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In recent years, terms like "trauma," "narcissism," "toxic," and others have skyrocketed.
Why is that, and should we be concerned? In this episode, Cole and Terry discuss Mia Staub’s article in Christianity Today, "Be Quick to Listen, Slow to 'Therapy Speak.” How can Christians think wisely about the therapeutic worldview, counseling, and therapy speak?
This is not a simple conversation and requires much wisdom. There are two pendulum swings—two ditches on either side of the road. One side argues we should stop using therapy, counseling, and trauma language altogether. The other side says that to use any psychological language describing human responses to trauma is inadvertently saying that Scripture is not sufficient.
Language has consequences and when we over-use words, it makes those words meaningless.
When the word “trauma” is used to describe common, everyday stressors we all deal with (bad traffic, disagreements with family members, etc.), it’s real meaning (exposure to violence or abuse) is minimized. The business of our world and the desire to be noticed compounded by loneliness has partly contributed to this advent of victimization language.
The only real problem of humanity is sin. We can (and do) morph sin into therapeutic categories and change the terms. Scripture defines sin as an offense against a holy God that deserves death. In secular psychology, sin is redefined as being a victim to things that happen to us. It’s this idea that suffering is psychological and due to outside forces. Scripture defines the two biggest categories as sin and gospel. Our problem is our active disobedience to God. The solution is Christ.
A cure for mental health issues is building relationships in community. This is where we are forced to face conflict in a loving community (the church) where we receive encouragement and are built up in our faith is a huge contributor to the mental health crisis as well. One of the best apologetics is the joy that comes from being in a true Christ-centered community.
Recommended Resources:
The Sufficiency of Scripture to Diagnose and Cure Souls by David Powlison
Brittany Proffitt lives in Dallas and is a writer and content manager for So We Speak.
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