Artistic Integration: Theological Foundations For Case-Level Integration In Contemporary Christian Counseling -- By: Stephen P. Greggo

Journal: Trinity Journal
Volume: TRINJ 23:2 (Fall 2002)
Article: Artistic Integration: Theological Foundations For Case-Level Integration In Contemporary Christian Counseling
Author: Stephen P. Greggo


Artistic Integration:
Theological Foundations For Case-Level Integration In Contemporary Christian Counselinga

Stephen P. Greggo

I. Sensing the Critical Issue

Focus for a moment on a sample of counseling students investigating the integration of psychology and theology within a seminary or Christian graduate school setting.

A. Jodi came directly from college to seminary and has a bicultural background. She appears to be equally at home in Middle Eastern surroundings as she is here in the United States, having family ties in both regions of the world. Her future counseling ministry location and setting is, as of yet, undetermined.

B. Sarah will enter counseling as a second career when her children are invested elsewhere. A former career missionary with her husband, she burnt out within a fundamentalist mission organization. She now is shedding that rigid background with all its trappings, while struggling to maintain her solid biblical and theological roots.

C. Dan came to a saving faith in Jesus Christ through an InterVarsity group at college while completing a pre-med biology degree. After experiencing a personal family fracture - his father left his mother to marry a younger woman - he entered counseling himself. Now he is training to be a professional therapist.

I have no prophetic gift to predict with any precision the eventual counseling settings for this small sample of students. Yet, alumni with similar characteristics may reveal potential directions.

A. Isabelle uses her bicultural background while working in a Christian social service agency that facilitates international adoptions. She has a small private practice on the side.

B. Brenda draws from her own missionary experience working within a para-church organization to guide new staff through cross-cultural transitions. She does mental health evaluations on perspective staff, runs multicultural sensitivity training groups, and provides ongoing support to missionaries in the field, usually via e-mail.

C. Bruce is employed in a hospital with both inpatient and intensive outpatient programs. He interfaces daily with managed care monitoring systems, physicians, and other psychiatric personnel as he operates within a medical team practice model.

These professionals, graduates of a seminary-based counseling curriculum, cope with diverse challenges as they seek to implement their theological and counseling training. As a professor my challenge and concern for these students is to foster the internalization of an integration ...

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