When Perfect Fear Casts Out All Love : Christian Perspectives on the Assessment and Treatment of Shame

Shame reactions are often uncomfortable, even excruciating, for clients to work through in therapy. When not adequately treated, shame reactions can seriously disrupt the therapy process. This article seeks to equip Christian mental health professionals with practical strategies for effectively assessing and treating shame reactions. Theoretical perspectives on shame within a Christian context are also briefly discussed

Delusional Disorder

Excerpt: Delusional disorder is one among several types of psychotic disorders, all of which involve grossly impaired reality testing. The core feature of delusional disorder is one or more nonbizarre delusions that last for at least one month. These delusions involve situations that could plausibly happen in life. Apart from the direct impact of the delusion, persons with this disorder appear normal to others and are able to function adequately in everyday life. If the person has a mood episode (such as depression) while having delusions, it must be relatively brief in order to warrant the delusional disorder diagnosis. The delusions must not be directly caused by substance use or a general medical condition in order to fit the criteria for this diagnosis

Paranoid Personality Disorder.

Excerpt: The core feature of a paranoid personality disorder (PPD) is a longstanding, pervasive pattern of mistrust in the motives of others. Persons with this disorder assume that others have malevolent intentions to harm, exploit, or deceive them, even when no objective evidence exists. They ruminate over unfounded suspicions that their family and friends are disloyal and will scrutinize these relationships for evidence of untrustworthiness. In particular they are prone to pathological jealousy of their spouse or lover. They are often reluctant to confide in others out of fear that anything they say will be used against them. This makes them appear interpersonally cold and aloof. They also tend to distort benign remarks into hidden meanings that are threatening and insulting. For example, they might respond to an offer for help with, So you think I\u27m incapable of doing it myself! People with this disorder often stubbornly refuse to forgive others for insults or injuries that they think they have received. They are swift to counterattack with hostility for such imagined offenses. In order to meet the criteria for a diagnosis of PPD, these symptoms must not occur as part of a psychotic disorder and must not be directly caused by a medical illness. PPD begins by early adulthood and typically endures for life

Teaching Integration Through the Cracks: A Pedagogy of Process

For decades, psychologists have appreciated the value of tracking the process of a psychotherapeutic relationship in order to decode and extract information that is vitally relevant to the cure of the patient. In recent years, this notion of tracking the process has gained interest among Christian psychologists and educators. However, little attention seems to have been given to tracking the process of the integration between psychology and Christian faith that happens in the classroom. The present author contends that the teaching of integration happens “in the cracks” of formal classroom instruction far more often than we typically acknowledge. The author urges Christian psychology professors to become more intentional in cultivating an openness to seize stray moments or unexpected events both inside and outside the classroom, and to harness them as providential opportunities to give students experiential lessons in personal integration. Three narratives are presented as examples of how the subtle dynamics of the process embedded in typical classroom scenes offer a powerful medium for students to grasp integration concepts experientially

You Are Special : Shame and Grace in Children\u27s Literature

Children\u27s literature has a profound influence on its readers. It often comes into the home without regard to its content or the effect it can have on a child. This article addresses the broad strokes of child development, how unprocessed or poorly processed shame can hinder the growth of children, books that can be used in the processing of shame, and therapeutic case studies in which these books have been used

Shame and Guilt in Christian Children: Interventions with Projective Techniques and Play Therapy

Psychotherapy issues for religiously committed clients have been explored in several recent books and articles. While these works have focused on adults, little has been written on the therapy issues of religiously committed children. Emerging research suggests that children\u27s conceptions of God are guite different than that of adults. Moreover, due to their concrete thinking, children often find it hard to grasp theological foundations to the Christian faith (e.g., salvation by grace) that adults typically assimilate into their world view. While chil־ dren generally learn of God\u27s grace and mercy in Sunday school, it has been found that some of them nonetheless struggle deeply with issues of guilt and shame. It has been well documented that children do not have the same cognitive and language abilities as adults, and therefore require considerably different modes of psychotherapy. For latency aged and younger children, play therapy is often the treatment of choice. This article will present a case study of a Christian child who participated in a projective assessment and play therapy for healing of shame and guilt issues

Stereotypic Movement Disorder

Excerpt: Persons with stereotypic movement disorder move their bodies in ways that are nonfunctional, repetitive, and seemingly driven. This may include relatively benign movements such as rocking, hand waving, and twirling objects. However, it may also involve dangerous or even life-threatening behaviors such as head banging and self-biting