TREATING EATING DISORDERS

part II

Counseling. Most people who are serious about overcoming an eating disorder do not want to do it alone and express a need for support and guidance from someone who is an authority and who is able to be objective. Strong friends are helpful, and there is comfort in fellowship with others recovering from eating disorders, but counselors, due to knowledge, experience, and anointing are able to help people find out exactly what needs to be done, particularly what needs to be encouraged and what needs to be changed. There are basically two types of counseling, psychology-based and theology-based (which in this discussion means Bible-based). Some counselors attempt to blend the two.

Most, if not nearly all, people who go into the profession of counseling are loving, caring, natural helpers. They have done the best they can, based on what they themselves have learned, to prepare themselves to assist in the healing process of others. It's not the sincerity of the counselor's heart that should be the big question, it is the content of that heart--the beliefs inside.

It is my experience and opinion that psychology-based counseling is not the best option. Where psychology agrees with and supports Biblical truth, great--but it cannot be counted on to do so. Furthermore, I believe many Christian therapists fail to rightly discern the discrepancies between the Bible and psychology. It's as if when confronted with an either/or situation, most therapists feel more comfortable going along with their psychology textbooks than with the Word of God. What they learned in school is more prominent in their thinking during a counseling session than what they learned from the Spirit. Truthfully, psychology is man-centered, whereas Biblical counseling is God-centered. Most people with eating disorders have at least at some point pressed themselves to the outer limits of human wisdom and power and continued to fail.

Psychology can be helpful in its observations of human behavior and tendencies (defining the problem), but the cavernous lack presents itself when it attempts to explain where those behaviors and tendencies come from, what to do about the ones we don't want and how to establish the ones we do want. My experience with psychology-based counseling was that it had a strong tendency to shift blame for personal problems on outside circumstances and childhood events, whereas Bible-based counsel emphasizes personal responsibility. I am not aware of one instance where the Bible indicates that circumstances are EVER the cause of sin. When you can’t control people or circumstances in your life, or change the fact of unhappy past events, inevitably it comes down to learning to control your self. And real self-control comes from the developed born-again spirit, not from flesh (see Gal. 5:22,23 and 2 Tim. 1:7). Psychological counseling can challenge negative or destructive thinking, and it can help people develop plans for changing behavior, but it does not have the power to change a person’s nature. It cannot offer an exchange of supernatural strength for the spent energy of an exhausted human. Taken to its conclusion, it does not point people toward God, but rather away from God, because at it’s very root, psychology is godless (check it out, if you don't believe me). And instead of drawing people out of themselves it tends to encourage further self-absorption and self-reliance. Psychology-based counseling should only be considered when spiritual counseling has been rejected by the person seeking counsel.

Bible-based counseling is conducted by Biblical counselors, pastors and evangelists, and knowledgable lay-people. Counselors should be seasoned and grounded in the Word of God, have a personal relationship with God and a good prayer-life, be led by the Holy Spirit, and be brimming with the love of Jesus. All counselors should be submitted to and have the blessing of their own pastor or spiritual authority. By far the best counsel I have ever received (and I’ve received a lot) has been from pastors, particularly my current one.

Biblical counseling lovingly confronts wrong thinking and behavior according to the light shed on the Bible by the Holy Spirit to your born-again spirit. A good Biblical counselor shares the hurting person’s burden and prays with her and intercedes for her. Together they seek the "transformation" of the disordered person through the "renewing" of her mind. This is accomplished through faith and moritification of the flesh: a consistent prayer-life and constantly washing the mind with the water of the Word. If the person with the eating disorder is to become free, she must measure her own thoughts and behavior against the yardstick of the Bible, and make adjustments accordingly. The maturing "new nature" provided at the New Birth and the power of the Holy Spirit in her life makes this possible, so learning to depend on God instead of self is essential to recovery.

Although people with eating disorders often share many similarities, they are also strikingly different from each other. No one shares exactly the same path to becoming disordered nor the same path of healing. Each man's, woman’s, boy's, and girl's need for change is unique, and God alone can design the perfect recovery plan. As the counselor and disordered person seek God’s face in earnest, He will reveal exactly what needs to be addressed and give perfect solutions to problems. Counselors help patients with the practical aspects of recovery too, such as nutritional education, exercise options, establishing abstinence goals, developing more effective coping skills, and handling relationships in healthy, godly ways.

What about counselors who mix Christianity with psychology? Unfortunately, the church in general has sold out to psychology and it is very difficult to find a well-trained counselor who counsels from the pure Word of God. Even pastors have begun substituting psychology for the Word in their efforts to help people. The church’s faith in the power and certainty of the Word to heal people has weakened tremendously.

I would understand and accept this more readily IF the Bible read like this:

Thank God the Bible doesn't really say it like that!

In my opinion, in the broad sense, adding psychology to the Word is like diluting good medicine with water (or even poison) and expecting it to work better. The Bible speaks clearly for itself:

Nevertheless, to give due credit here, there are some Christian therapists, filled with the Holy Ghost, who do combine the teachings of the Bible with the teachings of psychology and are effective to a limited degree in helping people. But do not trust a counselor just because he or she sports a Christian label. The most detrimental situations are the ones where counselors merely dress up their psychology-based practices with a hint of Christianity. These counselors may actually be born again, but they are those who "acknowledge the truth, but deny the power thereof." Have nothing to do with them! Hurting, unsuspecting, and naive people who go to these counselors for guidance are inevitably let down, and falsely suppose that it is God Himself who has failed them. They come to see the Word of God as ineffective and their situation as severely hopeless, and may unknowingly harbor a resentment against God that can trip them up spiritually for years.

Having said all that, let me also say this: God is God, and He is AWESOME; His  love for you is boundless and unfathomable. He is far more interested in setting you free than giving you a hard time about your theology or method of seeking Him. He isn’t saying to Himself, "Why should I help her? It serves her right to be in such a mess because she’s going about everything all wrong." Although you can be severely limited in your ability to receive from God because of the beliefs you hold to, it is NOT because God desires to withhold from you; it is because through what you believe, what you think about, and what you speak you’ve tied His hands. Usually the main problem keeping God from setting someone free is unbelief, that is failing to completely trust Him. It is very difficult for most people to really trust God without wavering when their hearts are devoid of His Word and they are spiritually starved. But if you are standing in faith for God to set you free from an eating disorder, He is going to use any available avenue to come to your aid. And God can use anyone around you who will yield to Him for His purpose in your healing process, including unsaved people. God can and will use a psychologist, a neighbor, a person on the street corner, a book, a T.V. show, a magazine article, or whatever, if that is what His options are limited to. His biggest concern is in answering your faith-filled prayers and honoring His Word so that you can experience the greatest degree of freedom, success, and happiness possible, as you fulfill the call He has placed on your life. However, true faith that receives from God can only be birthed and endure to the point of receiving when it is based upon the revealed will of God. And keep in mind that although God has pleasure in your happiness, you were created for the sole purpose of displaying HIS glory. A built in facet of God's wisdom and mercy is that the life which glorifies Him is also a life with a high degree of fulfillment and happiness.

If someone chooses psychology-based counseling, or the combination, but still continues to develop her relationship with God and seek Him with her heart, I do believe that in spite of all the useless stuff she learns and does to try and get better, the Word of God will still heal her. It’s just that it may take longer, sometimes a lot longer.

Treatment Pt. 3
OPENING PAGE