Inner Healing

Inner Healing that Impacts Physical Healing

In 1972 I met an Episcopal Priest from Atlanta who taught about Inner Healing or Prayer Therapy. I had a Master's Degree in Counseling and was working on a Doctorate but had never heard these terms before. Indeed, they are missing from all secular humanist dictionaries. However, they are essential to Christian Care and Counsel. Any Christian that reads James 5 can attest to the fact that inner healing and physical healing are intertwined.

I was very eager to learn more about Inner Healing. It is what the church has traditionally called Soul Care. For  hundreds of years Soul Care was the focus of the church. Physicians focused on healing the body but Christians healed the soul. All that changed with Freud, a Physician that had a passion was healing the inner person. Freud and his followers, however, were poorly prepared to deal with the primary causes of inner pain heart problems, but they did discover that many physical issues were the result of past trauma and loss such as sexual abuse and parental deaths.

Childhood trauma that is left unhealed will often show us as hysterical symptoms in the body. I remember a teenage girl that suffered from hysterical blindness when she was reminded of a trauma as a baby. She had no physical reason for her inability to see but she was blind. By paying attention to her childhood wounds she recovered.

I was counseling a Vietnam Vet who was a drug addict. When we met it was obvious that his addiction was the result of deep depression. Finally, one day we had a conversation like the one I wrote below.

Joe: "Do you believe killing in a war is wrong?
Gary: "My opinion is not very important. It is what you believe that is important."
Joe: "The Chaplain said it was OK."
Gary: "What do you think?"
Joe: "I think killing is wrong even in war."
Gary: "But you had to kill people in the war."
Joe: "Yes."
Gary: "Have you asked for forgiveness?"
Joe: "No. I tried but they said it was not wrong and refused to let me."
Gary: "Would you like to confess now?'
Joe: "Yes, but not out loud. Just to God."
Gary: "Sure. When you are finished say amen and I will pray.'
Joe: Silent for a few minutes. Than, "Amen".
Gary: "On the authority of the Bible that says if anyone confesses his sins God will forgive them, I declare you forgiven in the Name of Jesus."

After that, Joe never returned to see me and he quit drinking and drugs. Ten years later his wife called and said he attempted suicide. I met with him and we went more deeply into his heart aches. His new depression lifted and he went back to church and became emotionally balanced.

If you want to know more about inner healing, get my PDF eBook, Breaking Free. Click the link below.


Gary Sweeten
Sweeten Life Systems, INC
A 501c3 not for profit ministry