Stacy Wright, PsyD, HSPP is the owner of Faithful Counsel and a licensed clinical psychologist and health service provider for psychology. She has been practicing psychology since 2002. It's only been in the last 10 years that she's been called to counsel from the Word of God. She started out doing psychotherapy as she was secularly trained to do it and found her work to be increasingly frustrating and unsatisfying.

 

According to Dr. Wright,

"I was in the business of applying band-aids that led to some temporary relief of symptoms, but no real healing or change in individuals' lives. God used trials and suffering in my own life to draw me into an authentic relationship with Him. As I grew to know the Lord, I grew to know a peace and joy that cannot be found anywhere else in this world. God's work in my life has made it impossible for me to keep quiet about what He is capable of in the lives of suffering people."

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Cognitive Behavioral Theory and Therapy

In secular counseling, the "gold standard" for the treatment of most mental health issues, like anxiety and depression, is called Cognitive Behavioral Theory and Therapy. This approach says that our thinking is prone to irrationality and that this leads to negative emotions and subsequently, negative behavior. Therefore, the goal of counseling is to challenge irrational thinking and replace with more "rational thinking patterns." Interestingly, God came up with this idea a few thousand years ago when He commanded us to "take every thought captive" (2 Corinthians 10:5). The secular worldview of what is considered "rational" changes over time and is highly influenced by culture; leaving no standard measure of what is rational or true. Real truth doesn't change, it's not influenced by popular culture or personal opinion. Rather it is constant and absolute. Jesus said, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life" (John 14:16) and that "the truth will set you free" (John 8:32). Without truth, there is no freedom. This is the goal of counseling, for individuals to be set free from the bondage of anxiety, depression, addiction, and any other chain that serves only to enslave and ultimately destroy.

Medication

To be clear, this does not mean that Faithful Counsel is opposed to medication. God has given mankind knowledge and ability to make all kinds of ways to treat and alleviate pain and suffering. If the body has been affected by sin and corruption, as we might see in someone with high blood pressure or diabetes, for example, why should we think that the brain cannot also be impacted by the Fall as well (click link below to learn more). The decision to take psychotropic medication should be prayerfully considered and only when Godly counsel, study, and prayer lead an individual to that decision.