Posted by John (4.240.114.136) on June 18, 2008 at 17:38:39:

All therapies are based upon a philosophical point of view - often these philosophical bases are unspoken or even not known by or are not in the awareness of the therapist. Christian philosophy is that philosophy which is in accord with Christian teachings and which has the added advantage of the insights obtained from revelation. Christian teachings are those teachings of the Magisterium and of the Councils of the Church; not just any so called teachings by the various Christian sects unless these teachings accord with the above. Any therapy that would then be based upon these teachings and the philosophies which support them could then be claimed to be Christian. Christotherapy would be a good example of this and was perhaps the first and best known explicit manifestation of a therapeutic method which considers the human person from the perspective of a Christian philosophy of the person based upon an orthodox view of the teachings of the Church.

That Christotherapy can undergo expansion and fine tune it's areas of expertise and limitations is of course admitted; Christotherapy is a work in progress.  All who wish to consider the human person from the wholeness point of view as explicated by the Church in her teachings can contribute to the discipline of Christotherapy. Others who pursue their own disciplines without benefit of the guidance of the Church and Christian philosophy can also contribute insofar as their works express truth and this truth can be extracted and applied within Christotherapy; this, I believe, was the most genuine insight of Christotherapy as developed by Fr. Tyrrell - mainly, that secular scientists, philosophers, psychologists, and psychiatrists had much to say that was of the truth about the human person, and these truths could selectively be used in a Christian therapy that aims for wholeness and holiness.

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