Christian Counselor Challenges Conventional Mental Health ‘Truths’
When Greg Gifford and his wife sat in a school psychologist’s office with their sixth-grade son, Gifford immediately began questioning whether the conventional mental-health approach was the right one for their family. The psychologist wanted their son “tested,” which Gifford viewed as a potential first step toward diagnosis and medication.
“Something seemed off,” Gifford recalled. “Are we really comfortable prescribing brain-altering medication to an 11-year-old, all based on a paper examination and not one brain scan or lab test?”
That experience became a turning point for Gifford,
a professor and certified biblical counselor who believes Christians should look closely at the assumptions underlying today’s therapeutic culture.
In his Amazon #1 Best Seller, Lies My Therapist Told Me: Why Christians Should Aim for More Than Just Treating Symptoms, Gifford presents what he describes as a Christian critique of secular psychiatry and psychology. Rather than simply treating symptoms, he argues that Christians should examine emotional and behavioral struggles through a biblical framework.
Among the mental-health ideas Gifford challenges are:
• Mental-health concepts he believes have become widely accepted, including the idea that “the body keeps the score” and the characterization of addiction as a disease.
• Secular approaches to conditions such as anxiety, narcissism, OCD and Binge Eating Disorder, which he contrasts with biblical insights and counseling principles.
• The tendency to look primarily at diagnoses, medication or past experiences for explanations of present behavior, rather than examining personal responsibility, beliefs and patterns of thought.
Gifford’s perspective is intentionally countercultural.
He argues that the past, trauma or a diagnosis should not automatically be viewed as the determining cause of harmful behavior, and that Christians should not assume every struggle is primarily a medical problem.
Lies My Therapist Told Me is an extension of Gifford’s work as a biblical counselor, professor, author, speaker and host of the Transformed with Dr. Greg Gifford podcast. His approach combines biblical wisdom with practical counseling expertise, giving people tools to communicate better, reduce conflict and anger, and build healthier marriages, families and relationships.
“You can read all the mental health research in the world, but you still won’t learn God’s answers for winning the battles in your mind,” Gifford added. “The supernatural wisdom of the Bible is truly enough for every need.”
Lies My Therapist Told Me: Why Christians Should Aim for More Than Just Treating Symptoms
Publisher: Broadside Books
ISBN-13: 978-0063416734
Available from https://www.amazon.com/Lies-
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dr. Greg Gifford is a professor, author, speaker and certified biblical counselor. He serves as Assistant Professor of Biblical Counseling at The Master’s University and hosts the podcast Transformed with Dr. Greg Gifford, where he addresses issues such as marriage, communication, anger, anxiety, relationships and personal change from a distinctly biblical perspective. In addition to Lies My Therapist Told Me, he is also the author of Heart & Habits: How We Change for Good and Helping Your Family Through PTSD. For more information, please visit https://fortisinstitute.org/
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