I was quite interested in
one of the headlines in yesterday’s Independent newspaper which read..... ‘Paul
McKenna: I can make you better’. It appears that the former Top Shop DJ, TV
hypnotist, self help guru and multi-millionaire businessman, has moved into the
questionable area of psychotherapy, having adopted the "Havening
Technique".
McKenna, recently offered
author James Moore treatment using the Havening technique to help him cope with
the after-effects of a road accident that nearly killed him. Moore, a keen
cyclist, was run over by a tanker two years ago. The effects of the accident
were profound.....three weeks spent in a coma followed by a further nine weeks
in hospital left Moore with profound psychological trauma. Drugs prescribed by
his physicians caused hallucinations which were vivid and frightening.
After five months of therapy
he had begun to feel better but confessed, “recently the demons have been
jabbing, especially at night. So, while I'm generally suspicious of the
self-help industry, and its gurus, I was more than willing to give McKenna a
shot.”
The Havening technique is
described by Moore as follows: “You think of a really nasty memory,
establishing it clearly in your mind, and rate its intensity. You close your
eyes and tap on your collar bone. You then open your eyes, clear your mind, and
think of something pleasant. You then follow the therapist's finger moving
rapidly this way and that.
After this you relax, and he
rubs the top of your arms, while you imagine, say, tapping a keyboard, counting
up from one to 20. You hum a few bars of a tune (say "Happy
Birthday", or the national anthem), close your eyes for more arm rubbing,
open them and rate the trauma's impact afterwards. After that it's lather,
rinse, repeat. The therapist, so it is said, doesn't need to know the nature of
the memory. Just the technique of desensitising it.”
Did the Havening therapy
make James Moore better ? Not really.
Recounting his take on the experience, Moore lamented: “I'm not sure Havening
is quite as miraculous as McKenna says it is. Psychological bruises from the
accident remain with me and they're still sore. When he tried it out as a way
of soothing the physical, neuropathic pain which is a constant companion, the
effect was minimal.”
As a Christian I never cease
to be amazed how techniques such as Havening, Neuro-Linguistic Programming, and
Imago relationship therapy have infiltrated the church. A recent Google search
threw up dozens of businesses and individuals offering ‘christian’ counselling
and psychotherapy in most cases at a cost.
What’s on offer? Dr. Will
Meek in his 2010 essay ‘Discredited Psychological Treatments’ argues that the
therapies listed above have three things in common:
“First, they claim to offer
incredible results beyond what is traditionally known for credible approaches
(sometimes instant and near miracle like results are promised). Second, they
almost always come from some kind of private industry or fringe charismatic
inventor. Third, they are often rejected by scientific understanding or
research, and continue to be taught through workshops rather than in
universities.”
Neuro-linguistic programming
is one of the most commonly used techniques by the so-called ‘Christian
psychotherapists’.
Dr Meek describes NLP as,
“essentially, a collection of basic ideas about communication repackaged and
given a fancy new name that sounds "science-y". Research throughout
the 80s and 90s discredited NLP and it has been rejected by the mainstream
psychological community for many years. However, special workshops and a
cottage industry continues to profit on NLP.
The most interesting thing
about NLP is that it is nearly impossible to find out exactly what it is.
Almost every free resource dedicated to it will not give any specific
techniques or ideas. This is always a red flag because real treatments are
widely taught to everyone willing to listen in credible institutions, not just
by salespeople in expensive hotel workshops.”
I am going to give the last
words on the efficacy or not of ‘Christian’ psychotherapy to TC McMahon and the
late Dave Hunt of the ‘Berean Call’ web ministry:
“The heroes and heroines of
Bible history all triumphed by faith in God and in His promises. They neither had
nor needed any help whatsoever from “Christian psychology,” which didn’t even
exist in their day. Wouldn’t faith in God and His Word, which has been proved
thousands of times through the ages to be more than sufficient in every
conceivable circumstance and in the deepest trials, be sufficient for
Christians today, no matter what their trials and challenges might be? What
could possibly persuade a Christian to look to psychology, invented by
anti-Christians, for help in living a life pleasing to God?
Of course, [some] Christian
psychologists claim to have a firm faith in the inerrancy of Scripture. But no
matter how firmly a psychologist adheres to the inerrancy of Scripture, they
all must deny its sufficiency. This is the only way to justify their profession.
If any part of the Bible is in error, where can the line be drawn? If the Bible
has not given us all we need to live the Christian life, that fact alone would
be enough to make all of it suspect in view of the many places where it claims
to be sufficient for living triumphant lives pleasing to God.”
‘Christian’ Pseudo-Psychotherapy.....definitely
a very expensive con by any other name. To be avoided at all costs !
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