The following document is for colleagues, clergy, clients, students, and others who may be interested on why I use Theophostic Prayer Ministry (TPM) in my Christian counseling practice.

I have been incorporating Theophostic Prayer Ministry (TPM) as part of my overall my Christian counseling approach since 2001.  Theophostic Prayer Ministry (Theo= Greek for “God,” Phos = “light”) was developed by Dr. Ed Smith in 1996 in his pastoral counseling work with traumatized individuals.  You can visit his website at theophostic.com for more information on TPM. I have no personal or professional affiliation with Dr. Ed Smith or the TPM organization, and the comments and statements below are my own.

My Training in TPM

I first heard about TPM from a highly respected friend and colleague of mine, in about the year 2000, who described the approach as very effective and suggested that I receive the training. TPM seemed to present, in a systematized way, what I was already attempting to do in my practice, that is, helping my patients experience Jesus' healing presence in the context of their distress. After receiving my basic TPM training in December 2001, presented by psychiatrist Dr. Karl Lehman in Chicago, I participated in a 4-day apprenticeship training by Dr. Smith at the Theophostic headquarters in Campbellsville, Kentucky August 2002.  During my apprenticeship, I had the opportunity to observe Ed Smith provide TPM to about 10 volunteers, over about 20 hours or so, with about 30 other professional therapists and lay counseling ministers from across the United States. After having practiced what I learned and developing more experience and confidence in TPM, I led a basic TPM training seminar in December 2004 for 40 participants, which included clergy, clinicians, and lay ministers here in the Rockford, Illinois area.

A Brief Description of TPM

TPM focuses on invoking God's help in exposing and expelling the false belief system ("lies") assumed to be at the root of emotional distress, such as depressive and anxiety disorders, and maladaptive behaviors such as eating disorders and various addictions. The TPM minister is trained to pray aloud during the session according to very clear and specific TPM guidelines. During a TPM session, the TPM minister prays aloud to Jesus and and interacts with the client at the same time by asking questions  (such as "What are you experiencing now?"). The presence of Jesus is always assumed, and a three way interaction takes place between the facilitator, the person receiving ministry, and the Lord Jesus. Specifically, the TPM minister asks Jesus to:

• Help the hurting person describe the thoughts and feelings he or she experiences when triggered by adverse events;

• Show the person the "source and origin" of these distressing feelings, which is typically an unpleasant memory from childhood;

• Show the person any "lies" presumed to be imbedded in such a memory, such as "I am worthless," "I am rejected," or "I am dirty."

• Bring truth and light to this memory, at the very height of the emotional distress associated with the lie. Typically, the client then reports a profound experience with Jesus Christ, in which Jesus communicates -- through a visual image, a word-picture, a voice, or some other experience -- a truth that the client had never realized before in a personalized, healing way.

Working through obstacles. If the process gets "stuck," as it often does, the TPM minister is trained to respond appropriately. For example, if the person reports experiencing nothing, then the TPM minister might ask Jesus to show the person why that might be. Often, the person might then report feeling resentment towards someone who has recently hurt them, or guilt for a recent wrongdoing. If so, then the TPM minister might ask, with the person's consent, for Jesus to take the resentment or guilt upon Himself. After the person reports the guilt or resentment lifted, the TPM process can move forward towards getting the person free of any lies contributing to their emotional distress.

Experiential emphasis. The emphasis of TPM is on experiential truth, that is, a genuine experience of Jesus' love, acceptance, and forgiveness during the TPM session, rather than a mere mental awareness of truth. TPM views "head knowledge" as important but not always sufficient in healing emotional wounds. The person is not considered free of the lie until he or she experiences a pleasant calmness in the painful memory as a result of a genuine encounter with Jesus Christ. The typical TPM session takes about 1-3 hours.

An Example of TPM From My Practice

A brief example of the TPM process can be helpful in understanding the process. Here is an actual example of TPM in action, from my own practice:

Sally (not her real name) came to me with a a history of bulimia (binging and purging food), depression, and self-mutilation. After an initial evaluation, Sally, a church-going Christian, was able to see that her bulimia and cutting herself were unhealthy ways of escaping deep and unexpressed emotional pain. After introducing TPM to Sally, and giving her some literature on how it works, she expressed a willingness to try it.  In her first TPM session, I asked her to close her eyes and describe the emotional distress she experienced right before her last cutting episode.  She said "depressed . . . lonely . . . hopeless." With her eyes still closed, I asked, with Sally's permission, for Jesus to show her the real source and origin of her pain. Sally then reported an episode of verbal abuse by her older sister when Sally was 7 years old. Apparently, Sally was left alone with her sister, who had problems with anger. As I asked God to show her the lie imbedded in the memory, Sally cried out "I'm worthless!" I asked her then to rate the intensity to which she felt that this belief was true on scale of 0-10, with 10 being the highest. She cried out "10!" At that moment I asked Jesus to communicate to Sally whatever He wanted her to know in this memory, and in a way that would free Sally of the lie imbedded in this memory. Instantly Sally was calm and had a serene facial expression. When I asked her what she was now experiencing, Sally she said a voice was saying to her: "You're My treasure." However, I then noticed, as her eyes were still closed, that she looked puzzled and a bit distressed again. So I asked her what she was now expeirencing. Sally responded: "I'm now thinking that maybe I'm just talking to myself. Maybe I'm making this up."  So I asked her to simply experience that thought, and then to evaluate it, as I prayed that God would help her experience truth. Suddenly, her serene facial expression returned, and Sally smiled, saying, "No, this voice is too familiar. I'm not making this up. I've heard the voice before. It's definitely not me; this is Jesus!" By the time we closed the session, the belief "I'm worthless" was rated at a "0." After this session, I showed Sally the Bible passage John 10:27 ("My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me"), and asked her to read and meditate on it. This scripture helped her have scriptural confirmation of her experience. After a few more sessions, in which I monitored her symptoms closely,  Sally no longer met the criteria for bulimia. After a few more sessions, she no longer met the criteria for depression. However, as part of relapse prevention and aftercare, she agreed to continue to see me every 6-12 weeks for in order for me to monitor her progress and provide ongoing support. That was over a year ago and the last I evaluated her (July 11, 2006), she was still free from symptoms of bulimia and depression and pursuing a career in the health field.

I have applied TPM to well over 100 clients since 2001, and I could report many stories similar to Sally's. Clients with suicidal depression, panic attacks, eating disorders, self-mutilation behaviors, sexual addictions, post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and severe anger problems consistently show improvement after 1-3 TPM sessions and are often discharged completely free of the symptoms they came in with. Unfortunately, I have been unable to follow up with all my clients as well as Sally, because of many patients' understandable reluctance to return to counseling and pay a fee, simply to be evaluated and tell me how well they are doing.

Clinical Observations

My use of TPM in my clinical practice almost daily since 2001 has been a learning adventure. I believe that I am a much more effective therapist than I was back then, and I have grown professionally and personally from applying TPM to my practice. Here are some things I have learned about TPM -- some clinical observations about my own experience -- that may be helpful for readers, especially other clinicians.

1. TPM experience enhances TPM skill. Immediately after my training, as I followed the TPM guidelines exactly as I was trained, I observed that in most cases, at least 70%, there was a significant breakthrough in the very first 90-minute TPM session. By significant breakthrough, I mean that the client would report feeling a pleasant calm as a result of experiencing Jesus' presence in their emotional distress. As I become more experienced and skilled in TPM, I would estimate that my application of TPM now results in a breakthrough in at least 90% of TPM cases in the first session. For the few remaining TPM cases, a breakthrough often results during the second or third session.

2. When TPM does not work, I have never found it to be due to a failure in the procedure itself. In the rare cases that I can recall where TPM had not resulted in improvement, there were plain explanations for this. For example, one former client told me that he was not being truthful with me during a TPM session, fearing my reaction to a sexual sin he felt deep guilt for during the session. His not sharing with me his feeling of guilt (he later told me that his guilt and shame was for having had sex with a prostitute) obstructed the process. After he had disclosed this to me, and we asked Jesus to take his guilt on Himself, his next TPM session resulted in a significant breakthrough. In the other two cases I am thinking of, there were unresolved relational dynamics going on between me and the person receiving TPM, which would have complicated any counseling intervention I offered.

3. TPM is cost-effective. TPM works far more quickly than any form of counseling I have been trained in, and achieves better and more lasting results that I have observed through other forms of therapy. TPM greatly decreases the number of sessions required to meet clients' counseling goals. Hence, TPM is very cost effective, saving the client a lot of time and money.

4. TPM is very helpful in marital therapy. TPM is very useful for marital problems in my Christian counseling practice. As any marital therapist will tell you, the greatest obstacle to resolving marital problems is when each partner sees the other person as needing to be "fixed." TPM, which keep the focus on each partner's relationship with God as the primary issue, makes the relationship with the marital partner secondary to their personal issues. Typically, I meet with each partner individually for TPM before each marital session. If one partner is unwilling to do TPM, I find that the marriage improves anyway, because the spouse experiencing more love, joy, and peace as a result of TPM is not getting as triggered by the other's behavior. Often, when one spouse sees how well the other is doing after TPM, he or she wants to receive TPM as well.

5. TPM can be useful when used selectively with children. I have used TPM with children sparingly yet very successfully, and, of course, never without parents' consent and with the child's understanding and permission. For example, a 7 year old boy who would not eat solid food after a choking trauma started eating sandwiches, pizza, and all the food he used to eat after a 20-minute TPM session; the boy reported during the session that "Jesus told me to go ahead and eat and not be afraid because He won't let anything happen to me."

6. TPM enhances Christian spiritual growth and maturity. TPM typically brings about deep and profound changes in my clients’ spiritual lives, as people "grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 3:18). Before TPM, my clients would often describe their Christian faith in dry, abstract terms.  If they are able to describe a genuine encounter with God -- where they have actually experienced His presence in a meaningful way -- it might have been once or twice in the past, such as during their conversion experience years ago or at a church retreat in their adolescence. After TPM, however, clients can often describe a much more deep and meaningful personal relationship with Jesus. After TPM, there is often a dramatic increase in weekly church attendance, devotional time, and conversational prayer with Jesus.

7. TPM greatly reduces negative affect. Although I have not done a formal scientific study, I often observe that clients' depression, anxiety, and anger scores on a psychological instrument (QPASS; see QPASSlive.com) drop from clinical to sub-clinical levels after a breakthrough, which takes place in 1-3 sessions. In my attempts to follow-up with my clients -- by sending QPASS in the mail and ask that it be returned completed -- these drops in depression, anxiety, and anger scores are often consistent 3-6 months later.

8. TPM and research. TPM is just beginning to get the notice of the academic community, and therefore scientific research on TPM is just in the early stages. There is certainly no lack of positive testimonials and anecdotal evidence of TPM's effectiveness. I am excited about TPM's potential for bringing about a major change in our field. As Elliot Miller writes: "If research one day could establish that TPM recipients have recovered from such profound conditions without relapse for, say, 15 years or more, then TPM would land a place on the therapeutic map and provoke a literal revolution in psychology" (Chritian Research Journal, v9, no. 3, 2006, p. 36). There is currently some scientific research (see theophostic.com) that is supportive of TPM, but much more research is needed before TPM is more widely recognized by the academic community. There is no research to date I know of that is unsupportive of the effectiveness of TPM or that suggests TPM is harmful in any way. Based on my experience in my private practice, I confidently predict that future studies will show TPM highly effective for a wide variety of psychological disorders, and encourage my students and colleagues to receive training in TPM. I also recommend that researchers somehow make sure that the TPM practioners in their studies are doing TPM as they are trained when they study the effects of TPM. 

9. Ethical use of TPM. Based on my positive experience with TPM, and the initial research findings, I personally believe it is my ethical responsibility to introduce this option to clients whom I assess as appropriate to receive TPM. For me, denying TPM to my clients -- until TPM is less "controversial" and until more research substantiates what I have already witnessed -- would morally and ethically equivalent to a researcher-physician withholding a highly effective medicine from his patients until all the medical community and scientific journals caught up with what he already knew to be true. Hence, I introduce TPM to my clients as early as possible in the therapy, but never before a good rapport is established, clear treatment goals have been set, and the client is willing to become educated on TPM. Since many of my clients are Christian and often include "getting closer to God" and "experiencing more love, joy, and peace instead of depression, anxiety, and anger" as treatment goals, I introduce them to TPM and provide information and websites to visit to help them make an informed and educated decision on TPM. If clients have any questions or concerns about the TPM approach, I answer these concerns before we begin.  If, for any reason, the client decides not to try the TPM approach, then I proceed with traditional psychotherapy. It is very important to note that TPM should be considered one component of an overall Christian counseling approach, and never the only service offered by a professional Christian counselor. Indeed, in addition to TPM, the Christian psychotherapist should also provide psychoeducational support as well as ongoing assessment and intervention for psychopathology and the therapeutic relationship with the client, as well as the interpersonal dynamics with others, such as his or her spouse and other family members.

Six Words of Caution

TPM, of course, is not a cure-all and we must clearly understand and communicate its limitations. Here are six things I have learned through experience with TPM, that may be of benefit to others:

1. TPM is no substitute for Christian discipleship and basic disciplines. As Dr. Smith has warned, TPM is no replacement for the basics in Christianity such as discipleship, fellowship, and the Christian disciplines. Indeed, many of my clients need to maintain a sense of God's presence after their TPM sessions in their everyday lives, and thereby maintaining the love, joy, and peace they experienced in TPM sessions. In my own practice, I strongly encourage my clients to seek ongoing discipleship and mentorship, the daily practice of basic Christian disciplines, and  ongoing fellowship with other Christians.

2. Multiple traumas often require multiple TPM sessions. Clients with more intense and prolonged negative life experiences often need more than several TPM sessions. Victims of multiple episodes of childhood sexual abuse need as many TPM sessions as needed to help them get them free from the effects of their "lies," memory by memory. Fore example, at the time of this writing, I have provided about a dozen TPM sessions to a middle-aged woman in which as many childhood traumas we processed and successfully resolved in Jesus' presence. Just last night, we processed and resolved what was presented as a repressed memory of incest by her father, which, according to the client, occurred shortly after a date-rape in her adolescence. The feelings related to this memory were apparently triggered by her boyfriend's anger towards her, and compounded her distress to the point of severe suicidal ideation when she arrived at my office. It was by far the most painful experience we had processed through TPM, and yet she walked out of the office last night experiencing profound calmness and a strong bond with Jesus, whom she says "cleansed me of all the dirtiness I felt," and made her feel worthy by "having me sit next to Him, right by His own throne." (Note: To help her see how scripture harmonized with this experience, I showed her Ephesians 2:6, which she, as a "baby Christian," had never read before, and asked her to meditate on it and other verses when she got home).

3. Personality-disordered clients need more than TPM. Although TPM can bring about the immediate fruit of the Spirit (love, joy, and peace; see Galatians 5:22),  changes in personality and character (patience, kindness, goodness, self-control) take time and experience. I have learned that clients with lifelong problems with developing healthy and meaningful interpersonal relationships -- that is, those with what we clinicians call "personality disorders" -- need more treatment than TPM. They also need ongoing help and support as they learn and practice more effective relationship skills, and "unlearn" lifelong habits of unhealthy relating and emotional regulation.

4. TPM has limited effectiveness with psycho-biological disorders. TPM appears to be effective only to the degree that a person's emotional distress is actually based in unhealthy "lie-based" beliefs. I have personally found TPM to have limited effectiveness with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Bipolar Disorder, and to some extent, ADHD. This observation, of course, is highly consistent with the prevailing scientific view that biology plays a larger role in these disorders than other psychological disorders. Moreover, Dr. Ed Smith has been  careful to point out that TPM has limited effectiveness for true biologically-based disorders.

5. TPM is not for everyone. I have learned that it can be unwise to introduce TPM as an option too early in treatment, especially for clients who are not ready for a radical or controversial spiritual intervention. For some clients, it is a huge step just to come into a counselor's office and open themselves up to someone. TPM, we must remember, can sound very strange and threatening to some people, and therefore can easily scare some hurting people who could benefit from traditional counseling right out of the office. Moreover, it is crucial to have a good rapport with a client before introducing TPM, and to assess the client's comfort level in feeling safe in the process of disclosing his or her thoughts and feelings and memories.

6. TPM training is no guarantee of competence. Just about anybody can get trained in TPM  and TPM has no formal credentialing process. A certificate of completion is provided for anyone who has attended the basic training and merely reports having read the 345-page manual.  Not even passing a simple test is required. I appreciate the fact that Dr. Smith strongly encourages TPM ministers to seek accountability from their church leaders and to get clinical supervision by professional clinical counselors (see page 26 of the TPM Manual, 2005). Nonetheless, TPM supervision and clinical training are not required. Although the basic and advanced training does a good job of describing psychological processes in laymen's terms, TPM ministers are not required to have any knowledge of psychological disorders or counseling training.  Therefore, until TPM has a formal credentialing and supervision process that I would deem acceptable, there is a considerable risk for the following problems: a) misapplication of the TPM procedure, b) basic counseling ethics being unobserved, c) psychological processes being misunderstood, d) psychiatric disorders being undetected or mistreated, and e) psychologically unhealthy people placed in a helper role. Accordingly, many people seeking to receive TPM may want to seek someone with a proven degree of professionalism, clinical experience, education, credentialing, biblical knowledge, spiritual maturity, in addition to having basic TPM skill level and experience.

My Response to TPM as a Christian

As I describe in my website, I believe that Christian counseling worthy of that name is Scripture-based, Christ-centered, and Spirit-led. For the most part, my own personal theology and psychological perspectives harmonize quite well with those expressed at the TPM website and in the latest TPM manual (2005, New Creation Publishing).

TPM is Scripture-Based

According to the highly respected Christian Research Institute (CRI): "After an exhaustive evaluation, CRI detects nothing unbiblical about the core theory and practice of Theophostic Prayer Ministry (TPM)" (see the Christian Research Journal, 2006, v. 29, No. 2 ). I heartily agree. I especially appreciate the emphasis that TPM places upon experiential knowledge instead of cognitive knowledge; that is, heart-knowledge instead of head knowledge. Both experiential knowledge and head knowledge are important, but experiential knowledge -- to know God in our hearts, which records actual experience, not data -- is a more Biblical path to truth that seeking head knowledge only. (see Proverbs 3:4, 5). The latter breeds cold and dry intellectualism, the disease of the Pharisees. Moreover, the overly rational worldview of Reformation theology and of the Enlightment era, as important as it was for those times, has contributed to today's ignorance of the profound role of the human heart and soul in understanding human nature and our heart-to-heart relationship with God. The heart, not the head, is more central to understanding man, according to a Biblical worldview. (Just check your Bible concordance for how many times the word "heart" is mentioned in the Bible). Of course, the emphasis on rationalism has created a hunger for mystical experience that can lead people to New Age practices and the postmodern rejection of logic and reason. Hence, the TPM movement is getting us back to a more balanced scriptural worldview that emphasizes experiential truth without tossing out scripture and logical thinking.

TPM is Christ-Centered

I do not know what could be more Christ-centered than TPM. In TPM, Jesus Christ, not the counselor, is acknowledged as the healer. Indeed, TPM sessions are highly structured around the continued practice of Jesus' presence during the session. (Technically speaking, Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father, and it is the Holy Spirit we are interacting with in TPM sessions. However, where the Holy Spirit is, Jesus and our Father-God are present.)

TPM is Spirit-Led

Of course, there is no chapter in the Bible that spells out the TPM procedure, verse by verse. However, as Dallas Willard writes in his book Hearing God (1999; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarisity Press), "Our reverence for and faith in the Bible must not be allowed to blind us to the need for divine instructions within the principles of the Bible yet beyond the details of what it explicitly says" (p. 59). In other words, reading the Bible without the Holy Spirit is like telling God what to do, using His Word to command and hence confine Him to our little boxes. It is scripturally consistent to actually expect the Holy Spirit to use new forms and vehicles for conveying the unchanging Gospel truth. Indeed, we can expect the Holy Spirit advance God's kingdom and bring the healing Word of God to the brokenness in His people (Psalm 147:3) in our particular day and age, consistent with true and sound psychological knowledge that we have learned in the 20th century. Although neither our psychological methods nor TPM itself is specifically described in the Bible, let us remember that the Bible is not a psychology textbook, but "a lamp unto our feet and a light to our path" (Psalm 119:105). Moreover, as we see in the book of Acts, the Holy Spirit works in 100% harmony with the written Word of God in applying its truth to particular times, cultures, circumstances, and even to particular (or perhaps more accurately, peculiar) personalities.

Seven Ways that TPM Harmonizes With Bible

There are at least seven ways that I see in which TPM clearly harmonizes with the Bible:

1. The gospel of John. In John 1:4, it is written that "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it." In Jesus' encounters in the book of John with Nathaniel, Nicodemus, the woman at the well, and with Peter, He spoke truth into their hearts in very personal and unique ways, matching their unique personalities and life experiences. This is exactly what I observe in my clients during TPM sessions.

2. The Way of the Psalms. The way of emotional healing prescribed in the Davidic psalms involves the full expression of our dark emotions  -- despair, fear, even our anger -- in God's presence. This is exactly what happens in TPM.

3. Paul's conversion on the road to Damascus (Acts 9). Although there are differences, there are also remarkable similarities between TPM and Paul's conversion on the road to Damascus as described in Acts 9. For example, we read that Paul (then Saul) was transformed not by intellectual persuasion, or a study of scriptures, but by a powerful experiential encounter with Jesus. Through this encounter, all the lies Paul believed about Jesus and His followers were replaced by truth.

4. The call for repentance. Anger and guilt are emotions that have to do with sin. Anger (and resentment) has to do with the sin of others against us; guilt has to do with our own sin. The Bible calls us to repent (that is be changed by being renewed; Matthew 4:17; Romans 12:2), confess our guilt (Psalm 51; 1 Jn 1:9), and to forgive, from our hearts (Mat 18:35) those who have offended us.  In TPM, we find that guilt is replaced by peace of mind, as Jesus takes the guilt of the client upon Himself. In TPM, we also find that hate is replaced by empathy and love for the offender, as Jesus takes all the anger of the client upon Himself.  Interestingly, I consistently observe that clients report their anger and resentment identified and lifted by God before they describe their own guilt identified and lifted. In the early days when I first started practicing TPM, I would attempt to get the client to deal with his or her guilt first, because I thought that was more important. But I would always find that the client was compelled to express anger first, before guilt. Now I know why: this orderly progression is perfectly consistent with what Jesus said in Matthew 6: 15: "But if you do not forgive men, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions."

5. The fruit of the Spirit described in Galatians 5:22. In TPM, I consistently observe that depression, anxiety, anger is replaced by the love, joy, and peace. According to Galatians 5:22, these three emotions -- love, joy, and peace -- are exactly what we should expect when we experience God's presence.

6. The nature of the demonic (Luke 11:24-26). If the person describes anything "demonic", the TPM minister is trained to calmly view this as God allowing this experience to help reveal the lie. Hence, the focus of TPM is not in casting out demons, but in getting the lie identified and expelled. When the lie is replaced by truth, demons are no longer experienced. This, of course, is consistent with Luke 11:24-26, in which Jesus says that an unclean spirit, though cast out, will return to a man with seven more evil spirits if the emptiness in the man is not filled. 

7. Jesus' response to Paul's adversity. Christian maturity is  manifested by how we respond to adversity. TPM literature does not describe adversity in a Christian's life as something bad or spiritually unhealthy. (Indeed, God's love is demonstrated in his disciplining His own children, according to Hebrews12:5-11).On the contrary, TPM shows how God often uses adversity in our lives to expose our lie-based thinking and consequent unhealthiness. When we are in distress, TPM counsels us to cry out to Jesus for His truth.  The TPM view of adversity is remarkably consistent with how the apostle Paul re-interpreted his thorn in the flesh after Jesus "showed up" and said "My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness" (2 Corinthians 12:9). The way this healing truth imparted to Paul by Jesus, after Paul cried out to Jesus (v.8), is highly consistent with a TPM session. 

Where I Disagree with TPM Theology

A person's theology, in my view, is his or her current mental construction of God. Christians are people who are growing and maturing in Christ, and whose theology modifies here and there as we grow and mature in Christ. This is why Christians can still be in fellowship even when we do not agree exactly on every theological point. Indeed, it is rare to find that two Christians agree theologically on every issue, point by point. So it should come as no surprise that I have a couple of theological disagreements with Dr. Smith. These disagreements are purely academic and do not effect the way I practice TPM, and do not reflect, in my view, flaws in the TPM procedure itself.

1. First, Ed` Smith describes a person's negative beliefs about themselves -- such as "I am worthless," "I am bad" -- as "lies." As I will describe below, I believe that these beliefs are actual truths reflecting who we are without Christ. These truths about who we are without Christ can actually be awakened within us by trauma. (I'll explain below).

2. Secondly, as I understand, Dr. Smith does not believe that Christians have a sin nature, because, in his view, we are new creatures in Christ. Even though Christians are indeed new creatures in Christ, I believe that the sin nature is still very much present in all of us, and is part of who we are until we die. Here, I agree with Dwight Edwards, who wrote the following: 

In bestowing this gift [the new heart] at our conversion, God doesn't remove our old heart. When we trust God for salvation, our sinful nature is not removed, but offset. Till the day we die there will always be a godless, proud, innately wicked part of us that will never be improved over time. Yet within every believer there will also be a godly, righteous, Christ-adoring inclination that can never be destroyed (although it can be stifled by other passions" (Revolution Within, 2001, Colorado Springs: Waterbrook Press, p. 54).

So what is the new heart? Although I believe, with Dr. Smith, and celebrate with him, the fact that we who are in Christ have new hearts, I believe that the new heart referred to in scripture is not so much a thing we have as a thing which is in the process of developing through the indwelling of Christ and the Holy Spirit. What God declares to be true about us -- that we have new hearts -- is from His eternal perspective, and is not yet true in the actuality of our day-to-day existence. I believe that we are not yet totally dead to the sin dwelling in us, but are going through the process called sanctification.

Dr. Smith describes lies as beliefs that are a) foreign injections into the mind by Satan or by other people (such as verbal abuse), or b) immature, invalid intellectual constructions that a person makes in childhood in response to a trauma or negative experience. Dr. Smith's descriptions of these beliefs is highly consistent with Dr. Aaron Beck's cognitive therapy approach, which describes the role of negative self-schemas ("such as the belief "I am worthless") in the development of psychological disorders such as depression and anxiety disorders. 

In my view, Ed Smith's current theology -- and we are all in a growth process when it comes to Christian theology, myself included -- does not reflect a robust doctrine of original sin, or, what theologian Wayne Grudem more accurately calls, inherited sin (Systematic Theology, 1994, Grand Rapids: Zondervan, p. 494). The doctrine of inherited sin, which refers to "sin that is ours because of Adam's fall" (Grudem, p. 496), is reflected in Paul's statement "I know nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh" (Rom. 7:18). Christians, even with our new hearts,  have a dark side, because the sin nature is part of who we were at birth, and will be a part of who we are until we die.

In contrast to a robust doctrine of original (inherited) sin, we have victim theology, which attributes our wretchedness to things that happen to us, rather than who we are without Christ. I detect that some, but by no means not all, of Ed Smith's current theology is still under the intoxicating influence of victim theology, especially in the idea suggested in TPM literature that implanted lies cause our sin and wretchedness. 

In contrast to victim theology, a robust doctrine of original/inherited sin requires a direct connection between a) our sin and wretchedness and b) the truths of who we are without Christ, rooted in the Fall described in Genesis 3, and described by Paul in Romans 3:10-18. Specifically, there are seven points that need to be trumpeted across the land -- including every Christian counseling office -- in order for us to triumph over victim theology.  

1. Emotional distress (our wretchedness) goes back to the Fall, not our childhoods. Our emotional distress -- our wretchedness -- originated not in our negative childhood experiences, but in the Fall described in Genesis 3. I believe that there is a direct link between so-called "lies" (I am worthless, etc.) and our own sin nature.

2. What psychologists call toxic beliefs or what TPM call "lies" are actual truths about who we are without Christ. The truth of our fallen condition is this: independent of Christ and His finished work on the cross, each of us, according to Romans 3:10-18, is indeed worthless, alienated, banished from Eden, empty, dirty, and depraved, hopeless and hell-bound. Therefore,  these are actually scriptural truths about who we really are, at our core without Christ, 9and note that I emphasize without Christ) not "lies." Harsh realities, yes, but nonetheless scriptural truths. Unless this point is emphasized, we are led to believe that others cause our distress, when our distress is actually ours, due to our sin nature. This is what I "victim theology."

3. Human beings are not, as victim theology falsely assumes, divine creatures at birth. If negative beliefs about ourselves ("I am worthless", "I am dirty," etc.) were actual lies -- rather then truths of who we are at the core of our being without Christ (according to Romans 3:10-28)-- then trauma victims, logically, would be divine from physical birth. There would be no truth whatsoever to Romans 3:10-28, that is, that we are all, without Christ, worthless, dirty, empty, depraved, and alienated from God from birth. In this sense, victim theology is -- and I cannot put it more mildly-- heretical. Moreover, if you'd think about it, victim theology is illogical: a "divine" person would not -- even for a moment -- believe a lie (that is, agree, with Satan), nor, as is so often the case, would a divine person experience so much hate for his or her offender. Indeed, a "divine" victim of abuse would be like Jesus, and instantly love the offender and be able to maintain fellowship with Father-God, believing God's truths, not lies from Satan or men or the flesh, both during and after the trauma. Therefore, although many of us are indeed victims of the evil in this world, none of us are divine victims. Christian counseling that teaches or even implies that the client who was victimized by abuse is divine from birth, and is righteous before God independent of Christ -- is not Christian counseling. Call it something else -- such as New Age spiritual counseling -- but it would be wrong to call it Christian counseling.

4. God can use traumas to awaken us to our true inner wretchedness and need for Christ. Typically, our denial system keeps us asleep to the truths of Romans 3:10-18. Indeed, who among us could bear these awful truths about who we are, at the core, without knowing, at the same time, God's grace through Christ? And who could accept the inevitable conclusion, that we are, by nature, without Christ, destined for wrath and eternal Hell? No one, of course, can accept and digest these realities except by God's grace and empowerment. God is certainly at liberty to use negative life experiences and adverse events in our lives -- such as traumas -- to jolt us awake to these soul-saving truths. In order to be saved, we need to know our true and hopeless condition, and cry out for a Savior. Back in the 1700s, God used preachers such as Jonathan Edwards, who preached that famous sermon called "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" to help spark the First Great Awakening in colonial America, in which many were saved and described life-changing encounters with Christ. As the church sanctuaries once echoed with shrieks of horror by those who heard Jonathan Edwards and others, such as George Whitefield preach about the sin nature and hell and damnation, so many counseling offices today echo with the shrieks of clients who come face-to-face with the truth of their sinful nature, although activated from memories of traumas and negative life events. In my view, the reason these beliefs ("I am worthless," "I am dirty," "I am alienated") are so hard to shake off is not because they are "lies," but because they are actual truths that profoundly resonate with the sin nature of our hearts, the very core of who we are without Christ.

5. We all --without exception -- learn how to distract ourselves from our wretchedness. Blaise Pascal, the brilliant 17th century scientist and Christian philosopher, described, in his book Pensees, the human condition with profound psychological insight. He depicted human beings as creatures who learn how to distract themselves from the wretchedness of their inner selves through amusements, addictions, and the employment of their talents, physical attributes, and wealth. As the prophet Isaiah wrote, "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way" (Isaiah 53:6, RSV). If we take a moment to look at our traumatized clients through biblical lenses, we will see that they are far more aware of their wretchedness -- the awful truths of Romans 3:10-18 -- than so many of those whose talents, wealth, and amusements can more easily distract themselves from theirs.  But because so many of our clients do not have the luxury of these distractions, they are in more distress. Hence, they come into our offices as ripe for Christ and His light as those colonial Americans during the First Great Awakening whose inner wretchedness -- the awful truths of Romans 3:10-18 -- was awakened by the preaching of Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, and others.  

6. Experiencing our wretchedness, according to Jesus, is a good thing: "Blessed are the wretched (the poor in spirit)." From our limited human perspective, feeling our wretchedness connected with the awful truths of Romans 3:10-18 seems like a bad or evil thing, to be avoided at all costs. It is certainly a horrible thing to experience, and Satan, called the Accuser, no doubt has a starring role in our life-stories, stirring up our wretchedness in some to the point of suicidal intensity. But what Satan means for evil, God means for good (see Genesis 50:20), especially for His own children (see Romans 8:28). From God's eternal perspective, feeling the wretchedness associated with who we really are, at our core, without Christ, is a very good thing. Why? Because it makes us desperately cry out to God in our true state of hopelessness, helplessness and distress. Indeed, the reason TPM works so well, in my opinion, is that it provides the context for so many people to quickly access their wretchedness, and, more importantly, the light of Christ in their distress. The reason Jesus said "Blessed are the poor in spirit" (Matthew 5:2) is because only the poor in spirit pursue Him and have access to Him. As Dwight Edwards wrote: "the essence of faith is dependence . . .rooted in a genuine and overwhelming sense of need. That's why the Sermon on the Mount begins 'Blessed are the poor in spirit.' Brokenness and faith are so closely intertwined, it's difficult to tell where one ends and the other begins" (Revolution Within, Colorado Springs: Waterbrook Press, p. 81).

7. More good news about our depravity and wretchedness. Of course, the good news for the wretched is . . . Jesus! Jesus took all our sin upon Himself on the cross, rose from the dead, sits at the right hand of the Father, and is, at this moment, ready to welcome His own children into His kingdom. As Psalms 22 so perfectly describes-- which starts with "My God! My God! Why have You forsaken me?" the words quotes by Jesus on the cross --  Jesus  experienced all our wretchedness upon the cross. Indeed, our traumatized, impoverished clients are intimately familiar with the emotions of Psalms 22 verse by verse. They are often amazed when I show them this psalm, which almost quotes their own experience. When Jesus' light comes into our dark hearts and souls we do indeed become transformed into new creatures (2 Corinthians 5:17). When Jesus comes into the receptive heart, the truths, that we are worthless, depraved, and alienated (Romans 3), in a sense, become "lies" in the sense that they are no longer true for us in Christ.  But -- and this is important -- they are part of human nature and for as long as we are alive in this body wretchedness remains because the truths of our old nature remain true, until we die. Our daily sin attests to this fact. Remember, the apostle Paul wrote "Wretched man that I am" (Romans 7:24) not wretched man that I was." Every day I feel my wretchedness, but I bring it into the light of Christ, and I experience Him, and who I am in Him. This is why Paul then writes: "there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ" (Romans 8:1)!

In summary. In a nutshell, without Christ, we are all depraved wretches from birth; that includes both traumatized victims of horrible abuse and non-traumatized people. With Christ, we become new creatures, both the traumatized and the non-traumatized, yet still have a sin nature. Our wretchedness is rooted in the Fall, not in our childhoods. None of our clients are physically born into this world innocent and divine, and anything we counselors say or suggest to the contrary is inconsistent with the doctrine of original sin, at the core of orthodox Christian theology.

Suggestions about how practice Christian counseling without victim theology. Flushing victim theology out of our Christian counseling offices is a good thing, but only if it does not cause us to lose empathy for our clients in their distress, or fail to stand in solidarity with them against the evil inflicted upon them. Flushing out victim theology from our offices does not necessarily mean that we refuse to allow any client to ventilate his or her feelings or to express a current need to blame the offender for his or her distress. For example, I invite my clients to openly express their heart-felt belief that the offender is to blame for all their pain, if that is what they believe, in the same way that God, through the Psalms, invites us to express what we genuinely feel and believe to be true about God, even if our current beliefs are not theologically correct. Even as they express their need to blame the offender for all their distress, we need to remember that the Holy Spirit is directing the process. Often I have had clients wear themselves expressing anger about the offender causing all of their problems, until they start to see that all their pain cannot possibly be attributed to what was done to them. It can only be explained by something deeper inside of them, their own sin nature, that the Holy Spirit is gradually revealing to them, guiding the client towards ownership of his or her own wretchedness-without-Christ. 

Hence, in my view, the wretchedness was the client's before, during, and after the negative childhood experience because, according to Romans 3, we were all born depraved wretches. A trauma or negative childhood experience can serve the purpose of awakening us from the sleep of denial of our sin nature and the appropriate feelings of wretchedness associated with who we are without Christ. Some of us are more aware of our wretchedness than others, and yet victims of trauma are often profoundly aware of it. As our clients experience their feelings of alienation, we let them own it and express it, yet as they do, we point them towards the light of Christ, mends their brokenness before us right in our offices.

So why are some trauma victims not feeling wretched? Some trauma victims, like others, are never aware of their wretchedness because they can distract themselves through amusements, addictions, and all the pleasures that this world and the flesh have to offer. Negative life events activate and make us more profoundly aware of our fallen nature, wretchedness, and depravity. This is why Jesus' first sermon starts out with "Blessed are the poor in spirit" (Matthew 5:3). Pity not our wretched clients any more than those who shrieked in horror as they heard Jonathan Edwards preach. Both a trauma and a convicting sermon can stir up the same wretchedness. Rather, let us pity and pray for those who go through this short lifespan never discovering the soul-saving truth of their own depravity and God's grace through Christ. Hence, only wretches can sing from their hearts "Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me."

Hence, in my evaluation, TPM literature has some remnants of "victim theology" within it, but this flawed theology reflects, in my opinion, human error by Ed Smith, and not a significant flaw in the TPM procedure itself or the basic sound theology upon which it is based. Specifically, the TPM literature suggests that a person's emotional distress is due to "lies" either injected into a memory by Satan or other people, or arrived at through immature thinking. In actuality, in my view, our clients' distress is due to truths of who we are without Christ -- worthless, alienated, powerless, dirty, depraved, etc. (see Romans 3:10-18) due to the sin nature each of us is born with. Traumas and negative life events awaken us to these horrible truths about who we really are at our core, due to the Fall described in Genesis 3.

Why Does God Use TPM to Heal, if the Term "Lie" Is Not Technically Accurate?

So the following question is naturally raised: If these negative beliefs we have about ourselves are actually truths about who we are without Christ, and not "lies," as TPM literature suggests, then why does TPM work so effectively? Indeed, why would God use it, if the term "lie" is incorrect? I believe there are three reasons:

1. Our flaws don't limit God. First of all, TPM's flawed terminology presents no limitation on God for Him to use it asnyway. When TPM is consecrated for God's use, and His presence is invoked, God, I believe, will use it, even with its human flaws. God used TPM much in the same way that your personal flaws and human limitations, as well as mine, do not limit God's use of us as a consecrated instrument of His in ministry.

2. Our clients don't need our precise theology in their pain. Secondly, our hurting clients do not need crystal-clear theological terms or a sermon on original sin as they are embracing their true feelings of worthlessness, alienation, depravity, and dirtiness that are triggered by memories of childhood trauma. They need the light of Christ, and that is exactly what TPM provides, even if the use of the term "lies" is not technically correct in describing who the client is independent of Christ.

3. God stoops down to our level. As the great theologian John Calvin often said, God often "stoops down" to our level in order to accommodate our limited human ability to grasp all that is going on spiritually. Calvin helps us not be surprised when God, even in the scriptures, uses "baby-talk" to help us understand Him. During a TPM session, Jesus knows when the client is fully embracing the truth of his worthlessness, depravity, and powerlessness and alienation from God, and therefore does not need a lecture about how his wretchedness is due to his own sinful nature, rooted in the Fall, and triggered by the trauma. The suffering client is already experientially embracing the effects of the Fall and original sin. Hence, he does not need theology at that moment, he needs Jesus' healing touch, and the effects of His finished work on the cross to pour into his soul, which Jesus graciously provides.

Please note that my particular theological difference with Dr. Ed Smith is on this point only, and creates no problem for me whatsoever in administering TPM exactly as I was trained, even as I use the term "lies" during a TPM session. Moreover, whenever I share my particular theological perspectives with my clients, it is usually after a TPM session, and never during the TPM sessions.

My Response To Religious Critics of TPM

I am well aware that TPM is controversial, and this is understandable, because TPM is new to the scene. But most criticism of TPM that I have read or encountered is based on ignorance or misunderstandings of TPM, and can be often be defused by educating a genuinely inquiring person who wants to know the truth about TPM, as to what TPM really is and what TPM is not. 

However, not everyone approaches TPM with an open mind, willing to seriously consider the possibility that God is working through TPM.  Interestingly, the strongest opponents of TPM are often "religious" people who seem to have a vested interest not in learning anything new about what God is doing, but in simply attacking what does not fit with their current understanding of things, based on a rigid, inflexible theological system. As I read in the gospels how Jesus was attacked by the religious leaders of His day, then I am no longer surprised by some of the attacks on TPM. Indeed, these attacks are clearly what we should expect if TPM it is exactly what it proclaims to be: God's light in the darkness.

At the time of this writing, an internet search using the word "theophostic" in your search engine, will generate over 13,000 hits. I have not even begun to read them all, but I have noticed, and you will too, that the vast majority of things written or said about TPM are very positive. The few negative evaluations I have read are, interestingly, out of balance and extremely negative and therefore, clearly biased in their appraisals. Moreover, the sharpest criticisms of TPM from "religious" people, and the the tone of their attacks clearly suggests that they perceive TPM a powerful threat to their belief system. Interestingly, their belief systems are not on a spiritual foundation of grace and empowerment from God through Christ, but rather on the human foundation of good works, mental reasoning, and a lack of belief in the Holy Spirit's work in healing in the modern age. Checking out the credentials of TPM critics is highly informative, because you can clearly see where they are coming from in their theology. We often find that in addition to Dr. Ed Smith, their "enemies list" includes Dr. Billy Graham, Dr. James Dobson, Dr. Larry Crabb, and other highly respected Christians.

Religious attacks on TPM easily fit into one of the following three camps, which, interestingly enough, are the same three arguments used by the Pharisees against Jesus two thousand years ago. Therefore, when reading the attacks from TPM critics, it might be illuminating to ask  "Which one of these attacks is any different from those hurled at Jesus Himself by the Pharisees as recorded in the gospels?" If these attacks were launched against Jesus two thousand years ago, then why would these arguments not be used against Him now, especially if He is indeed manifesting Himself to hurting people in our day and age through TPM?

Here are the three primary arguments against of TPM used by so-called "religious" people which, in my judgment, helps provide even more evidence of God's fingerprints all over TPM:

The "TPM is Satanic" Argument

This camp of TPM critics say that TPM is Satanic. They argue that the light of Christ described by TPM is actually the light of Satan, in that "Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light" (2 Cor 11:14). Oh, yes, they will acknowledge that TPM indeed does have power and effectiveness, but they attribute this power to Satan! This argument is easily refuted by Jesus's test of a true and false prophet: by the fruit. What is the fruit of TPM? Love, joy, peace, exactly what we would expect of the Holy Spirit is in this (see Galatian 5:22). Moreover, this is the same argument the Jewish leaders attacked Jesus with: "Are we nor right in saying that you . . . have a demon?" (John 8:48, RSV). If the religious people attacked Jesus then with this argument, then, if Jesus is in this, we can expect them to use this argument against Him again.

The "Scripture-only" Argument

Some people attack TPM along these lines: "God does not speak directly to people like TPM describes! It can't be that simple! God speaks only through His written Word!" This argument is easily refuted by John 10: 4, 16, and 27 in which Jesus says that His sheep hear His voice. In TPM, Jesus is still speaking to His sheep today, in a way that is 100% fully consistent with the written Word. Moreover, their argument is also the same one used by the Pharisees against Jesus, who responded "You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about Me" (John 5:39). So their own argument testifies against them, in that their weak argument refutes the scripture that they say they believe.

I want to strongly emphasize that often, in TPM, scriptural truths becomes strongly personalized for the client, as with Sally, in the example above, in regards to John 10. Indeed, in TPM, scriptural truth -- often through through experiential imagery and word-pictures -- becomes so deeply imbedded that non-scriptural beliefs completely lose their power on the client. In TPM, it is as though scriptural truth becomes intertwined with the very fiber of the person's soul. Former client whom I have talked to years after their TPM sessions can describe very clearly what God had wrought in them through the TPM session. Moreover, after TPM, people give all the glory to Jesus. In TPM, the scriptures are coming alive for clients and clients.

The Legalist's Argument

Legalists are those who were like the Pharisees in Jesus' day, clinging to their human efforts and works, betraying that their faith is really in  human merit for salvation, not the finished work of Jesus on the cross. Legalists attack TPM along these lines: "Our efforts and good works must be more important than TPM describes! It can't be as easy as simply consenting to receiving a healing experience from God!"

But Jesus said "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent" (John 6:29). TPM does not preach against good works, as the TPM attackers claim. TPM, in actuality, provides a vehicle for inspired obedience and good works that these critics can neither rebuke or explain. Many of my former TPM clients are doing good works they were not doing before their TPM sessions: loving their family members, serving in ministry, drawing others to Christ, and more genuine in worship. I would like to ask TPM critics, how can you argue with such fruit? As Jesus Himself said, "For which of My good works do you stone Me?" (see John 10:32).

In sum, much of the content of attacks on TPM is highly consistent with the same attacks of the Pharisees and other "religious" people on Christ. These attacks offer more support to the argument that TPM is indeed what it professes to be, an instrument of God for the light of Christ to shine in the darkness of human hearts and mend the brokenness that is there (see Psalm 147:3; Isaiah 61:1; John 1:5).

TPM and the "False Memories" Debate

TPM is also under attack by a number of people who passionately believe that it is either impossible or highly improbable that mental health patients can experience "repressed memories," that is, memories that do not occur except years later, after a childhood trauma. An organization called the False Memory Syndrome Foundation, was started back in the early 1990s by family members who claim that they were falsely accused of abusing their children. Although I am sure that there have indeed been false accusations of sexual abuse by patients who lie or have some secondary gain to their symptoms, and traumatic memories can be distorted, it is important to know that repression of traumatic memories is a well-established psychological phenomenon, observed and described for over a century by psychologists and researchers. Moreover, scientific evidence in support for the existence of repressed memories is quite substantial (for example, visit RecoveredMemory.org). In addition, it makes a lot of sense to me that God would, in His grace, and as part of the psychological defense system that arose after the Fall (Genesis3 ), let us bury memories of events that we cannot psychologically assimilate, and save them for recall when we have the psychological support in place. Repression is a form of denial -- that is, lying to ourselves -- that has enabled many of my patients to emotionally and psychologically survive their childhoods and function throughout the while carrying with them the horror of incest. We all practice denial is some form; for example, many of us practice denial when we conveniently forget how much we owe on our credit cards, or how much we weigh. 

Many of these anti-repression people are passionate believers in a highly questionable idea called "false memory syndrome" (FMS). Please note, first of all, that FMS is NOT a recognized psychiatric syndrome; it is not listed in the DSM-IV. Rather, FMS is a hypothetical construct invented by people who claim that somehow or another, therapists can, and actually do, create artificial traumatic memories in their offices. I, for one, do not believe that I, as a therapist, can actually create a false memory in my office. I do believe, however, that psychologically unhealthy people can be led to believe that any image that come into there mind is a historical fact (remember the "spectral evidence" Salem witch trials?) and that well-meaning therapists can contribute to misinterpretations of internal experience. So, although I disagree with the fundamental basis of  FMS -- that therapists create false memories --I do believe that therapists must be accountable and vigilant as to what we are doing in response to patients' reports of images of sexual abuse in their mind by family members or others. In my practice, I do not place myself in the position of a judge as to the precise historical accuracy of what clients report, and use the term "experience" instead of "memory" as I help clients what they

A word about the science of memory. It is true that "historical truth" and "remembered truth" can differ, and that memory can be distorted. Indeed, as the science of memory  evolves, the human mind emerges not so much as a robotic videotape recorder of factual events, but rather as an editor or narrator of events and raw facts. Certainly emotions, unconscious motivations, and, to use a biblical term, sin, can influence what we remember and how we remember.

As we recall events in out lives, we continuously re-interpret and summarize them in ways that have an impact on us now and in the future. Therefore, it can be greatly helpful to have information which validates experiences we consider as possible memories, such as when a sexual abuser admits to the crime, or when someone comes forward as a witness who can validate the details of the client's experience in some way.

In the absence of such supporting evidence, clients who think that they may have been sexually abused by a family member may try to recruit a therapist into validating them in their belief that they were abused. This is dangerous territory, especially for inexperienced therapists who may feel compelled support a client by conveying the belief -- whether they have it or not -- that the client was indeed abused. There have been a number malpractice suits against  psychotherapists who were sued because it was determined that they contributed or caused a false determination of childhood sexual abuse leading to wrongful blame of family members as sexual offenders.

Therefore, the task of Christian counseling and psychotherapy should not be in interpreting memories, but rather in helping our clients learn how to interpret their internal experience, including memories, as part of the ongoing sanctification process, which includes understanding more about themselves as they grow in grace and the knowledge of Christ (2 Peter 3:18). Hence, I do not feel compelled to believe, or convey in any way, that what my patients report in their minds as memories are historically accurate down to every detail.  

However, we counselors can be very helpful by validating the reality of a patient's internal actual experience, such as images of sexual abuse in childhood, without making any interpretations on its accuracy whatsoever. A therapist can also be helpful by educating the patient on the the dynamics of memory, and how memory can be colored or distorted by our emotions and unconscious processes. In my view, it is doing the client a disservice by interpreting a memory for them, whether it is by saying that the memory is historically accurate or historically inaccurate, the latter of which the false memory syndrome people seem to want all therapists to do.

TPM and FMS. To Dr. Ed Smith's credit, TPM training does not involve detective work in determining what actually happened in regard objective factual truth; rather, it focuses on helping suffering individuals experience freedom from unhealthy beliefs that they have about themselves or God in the context of the disturbing experiences they report. Are all those experiences actual memories, precise in every detail? I do not know, nor do I as a therapist have to know. I am not a police detective, but a healer.  As A Christian counselor, I have helped many patients experience love, joy, and peace in place of their depression, anxiety, and anger, without making any interpretation whatsoever as to the historical accuracy of the experiences they report.

How Dr. Ed Smith has responded to critics. Dr. Ed Smith's response to attacks on TPM have been, in my opinion, exemplary, and demonstrative of Christian character. He has never claimed infallibility and has welcomed others to read and respond his writings, especially his updated materials. He invites his Christian brothers and sisters to correct him if they see anything wrong in TPM or the theology it is based upon. He has responded to his critics, for the most part, graciously and has used their criticism as an opportunity to clarify his positions, educate people on what they do not yet understand, and, when appropriate, to modify the TPM procedure and revise the TPM manual. Based upon feedback he has received from people over the last decade, and through his own experiences with TPM, he has clarified his position on a number of issues and has refined his theology.

As a result, the TPM manual is updated and the TPM procedure is streamlined. Indeed, TPM is now more effective and more efficient in application than ten years ago, and its psychology and theology more robust. I confidently predict that TPM will become bolder and brighter in the years ahead, as more and more people are being brought into the healing light of the Lord Jesus Christ through this biblically sound, Spirit-led, and Christ-centered approach.

Copyright 2007, Scott Lownsdale. The material of this website may not be quoted without a clear reference the author and this website. No part of this website may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission from the author.