Are you familiar with the term psychotherapy. Today we're going 00:00:01.98\00:00:04.68 to be talking about psychotherapy and the Christian. 00:00:04.71\00:00:07.04 Stay tuned. We'll be right back. 00:00:07.07\00:00:08.45 Music being played 00:00:08.48\00:00:33.22 Welcome to Issues and Answers. My name is J.D. Quinn. 00:00:33.25\00:00:36.62 Today we're going to be talking about a big word called 00:00:36.65\00:00:39.69 psychotherapy and how does that relate to the Christian. 00:00:39.72\00:00:42.87 We have a special guest today and this is Dr. Magna Parks. 00:00:42.90\00:00:48.62 Not only has Magna taught many, many years, she'll explain it to 00:00:48.65\00:00:54.13 you in a little bit, but she has also written a book called 00:00:54.16\00:00:56.50 Christian's Beware: The Dangers of Secular Psychology. 00:00:56.53\00:01:00.91 It's a good read. So anyway, how are you doing today? 00:01:00.94\00:01:04.97 I'm doing great. It's good to be here. 00:01:05.00\00:01:06.74 Tell us a little bit about yourself, where you're from, are 00:01:06.77\00:01:09.09 you married? Well, I'm a licensed 00:01:09.12\00:01:11.62 psychologist from Atlanta, Georgia, married to a wonderful 00:01:11.65\00:01:14.82 man names Al Parks. We've been married for almost 13 years and 00:01:14.85\00:01:19.87 I've been in the field of psychology for over 20 years. 00:01:19.90\00:01:23.30 It's been a while. It's a long time. 00:01:23.33\00:01:25.20 Yes, and as you've mentioned, I've taught, I've even taught at 00:01:25.23\00:01:27.58 Oakwood College for five years and I was in private practice 00:01:27.61\00:01:31.78 for almost 15 years, until my husband and I started our 00:01:31.81\00:01:35.07 current ministry, Be In Good Health. 00:01:35.10\00:01:36.74 Be In Good Health. That's a good name, Be in Good Health. 00:01:36.77\00:01:42.23 We just help educate people about basic health principles 00:01:42.26\00:01:45.65 mentally, physically and spiritually. 00:01:45.68\00:01:47.36 The whole gamut. The whole gamut, yes. 00:01:47.39\00:01:50.44 Amen. It's good to be here. 00:01:50.47\00:01:52.21 Today we're going to be talking about psychotherapy and the 00:01:52.24\00:01:55.09 Christian. Psychotherapy is one of those terms that a lot of 00:01:55.12\00:02:00.10 people may not know what it even means. 00:02:00.13\00:02:03.18 So let's start off by laying the foundation. 00:02:03.21\00:02:05.79 What is psychotherapy? 00:02:05.82\00:02:07.40 Psychotherapy is a form of treatment where you use various 00:02:07.43\00:02:12.23 psychological techniques and methods to help people 00:02:12.26\00:02:15.16 emotionally and to help them behaviorally. So some of the 00:02:15.19\00:02:19.52 methods may include, I try to help you to understand who you 00:02:19.55\00:02:23.89 are, why you became the way you are. I try to help you deal with 00:02:23.92\00:02:27.47 the conflicts that are inside. Many people are dealing with 00:02:27.50\00:02:30.72 conflicts inside, conflicting feelings, conflicting thoughts. 00:02:30.75\00:02:34.18 We use these methods to draw these things out or to help 00:02:34.21\00:02:37.71 people change their behaviors or change their thoughts. 00:02:37.74\00:02:40.50 So that's a basic summary of what psychotherapy is. 00:02:40.53\00:02:44.46 Man, that covers a lot. It does, it does and it took 00:02:44.49\00:02:50.00 me five years to learn psychotherapy in my graduate 00:02:50.03\00:02:54.10 training. Did you every use it in your 00:02:54.13\00:02:58.03 private practice? I sure did; the whole 14 years I 00:02:58.06\00:03:01.08 was there, well most of the time I was there, until the Lord 00:03:01.11\00:03:04.25 showed me some different things, but I used it. I believe it 00:03:04.28\00:03:08.39 helped some people. What I found out later was it helped 00:03:08.42\00:03:12.46 them for the short term, and the reason I say that is because as 00:03:12.49\00:03:16.09 the years went on I found many people coming in who had been 00:03:16.12\00:03:19.33 to three or four other psychotherapists. That's when 00:03:19.36\00:03:22.73 the antenna started to raise for me that something is not exactly 00:03:22.76\00:03:26.46 clicking here if they're cycling in and out of therapy. They're 00:03:26.49\00:03:30.32 not really healing emotionally and mentally as we would hope 00:03:30.35\00:03:35.34 they would as a result of using these techniques. 00:03:35.37\00:03:37.48 So I guess that of course it probably comes down to each 00:03:37.51\00:03:40.60 one's ability. Different secular psychologists probably have 00:03:40.63\00:03:47.24 different techniques, but after four you would think that a 00:03:47.27\00:03:51.50 red flag would go up there; something is not working the 00:03:51.53\00:03:53.94 way it should work. Well, the bottom line is, and 00:03:53.97\00:03:56.99 I'm going to talk about this further, psychotherapy alone 00:03:57.02\00:04:00.16 can alleviate symptoms, but the true change does not occur until 00:04:00.19\00:04:05.26 you start in the heart. Psychotherapy just focuses on 00:04:05.29\00:04:08.89 behaviors, thoughts and feelings which are important. I don't 00:04:08.92\00:04:11.87 want to down play that, some people need that for the short 00:04:11.90\00:04:15.43 term, but if they really want deep-down true healing we need 00:04:15.46\00:04:18.68 to go further than that. 00:04:18.71\00:04:19.68 It seems like normally when I hear the term psychotherapy 00:04:19.69\00:04:23.42 I always think about well let's take you back to your childhood. 00:04:23.45\00:04:26.15 That's a major part of it. 00:04:26.18\00:04:27.26 Let's go back there and let's kind of start getting the big 00:04:27.29\00:04:29.82 eraser out and let's kind of start erasing this stuff, and 00:04:29.85\00:04:33.34 then if we can just follow this track and everything, well one 00:04:33.37\00:04:36.17 of these days you're going to be better. So, how does that lead 00:04:36.20\00:04:43.82 to the problems if we do not get past that as we get older? 00:04:43.85\00:04:48.59 Well, it can lead to problems. But the thing that I want to 00:04:48.62\00:04:53.42 mention today is that as Christians you can understand 00:04:53.45\00:04:57.56 that, but unless Christ comes into your heart and changes you, 00:04:57.59\00:05:01.21 just understanding that will not help us, if that makes any sense 00:05:01.24\00:05:04.57 because as Christians we become new creatures and when we become 00:05:04.60\00:05:08.87 new creatures it doesn't mean that tomorrow all my problems 00:05:08.90\00:05:12.57 will be gone, but it means that I have the different focus and 00:05:12.60\00:05:16.65 my focus is on as that new creature helping the creator to 00:05:16.68\00:05:19.42 change me. Amen. Seems to like what we 00:05:19.45\00:05:24.12 don't truly understand is the supernatural power of the 00:05:24.15\00:05:28.50 creator who is doing this adjusting. It's kind of hard to 00:05:28.53\00:05:35.09 term your psychologist, who probably could be your best 00:05:35.12\00:05:38.19 friend for a while as being supernatural. So I would rather 00:05:38.22\00:05:42.87 go to someone that has that supernatural power whenever 00:05:42.90\00:05:47.16 you start. I think that you brought some graphics. 00:05:47.19\00:05:50.76 Yes, I did. Because I believe that there is some impact of 00:05:50.79\00:05:55.36 childhood, which you mentioned earlier, that when you think of 00:05:55.39\00:05:58.15 psychotherapy you think of going back to childhood, and the Bible 00:05:58.18\00:06:01.79 tells us that childhood has an impact and there are other 00:06:01.82\00:06:05.34 people who have written about that. I have one graphic that 00:06:05.37\00:06:07.89 shows something powerful that I don't know if many people know 00:06:07.92\00:06:10.34 know about this. Let's go to that graphic now. 00:06:10.37\00:06:12.13 The character of Napoleon Bonaparte was greatly influenced 00:06:12.16\00:06:16.79 by his training in childhood. Unwise instructors inspired him 00:06:16.82\00:06:21.31 with a love for conquest, forming mimic armies and placing 00:06:21.34\00:06:25.46 him at their head as commander... And this is the 00:06:25.49\00:06:28.39 significant sentence... Here was laid the foundation for his 00:06:28.42\00:06:33.17 career of strife and bloodshed. So we see Napoleon Bonaparte, 00:06:33.20\00:06:38.41 we know the history, we know what kind of person he was, but 00:06:38.44\00:06:40.83 this particular author is telling us that the principles 00:06:40.86\00:06:44.08 for that were laid in childhood where he started to act out 00:06:44.11\00:06:47.32 being a commander and carrying out armies and all of that. 00:06:47.35\00:06:51.05 We see the results of that as an adult as we read history. 00:06:51.08\00:06:53.89 We even see that today, you know. Our kids, we want them 00:06:53.92\00:06:57.73 to mimic things out. So it's really what you put in is 00:06:57.76\00:07:03.91 normally what you're going to get out. This is a study here. 00:07:03.94\00:07:08.20 It is, and as we look through the Bible there are examples. 00:07:08.23\00:07:11.18 When you look and you read the books of Kings and Judges it 00:07:11.21\00:07:15.15 says that he followed his father's ways, or he followed 00:07:15.18\00:07:18.86 his grandfather's ways. So we know that childhood does have 00:07:18.89\00:07:22.60 an impact and we cannot deny that. We can't deny that at all, 00:07:22.63\00:07:26.60 it's a reality. So let's look at going back to 00:07:26.63\00:07:32.43 childhood. So do we focus on childhood to help people heal 00:07:32.46\00:07:37.91 emotionally? Do we go there, I mean, how does all that work? 00:07:37.94\00:07:41.34 That's a very good question. I could tell you how I used to 00:07:41.37\00:07:44.41 work. People would come in, I would spend initial time... 00:07:44.44\00:07:47.08 I would actually ask them to fill out questions about their 00:07:47.11\00:07:49.56 childhood. How was your relationship with your father? 00:07:49.59\00:07:51.69 How did your mother treat your dad? How did your mother treat 00:07:51.72\00:07:54.77 you. How was your relationship with your siblings. All of that 00:07:54.80\00:07:58.08 does have an impact. So I learned a lot from that. This is 00:07:58.11\00:08:01.70 where I went wrong. As I spent a lot of time getting their 00:08:01.73\00:08:06.41 feelings out about that, drawing pictures about it and they 00:08:06.45\00:08:10.89 learned a lot, but the behavior change didn't follow. I made a 00:08:10.93\00:08:14.92 lot of money because that type of therapy keeps people coming 00:08:14.96\00:08:18.67 in because they really think that they're learning, you know, 00:08:18.70\00:08:21.98 this knowledge that I'm gaining is really helping me to learn. 00:08:22.01\00:08:25.23 It's interesting, one thought that came to my mind was, Satan 00:08:25.26\00:08:29.29 used that same explanation to Eve, if you know more you'll be 00:08:29.32\00:08:33.65 better. But we found out that wasn't true and in psychology 00:08:33.68\00:08:37.61 that is not necessarily true that you know more meaning you 00:08:37.64\00:08:41.31 will be better. I do believe, however, there are times to 00:08:41.34\00:08:44.64 make connections because God wants us to make connections: 00:08:44.68\00:08:47.91 I'm doing this because my father did this. But the next step is, 00:08:47.95\00:08:51.58 Lord, how can you help me to move past this. After you gain 00:08:51.62\00:08:54.53 that knowledge only God can come in and help you to move forward 00:08:54.57\00:08:58.91 and to change. That's where I went wrong. 00:08:58.94\00:09:01.76 Did you find out that some of people just weren't able to 00:09:01.79\00:09:05.31 answer these questions: Oh many of them were not 00:09:05.35\00:09:07.46 when I first started out in the early 90's but I don't know 00:09:07.50\00:09:10.74 if you've recognized, if you look at TV and you go to the 00:09:10.77\00:09:13.94 book stores, there are so many books and so many program on how 00:09:13.98\00:09:17.68 childhood impacts us now. People are very knowledgeable about 00:09:17.72\00:09:21.39 that. So they come in to me talking about these things. 00:09:21.43\00:09:24.70 I know why I am like this, my father did this, this happened 00:09:24.73\00:09:28.06 to me, that happened to me. But as I started to learn more I 00:09:28.10\00:09:30.85 said to myself, They know all of this, but they're still coming 00:09:30.89\00:09:33.61 in to see me. So there's a disconnect somewhere. 00:09:33.64\00:09:36.76 So, in order to heal emotionally is that ever truly done? 00:09:36.79\00:09:42.69 I don't think so personally. I think some changes occur but 00:09:42.73\00:09:47.56 not true emotional healing. If we spend all the time talking 00:09:47.59\00:09:52.42 about childhood personally I don't think that it is done as 00:09:52.45\00:09:57.25 thoroughly as it should be. I really don't think so. 00:09:57.28\00:09:59.44 It would just seem like that would just be an unending mine 00:09:59.47\00:10:03.35 that you just keep chipping away and keep chipping away and 00:10:03.39\00:10:07.07 it just gets deeper and deeper and deeper. Then it gets a 00:10:07.10\00:10:10.06 little bit more complicated and then you go to the right or 00:10:10.10\00:10:13.03 you go to the left and it starts all over again. 00:10:13.06\00:10:15.44 That's exactly what happens and sometimes it opens up wounds as 00:10:15.48\00:10:19.50 well that people would do better just to keep closed, if that 00:10:19.54\00:10:22.53 makes any sense. Most certainly it does. You know sometimes you 00:10:22.57\00:10:25.38 don't have to dig that wound open again in order to heal; let 00:10:25.42\00:10:29.13 it heal. I don't want to throw it completely 00:10:29.16\00:10:32.56 away but I think the problem with secular psychology is 00:10:32.60\00:10:35.93 that's where we stop and God says, I want you to move further 00:10:35.96\00:10:40.53 Amen. I certainly want to make a point that we aren't downgrading 00:10:40.57\00:10:45.94 psychologists in any way because you are one. It's just that in 00:10:45.97\00:10:50.63 your particular life the way that God led, it took you up to 00:10:50.66\00:10:54.55 a certain point and then you were enlightened by the Holy 00:10:54.58\00:10:58.49 Spirit, which is a gift to each and every one of us and then 00:10:58.52\00:11:02.40 you started seeing things that you hadn't seen before. 00:11:02.43\00:11:06.21 I probably could guess that you started seeing a different type 00:11:06.25\00:11:10.76 of healing in your clients. 00:11:10.79\00:11:13.27 I did. Oh I can tell you so many stories about the type of 00:11:13.30\00:11:15.79 healing. I mentioned in another program about the young lady who 00:11:15.83\00:11:19.87 had been sexually abused by so many different people and had 00:11:19.91\00:11:22.35 been through years of therapy and it was only when we started 00:11:22.39\00:11:24.94 talking about forgiveness that her healing occurred. I know 00:11:24.98\00:11:27.46 another story of a woman who was having problems because she was 00:11:27.50\00:11:30.86 the illegitimate child, the only child of this particular father 00:11:30.90\00:11:34.10 and all her sisters had the same mother and father. She came to 00:11:34.13\00:11:36.98 me and had been through all this therapy and the Holy Spirit 00:11:37.02\00:11:40.21 impressed me to take a chapter or a page out of a particular 00:11:40.24\00:11:43.77 book called Desire of Ages that talks about Christ being sort of 00:11:43.80\00:11:47.29 illegitimate because he didn't have the earthly father. 00:11:47.33\00:11:50.27 She read it and came and said to me, This is the solution to my 00:11:50.30\00:11:54.49 problems. If Christ went through this and was able to be okay, 00:11:54.53\00:11:57.98 I can go through this and be okay too. She said, Thank you 00:11:58.02\00:12:01.20 so much for sharing that with me. But if I had used the 00:12:01.23\00:12:04.34 traditional psychotherapy, we would have been there exploring 00:12:04.38\00:12:07.56 her feelings about what it feels like to be the only child of 00:12:07.60\00:12:10.60 this father and, Oh, I'm just sure you're hurting so much, 00:12:10.64\00:12:14.37 you know. But God has just blessed to be able to lead me to 00:12:14.41\00:12:17.92 know through the Holy Spirit how to really help this woman. 00:12:17.95\00:12:21.66 Now I guess that there are other types of psychotherapy. 00:12:21.69\00:12:25.37 Yes there are. Some psychotherapists don't even 00:12:25.40\00:12:28.76 look at childhood. Some of them just focus purely on changing 00:12:28.79\00:12:32.47 behaviors; like if a child has problems with urinating in the 00:12:32.51\00:12:35.87 bed all the time, they use behavior modification techniques 00:12:35.90\00:12:39.41 where they do certain things to help the child stop doing that 00:12:39.45\00:12:42.90 if it's not a physiological problem. With smoking, or with 00:12:42.94\00:12:46.22 overweight they use reward- punishment systems to help 00:12:46.26\00:12:49.48 people to change their behaviors and that's pretty effective. 00:12:49.51\00:12:53.14 However, what is happening is all we do is look for changing 00:12:53.18\00:12:56.33 of behaviors and not changing of the heart what will happen? 00:12:56.37\00:12:59.28 If another behavior goes bad guess what, I'm running back to 00:12:59.31\00:13:02.92 that psychotherapist again. So those things are helpful, but we 00:13:02.95\00:13:06.52 still, even as we go to them because I'm not saying not to 00:13:06.55\00:13:09.20 go to them, but even as we go we recognize this may stop my 00:13:09.24\00:13:12.61 behavior but I have to keep carrying it further so the Lord 00:13:12.65\00:13:15.99 can change my heart. So I'm assuming that if there 00:13:16.03\00:13:19.15 are people in our audience that seem like they have come to a 00:13:19.19\00:13:21.89 crossroad and they can't go any further and they have been going 00:13:21.92\00:13:25.18 to their therapist for a long time, perhaps they need to get 00:13:25.22\00:13:28.44 on their knees. Amen, amen. The other thing they 00:13:28.48\00:13:31.85 could do is to find someone who is biblically based, not 00:13:31.88\00:13:35.34 necessarily a PhD or a masters in psychology. A grounded pastor 00:13:35.38\00:13:40.68 a grounded Bible worker, a grounded church member who knows 00:13:40.72\00:13:44.34 God's word could help this person move past that block. 00:13:44.37\00:13:47.92 That's what I love about God's word. You don't have to have a 00:13:47.96\00:13:50.83 Ph. D. If you have one that's great, but if you don't have one 00:13:50.86\00:13:53.70 there's many people that you can reach out to and help. 00:13:53.74\00:13:56.84 Now everybody has different goals and some people have 00:13:56.88\00:13:59.92 different influences in their life and different opportunities 00:13:59.95\00:14:04.77 than other people have, but we can all have the heart of God if 00:14:04.81\00:14:08.58 we can just turn it over and surrender it to him. You can use 00:14:08.62\00:14:13.61 this in mighty ways, mighty ways. Should a red flag go up 00:14:13.64\00:14:17.44 whenever we're talking about Christianity and secular 00:14:17.47\00:14:21.23 psychology? Well yes, a red flag should go 00:14:21.27\00:14:25.50 up because we need to compare everything with scripture. And 00:14:25.53\00:14:30.36 related to that, we shouldn't just automatically assume that 00:14:30.40\00:14:35.19 because someone titles themselves as a Christian 00:14:35.23\00:14:39.43 psychologist that they are safe. I titled myself as a Christian 00:14:39.47\00:14:42.86 psychologist. The insurance company, because I was on a lot 00:14:42.89\00:14:46.37 of insurance lists as a mental health provider, they would 00:14:46.41\00:14:49.54 refer people to me because the person would call in and say I 00:14:49.57\00:14:52.17 want a Christian psychologist. But, J.D., you know what I was 00:14:52.21\00:14:55.85 doing. I rarely picked up their Bible. They came to me, I was a 00:14:55.88\00:14:59.49 Christian, but I used a lot of Freud, I used a lot of Carl 00:14:59.52\00:15:03.74 Rogers, I used a lot of Maslow. But they just wanted to know I 00:15:03.77\00:15:07.17 was a Christian. So because a person has that title before 00:15:07.20\00:15:10.14 them does not mean they are going to refer more to the Bible 00:15:10.18\00:15:13.42 than to secular psychology to help. So I tell people that all 00:15:13.45\00:15:16.18 the time; when you're looking for someone kind of talk to 00:15:16.21\00:15:19.24 them and get a sense of the methods they use, how much do 00:15:19.28\00:15:22.09 you use the Bible? How much do you pray? Just ask those 00:15:22.13\00:15:24.87 questions and if they are honest they will answer them and they 00:15:24.90\00:15:27.93 will give you an idea of what they mean when they dub 00:15:27.96\00:15:30.35 themselves as a Christian psychologist. 00:15:30.38\00:15:33.58 You know, back whenever I grew up we were vaccinated as kids, 00:15:33.61\00:15:38.71 measles, mumps and all this kind of stuff and everything. 00:15:38.74\00:15:43.80 And I found out that with a small group of people it didn't 00:15:43.84\00:15:48.41 take. So even if you were vaccinated, doesn't necessarily 00:15:48.44\00:15:53.38 mean that it's going to take. So it's very important that you 00:15:53.42\00:15:59.67 do ask whoever you choose to share time with from a therapy 00:15:59.71\00:16:05.93 standpoint that you're on the same page. 00:16:05.96\00:16:07.90 That's very important, very important, especially for 00:16:07.93\00:16:10.38 Christians because our guidebook is the Bible and when we deviate 00:16:10.42\00:16:14.41 away from that, that can be problematic. But even for the 00:16:14.44\00:16:17.75 secular person. You may not have to day Bible scripture to 00:16:17.79\00:16:21.02 them but the principles of the Bible are much more healing than 00:16:21.06\00:16:24.77 what secular psychology alone has to offer. 00:16:24.80\00:16:27.83 I know that people call 3ABN pastoral department quite 00:16:27.87\00:16:31.61 often, not to counsel, because we don't counsel, but they do 00:16:31.64\00:16:35.06 call for prayer because they know that there is something 00:16:35.10\00:16:38.59 supernatural in prayer. There are many times, and I say this 00:16:38.62\00:16:41.85 with love in my heart, that you've got some people that 00:16:41.88\00:16:45.04 just want to talk. They really don't want to allow God to work. 00:16:45.08\00:16:49.15 They'd rather just talk, talk, talk, talk. You know you can 00:16:49.19\00:16:53.22 only talk for so long and especially as many people 00:16:53.26\00:16:55.67 that call us. So I've found myself, and I'm saying this with 00:16:55.71\00:16:58.94 love in my heart. I mean, it's very important that you hear 00:16:58.97\00:17:02.30 that. I say, Do you want to just talk or do we want to get 00:17:02.34\00:17:05.64 to the bottom of this issue? If you want to get to the issue, 00:17:05.67\00:17:08.93 we can bring Jesus Christ into this real quick. 00:17:08.97\00:17:11.26 You say you're not a counselor. You're a good counselor. 00:17:11.30\00:17:13.46 Well, thank you Jesus. But the whole thing is here again just 00:17:13.50\00:17:18.63 because they're vaccinated does not mean that it's going to take 00:17:18.66\00:17:23.76 We do deal with lots of hurting people. What about people 00:17:23.80\00:17:30.27 getting on the Christian band wagon. Is it strictly a 00:17:30.31\00:17:35.58 Christian band wagon or do other non-Christian's express 00:17:35.61\00:17:40.84 concerns about the psychotherapy? 00:17:40.88\00:17:42.38 Oh yes. Non-Christians are expressing concern especially 00:17:42.41\00:17:45.79 the research psychologists. You know there's a divide in 00:17:45.82\00:17:48.93 psychology, many people don't know that between those who do 00:17:48.96\00:17:52.03 research and those who do therapy. When I was going 00:17:52.07\00:17:54.99 through school the researchers would criticize them saying 00:17:55.02\00:17:57.48 you're basing all these things on Freud, Rogers, Maslow. 00:17:57.51\00:17:59.93 There's not been any research on this. But we actually have a 00:17:59.97\00:18:03.66 graphic that shows one study and the results of what one study 00:18:03.69\00:18:07.31 showed about psychotherapy and how much it works. Let's show 00:18:07.35\00:18:10.93 that graphic right now. In a review of 42 studies 00:18:10.96\00:18:14.39 comparing professional therapists with paraprofessional 00:18:14.42\00:18:17.50 therapists... let me explain, paraprofessional is the one who 00:18:17.54\00:18:20.05 doesn't have the degree in psychology or mental health... 00:18:20.08\00:18:23.65 only one study out of those 42 showed that the trained 00:18:23.69\00:18:27.19 therapist got better results. Twenty-nine studies showed no 00:18:27.23\00:18:32.07 difference between those two groups and the remaining 12 00:18:32.11\00:18:36.92 studies showed that the paraprofessionals actually 00:18:36.96\00:18:40.60 out-performed the professional therapists. You know if I had 00:18:40.63\00:18:43.86 read that study years ago when it came out I would not have 00:18:43.90\00:18:47.00 been a happy camper because I spent a lot of years in school 00:18:47.04\00:18:50.10 and a lot of money. But what this is saying is that the 00:18:50.14\00:18:53.56 trained did not necessarily do much better than those who were 00:18:53.60\00:18:57.15 not trained in helping people with their problems. And many 00:18:57.18\00:19:00.51 psychologists and mental health professionals might not want to 00:19:00.54\00:19:03.84 hear that but I'm just basing it on what science shows. 00:19:03.87\00:19:06.78 There are psychologists who are non-therapists out there saying, 00:19:06.82\00:19:11.22 You know guys, you're doing this but I don't know necessarily if 00:19:11.26\00:19:14.55 you're doing any better than a person who just provides a good 00:19:14.59\00:19:17.85 listening ear. So there are some secular people who are 00:19:17.88\00:19:22.84 recognizing... Actually there's a book that's called On Blanking 00:19:22.87\00:19:26.80 Out; it's something about Americans becoming less 00:19:26.83\00:19:30.45 strong and less resilient because we're so therapy prone. 00:19:30.49\00:19:34.30 There was a time when Americans were strong because we were able 00:19:34.71\00:19:38.58 to, for lack of a better term, pull ourselves up by our own 00:19:38.62\00:19:41.59 bootstraps. But the therapizing of America has 00:19:41.62\00:19:45.16 actually made us weaker. 00:19:45.20\00:19:46.39 They just did it, you know, they just got out there and they just 00:19:46.43\00:19:51.71 did it. If a person can be led, and many people can be led, 00:19:51.74\00:19:56.99 if they're being led, they can be molded. So this again is 00:19:57.03\00:20:02.00 where to me it only makes sense; of course, I'm coming from a 00:20:02.03\00:20:06.55 spiritual aspect, let's let God take over. Let's let him do what 00:20:06.59\00:20:10.62 he does. He's supernatural, so supernatural things are going to 00:20:10.66\00:20:15.12 happen if you invite him in and just say, I'm yours Lord. You 00:20:15.16\00:20:19.87 know, not my will be done but yours be done. It would just 00:20:19.91\00:20:25.94 make sense, if you choose to believe that He is real, then He 00:20:25.97\00:20:31.97 certainly will do what he has promised to do. I've got a 00:20:32.01\00:20:37.61 question here. It says what about Christian psychologists, 00:20:37.65\00:20:41.77 we're talking about on the graphic there, and are they 00:20:41.81\00:20:45.90 safer for us as Christians? 00:20:45.93\00:20:48.04 If they're using the Bible as their base they are, very much 00:20:48.08\00:20:52.08 so. If they're basing their counsel from the principles of 00:20:52.11\00:20:55.44 scripture, they are safer than a secular psychologist because 00:20:55.47\00:20:58.59 scripture is going to bring lasting change when we apply it. 00:20:58.63\00:21:02.28 Secular psychology only changes the outside, but the scripture 00:21:02.32\00:21:05.93 will bring the lasting change. 00:21:05.97\00:21:07.81 I would assume that if you are indeed a Christian you are 00:21:07.85\00:21:13.03 looking for change and you know your change does come from Jesus 00:21:13.07\00:21:16.28 and so that would probably just help their mind set even 00:21:16.32\00:21:21.15 so they'd go into it looking. I know Father that you're out 00:21:21.19\00:21:25.08 there, I know that if I ask you to come into my heart that you 00:21:25.12\00:21:28.98 will come in and you know the issues that I have. 00:21:29.01\00:21:30.89 But you know the sad part, J.D., is that I've spoken to some 00:21:30.93\00:21:34.95 Christians and I tell them how I work since the Lord has changed 00:21:34.98\00:21:38.88 my way and they're like you just use the Bible? That breaks my 00:21:38.92\00:21:42.57 heart when I hear that because we don't recognize how rich the 00:21:42.61\00:21:45.80 Bible is and the principles that are in there. I remember working 00:21:45.83\00:21:49.20 with a non-religious person and they were going through a lot of 00:21:49.24\00:21:52.47 stress and I said, I'm going to share a principle with you that 00:21:52.50\00:21:55.70 is found in Deuteronomy. I always forget the chapter. 00:21:55.73\00:21:57.62 Now I didn't tell them this. I just said remember this, As thy 00:21:57.66\00:22:02.32 day so shall thy strength be. They took that home and came 00:22:02.35\00:22:06.16 back to me a week or two later and said, You know, I repeated 00:22:06.19\00:22:09.86 that to myself every day and it made a difference. Because 00:22:09.89\00:22:13.25 I explained it to them. God will provide you strength for this 00:22:13.28\00:22:16.20 day. You go to bed and wake up and then the next day he will 00:22:16.23\00:22:19.32 provide you strength. Don't try to surmount the whole week. 00:22:19.35\00:22:23.17 Take one day at a time and he will give you strength. Actually 00:22:23.21\00:22:26.99 I didn't say God now that I think about it, I just said 00:22:27.03\00:22:29.72 strength will be given to you. And they took that principle and 00:22:29.76\00:22:32.95 went with it and said that was so helpful to hear that 00:22:32.99\00:22:36.15 principle. That's just an example out of many. One author 00:22:36.19\00:22:40.22 says, True psychology is found in the scriptures and I truly 00:22:40.26\00:22:44.26 believe that. I believe that. I guess that 00:22:44.30\00:22:48.33 psychology itself, what is that, the study of human nature? 00:22:48.37\00:22:51.38 Of the mind. That's right, the study of the mind. And who 00:22:51.42\00:22:54.36 better knows the mind than the creator of the mind. I remember 00:22:54.39\00:22:59.69 that he promises us grace for the day. So let's don't sit and 00:22:59.73\00:23:04.99 get caught up in what could happen tomorrow because he's 00:23:05.03\00:23:08.14 promised us, As your day is then your strength shall be. And if 00:23:08.17\00:23:13.20 we start building up mountains for tomorrow, which lots of 00:23:13.23\00:23:16.12 people do, then he says, Wait a minute here, I haven't promised 00:23:16.16\00:23:20.29 you grace for tomorrow, it will come, that's tomorrow. Let's 00:23:20.32\00:23:24.42 bring reality and let's deal with today. 00:23:24.45\00:23:26.97 You know, another Bible verse that focuses on that is 00:23:27.01\00:23:29.34 Matthew 6. Take no thought therefore for tomorrow for 00:23:29.37\00:23:31.63 tomorrow shall bring, I'm just blanking on it, but sufficient 00:23:31.67\00:23:35.58 unto the day is the evil thereof. Tomorrow shall take 00:23:35.62\00:23:39.07 thought for itself, that's what it is. 00:23:39.11\00:23:40.81 Exactly. The truth of the matter is many people have been hurt 00:23:40.84\00:23:47.53 in childhood. How can they be helped? Because they experience 00:23:47.57\00:23:53.36 this pain as a child, they carry it on as a young adult and then 00:23:53.39\00:23:58.29 many people... I mean I've had people call that are 80 years 00:23:58.32\00:24:02.61 old and they've never shared an issue that they've had in their 00:24:02.65\00:24:07.32 life with anybody; 80 years old! But they've experienced this as 00:24:07.36\00:24:12.00 a child. So they went from childhood, young adulthood 00:24:12.04\00:24:16.05 adulthood and they continue to grow. But how can they be helped 00:24:16.08\00:24:22.15 Do we have any ideal in dealing with the people that have been 00:24:22.19\00:24:28.22 hurt by childhood experiences? 00:24:28.26\00:24:30.01 Since I've learned a different way I start out with people and 00:24:30.04\00:24:35.31 I say to them, Let's look at focusing on how God can help 00:24:35.35\00:24:39.88 you move past this. Present this to God and say, God this person 00:24:39.91\00:24:44.02 this parent did this terrible thing to me. What is it that you 00:24:44.05\00:24:48.44 can do for me through this. How can you heal me? And turn to his 00:24:48.48\00:24:52.83 word for that. It sounds so simplistic and sometimes I 00:24:52.87\00:24:56.27 actually might need to hold their hand in helping them find 00:24:56.31\00:24:59.84 that in God's word. But when they do that healing can come. 00:24:59.87\00:25:03.83 The other thing is looking at what we can learn from these 00:25:03.86\00:25:07.63 things. There are some people who have become wonderful 00:25:07.66\00:25:11.36 people, not that God put this on them for that to happen, but as 00:25:11.40\00:25:15.45 a result of these childhood difficulties they could comfort 00:25:15.49\00:25:18.88 others wherewith they have been comforted. So a person who has 00:25:18.92\00:25:22.70 been molested can easily talk to someone who has been molested 00:25:22.74\00:25:26.09 A person who has been through a divorce can easily relate to 00:25:26.12\00:25:29.41 someone who has been divorced and they can, Lord, because of 00:25:29.44\00:25:32.57 these things I can help so many people. So there are a lot of 00:25:32.61\00:25:35.04 things that I do with people like that but those are two that 00:25:35.08\00:25:37.41 just come to mind, helping them turn to scripture and the Lord 00:25:37.44\00:25:39.74 and helping them to say, Lord, what can I do with this 00:25:39.77\00:25:42.46 situation. How can I help others and when that attention is 00:25:42.49\00:25:46.01 focused away from self, healing can come and that's what I've 00:25:46.05\00:25:49.54 seen happen in so many different situations and cases. 00:25:49.57\00:25:52.92 How has this changed your life? 00:25:52.95\00:25:54.55 Oh it's changed my life tremendously. First of all, I 00:25:54.58\00:25:57.38 can just be honest. It's helped me deal with things that have 00:25:57.41\00:26:00.23 gone on in my own past that I was looking to secular 00:26:00.27\00:26:05.48 psychology, but as I learned this, I recognized how God could 00:26:05.51\00:26:08.39 help me move past there number one and number two it's changed 00:26:08.42\00:26:11.26 how I work with people completely. I use biblical 00:26:11.29\00:26:14.41 principles. One thing I also learned in working with 00:26:14.45\00:26:17.50 Dr. Neal Nedley was it helped me understand how to apply just 00:26:17.53\00:26:20.64 basic health principles to help the mind function better; 00:26:20.68\00:26:23.74 working with people who are depressed or who are anxious. 00:26:23.77\00:26:26.60 Helping them learn how to eat better, helping them know about 00:26:26.63\00:26:29.60 what time to get to bed so those hormones can be released in the 00:26:29.63\00:26:32.65 brain to help the brain function better with stress and with 00:26:32.69\00:26:36.54 depression, helping them to exercise, even the music they 00:26:36.57\00:26:40.01 listen to, find healing music. These are the things that I do 00:26:40.04\00:26:43.16 with people and actually when I started doing that before in 00:26:43.20\00:26:46.24 my practice I lost money because people stopped coming in as much 00:26:46.28\00:26:49.41 because they were calling in leaving messages on the front 00:26:49.44\00:26:51.95 desk saying, Well, tell Dr. Parks I'm doing much better. 00:26:51.99\00:26:55.51 So I lost money, but people healed much quicker because 00:26:55.55\00:26:59.10 I was using God's principles. It was a wonderful thing. 00:26:59.13\00:27:02.65 Then they are also blessed but God honors that, God honors 00:27:02.88\00:27:06.61 you know, because we're not looking for things of this of 00:27:06.64\00:27:10.04 this earth. You know, we are looking for what comes beyond 00:27:10.08\00:27:15.72 that. Once again, psychotherapy is what in 25 words or less. 00:27:15.75\00:27:20.23 It is using the techniques of psychology to help people change 00:27:20.26\00:27:24.54 behaviors, emotions and thoughts helping them gain insight to 00:27:24.57\00:27:28.36 resolved conflicts and all of that. That's what psychotherapy 00:27:28.40\00:27:32.15 does. Well, once again we're running 00:27:32.18\00:27:36.04 out of time. But I just want you to know how much I have 00:27:36.07\00:27:41.34 appreciated your input and not only have I appreciated it but 00:27:41.37\00:27:45.95 I'm sure that our audience out there has appreciated it. 00:27:45.98\00:27:48.35 Well there's such a blessing to be here. I'm so grateful to be 00:27:48.39\00:27:51.72 here and share what the Lord has shared with me. 00:27:51.75\00:27:53.52 Once again, Be In Good Health That's the name of your 00:27:53.56\00:27:57.45 ministry? Yes it is. Amen, Amen. 00:27:57.48\00:28:00.04 I just want to thank each one of you for being with us at 00:28:00.08\00:28:03.18 Issues and Answers. Just know how much that we love each one 00:28:03.21\00:28:06.28 of you and we will continue to pray earnestly for you. 00:28:06.32\00:28:09.56 God bless. 00:28:09.59\00:28:14.15