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Thank you ksen for this thread. Thank you suzyjaruki for you kind request for my experience. I will tell you some of my interactions with the psychological community. I studied to a pastoral counselor. That was what I focused on. I began as a psych major in secular college and was completely discouraged by the insistence of Darwin theory. So I left. I spent a year at Moody Bible institute then came home to Michigan and graduated from William Tyndall college with a degree in Religious Education in Pastoral Counseling.
After which I succumbed to the typical and predictable depression and faith searching that comes out of those who attend any seminary. They study God right out of you. They also study your faith to confusion and impotence. After struggling in the foster care industry and seeking treatment for the persistent depression through Christian counseling and Psychiatry, I stood on my faith once again. I went to a promise keepers meeting and rededicated my life to Christ. I then put away the anti anxiety and depression medication and was cured of depression through 2 Cor 10:4-7.
Then I was granted the opportunity to return to school and get credentialed. It was secular education which I fought and learned from. My 3.89 average is not boasting but hard soul searching and submission to God. Now I hope to be used by God as a tool. (Can you imagine a scalpel feeling smug and boastful after a successful surgery?) So I must say I hope to represent to you a humble fellow Christian who may be used by God.

Psychology does have its merits. But not where you would think. When it suggest a cure, they do not mean what you think. You could think of it more like diabetes. You are managing and highly functional, but not cured.

Therefore a person who is suffering from depression is not a cured, but relieved of the incapacitation that stops functioning. These are not semantics as much as they are achievable goals.

So I will meet a person where they are. If they wish to be treated like a psych patient I will tell them that and use those parameters. If they wish to be spiritual I will endeavor to take them to THE COUNSELOR, and use the tools that psychology perfected.

Some of those tools are very much in pop psy currently. Such as reflective listening, active listening, structuring the session and questioning. These are a phew that work. Others that work and are used are classical conditioning, in its place and limited to what it can do. Reflection and respect of persons, create the atmosphere of openness that is required for personal change. There are certain gestalt exercises that have great effect, with out change of ideals. There are many other tools such as language and diagnostic structure that allow defining of symptoms into a rubric of prognosis. We also learned to use the DSM IV and worked with the psychiatrist to prescribe medication. Some MSW’s actually do prescribe medicine which the Psychiatrist signs off on.

Lastly there are great tests and assessments that aid in defining individuals into categories that are greatly helpful. Take a look at the Meyers Briggs or Kersey Typology. (Check it out, very cool. http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes2.asp ) These are all useful tools like a saw or a hammer. Would you build a house with out power tools? Do they change you fundamentals of what you are building or why? No.

Keeping the tools of psychology in perspective is what enables them to function as tools. However, if you have ever had to open a tin can with a hammer you start to understand the difference between proper use or presupposition.

All that to say stop Christian psychology from over stepping its bounds into defining what is cured with out the scriptural structure, and it has some value.

Many Christian psychology professionals are only average pew warmers, who then practice secular psychology. ( by the way. During my internship in a fully functional psychiatric clinic, a good practitioner had a success rate of 22%. That was an eye opener.)