Page 16 - EMCAPP-Journal No. 9

Timothy A. Sisemore (USA) Tim Sisemore,

To What End? Ph.D., is Profes-

A Christian Psychology sor of Counse-
ling and Director
Perspective on the Goals of of Research at
Richmont
Gra-
Psychotherapy duate University
in Chattanooga,
Tennessee, USA.
You need a destination before you can plot a He received his
course. Few things are as obvious, yet often so doctorate in Cli-
overlooked when it comes to Christian coun- nical Psychology from Fuller Theological
seling. Much of the debate about applied psy- Seminary where he also earned a Master’s
chology among followers of Christ has been Degree in Theology. He directs the research
about the presuppositions of science and the programs and thesis track at Richmont and
techniques for change that come from the field. also teaches Methods of Research and Chri-
But what are we trying to do in the first place? stian Traditions for Counseling. His writing
The methodology is irrelevant if we do not have has had several foci. His major work has been
some idea of what we hope to accomplish. I fear in the area of anxiety disorders as he has pu-
that often Christians misguide counselees be- blished four books ranging from children’s
cause we have not really thought this through. workbooks to treatment manuals for pro-
fessionals. He has written two parenting
I recall some years ago my wife and I were dis- books for the Christian market and coedited
traught as there was water soaking the ground a recent book on counseling applications of
just outside our bathroom. We agreed with se- different models of relating counseling and
veral plumbers that the leak was in a pipe un- Christianity (Greggo and Sisemore, Coun-
der the bathroom and thus the solution was to seling and Christianity: Five Approaches,
destroy the concrete floor to uncover the pipes 2012). Latest book: “The Psychology of Re-
and fix the leak. A very expensive proposition. ligion and Spirituality: From the Inside Out”
from John Wiley and Sons Publishers.
The plumber who was going to do this dastardly
deed to our house did not sleep well the night tsisemore@richmont.edu
before he was to take a jackhammer to the floor
of our home. He arrived with a different idea: Former article by Timothy you can see here:
maybe the leak was at a joint in the piping in http://emcapp.ignis.de/5/#/10
front of the house where the main line divi-
ded, and that the water just flowed along the
soft earth around the pipe, coming out at the lizes a problem inevitably influences how one
side of the house near the bathroom. We agreed proceeds and what one accomplishes. The same
that the risk of digging up one bush in front of applies to Christian counseling.
the house was worth the chance our bathroom It is all too easy to just go with what a client
could be saved. Well, the plumber was right, says or our intuition tells us the problem is.
saving us thousands of dollars and not a few The counseling profession is particularly biased
headaches. to assume the client will know what is best for
him or her, and this assumption is built not on
Presented with a problem, it was easy to for- empirical data but on humanistic philosophy.
mulate a goal based on the object: find and fix Given our sin natures (not considered in huma-
the leak under the bathroom. But with further nism), counselor and counselee alike may easily
thought, the goal changed to find and fix a bad set goals that move the person away from God,
joint in front of the house. How one conceptua- if we are not careful.
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