Can Helping Actually Be Harmful?

Friendship, Loving Care, Fellowship are Healthy and Healing

One of the newest fads among secular humanist educators, counselors and drug therapists is called Mindfulness. It is a process that attempts to combine Eastern Meditation with Cognitive Therapy. It has been touted by dozens of articles and famous people. However, new research indicates its use has been harmful in many cases. 

I am not too surprised by this since I know that many people had terrible experiences with the secular humanist fad of T Groups and Encounter Groups that took many companies by storm in the Sixties and Seventies.

This has also been true of several Christian groups that rushed into Inner Healing and Spiritual Warfare with fragile people. In almost every case the practitioners went through a short period of training or even saw a video, read a book or heard about these techniques and immediately began to try it out on hurting, desperate people before they were strong enough to deal with the heretofore unconscious materials that arose because of the technique.

When the repressed materials became conscious for the first time the Seeker was unable to integrate it successfully. Depression, anxiety, shame, guilt and even psychosis could be the unfortunate result. In some cases, Counselors were sued because they went too far too fast and damaged emotional states were the result.

I think Inner Healing Prayers can b very therapeutic when and if they are carefully and conservatively applied. Turning immature and anxious people loose with the most powerful tools in Christianity can be disastrous. Be wise and balanced and do not rush in where angels fear to tread!

We start all of our trainees with Listening with the Fruit of the Spirit and understanding how the Truth is applied before we get to the Gifts and Power of the Spirit. See my books, Hope and Change for Humpty Dumpty and Power Christian Thinking.

The Holy Spirit Power of God is Dunamis or Dynamite and not to be lightly considered. Many Secular Humanist Counselors covet the power of Christianity but can only try counterfeit ways of intervening.