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Gracewalk Counselling |
Gracewalk Counselling |
Counselling with a Christian Perspective |
Theophostic Counselling |
Theophostic Counselling |
Theophostic Counselling is a powerful version of counselling. Its rather unusual name is a combination of the Greek words for God (Theos) and Light (Phos). It is basically God shining the light of His presence and His truth on the pain and the lies embedded in our memories. The key Scripture verse is: Theophostic Prayer Ministry (TPM) was developed by Dr. Ed Smith in the mid nineties while he was operating as a pastoral counsellor in central Kentucky. TPM is a defined form of prayer ministry and not an organisation or body of people. Dr. Ed Smith holds a masters degree in education (focus in marriage and family counselling) from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, TX and a Doctorate of Ministry from Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, MO. He has completed most of his work toward his Doctorate of Education in marriage and family counselling from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Ft. Worth, Texas. Dr. Smith holds a traditional conservative protestant theology. He adheres to the Baptist Faith and message and attends a Southern Baptist Church. However, the principles of TPM are not dependent upon Ed Smith's personal theology but on a common theology that is embraced cross denominationally around the world by thousands of other ministry facilitators. Theophostic Counselling is not a cure all. It won't generally deal with problems that are only in the present eg feeling lazy today, financial pressure, finding your life partner. You will need other counselling techniques for that. Theophostic Counselling deals with moods, bad feelings and things that "just seem to be there all the time". It deals with the portion of our pain that is inherited from the past and which diffuses through our consciousness from our memories. Someone described Theophostic Counselling as "God's eternity intersecting our history". Dr Ed. Smith saw the importance of not just addressing the memory, or its emotion, but the long-term lies that the memory held in place. An example of this could be as follows. Suppose that you came home one day as a child and found your family had been killed. This may leave you feeling guilty for surviving, or it may leave you with the perception that the world is an unpredictable and dangerous place and you could lose everything very suddenly. It may leave you with the belief that nothing is secure. From then on you may avoid even beneficial relationships because you feel that you may suddenly lose them. You may not also have the ability to trust God for the future. Whenever you do start to trust, the memory of that awful day sends out an emotional signal saying "people you love and trust are dangerous, they will be snatched away from you and you will be hurt. The beliefs the trauma generates consistently paralyse future actions." |
You may not have trauma like that in your life but you probably have a dozen or so key memories that send out pain signals into the present and lock your behaviour into undesirable patterns. |
There are three parts to any memory. 1.The memory itself -which is a historical fact and cannot be changed. 2. The emotions that memory generated, and the lies/beliefs that the memory has embedded within it. 3. Sometimes there can be a spiritual component to the memory as well. Some memories are so awful that they become a "home" for the forces of darkness. Theophostic Counselliing addresses the emotions and the lies/beliefs that the memory has embedded within it. Thus it is a very useful tool for emotional healing. |
Effects and Usefullness |
Theophostics is very good with addictions, low-self-esteem, inferiority, phobias, anxiety and panic attacks, trauma, depression, and sexual abuse. That is impressive but it is not everything by any means. |
What I have seen is people experience genuine long-term recovery that profoundly affects their life and relationships |
Theophostics is very good with addictions, low-self-esteem, inferiority, phobias, anxiety and panic attacks, trauma, depression, and sexual abuse. That is impressive but it is not everything by any means. |
The power of this brief counselling technique is quite impressive. It should not really be called a counselling technique as it is Jesus that does all the hard work. The counsellor may often be almost silent in the process. Some people have very traumatic lives and many memories to process. Also some memories may be particularly potent and have a number of lies embedded in them that need to be tackled. Most people can only tackle 3 or 4 separate memories in one session. Each memory is generally fully healed when it is dealt with. |
The average person will find that less than half a dozen sessions with Theophostic Counselling will produce considerable change and relief. |
People who have been severely abused may take up to twenty sessions. This is still much more rapid than other techniques and the recovery is complete. That is each memory that is tackled is healed and is no longer a source of intra-psychic pain. |