Holding Hearts and Touching Lives

The Need for Healing

“Now there was a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years; and though she had spent all she had on physicians, no one could cure her. She came up behind Jesus and touched the fringe of his clothes and immediately her hemorrhage stopped.” Luke 8:43-44. 

As a Christian therapist, this story from the Gospel account of Luke strikes me, because it tells the story of a woman who was in deep pain year after year, without relief. At the time, Jewish leaders would have considered her “Zavah” or ceremonially unclean. The woman was ostracized from her community at no fault of her own. Can you picture the loneliness and devastation she must have felt? Now I have to ask, have you ever felt like this woman? 

You may not be dealing with a physical ailment, but maybe the long-suffering you endure is in the form of emotional pain. Adverse childhood experiences, relational wounds, significant relocations, and so many other major life events can create feelings of distress and disconnection- eventually they can lead us to wonder, can anybody really help me? Will anybody truly understand if I reach out for help? 

Hope in Emotional Healing

As the Gospel of Luke recounts in chapter 8, this woman was no stranger to longsuffering. For twelve agonizing years she grappled with chronic pain, loneliness, and financial instability. For 4,380 days and nights, from the moment her eyes opened in the morning, to when they closed at night, she suffered. It sounds devastating- hopeless, actually. But yet, she had one thing that ultimately resulted in her healing. The woman had hope that became faith. She recognized Jesus Christ as the Savior, and reached out, in amazing faith to touch the hem of his garment. 

The Chosen, season 3, episode 5, transports me more deeply into this story. The show paints a vivid picture of the bustling crowd pressing in on Jesus and His disciples. The woman desperately cries out, “Teacher! Teacher! Teacher!” as she bravely pushes her way through the crowd. The townspeople recognize the woman as being unclean and scornfully try to remove her. But nothing could stop her from getting to Jesus, “Just one thread, just let me touch one thread…” she remarks to herself over and over, until finally she reaches a thread at the bottom of His hem. Instantly, Jesus stops in His tracks and asks for whoever touched Him to come forward. Peter even remarks incredulously, “Master, the crowds are pressing in all around you like this, and you are asking, who touched you?” Jonathan Roumie beautifully portrays Jesus’ compassion as he kneels down and embraces the woman’s face in both hands, “Daughter, it wasn’t my piece of clothing that healed you… it was your faith.” (Luke 8:48) The woman took an active role in her healing journey. Despite all she suffered, she boldly reached out to the source of life and hope Himself. 

Courage and Hope as Factors of Change in Therapy

So, what might this have to do with you, reader? Experts in the field of psychology often examine factors and clinical interventions that result in client growth and change in therapy. Within the last several years, one theme continues to surface- a large determiner of success in therapy is a client’s sense of courage and hope. 

The American Psychological Association (APA) defines courage as, “emotional strengths that involve the exercise of will to accomplish goals in the face of opposition, internal or external.” To start therapy, the journey to greater emotional healing, at some level undeniably, requires courage. For many clients, the start of therapy can be nervewracking. There might be a fear that their therapist won’t understand them, or that the truths they discover about themselves will be too difficult to bear. Transformation therapy by definition requires the client to be vulnerable. The client’s honesty and openness demonstrates courage in that they trust their therapist enough to let them speak into their world in an empathetic, compassionate, and honest way. 

Hope in Abundance for the Believer

In her famous poem, Emily Dickinson writes, “Hope is the thing with feathers, that perches in the soul, and sings the tune without words, and never stops at all.” More eloquently than I, Dickinson describes hope as the bird who sings each morning without fail. The thing about hope for Christians is that it is not dependent on circumstances. Hebrews 6:19 says, “We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.” 

Hope is something that is available in abundance to the believer. I think of the familiar hymn, “Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine! Oh what a foretaste of Glory Divine!” When our hope is built on Jesus, it is sure.

Holding Hearts and Touching Lives

As a Christian therapist, I aim to serve my clients with solid, research-based clinical interventions, and integrate the hope of the Gospel message. Jesus Christ is very real to me, and His ministry on Earth is a model for how I relate to clients in our work together. The suffering woman in Luke 8, is a great example of how Jesus always made people who humbly sought Him feel seen and heard. Society deemed her unclean, unworthy of time or attention, maybe some even called her a “lost cause.” Not Jesus though. Despite being in a large crowd of people, brushing shoulders constantly with those around Him, Jesus still asks, “who touched me?” 

Carl Rogers, a mid-century psychotherapist, coined the phrase, “unconditional positive regard.” Rogers’ work with clients was based largely on building a supportive relationship with them, and viewing them as individuals with inherent worth. He found that when clients feel their therapist truly cares for them and their emotional needs, there is greater room for self-exploration and eventual ease in emotional, spiritual, and mental suffering. Jesus Christ was the ultimate example of unconditional, positive regard.He was miraculously, divinely in tune with the feelings, needs, and pain of people. 

I’m certainly not Jesus Christ, and I can’t perform miracles or grant instant healing in the therapy room. I’m simply a human being who knows what it’s like to grapple with emotional pain, and has had some really good training in how to journey with others through their own suffering. This role is sacred to me, and I cherish it deeply. What I believe makes me somewhat unique as a Christian therapist, is that I truly invite Jesus Christ to be part of the therapeutic process. In a recent conversation with my clinical supervisor, the phrase, “holding hearts and touching lives” slipped off my tongue as I talked about what I do as a therapist. I was sharing with him about how grateful I feel to be invited to the most intimate places in people’s lives; that being somebody’s therapist grants me the opportunity to support them in their darkest moments, and celebrate with them when they begin to experience greater joy and freedom through the healing process. Each hour I spend with a client is an opportunity that God’s trusted me with to hold a heart and touch a life for His kingdom. Every time I meet with a client, I pray and ask God to fill the gaps where my human brokenness limits me. 

Taking the Risk...Reaching Out for Help 

Beginning therapy, taking that small, yet significant step, can be one of the most difficult aspects of the healing process for many people, especially for my Christian brothers and sisters. Historically, the field of psychology has not taken kindly to integrating faith into the therapeutic process. Because of this, people with genuine faith have felt concerned that therapy would not be a God-honoring tool for growth. But in recent decades, researchers have found that spirituality is an important domain of wellness, and therapists are encouraged to check-in with their clients about this aspect of their lives. As a Christian therapist, I have the amazing opportunity to connect with people who are looking to incorporate Jesus into the therapy room. I’m not going to preach my own theological context, or ask you to see things exactly through my lens, but it’s an opportunity for me to encourage you to grow more intimately connected to Jesus Christ as one of many facets of your development. 

If you’ve felt like the woman in Luke 8, and have asked yourself, “can anyone really help me?” I’d like to invite you to take a step of hope and courage, and discern if I might be the right therapist for you to accompany you on your journey toward greater emotional healing. To connect with me, book a free 15 minute consultation here. Or, you can contact me by phone at 331.259.8739 or email at Natalie@finishwellgroup.com. 

May God grant you greater hope and courage to move further into your healing journey.