Page 16 - EMCAPP-Journal No. 9
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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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