Leslie Vernick wrote a nice summary posting on domestic violence at www.christianpsych.org. Read her comments here. She reminds us the truth about domestic violence and how Christians ought to respond to it.
Posts Tagged as ‘Abuse’
September 28, 2009
NPR takes up the issue of Pastors who abuse
Check out the following story (including audio) about abuse by pastors. They report 1:33 women have experienced a sexual advance by pastor:
Key elements found in the researcher’s survey?
Dual relationships or conflicting roles (where pastor is counselor and highest authority)
Holding leaders in too much awe and that leader’s lack of accountability
Isolation of communication (pastor alone in [...]
September 22, 2009
Just don’t blow it
Having spoken last week on the topics of trauma and pastoral sexual abuse (and the resulting conversations with attendees at both sessions), I keep thinking this thought: Just don’t blow it.
Let me explain. Both sessions are filled with examples of Christian leaders abusing vulnerable people. It is common that attendees want to come up and [...]
September 18, 2009
Engaging Biblical Texts in Trauma Therapy
Today I present my 1 hour CE training at the AACC conference. In this presentation I briefly review (a) complex PTSD and its typical symptom presentation, (b) material from my recently published work on best practices for using Scripture in counseling. Then I consider the particular application to therapy with trauma survivors. The goal is [...]
June 4, 2009
Biblical Seminary Summer Offerings
Every summer we have a summer counseling institute where we offer electives for current students, alum, and other interested parties (graduate counseling credit counts for required CEUs!). This summer we have three fabulous offerings!
1. **ON-LINE** Models of Counseling(2 credits) by Dr. Bryan Maier. From 7/6 to 8/31. This class has NO on-site time. If you have [...]
May 8, 2009
Physiology Phriday: Abuse alters genes?
Check out the following link for some very interesting research on how abuse alters the NR3C1 gene in the hippocampus which functions to limit our stress responses. It appears that when the gene is altered, it inhibits natural control of stress responses thereby leaving the abuse victim on high levels of alert.
This may give new meaning [...]
February 18, 2009
Access to short christian counseling articles
I’ve noticed that the American Association of Christian Counselors has made many of their magazine (Christian Counseling Today) articles available for free on their www.ecounseling.com website. You can search by author or keyword to find what you might be looking for.
My 800 word essay on repentance after abuse can be found here. A longer and [...]
November 7, 2008
Domestic Violence No-Nos
Staff meeting today was run by two colleagues presenting information from a recent PASCH conference (aka Peace and Safety in the Christian Home). They brought goodies such as a 2 page document entitled, “Guidelines for pastors responding to domestic violence” and a number of small books. During the presentation they listed two common but problematic [...]
September 10, 2008
Hating the desire for intimacy
In prep for a presentation next week I have been reviewing Dan Allender’s”The Wounded Heart.” While I’m not a fan of his approach in this book (it’s too much at once for those with PTSD), I do think he has many, many nuggets of truth. Here’s one on p. 41:
Let me state an important observation: [...]
August 20, 2008
Helping with one hand, hurting with the other
As humans we have the capacity to split ourselves. One minute we can help another, the next we can harm. A friend of a friend of mine recently admitted to taking advantage of another in a vulnerable position. This person seems quite wise. He has good advice when I’m stuck. He is able to see through [...]
