. In contrast, when ac�on is controlled cial, spiritual, spa�al, sen-
by external pressures or internal coercions, voli�onal capaci�es may beco- sorial) that support and
me fragile or fragmented. From the SDT framework, then, we can conceptu- sustain human flourishing
alize the will as the faculty or power to choose or make conscious choices across cultures. He is mar-
that align with our psychological needs of autonomy, competence, and rela- ried to Jessie and they
tedness. both live in Virginia Beach
One of the most valuable contribu�ons of Kroll’s (2025) ar�cle is its holis�c with their two sons Victor
and Zuphland.
treatment of the will as both a developmental and rela�onal construct. Kroll
resists the tendency to treat voli�on as a purely cogni�ve skill or biological
trait. Instead, she traces its emergence from early a�achment rela�onships,

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