Today is the day! We leave this evening and, Lord willing arrive in Kigali (via Belgium) tomorrow evening. I have no idea if I will have access to the Internet to update you. If I do, I’ll be sure to give you a little taste of our time. If not, I’ll post daily entries when [...]
Entries from June 2009
June 20, 2009
A Christian Psychology 2
Chapter 2 of Eric Johnson’s book, Foundations for Soul Care(IVP, 2007) traces the use of the bible as soul healing agent throughout the history of the church. Eric explores the work of early church fathers, medieval church, reformation, and Puritanism as examples of soul care writings based on the biblical text.
The chapter then moves to [...]
June 19, 2009
Vital Religion per Ben Franklin
I think vital religion has always suffered when orthodoxy is more regarded than virtue. And the Scriptures assure me that at the last day we shall not be examined by what we thought, but what we did…
Benjamin Franklin: An American Life
by W. Isaacson (Simon & Shuster, 2003)
My wife is reading this book and pointed out [...]
June 18, 2009
Making sense of things and the suffering it brings
Ever had the experience of having your brain work overtime to try to make sense of some action, something done to you?
Some things make no sense and we know it–things like the premature death of a single parent, a genocide, impulsive choices that make matters much worse, etc. Yet our minds keep trying to figure [...]
June 16, 2009
Ethics Codes and Christian Counselors
Last night was the last class session of my ethics and practicum orientation classes. In both places students were discussing matters related to mandated abuse reporting, dual relationships, and attitudes towards state and professional ethics codes.
Evangelical or conservative people tend to have several responses to ethics codes that I want to highlight here.
1. Fear. Actually almost [...]
June 15, 2009
Getting Ready for Rwanda and remembrances from 1986
Spent some time getting supplies ready for my upcoming trip (June 22-July1). I’m always a bit stymied on what and how much to bring for clothes. Should I go light like a good Brit would? 2 shirts, 2 pants and call it good? What about my camera? I have a digital as well as a quality Minolta with a [...]
June 12, 2009
Why do people come to therapy?
In staff meeting yesterday Diane Langberg quoted J. Hillman (Dream Animals, 1997, p. 2):
“People come to therapy really for blessing. Not so much to fix what’s broken, but to get what’s broken blessed”
Sounds accurate to me
June 11, 2009
Counselor Self Care
One of my former students, Eartha Holland, just got a short essay published by the Black American Association of Christian Counselors (BAACC). She had some really good points so I got permission from her to post her page here. Some good reminders of the necessity of caring for our own souls.Eartha-BAACC Self Care Article
June 10, 2009
A Christian Psychology Proposal 1
This summer I’m choosing to read through Eric Johnson’s Foundations for Soul Care: A Christian Psychology Proposal (IVP, 2007). Eric is the founding director of the Society for Christian Psychology. I’ve skimmed large portions of it before, had numerous, enjoyable conversations with Eric over the years, and am familiar (and mostly agree) with his ideas. [...]
June 9, 2009
Grade inflation?
My latest edition of the APA Monitor on Psychology has a little stat from www.gradeinflation.com that might interest you. Check out the extensive information at this site. Among other things are the findings that grade inflation began to be evident in the 1960s but really took of in the 1980s and hasn’t stopped.
In the 1930s, the [...]
