Page 20 - EMCAPP-Journal No. 8

Christian Psychology as a Challenge

Agnes May (Germany)

Interview with Nicolene Joubert,

founder and head of the Institute of Christian Psychology

in South Africa since 2001

Prof dr Nicolene Joubert is a registered Coun- A. May: Nicolene, you have been working as
selling Psychologist in private practice as well a psychologist since 1983, being trained at
as a teacher, who obtained her Master’s degree a Christian and at a regular state university.
from UNISA and later went on to obtain her Do you remember a certain moment, certain
Ph.D in Psychology from Northwest University. circumstances or questions, when the idea of
Prof dr Joubert is a well-known speaker on the a Christian psychology came to your mind for
effects of trauma and the development of Disso- the first time? And can you describe a little bit
ciative Identity Disorder, and on the impact of what this “idea” was about?
worldview/spirituality in a therapeutic process
(i.e. at the 7th World Congress for Psychothe- N. Joubert: I had a few serious moments of
rapy in Durban, South Africa, in August 2014). contemplating the inclusion of Christian faith
She is the President of the Association of Chri- in psychotherapy (or lack thereof) during my
stian Counsellors in South Africa (ACC) and a training and as a novice psychotherapist. Thus,
lifelong honorary member of The Red Cross So- my thinking developed over a period of time.
ciety and the Women’s Federation. She is also a
member of organizations such as the Psycholo- The first time that I questioned the absence of
gical Society of South Africa (PsySSA), and the any reference to religion or Christian beliefs
International Society for the Study of Trauma in a constructive way (I studied at a Christian
and Dissociation (ISSTD). University for my Bachelor degree) was during
In 2001 she my first year
founded the psy c h o log y
Institute of lectures. The
Christian Psy- emphasis was
chology, a site on the rejec-
of delivery of tion of demo-
Die Afrikaan- nization as a
se Protestantse cause of patho-
Akademie. The logy, labelling
Institute aims it as primitive
to contribute thinking. My
post-matric thought was
education in ”Is the Bible
the field of really wrong
Christian Psy- One of the first BA degree graduate groups (2005) about this?”
chology and
offers an accredited three-year Bachelor degree During my Masters degree training many of
and a four year Bachelor of Psychology degree my lecturers openly belittled Christian faith,
as well as numerous short courses that include referring to it as hogwash, especially as an ap-
Christian Psychology and Christian Counsel- proach to counselling. I was offended by this
ling subjects. but lacked knowledge and scientific evidence to

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