Losing My Religion: Spiritual Discouragement amongst Christian Therapists due to Spiritual Immaturity in Christian Clients

This paper addresses the spiritual discouragement and religious doubt that can arise in the Christian therapist who repeatedly experiences spiritual immaturity and crisis amongst his or her Christian clients. While Christians certainly aren't perfect, they often fall so far short of that ideal that one can reasonably wonder whether the Christian faith possesses resources that effectively bring about positive growth and change. We contend that witnessing repeated spiritual immaturity, failure, and related crises amongst Christian clients can bring about intrapersonal spiritual struggle for the Christian therapist of those clients. In response to this problem, a religious orienting system is proposed that includes both epistemological and theological features that aid the Christian therapist in navigating the disillusionment and disorientation that can occur from repeat exposure to spiritual immaturity amongst Christian clients. Consider this, the hint of the century. Consider this, the slip that brought me to my knees, failed. --R.E.M., "Losing My Religion" Introduction Christians believe in a God of hope, redemption, healing, and change. "Come unto me," Jesus says, "and you will find rest for your souls ... for my way is easy and my burden is light" (Matt. 11:28-29). Or consider Paul, who writes, "For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity ... so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification" (Rom. 6:19). Christian psychotherapists often have front-row seats for these stories of redemption, healing, and change, and with that comes great blessing and encouragement. Alternatively, and often concurrently, Christian therapists often have front-row seats for stories of failure, betrayal, cruelty, and despair, and with that can come discouragement. While Christians are realists about sin and the deep brokenness of the world, the overall trajectory of the Christian story is one of rescue and deliverance--and not just in the age to come, but even in the here and now (e.g., Willard, 1998). And yet, perhaps more often than not, the psychotherapist's office is the scene more of despair and brokenness than rescue and deliverance, especially at the time of intake. Indeed, Christian psychotherapists are often repeatedly exposed through their Christian clients to the worst of the Christian community, leaving the therapist to reasonably wonder how much rescue and deliverance actually exists within the Christian community. Therapists regularly deal with cases of moral failure, hypocrisy, abuse, abandonment, addiction, and other forms of intrapsychic, interpersonal, and spiritual distress that can seem out of step with the Christian narrative of redemption. While some of these clients might be less mature believers, others have spent decades in the faith, including pastors, missionaries, church leaders, and their family members. It makes sense that repeated exposure to these sorts of crises amongst Christian clients can lead to spiritual discouragement, disorientation, and disillusionment amongst Christian therapists. Within the research literature, much has been written on the potential ill-effects of therapeutic work as it applies to the therapist. Burnout, for example, is often associated with feelings of hopelessness and low vocational self-efficacy (Craig & Sprang, 2010) and is quite prevalent in helping professions (Maslach & Jackson, 1984). Another related term, secondary traumatic stress, refers to the potential of individuals indirectly exposed to traumatic material (e.g., therapists listening to the trauma narratives of their clients) going on to develop trauma symptoms of their own (Bride, Robinson, Yegidis, & Figley, 2004; Wang, Strosky, & Fletes, 2014). Yet another related term, vicarious trauma, makes reference to the more pervasive and cumulative effects of indirect exposure to trauma over time, such as potential long-term modifications to an individual's way of experiencing themselves, others, and the world (Newell & MacNeil, 2010; Trippany, White, & Wilcoxon, 2004), along with the many negative beliefs (e. …